Ever-Increasing Spiritual Battle

Before I share some shocking items with you, I wanted to remind you of a well-known verse of Scripture so that we all know that God is in control, and we don’t need to despair over such matters (though they can sadden us).

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Such a verse certainly comes to my mind as Answers in Genesis faces an ever-increasing spiritual battle by secularists in our culture. There was even a recent incident at our Creation Museum that will shock you—more on that a little later in this letter.

We certainly saw our share of “hate mail” and other forms of opposition over the construction of the Creation Museum. But at the time we also shared how God used this for good in so many ways, including how:

1. the Creation Museum ended up on a far better piece of property than the first one that the atheist groups successfully lobbied against, as they helped to stop the land’s re-zoning approval. The opposition drew free publicity worldwide for the Creation Museum.
2. the support we received from our ministry friends, who rallied to our side, led to increased donations and allowed the Creation Museum to be much bigger and more high-tech than we originally planned.

As you are probably aware, we recently announced plans to build a full-scale Noah’s Ark—as a sign to the world that God’s Word is true. The purpose of the reconstruction of this well-known ship as recorded in Genesis is:

1. to remind the world that the Bible is accurate.
2. to give a reminder to people that God is Holy and judges sin.
3. to remind everyone that He is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
4. to offer a reminder to all that God is a gracious God—and that He provided an Ark of salvation for Noah and his family and has provided an Ark of Salvation for us today: the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as Noah and his family had to go through a doorway to be saved, we also need to go through a doorway for salvation. Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9).

We knew that when the announcement about building an Ark was made public, we would receive opposition (as we did for the Creation Museum). We also suspected that because the announcement was made by the governor of Kentucky (because of all the jobs this project will bring to the state), there would be increased opposition—and that’s exactly what happened!

AiG has now seen over 400 worldwide major media reports on the Ark Encounter project. And I wanted to give you one example of the lengths some people will go to attack Answers in Genesis and the Ark Encounter because of a hatred of God and His Word. In fact, we can almost sense that these people are gnashing their teeth and shaking their fists at God—doing whatever they can to try to stop this evangelistic outreach.

Of course, regardless of what the opponents do, God is in control. He will only allow them to do what He permits! And as we saw for the Creation Museum, God will use what they do for His purposes and glory.

An Attempt to Undermine

One particular man seems to have made his life’s mission to do whatever he can to denigrate the name of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum in an attempt to undermine the Ark Encounter. He has misquoted, misrepresented, told untruths, and has done whatever he can (it seems the end justifies the means for him) to try to stop the building of the Ark Encounter outreach. He is also trying to influence state authorities against it.

I can’t reproduce much of what he has written. You see, his blogs often contain vile language. At the same time, I wanted to give you the specifics of one particular action he concocted. It was an attempted set up, hoping that his actions would result in a landslide of opposition to the Ark project.

Here is what happened recently:

This man heard about our Creation Museum’s “Date Night” romantic evening for couples around Valentine’s Day. It was a celebration of Christian marriage. The man wrote on his website that he wanted to raise money to send the most “flamboyantly gay” couple to the dinner, as part of his “patriotic” duty. It was an obvious attempt to disrupt this event.

His underlying motive? He has been trying to undermine the Ark Encounter project. He wanted to send a message to the Kentucky authorities that Answers in Genesis (and he assumes the Ark Encounter) will not allow gays inside the Creation Museum.

By the way, AiG certainly stands on the biblical view of marriage—one man for one woman. We are not “anti-gay” in the sense of being against gay people personally. We want anyone to come to the Creation Museum and to be influenced by its message. We certainly do not agree with “gay marriage” and consider such to be a sin against God’s clear teaching on marriage in Genesis.

On the evening of “Date Night,” two men and a woman arrived at the Creation Museum for the event. One of the men turned out to be a reporter for a pro-gay alternative weekly newspaper from Louisville (90 minutes from the museum). The other man said he was waiting for his male friend to arrive—the name he gave was of the man who devised the scheme to set up the Creation Museum with a manufactured stunt to disrupt the evening.

This man and his male “date,” who came later, were turned away from the event since they had declared their premeditated intent to act “flamboyantly gay” and provoke an incident.

The two men (both of whom later acknowledged they were not even gay) then claimed to the media that the Creation Museum had turned a gay couple away and gave other false reports of what happened at the museum dinner. Thankfully, some reporters recognized it all as a hoax (including one gay writer), but some reporters uncritically accepted what the plotters reported and printed their false accusations. The reporter from the alternative newspaper who attended the event also wrote error-filled articles against us.

There was much more to the attempted “party-crashing” of course—but as you can see, this was a deliberate attempt to try to discredit Answers in Genesis, the Creation Museum, and particularly the Ark Encounter.

In fact, the main perpetrator of this hoax told outright lies in his account of what happened, and then later on his website wrote:

• “the intellectual child abusers at AiG admit to AP that they discriminate against gays, yet call me ‘intolerant.’”
• “Ken Ham and the good folks at Answers in Genesis are in full out damage control mode. Getting caught red-handed discriminating against what they perceived to be a gay couple, they now realize that their chance to get a $40 million welfare handout from the government to build a giant Dineysore Boat is now seriously in jeopardy.”

And then his real motive becomes obvious:

• “. . . I think you can pretty much put the nail in the coffin on their $40 million government welfare handout to build a giant boat and tell kids that a 600-year old man herded T-Rexes and Sauropods onto it a few thousand years ago.”

By the way—the “handout” he refers to is the sales tax rebate the Ark Encounter project has applied for as a tourism incentive under the Tourism Development Act of Kentucky. And none of the sales tax rebate will fund the construction of the Ark Encounter; any rebate would only occur after the Ark Encounter opens and generates sales tax for the state.

• He [Ken Ham] definitely has proven his ability to con weak-minded people into believing that the Flintstones was a documentary and build a business model that takes advantage of kids’ love of dinosaurs (and now dragons). Ham is a skilled grifter, I will concede that point. But can he pull off a $150 million scam?”

This man is spreading misinformation all over the Internet in hopes that he can stop the Ark Encounter project! Sadly, many people believe him.

But as I quoted from Scripture earlier, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Why Do They Rage?

This man is just one of many who have rallied against the Ark Encounter. And why? Well, they know this project will stimulate an even greater percentage of the population to visit something that has a distinctively biblical and evangelistic message. These opponents know that many more people will also visit the Creation Museum and hear the gospel.

These people are outraged that something so Christian could have such a public impact. They want to stop it at all costs. They angrily work to “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). They are shaking their fists at God!

We need to pray for these people—and pray that what they are doing to try to stop the Ark Encounter will be used for good. We know the Lord can soften the hardest of hearts. Just consider this recent testimony:

“Because of [God using] AiG, I am now a Christian. I was formerly a hardened evolutionist who HATED the Creation Museum when I first saw it on the news on its opening day [May 2007]. However, after reading many of the articles on the AiG website two and a half years ago, I started questioning my faith in evolution and soon gave my heart to Jesus Christ, and am now a fervent young-earth creationist.” —G.H. (Facebook comment)

Praise God for the many testimonies that we receive like this one on a regular basis!

I also pray that you will generously support the Ark Encounter—plus the overall vital work of AiG’s Bible-defending and gospel-proclaiming ministry.