Answers in Genesis

I opened the mail the other day to discover a letter from Answers in Genesis (“A Note from Ken Ham”). This wasn’t unusual. What was unusual was what Ken wanted. A color brochure fell out of the envelope. A new “Statement of Faith” from AiG. What was this about?

Ken had a challenge for me. He asked me to review “our updated statement of faith.” Then, he asked me to compare it to “your church’s/college’s statement of faith.” Ken encouraged me to provoke a discussion with leaders about why the church’s Statement didn’t match AiG’s. To be fair, Ken warned me “this could result in some hostility.” But, he declared, such a sacrifice was necessary to “help uncover compromise.”

My first reaction was purely ecclesiastical. Why does a man who runs two amusement parks believe it’s proper to incite doctrinal strife within local churches? His parachurch organization is not an agent of the Gospel. His organization disciples nobody. It baptizes nobody. It marries nobody. It eulogizes nobody. Ken is not there when a marriage is on the rocks, or when a family has no money and needs a new washing machine. Yet, here his letter sits, inviting Christians to accuse their churches of “compromise.”

From Dispensational Publishing House; used by permission. Read Part 1.

Answers in Genesis is billing the Ark Encounter as being, “Bigger Than Imagination.”

At 510 feet long, 85 feet wide and 51 feet high, this slogan is no exaggeration. Of course, most people who visit the Ark will hope to see more than just a sizable structure. What will they find if they come?

Over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday, I spent a total of about five hours inside the Ark. Here are some general observations regarding the things that I saw as I toured this gigantic structure.

The Ark Is Immense

The dimensions of the Ark were arrived at by using the Hebrew long cubit of 20.4 inches.¹ The result is that the Ark is “the largest timber frame structure in the world.”²

According to the Ark Encounter website: “The Ark had the same storage capacity as about 500 standard semi-trailers. A standard livestock trailer holds about 250 sheep, so the Ark had the capacity to hold at least 120,000 sheep.”³

From Dispensational Publishing House; used by permission.

July 5, 2016

Greetings from the Ark Encounter—Answers in Genesis’ life-size reconstruction of Noah’s ark.

In this first report following a very big day at the Ark, I want to emphasize a few simple points.

Just getting to the Ark proved to be quite a challenge this morning. My wife Lynnette and I thought that we were leaving early, but we ended up trying to take an alternate route when we saw traffic headed to the Ark on Interstate 75 at a near standstill. We entered the parking lot before 10 a.m., then stood in line until finally getting on a bus that was bound for the Ark and the ribbon cutting ceremony around 11:35. (The ceremony began at 11.) All this to say—the crowd was immense.

There were people everywhere—going in every direction—but especially going to see the Ark and desiring to be part of this historic event. According to a report from Answers in Genesis, the crowd numbered more than 7,000 people.