WND EXCLUSIVE
ARK ENCOUNTER OPENS NEW GOSPEL DISPLAY
'We've never hidden the fact that our main purpose is to present the truth of God's Word'
When the Ark Encounter, including its fullsize reproduction of the biblical Ark, opened last year, the attraction’s physical presence got a lot of attention.
At 510 feet long, 85 feet wide and 51 feet high, it’s been described as the largest timber frame structure in the world.
Then there were the “jaw-dropping” exhibits, a zoo, and more
But now a ribbon-cutting is scheduled for the newest, and one of the largest, exhibit areas, called “Why the Bible is True.”
Ken Ham, the chief of Answers in Genesis, a biblical apologetics ministry operating both the Ark Encounter and the nearby Creation Museum, said, “The gospel will be presented clearly and tastefully in this exceptional exhibit, and in a way that’s understandable to our secularized culture.
“We’ve never hidden the fact at AiG that our main purpose as a ministry is to present the truth of God’s Word. Of course, we are not forcing it on guests. AiG just presents the clear gospel message.”
Joining Ham at the ribbon-cutting event, which also will be broadcast on Facebook Live, will be AiG co-founders Mike Zovath and Mark Looy.
The event is set for the 2,500-square-foot display area Friday at 1 p.m. Eastern at the bow end of Deck 3 at the ministry’s Ark Encounter location in Williamstown, Kentucky.
The display will take visitors into the pages of a graphic novel as they follow three college students who explore issues of the Bible, such as why there is suffering and death.
The Ark Encounter and Creation Museum have been drawing tens of thousands of visitors.
The Ark is built according to the dimensions given in the Bible, and while it doesn’t face physical headwinds and waves, it encountered opposition in its effort to open.
WND reported when “secularists” put several obstacles in its path of the project.
Ham, at the time, confirmed that a billboard campaign by the Tri-State Freethinkers was proposed to attack the Ark Encounter.
One local billboard company declined to post them, and a second company, which puts billboards on trucks, also declined.
The Freethinkers wanted the message to say: “Genocide and Incest Park: Celebrating 2,000 years of myths.”
Ham wondered what “are the secularists so fearful of?”
“The Christians I know don’t try to stop people from going to tourist attractions that might present an evolutionary worldview,” he pointed out. “In fact, we will be promoting all the major tourist attractions in the region even though we may not necessarily agree with everything stated at each place.
“These Freethinkers simply don’t want Christians to have the full freedom to present their beliefs in the culture,” he said.
In a blog on the AIG website, Ham recounted the long history of opposition his organization has faced, including the opposition to the nearby Creation Museum.
“When we set out to build the Creation Museum in Northern Kentucky in 1996, a local atheist group vigorously opposed us. As a result, the … court ruled against our rezoning, and we had to find a different museum property. We found the piece that the museum is now built on – a much better location, right off exit 11 on Interstate 275, and we built a much bigger museum. The atheists protested outside the Creation Museum on the day it was opened in 2007. Over the years, they did all they could to try to keep us from opening a museum,” he wrote.
There also was a dispute over whether the Ark Encounter would be allowed to participate in a state program that rebates part of the sales taxes generated by tourist attractions. A federal judge eventually ruled it could.
“These atheists had wanted to stop us from building a museum that eventually provided thousands of jobs in the area (including about 400 staff at the Answers in Genesis/Creation Museum/Hebron design facilities). They wanted to stop the opening of a facility that has added at least $60 million every year to the regional economy since it opened in 2007, based on a formula provided by the Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau. The Creation Museum has now been open for almost nine years,” Ham explained.
“The point is that atheists and other secularist groups (including the Tri-State Freethinkers) apparently would rather stop Kentucky from receiving this tremendous economic and job-creation boost that the Ark will bring, than being tolerant of Christians trying to have free exercise of their religion by building Christian-themed attractions. They really would rather hurt Kentucky than have a Christian group build such world-class attractions open to everyone who chooses to visit,” he wrote.
In the rebate dispute, critics had claimed that since the project is Christian, the state legally could discriminate against it.
But U.S. District Judge Greg Van Tatenhove in the Eastern District of Kentucky affirmed the Ark Encounter’s right to participate in the program.
The ruling concluded “the Commonwealth’s exclusion of AIG from participating in the program for the reasons stated – i.e., on the basis of AIG’s religious beliefs, purpose, mission, message, or conduct, is a violation of AIG’s rights under the First Amendment to the federal Constitution.”
WND also reported when former President Jimmy Carter visited.
Carter, who has a longtime interest in construction, visited the site before it opened and said, “It’s some of the best wood-working I’ve ever seen.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2017/02/ark-encounter-opens-new-gospel-display/#dB2LlLvhGQGTWR5i.99
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