Earlier this year the Creation Museum opened in Hebron, Kentucky (near Cincinatti). Here is what they say about themselves on the website www.creationmuseum.org
The state-of-the-art 60,000 square foot museum brings the pages of the Bible to life, casting its characters and animals in dynamic form and placing them in familiar settings. Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden. Children play and dinosaurs roam near Eden’s Rivers. The serpent coils cunningly in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Majestic murals, great masterpieces brimming with pulsating colors and details, provide a backdrop for many of the settings.
On one of the pages of the website, an author gives what he calls the “7 C’s” of history: Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, and Consummation. This is in a section on War of the Worldviews. On this page they say about Creation:
God created the heavens, the earth and all that is in them in six normal-length days around 6,000 years ago. His completed creation was “very good” (Genesis 1:31), and all the original animals (including dinosaurs) and the first two humans (Adam and Eve) ate only plants (Genesis 1:29–30). Life was perfect and not yet affected by the Curse—death, violence, disease, sickness, thorns, and fear had no part in the original creation.
There is also a link to Creation Evangelism. Here is an excerpt by Ken Ham on the topic:
When Paul went to the Greeks, he didn’t start preaching about Jesus Christ and the cross, but he began by telling them about the true God who is Creator. From there he went to the rest of the gospel about Jesus Christ. The Greeks believed in a form of evolution, and thus in their eyes, there was no God who had authority over them. We also read in the New Testament (1 Cor. 1:23) that the preaching of the cross was foolishness to the Gentiles (Greeks!) but a stumbling block to the Jews. When we think about this carefully, we can start to understand why Paul approached the Greeks on the basis of creation. The Greeks did not believe in God as Creator but in some form of evolution instead. This gave them the wrong basis and therefore the wrong framework for thinking about this world. The preaching of the cross therefore was utter foolishness to them. Paul realised that before he could preach about Jesus Christ, he had to establish the basis on which he could build the rest of the gospel. Thus, he established the creation basis as a foundation and from there he preached the message of the resurrected Christ.
I do think that this approach to sharing the Gospel has merit. Many people today have been brought up with a steady diet of evolutionary nonsense. Maybe taking them back to Genesis is a very good thing to do as we begin our Gospel conversation.
I look forward to visiting the museum some day.Take a look at the site and share your thoughts. I would be interested.
September 25, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Amen! In evangelical churches, I have often seen and heard the gospel starting with sinful humanity instead of glorious creation. If we start with sin instead of creation, our understanding of what salvation accomplished is totally skewed! Genesis is definitely where we need to start. Thanks for your post, Les.