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Faith and Ark Building

Episode #46 – If a man can build the Freedom Tower and the Golden Gate bridge and the pyramids, is it really much of a stretch to believe that God could create the earth as we know it in 6 days?

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Faith and Ark Building
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The Jesus Habit: Daily Devotional

Hosted by David Lindner

AUDIO PODCAST

Can you imagine how crazy it would be to build an ark?

Luckily we don’t have to imagine all that hard. Not only do we have Evan Almighty and Hollywood’s depiction of what it would be like to build an ark today, someone actually built an ark, today. The Ark Encounter in Williamstown, KY finished just a few years ago. We got to go there three summers ago on one of our Lindner Family Road Trips. It’s quite impressive. Seeing it in person helps you be able to see how it was actually possible to get all the animals on the ark.

The Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum are the brainchildren of Ken Ham. That name may ring a bell for you because he debated Bill Nye in 2014 about creation in a nationally televised event. But, Ken Ham and the Answers in Genesis (AiG) ministry faced a lot of ridicule, backlash, and rage about the Ark Encounter.

Bill Nye said about the Ark Encounter:

“The influence is strong. I spoke with a lot of kids (and took a great many selfies). Almost all of them do not accept that humans are causing climate change—and that is the Answers In Genesis ministry’s fault. Through its dioramas and signage, the organization promotes ideas that are absolutely wrong scientifically, while suppressing critical thinking in our students—which is in no one’s best interest, conservative or progressive.”*

The Freedom From Religion Foundation warned against Public School field trips to the ark, issuing this statement: “Public schools and public school staff may not take part in celebrations for a park that has a clear religious goal and portrays fiction as divine truth. Ham is free to erect monuments to his bible, but public schools are not permitted to expose the children in their charge to religious myths and proselytizing. It is unacceptable to expose a captive audience of impressionable students to the overtly religious atmosphere of Ham’s Christian theme parks.”*

“Donald Ruberg, an attorney for the schools in Grant County where the ark is located, called it an overreach to say no schools could legally visit the ark under any circumstances, but that any field trips would have to be closely monitored. For example, he suggested a carpentry class may find value in the architecture and construction of the project. Such trips would have to be balanced with context and the age of the children would be taken into account, but there could be educational value in such a trip.”*

“Creationist Noahs Ark Theme Park Incites Protest and Criticism” on nonprofitquarterly.org

Apparently we have to be careful what age we allow students to be influenced by Christian thinking but no concern is given to the other ideologies that are being crammed down their throats from Kindergarten and on. But, that’s not really the point of today’s devotional.

I encourage you to go to the Ark if you ever have the chance. Primarily for one reason. Faith. You see, before AiG built the ark, there were so many questions about whether the ark could really hold two of every kind of animal. But, when you ride up to it for the first time, you see, it’s not that big of a stretch.

By now, you’re probably asking yourself if I believe in 6 literal days of creation. The answer is yes. But before you write me off, let me explain why. Faith.

I’ll admit, it can be hard for me to imagine how “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” It’s hard to imagine how God could make the light and the dark, make the land and the sea, the plants and the animals and human beings. How does one make something from nothing as God did?

But, seeing the ark really helps. Because a man built that. If Ken Ham could build something like that, then it’s not a much bigger stretch to say that Noah could have as well. And if that part of the story is true, why can’t the rest of it be true? If a man can build an ark, if a man can build the Freedom Tower and the Golden Gate bridge and the pyramids, is it really much of a stretch to believe that God could create the earth as we know it in 6 days? I mean, for a God that is all-powerful, certainly, it’s not that big of a stretch.

I wasn’t there to see God make the earth, but by faith, I can have confidence that He did. The author’s entire argument about Faith begins with creation. “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” (Heb. 11:3)

Since we’re talking science and whatnot, I’d like to posture a hypothesis.

Could it be that the reason the faith of so many Christians is anemic if existent at all is that we have allowed ourselves to be taken “captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ”? (Col 2:8) If you can’t believe the beginning of God’s story as an actual, historical fact, then how can you believe the middle (you know the part about Jesus) or the end?

“But what about evolution? Don’t they have proof?” Actually, no they don’t. It’s just a theory. It’s been a theory ever since Darwin published his theory in 1859. No, it has not been proved. Scientists are desperately looking for one piece of evidence to verify the theory. Billions if not trillions of dollars have been wasted in pursuit. The more they search, the closer and closer they get to intelligent design and a designer. Now many scientists argue that there had to be a designer, they just try to argue that evolution was the designer. How foolish.

It takes way more faith, blind faith, to believe that humans evolved from an amoeba than to believe that the all-powerful God created everything. Speaking of theories, I have one more. It seems that the very things opposers of Christianity hold against us are the very inadequacies of their own arguments. They accuse Christians of blind faith, but as we’ll see tomorrow, there’s nothing blind about it. All along the way for evolution, the conditions had to be exactly right thousands and thousands of times for something to maybe have happened. And surprisingly, there’s never any evidence to show these evolutions. There have been fabricated evidences over the years, but they get disproven as fakes and frauds time and time again. My argument against evolution is simply this: Where are they now? Why are there no evolved species right now? And if our climate is as extreme as it has ever been, why don’t we see species evolving by necessity in front of our very eyes? And why are we so concerned with the extinction of species of animals, shouldn’t they be able to evolve to survive?

It’s no wonder we have such low self-esteem and identity problems in our society. There is no meaning to our existence if we are simply an accident of the cosmos. Where’s the meaning in the big bang? As Frank Peretti says in his “My way or God’s way talk” “The first thing you need to know, above all else is that you are an accident. You have absolutely no reason for being here. There is no meaning, no purpose for your life. You are nothing but a meaningless conglomeration of molecules that came together purely by chance billions and billions of years ago…it’s from goo to you by way of the zoo. As such you don’t really have any reason for being here. Your existence is pointless. The universe won’t mind a bit when you die. When you die you become so much compost…Class dismissed, head on down to that new class they’re starting this week on self-esteem.”

To be frank, (not Peretti), if you don’t believe that the universe was formed at God’s command, there’s really not much point in reading any further into Hebrews 11. Because if God couldn’t make the earth, how could he follow through on any of the other promises that these people believed in Faith?

I know there will be those who ridicule and mock me for having this belief. It’s not the first time and won’t be the last. I got a D on a biology paper when as a sophomore in high school I argued against evolution and for creation. That’s okay. But my question is, if you think I’m wrong, how will you treat me in response and why? Because my belief is based on the fact that all humans are made in the image of God, I cannot make you less than human simply because you believe differently than me. And I won’t. But should we not be just as cautious about the fiction being portrayed as truth in millions of biology textbooks around the globe that is causing us to treat one another with less and less respect? If it’s unacceptable to expose children to creation as a point of view, and even though it is portrayed as fiction regardless of the fact that it has far more evidence than evolution, should it not be just as unacceptable to hold students captive to the overtly religious nature of beliefs pounded down our throats by evolutionary theorists?

I will finish by asking this. What is to be gained through belief by faith in evolution vs creation? Faith in evolution results in a lack of meaning, purpose and total destruction of the value of life. Faith in creation, on the other hand, instills all humans (regardless of their belief) with meaning, purpose and inherit infinite value.

*Portions of today’s post are except from the article: “Creationist Noahs Ark Theme Park Incites Protest and Criticism” on nonprofitquarterly.org (*https://nonprofitquarterly.org/creationist-noahs-ark-theme-park-incites-protests-criticism/)

The views and opinions expressed by Kingdom Winds Collective Members, authors, and contributors are their own and do not represent the views of Kingdom Winds LLC.

About the Author

David Lindner is a husband to (the amazing) Bekki (Chasingsupermom.com), Father to four, Pastor at SixEight Church in Vancouver, WA (68church.com) as well as an author/blogger/podcaster (davidlindner.net)