Creation Conference - Day 3

Evolution the Lie

Ken Ham - I think he might be one of my favorite speakers now. This guy was engaging and clear even though he has an Aussie accent. Trust me, I love accents, but they aren't always ideal when you are trying to understand a speaker talking about the Bible or science. Just FYI, I heard 4 other speakers this day, but there is just too much to say in one blog, so I am going to talk just about Ken Ham's teachings. He had two of the six (or so).

GUESS WHAT?! This guy has one of the few Creation Museums! That got me really excited because I want to travel the US one day and visit all the Creation Museums that we have. I found several websites and my plan is to make a map of these museums and follow the map...if I can save enough money to compensate for gas that is. Can you imagine spending 3-4 thousand on gas? GAH!

Someone remind me to blog on it one day... I'll make a list of the creation museums that have websites, at least.


Ken Ham starts out by talking about how the U.S. is becoming less and less Christian everyday. In fact, 16-29 year olds are more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than the people the same age a decade ago. Amazingly, the U.S. has more resources than any other country or time in the HISTORY of the world and yet we are becoming less Christian everyday because Christianity has been removed from our country and replaced with naturalism politically and EVEN in the church!

God's Word has been under attack since Genesis 3:1-2 when Satan questioned God's word. This attack has not stopped. Each age may have their different ways, but they are all attacks. The attacks we have today on the Bible are in historical science (geology, astronomy, anthropology, etc). This is our battle and this is the time that God has placed us.


After that, Ken Ham quoted to us 1 Peter 3:15 which, in a nutshell, says, "always be prepared to give an answer." The term apologetic comes from the Greek word apologia which means to speak in defense. So Christian apologetics is therefore to speak in the defense of Christianity. Now, I did not quote out the whole verse, but the end also says, "with gentleness and respect." This is a HUGE part of our witness. We are not meant to scream, shout, curse, and prove our point with the best of them. We are called to tell the truth with gentleness AND respect. Very hard to do when people (even friends) are laughing and mocking you to your face.

Now here are some important questions, "Is it wrong for churches to say that the earth is old, or that God did things through evolution?" Saying that the beginning of Genesis is just symbolic is like saying marriage is just symbolic and we can really have gays, lesbians, mormons, etc. And if that is symbolic then perhaps Christ's death is symbolic and we really aren't saved from our sins. He didn't really die, it was just a symbol of...something. In college, I had professors who taught me to think this way. I literally thought it was OK for Christians to say they believe God created the world through evolution. Without even realizing it, I was saying that Genesis 1-11 was wrong and just "symbolic." Be weary of the term symbolic. I do believe there is good symbolism in the Bible, but it seems today that Christians use the word symbolic in many places they should not so they don't have to say something in the Bible is wrong. It's like a cheat.

Oh and here is another problem with the Church today: The world today is saying that the Bible is NOT TRUE and the Church is saying, "That is ok, just believe in Jesus anyway. La la la la la...". No WONDER the Christianity is fading even though we have unbelievable resources. We should be teaching the answers to the skeptical questions in church. SO when we are teaching Noah's Ark, we should be teaching them about how Noah's ark looks, how the Ark was so big only 1/3rd of it was full. How they took 2 of every KIND of animal. We should be answering the skeptical questions of today in our church.

Don't ever forget that Genesis 1-11 is the foundational history for ALL of the Bible. Answers to questions like these are found there: Why did Christ have to die for our sins? Why do we have to wear clothes? Why is man the leader of the Church and families? Why are there clam fossils on the top of Mount Everest?

I was SO BUMMED when his teaching ended...though I will admit I was happy to get up and stretch. Sitting for hours on end is not always fun.

Resources:

http://www.answersingenesis.org and they have Creation Museum (prepare to believe).

Books: Answers Book, Evolution the Lie, Evolution Exposed, How Could a Loving God..., Darwin's Plantation, Why Won't They Listen?



Why Won't They Listen

Ken Ham

DE-GREEK AMERICA is a new slogan of mine. In fact, when Pastor Isam bought a big ol' box of books from the Answers in Genesis group (whom Ken Ham is a founder of) I promptly wrote "DE-GREEK" on it. Makes no sense right? Well, I shall tell you all about it!

One of the problems with our culture today is all we care about is the future, the hope, which is not a bad thing, but we have let the foundational teachings of Genesis and our history get beat up and corrupted, which greatly affects the future revelations as well. When your foundation is corrupted, how can the building stand?

Now, Ken Ham told us that there were basically two groups of non-believers in the Bible. The Jews and the Greeks (A.K.A. those without the Jewish history foundation). Good examples of both groups can be found in Acts 2 and Acts 17.

Acts 2 - Paul speaking to the Jews. - The Jews had a foundational knowledge of God because of their beliefs. The Cross was the stumbling point in which Paul needed to teach them and show them how it is a part of what they already know.

Acts 17 - So when Paul speaks with the Greeks, he needed to give them a foundation first of who God is and what sin is, etc. Things need to be started at the beginning in Genesis. He had to turn Greeks into Jews (in a sense - don't freak out on me and say "OMIGOSH, Shanna is a Kosher Christian" or whatever. I love my bacon). In other words, Paul needed to bring the Greeks "up to speed."

Now, one thing that really urks me are people who say they don't believe in the Old Testament or parts of the Old Testament. Taking Genesis out or saying it is just symbolic is like saying lets remove the first chapter of all books. What would those books be like? The first chapters usually reveal the WHOLE PREMISE for the book. Also, Jesus quoted from the Old Testament and he was a true Jew! He had no "New" Testament to quote from! All right, I got that off my chest...moving on.

America used to be a Acts 2 culture (Jews), but more and more today we have becomes an Acts 17 culture (Greeks) because so many people don't know what Christianity is anymore. Many kids have only heard of the word, but nothing else! They just hear that the Bible is full of problems, mistakes, lies, etc. Amazingly, many of our Christian teachers, professors, Preachers, Church leaders, etc are Christian GREEKS. The University that I went to had ONE part time teacher's aid who believed in 6 day creation, and she was one of the best teachers I had at this school. I got into debates about Old earth and evolution with my full time Science professors. Most of them simply said they did not know, but wouldn't it be great if God DID use evolution because that is the only way evolution could ever work anyway....WHAT?! What kind of bluthering, groping, blind logic is that?

Now, our biggest concern today in America is NOT the non-Christians, BUT the CHURCH. Many people say, look at how the culture is and we should be saying look how the Church is. The Church needs to be DE-GREEKED, and then we can be a good witness to the non-Christians. Right now, we are a pretty pathetic light. No wonder people hate Christianity. We have let our Churches turn into illogical, hate-filled, comprimising gatherings of "those nuts over there".

So yeah, for those of you who are Christians that are reading this, get involved at your church, study God's word, and read up on apologetics. Learn the answers to the skeptical questions of today. Amen!


Resources:
http://www.answersingenesis.org
Books - The Answers 1 and 2 (look for them on the website above)


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Disclaimer: I don't re-read my posts. When you read my blog, you are not allowed to sue me for bad spelling, illogical sentences, etc. Everything is read as-is.