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Ken Ham’s The Ark Encounter, Creation Museum and Answers in Genesis

by | Tue, Feb 21 2023

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Ken Ham, CEO and founder of Answers in Genesis, the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter in Kentucky, USA, joined Neil Johnson on 20Twenty to share how his ministry is impacting people.

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Ken Ham

Evidence of a Creator

‘For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.’ Romans 1:20-21 NKJV

Some passages in the Bible are so compelling that we dare not ignore their significance. Being without excuse means we’re all accountable, whether Christian or non-Christian, to acknowledge God because of the evidence right under our noses and before our very eyes.

Willingly Ignorant in the Last Days

The Bible says that in the last days, people will be willingly ignorant of creation, the flood, and the coming judgement. Ignorance means it’s a deliberate act on their part. People reject God because they don’t want to acknowledge that He owns them and has a right to tell them what to do. God is the author of life, so He has a right to set the rules, but people want to be their own god.

Ken points out that Genesis 1 to 11 is a history that God has revealed to us concerning geology, biology, astronomy, and anthropology. It’s the foundational history of all our doctrine and our worldview to understanding every aspect of reality. Genesis 1 to 11 is where you’ll find the answers to a multitude of questions about:

  • Death
  • Marriage
  • Where does sin come from?
  • Why did Jesus die on the cross?
  • Why is Jesus called The Last Adam?
  • Why do we wear clothes?
  • Why do we have a seven-day week?
  • Why does man have dominion over creation and not the other way around?
  • Why does man have to work?

‘Once you understand and believe the history God has revealed to us, then you can understand why there’s death and suffering in the world. It wasn’t always like this. Death is an enemy because of our sin,’ said Ken. ‘Then we can understand why there are all these different people groups all over the world because we all go back to the Tower of Babel, where God gave different languages. We’re all one race that goes back to Adam. What you believe about your geology, biology, astronomy, and anthropology determines your worldview in every area. That’s why this is so important.’

DNA, the Molecule of Heredity

When DNA was first discovered in 1953 by two atheist scientists, they claimed it was proof that there is no God. They stated that life is just a molecule; it was just chemistry. Ken explains that DNA is the molecule of heredity that makes up our chromosomes and carries our genetic information. DNA is like books of information with zillions of bits of information in every living thing in the world. All that information contains instructions on how to build every aspect of our physiology. It has to be read by a language, and DNA has the information to make the language to read the DNA. It’s a code system. Information can’t come from matter by itself. Matter has never produced one bit of information, but there are zillions of bits of information in living things. And matter can’t produce a code. For example, if your computer program gets one little problem in the software, it doesn’t work. So this means that this information, codes and languages come from an intelligence. DNA is the most complex information system in the universe. An example of being willingly ignorant or without excuse is when archaeologists find a stone axe in a cave and say it’s evidence of intelligence. Then they look at DNA, the most complex information system in the entire universe, and they say, ‘it’s chance; there is no God.’

Why Are There Different Races?

The Bible states there’s only one race – the human race. God created Adam and Eve, who had sons and daughters. By the time of the flood, only eight people got on Noah’s Ark, and when they came off the Ark, Genesis 9:19 says the repopulation of the earth came through Noah’s three sons and their wives.

Later in Genesis 11:1, there was an event called the Tower of Babel when God created different languages and scattered people all over the earth. People moved away according to their family and language groups. Genesis 10 mentions there were 70 different groups in the table of nations. So they moved away from each other, forming the different cultures we have today.

Due to the vast genetic diversity in humans and all that information God put in our DNA, as they moved away from each other, and depending on marriage combinations, who died out, and how separated each group was from each other, this would determine which combinations of genes ended up having the most dominant features.

Why Are There Different Skin Colours?

The truth is everybody has the same skin colour based on a pigment called melanin which is made in the epidermis of our skin. Some cells at the bottom of the epidermis, called melanocytes, make melanin. If you have a lot of melanin, you’re very dark brown. Therefore, there are no black or white people. You are either dark brown, light brown, or many shades anywhere in between. So the different features we see on the outside of a person are really minor. And God reminds us in His Word that He doesn’t look on the outside; He looks on the inside because it’s what’s on the inside that matters. Racism and prejudice are the results of the world trying to make us look on the outside.

‘That’s why the gospel is for everyone,’ says Ken. ‘Because we’re all sinners and we’re all descendants of Adam, and that’s why God’s son became one of us.’

The Ark Encounter and Creation Museum

The Ark Encounter and Creation Museum are spectacular and one of the most powerful ministries in explaining our origins according to the Bible. There are over a million lights at both attractions. The Garden of Lights at the Creation Museum is adorned with dinosaurs sculpted by Buddy Davis. It’s a breathtaking sight.

The centrepiece of the Ark Encounter is the life-size recreation of Noah’s Ark based on the Genesis account in the Bible. The Ark is lit up in rainbow colours as a homage to God’s covenant with humanity that He will never again flood the earth.

During Christmas, there are concerts, dramas by Christian Academy students and Bible college students, camel rides, food stalls, and much more at both locations. As many as 50,000 to 60,000 people come from across America and overseas to visit.

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‘We want to help people see the Bible come alive in a very special way. Most of the younger generations have left the church and become secularised, so the aim of the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter is to answer questions about the Bible, in particular, the Book of Genesis, which is foundational to the rest of the Bible and our biblical worldview,’ said Ken. Some of the questions being posed are:

  • How did Noah get all the animals on the Ark?
  • What about natural selection?
  • Is there any evidence for the flood?
  • What about the Ice Age and climate change?
  • How do we understand the Tower of Babel?
  • How did Noah’s three sons give rise to 8 billion people on Earth today?
  • What about the so-called racism?

‘We go through and answer all these questions, and people are saved right there in that Ark and at the Creation Museum,’ said Ken. ‘That’s what it’s all about, presenting the Gospel in a very powerful way. We have 30% non-Christians come, particularly to the Ark Encounter, and we’ve seen Buddhists, Muslims, Orthodox Jews, Catholic nuns, priests, sheiks, Presbyterians and Baptists and Amish come. It’s incredible to see the mix of people that come. We’re doing something different. You would never see a mix of people like that come into your local church, but they will come to something like an ark, and the experience challenges their beliefs in a very powerful way.’

For more information about Ken Ham’s ministry, visit: Answers In Genesis and Life-size Noah’s Ark | Ark Encounter

This article was inspired by Ken’s interview with Neil Johnson on 20Twenty. Click on the link below to listen to the full interview, where Ken answers many more questions.

Photos supplied by Answers in Genesis