Monday, July 31, 2017

The Ark Encounter and The Creation Museum

I took so many pictures!  It's taken days just to sort through the photos.  Now I just need to try to remember what I want to say about each one.  First, this was not really what I expected.  In my experience, museums always contain artifacts and antiquities.  While these museums did have some of that, I would describe them more as walk-through books.  They use all kinds of multi-media - video, audio, models, replicas, dioramas, displays and more - to tell about how God created the earth and mankind, about Noah and the flood, and about God's love for us and Jesus' sacrifice on the cross so that we could join Him in Heaven.  It is very well done all the way through both museums.

We went to the Ark Encounter first.  This thing is HUGE!  In fact, they claim it is the largest wooden structure in the world!   


There are several colorful murals displayed throughout.

The first level of the Ark is built to show how the animals and provisions could have been stored.

Contrary to popular opinion, creationists do believe in a type of evolution.  Noah probably only boarded one of each kind of animal.  For example, dogs and wolves would be one kind, because they can inter-breed.  And in the years since the flood, they evolved into dogs, wolves, coyotes, etc.  But they do not believe that man evolved from lifeless dirt or whatever.  There had to be not only intelligent design, but also, the Bible says that "...the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." (Genesis 2:7)  Without that breath of life from our Creator, man could never have lived.


There is reason to believe that Noah and his sons could have already had the skills needed to build the ark.

This sweet girl offered to let me pet this big lizard...thing.  I politely declined.

All of the employees and volunteers at the Ark were very knowledgeable and super sweet.  We were smart to get there just as they were opening on Monday morning.  It only took us a couple of hours to tour the inside of the ark.  There was a lot more to see outside, but we were exhausted (and hungry), so we didn't stay much longer.  Also, by the time we left, it was getting very very crowded.  I had read articles saying that they weren't getting the business they had expected.  Talk about fake news!  I don't know how many people were there that day, but the previous Saturday 8,000 people toured the ark.  That's a lot of people.

Tuesday we went to the Creation Museum.  It was really my favorite.  We watched a couple of films and attended a lecture by Tim Chaffey.  If I understood correctly, he is in charge of the signage at the Ark Encounter. And he writes books.  We bought a few of his books and asked him to autograph them.  He graciously complied, and since we were the last ones in line, we got to chat with him for a few minutes.  I enjoyed his lecture, and I really enjoyed talking to him.  I'm really looking forward to reading In Defense of Easter.  The other books I bought were for the grandgirls, but I'll probably read them too.

In the museum, we followed a maze, or corridor, that led us through the story of creation, the flood, the corrupt world full of sin, and ultimately, the provision that God made to cover our sin.

Noah and his sons building the ark.


The woman making baskets to hold provisions.



Cain slew Abel.
(Yes, I know these are out of order)



I loved this sign.













It was a beautiful museum and a beautiful day.  It was also, basically, the end of our trip.  When we started to leave the RV park to go to our next stop, we found out that the leveling system on our 5th wheel wasn't working.  Tim had to raise the legs manually, which was a lot of work.

We had already done everything that we had planned to do on this trip, and were just planning to take a couple of weeks coming home, stopping and relaxing for a few days whenever we felt like it.  But with this new problem, we decided to just head on home.  We still didn't get in too big of a hurry, and just arrived at home yesterday.  

It's been an amazing adventure, but as always, it is so good to be home!

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