Creation Museum

During our family stay-cation, we visited the Creation Museum located near Petersburg, Kentucky. Much like any museum, the Creation Museum is founded upon a particular philosophical presupposition in which all scientific knowledge is interpreted through. Unlike other museums, however, the Creation Museum is founded upon the Holy Bible to interpret scientific knowledge. Considering that the biblical view of reality is subject to much scoffing and it is in vogue to mock scriptural interpretation of creation, much of the museum is dedicated to apologetics. When visiting the museum, be prepared to read; furthermore, be prepared to move slowly enough to read everything and give the biblical worldview a fair shake.
The museum offers a lot of models to present a visual display of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. The exhibit hall offers some artifacts with many displays presenting the biblical worldview of natural and human history.




The museum displays Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Adam naming the diverse animal population in the garden, and even includes a large tree of life. The displays have written accounts and visuals regarding the fall of man. There is a portion of the museum that displays humanity's rejection of God's Word and consequences of sin with videos creatively placed as house windows peering into personal lives of people.

The section on covering is well done. Adam and his family cultivated with difficulties and covered the shame of their nakedness and the guilt of sin with animal sacrifice.










Recent history is also presented to reveal a philosophical divide of interpretation of scientific knowledge. Of course, the Reformation and Martin Luther's display tells of a time when the Word of God was suppressed under the higher authority of the elites in the Roman Catholic Church. Luther stood firm on the authority and reliability of the Bible.
The Scopes Trial was also on display with a short video to supplement the display. This is a pivotal moment in the history of creationism and I prefer a little bit more in this particular display.

At the entrance to the museum, a full skeleton of the mastodon is on display with models of other dinosaurs, presenting a theory that humans and dinosaurs resided on earth at the same time. There is also a nice aquarium with fish and turtles on display with human and dinosaur models that move.

The museum has lecture halls that have various speakers of different areas of expertise to come and speak as well as various workshops with hands-on learning. Also, if you pay a little extra, you may also view a show in the Stargazer's Planetarium. I highly recommend the Planetarium, as the show not only interprets astronomy through the biblical record, but also reveals the awesome might of Creator God.

A display I recommend going slowly through is the portion on the flood. Contrary to what many Americans view in the account of Noah's Ark as being about naming animals and the colors of the rainbow, the flood was God's judgment on wicked humanity and grace in His sovereign election of the sinful family of Noah to be rescued through the great flood. The videos and reading as well as various models speaking need to be considered when interpreting historical science.

Of course, an introductory display regarding revelation is necessary to offer the biblical account of history. I recommend that Christians and non-Christians alike take the time to go through this walk through history according the the biblical worldview. If you claim to be one of an "open mind," then such a survey and careful consideration of the view presented in the museum would be a useful journey. If you are a believer, your faith will be strengthened by the evidence to the biblical worldview.

In good humor, the people of the museum use the command to not touch the displays exclamatively with a polite adverbial request.

Also, there is a petting zoo and plant display outside the museum, which is free of charge. Children will love feeding and toughing llamas, goats, chickens, and a zorse (a zebra-horse hybrid).


The zorse or zebroid is more than a display of a mixed animal "because we can." The zorse is an animal mentioned in Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, which may also strengthen the case for creationism considering various animals in the same type may cross-breed a new subspecies.


The most lovely treasure at the Creation Museum is that the Word of God is written all over the place. The gospel is center stage to the entire event of creation and providence, which every molecule of this vast universe is held in the sovereign rule of Creator God. The beauty of God's creation on display throughout the museum is just that, a display of God's beauty. It is my hope that the museum continues to improve its artifacts and expand the exhibits. With that said, the museum is a must destination for all interested in the biblical view of natural and human history.

Outdoor Devotion

I love the warmer months. Beside my bodily lack of tolerance of the cold, I love to read Scripture and pray as God's creation sets the backdrop. The out-of-doors devotion is a practical way to remove distractions, to pray out loud while the boys take their nap, and to quiet my soul away from the modern distractions like the computer. 



Recently, my devotions were upset by natural surprises. God's creatures paid a visit.

A broad-headed skink bathed in the warm sun on limestone I stacked last summer to build a small garden by the deck. Skinks are lizards that God formed perfectly for living in Kentucky. The skink's front feet are good for burrowing. His rear feet are good for balance for seeking insect prey. His color resembles rocks so he can warm with protection against predators. God feeds the skink, how much more valuable are His chosen people than skinks!

A tom (male turkey) also paid me a visit. This one pictured to the left was in full display with two hens (female turkey) nearby. Unfortunately, when I turned around to retrieve my camera, he began to run off. His display is extraordinary. God created the turkey just like the skink and the rest of His creation: in detail designed to live in the region.






When you sit quiet long enough outdoors here in the countryside, the natural world belonging to God blooms. The natural world is more than a cold list of academic information to mine and place into textbooks. The natural world is designed and sustained by the all-powerful hand of God. Studying God's revealed Word about Himself and His creation gives a sweeter beauty to the whole realm of nature. Go and study God's wonderful gift of His Word outside.

Together for the Gospel 2012

As a gift from my wife, I attended Together for the Gospel 2012 this past week  in Louisville, Kentucky. I thought that I would share a few insights and highlights with you guys. The crowd numbered in the several thousand to hear the Gospel preached powerfully by some of the best known pastors in the nation. The title of the conference shows the panel of several denominations gathering together for the Gospel within the Reformed understanding of the doctrines of salvation and grace.

The general sessions were held at the KFC Yum! Center in Downtown Louisville. The many banners recognizing sports heroes and athletic championships peers down upon the multitude gathering to sing praises to God. The loudness of the voices and the theological depth of the music gave a foretaste of that eternal day. The messages calls for action to faithful labor now as we wait for that day. Also, if you look closely to the photo on the right, it appears Ben Pine is saying "Yum!"

 

Between sessions, the crowd traveled a couple of blocks toward the Kentucky International Convention Center where the bookstores and meals were located. The lighting was just wonderful, and God painted a beautiful blue sky and white, puffy clouds as a pleasant backdrop to the city skyline.

Thousands rushed by this man (photo right), who I have met before (I am from Louisville). I stopped for a bit to talk with him, as well as a few other homeless men. I am hopeful that many of my fellow T4Gers were active in communicating Christ to the people of my hometown, as was the case when the Southern Baptist Convention was in town a few years ago.

Waiting to cross the street toward the Convention Center (photo left). The police made certain that the thousands of pedestrians flooding downtown would arrive safely.

The line for meals at the convention center were long at first, but quickly moved through. The food was quite good and the conversations with random brethren over meals was certainly a highlight of the conference. I met faithful messengers of the gospel from Napa Valley, California, and Casper, Wyoming. I heard a very exciting testimony from a pastor from Los Angeles that was a pastor in Dubai for some time, proclaiming the gospel there. He brought along a young man from Dubai that he is discipling. Such extraordinary stories of God's movement around His globe is encouraging.

I cannot discuss T4G without mentioning the Zero Dollar Bookstore. We each received 18 free books! There were booths with various ministries, as well. Ligonier is pictured here and that is White Horse Inn in the distance to the left (I didn't see Michael Horton). I stopped by the Martyn Lloyd-Jones Trust booth and met the Doctor's grandson. I had to thank them for releasing 1,600 of his sermons free for download this week. Being a local, several of the booth attendees asked about good local restaurants. I was more than happy to give some recommendations!

We had a good allotment of time between sessions, which was nice to simply walk around and talk theology. While walking around the Convention Center, I found this landscape and had to shoot. Perhaps it is a photographer's sense of humor, but I thought I'd share this photo (right). The bent sign gives the impression it was windy, which there was barely even a breeze this week.

During the conference, there were several break-out sessions. I attended one entitled "The Pastor and the Spirit" by Jeff Purswell. He lectured through I Corinthians 12-14 to encourage an understanding of the pastor's labor and calling in light of the Holy Spirit.

At the convention center, I found myself in a large, empty hallway recovering from the overwhelming flood of the blessings of the Lord. I watched as many T4Gers walked around outside from the quiet, hollow corridor which echoed distant conversations. A nice, relaxing break before continuing onward.

Well, then, that's the direction for me!

Prior to David Platt's sermon, the empty Yum! Center slowly began to satisfy the lonely chairs with people. I enjoyed sitting next to people from many different places and listening to what the Lord is doing in and through them. While Almighty God is at work in and through me, He is mightily working in and through millions simultaneously throughout the world.

I cannot choose a favorite speaker or sermon, as each sermon convicted me in my sin and revealed a God of infinite glory whose sovereign grace saved this wretch and continues His good work of sanctification. However, David Platt's (pictured left) sermon on God's sovereignty in His gospel and foreign missions was a heavy weight of burden for urgency to preach to the lost and to the nations.

I believe this photo says it all (right). The overwhelming flood of emotions and the encouragement of faithful gospel preaching stirs an urgency to glorify God that cannot be contained under a bushel. May the joy of the Lord be our strength.

To Every Season

 Saturday welcomed the sun with an invitation to Spring following a day of destructive and deadly tornadoes that wrecked the area. The delighted hospitality of the rather tepid air summoned a walk. The daffodils were in bloom and the grass began the Spring shade of green. The springtime inauguration seemed to be in order.

 The parade of colors and the sound of streams trickling through the woods put joy to my feet in every step. However, the light breeze in the woods drummed a gentle percussion of barren trees that warned Winter had yet to release its grip. Come Monday morning, ice and snow would impede the springtime progression.

 This morning, trees and fields are covered in a blanket of snow, hiding the greenery underneath. This transition of seasons is not accidental.

 God set the earth's movement in relation to the sun to determine the seasons and called it good (Genesis 1:14). The seasons are a blessing God restored after the flood (Genesis 8:22). God is in control of the seasons and the obedience of nature is His praise. The joyous beauty and occasion of every season is His continued providence to His creation. Spring, Lord willing, will eventually overshadow Winter.

Let us praise God for continuing the seasons. The courses of the seasons "join with all nature in manifold witness to Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love."

Rally at the Rotunda

Overcast skies blanketed Frankfort on a mild Tuesday afternoon as the Capitol Building was a buzz over the recent expanded gambling bill about to be presented to a State Senate committee. Governor Steve Beshear put together Senate Bill 151, a proposal for an amendment to the state constitution to include seven casinos across the Commonwealth.

Attracted by the prospects of increasing state revenues as well as reviving the struggling horse industry, proponents of expanded gambling have moved the debate over this bill rather quickly. On Friday, Governor Beshear pointed to joining states funding schools and emergency services with casino money, much of which is gained from lost wagers by Kentuckians. “It makes no sense to continue watching that happen,” concluded Governor Beshear.


The gray clouds allowed glimpses of sun rays to briefly brush the Capitol as over 100 Christians climbed the Capitol steps to attend a rally at the rotunda in opposition to the bill. Christians gathered in objection to a bill which "mocks the poor" and "clearly preys upon the poor," said Paul Chitwood, the newly installed executive director to the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

Nearly a month after a controversial prayer that opened Governor Beshear's annual budget address, Hershael York called for a "timely death" of the expanded gambling bill. York, pastor of Buck Run Baptist Church near Frankfort, led the gathered protestors in prayer that state legislators would consider the best for the people of the Commonwealth as well as strangers in the land, and "not a cut of their losses."

The acoustics of the rotunda echoed mellifluous hymns and urgent prayers lifted to Almighty God within earshot of state legislators. The rally was not simply contained to the rotunda, as many were led through the annex to voice their opposition with legislators face-to-face. Many that gathered stated their opposition to the bill was founded upon its predatory nature to gain some government revenue, which one pastor noted, "the house always wins."

Assembling beneath a statue of Kentucky's native son Abraham Lincoln, the expanded gambling protestors listened to ministers state their case against the bill. Kentucky Baptist Convention President Adam Greenway noted that the gathered Christians "are speaking in one voice to say no to expanded gambling."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/02/21/2077996/religious-leaders-pray-for-timely.html#storylink=cpy

Speaking to the lasting effect on future generations in consequence to the bill, Paul Chitwood asked, "how many children are we willing to lay upon the altar of casino gambling?" The amount of support in the state legislature is uncertain. Along with the bill's sponsor Senator Damon Thayer (R-Georgetown), Agricultural Commissioner James Comer (R) also supports the bill as it aids the ailing horse industry.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/02/21/2077996/religious-leaders-pray-for-timely.html#storylink=cpy

The rally, which was attended by the Senate President David Williams (R-Burkesville), ended with Hershael York asking the crowd, "how do you want (state legislators) to vote on the bill?" An emphatic and resonant "no" reverberated the rotunda and adjoining halls of the state Capitol.

Cane Ridge Meeting House

 A few minutes outside of Paris, Kentucky, stands a meeting house that famously began a spiritual movement on the frontier of western movement in the beginning of the 19th Century. The Cane Ridge Meeting House is famous for a revival meeting that drew many to the wild lands of Kentucky and ignited the Stone-Campbell Movement which continues to this day.
The meeting house is a rugged, wooden structure erected in 1791 by a group of settlers of Scottish and Irish roots which settled on top of a ridge filled with a plant that pioneer Daniel Boone thought resembled sugar cane; hence, Boone named the place Cane Ridge. The Cane Ridge Meeting House held Christian services with whites on the first floor, and a second floor balcony which held African slaves. The curator mentioned to me that this may be the first of its kind; though segregated, the worshipers of different races worshiping to the same music, sermon, and in the same room.

The pulpit stands on a raised platform with the Lord's Supper table on the front. The dark meeting house not only revealed my need to purchase a bounce flash, but also provided a feel of being in history. The log structure is quite old and foreign to contemporary churches, but the warm and inviting feeling suggests something quite familiar. Scenes of frontier families singing hymns and hearing the old style preaching enters the imagination, and the smell of the old wood sends the imagination back in time.

Of course, the Cane Ridge Meeting House's claim to fame is not merely in its antiquity, but in its most famous preacher. Reverend Barton Warren Stone, claiming half of the title in the Stone-Campbell Movement, was Cane Ridge's celebrated son. Stone was a Presbyterian minister that challenged the doctrine of the Trinity, amongst many other doctrine taught in orthodox Christianity throughout history. Stone, much like his friend Alexander Campbell, used language that rejected the doctrine of the Trinity in favor of language that found neither any distinctions between the Persons of the Godhead (Stone rejected  the term "person") or any distinguishing traits, which favored the language of Unitarianism which was popular at the time.

Stone sought unity with the Christian denominations by rejecting historical creeds in favor of restoring the true Christian faith by stating there are "no creeds but the Bible." Of course, this rejection of all creeds favored Stone's own interpretation of the Scriptures, causing disunity in biblical doctrines amongst his followers by allowing personal interpretations of the Scriptures to trump biblical hermeneutics, and allowing unity in Stone's teachings of the Bible rather than unity in creeds.

Such provocative preaching and powerful charge to restore the Christian faith to permit each believer his/her own understanding of Scripture to be true doctrine exploded in popularity on the western frontier in 1801. In August of that year, an event claimed anywhere between 10,000 to as many as 30,000 travelers who camped out around the ridge to hear the fresh theology of the preacher Stone. The Cane Ridge Revival, as it was later termed, remains a pivotal point in spirituality in Kentucky to this very day.

Among the denominations that were birthed from the revival, the Disciples of Christ and Churches of Christ remain heavily in disagreement in the teachings of Scriptures, each denomination group of Christians arguing its creed Statement of Faith is correct and the opposition to be in error.
The grounds of the Meeting House has a museum of artifacts from the revival as well as items of common use at the time such as tools and furniture. There also is a cemetery, with Stone's grave as well as a monument with his bust in memorial.







All around the grounds are quotes and lessons taught by Stone. Stone challenged many doctrines, one being on baptism, which resembled the Baptist doctrine. The meeting house holds weddings and hymn sings as well as other scheduled events.

The old photo of the meeting house reminds visitors of a bygone era in Kentucky history. The structure is now housed in a limestone shrine. In order to understand the history of the people of Kentucky as well as the spiritual history of the western movement of the United States, a visit to Cane Ridge Meeting House is an essential visit.