Creation Museum is Well Worth The Visit

It is not very often that a visit to a museum brings me to tears. In fact, with the exception of a visit to a holocaust museum, I can think of none. This is especially the case when the visit includes long lines to get in the door and then another wait to see the exhibits. In the case of the Creation Museum, however, neither long queues outside, nor large crowds inside, detracted from the experience or the message.

For the record, I am not an uninterested observer. I have been a great fan and promoter of the Answers in Genesis ministry long before the Creation Museum took shape just south of Cincinnati. When the project became a reality I donated money for the completion of the museum, and planed to travel to it with my family as soon as possible. Even without my favorable predisposition, however, I believe most unbiased people would mirror my praise for what has been accomplished there.

To begin, the entertainment level of the museum is very good. This may seem like an odd place to start, but in order to capture today's culture and hold their attention it is necessary to approach all things with some measure of glitz. The museum has definitely taken advantage of available technology and the ample creative talent to produce exceptional displays.

A sensurround theater production entitled "Men in White" is slated as the opening exhibit. Without providing a spoiler, I can confidently say few people would find "Men in White" dull or dry. More importantly, it whets a visitor's appetite to want to follow the rest of the displays through the Museum's main attraction, a veritable walking tour of history. Visitors are told to “Be prepared to experience history in a completely unprecedented way,” and they will not be disappointed.

The museum categorizes all of history by what it terms "The Seven C’s.” These are, in order: creation, corruption, catastrophe, confusion, Christ, cross, and consummation. They present an overview of history according to the Bible. It does so, first, by confronting the visitor with the overwhelming reality and destructive power of sin, initiated at the Fall. Secondly, the museum confronts the visitor with the only answer to the problem of sin, the redeeming message of Christ's Gospel.

Along the way a myriad of thoughtful displays, backed by well researched findings, lush panoramas plus some compelling audio and video clips, make for a thoroughly engaging experience. Add a wealth of extraordinary fossils, mineral displays, and some extremely realistic, life sized, animatronic dinosaurs and a world class museum comes to life. 

It is notable that a family who made the visit to the museum with us first stopped at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry the day prior to arriving in Kentucky. Without dissent, their carload of teenagers found the Creation Museum more to their liking. My own four children, ranging in age from nine to eighteen, had no difficulty keeping engaged. Although the youngest was running out of steam after five full hours, he was not running out of interest. 

If you go only looking for dinosaurs you will not be disappointed. If you are looking for information on evolution, or intelligent design, you will not be disappointed. If you are looking for persuasive evidence for the Earth’s young age, and how God created the universe in six days, you will not be disappointed. But if you go - expect a lot more, for it offers far more than just entertainment, bones and fossils.

Ken Ham has been known to call dinosaurs “missionary lizards.” By this he means dinosaurs, when presented from a correct Biblical perspective, can be tools for the Gospel. For anyone who has had the privilege to hear Ken Ham speak in person, you know that one of his gifts is his ability to make his teaching appeal across all age groups. Following suit, the museum has the ability to speak to anyone who visits. 

If you are already a Christian, you will either be elated or challenged by the clarion call to trust in the authority of the Bible from the very first verse. As for agnostics, atheists, or skeptics, of any variety, they will be challenged to believe in the God of all creation who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that they too might have eternal life.

Such is the real design behind the museum's displays. They are meant to confront the visitor with the overwhelming evidence for God as our creator and redeemer.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord

By Russ Young Email: RussYoung@q.com Click here for bio and archived articles