Can you travel the country ? You travel the world . Speaking on apologetics , how important is it for a Christian to have a firm understanding of what they believe in ?
Speaker 2Well , we live in a world that's really the broad way and the narrow way is very narrow , going opposite direction . So you're gonna meet a lot of non-Christians out there , but you're gonna meet a lot of people who certainly don't accept what we accept , considering God's word , and they'll have all sorts of questions and if we can't answer those questions then we're being a very poor witness . You know , first , Peter 3.15 says always be prepared to give an answer or give a defense . Translated from the Greek word apologia . Right , that's a big word for you . Yes yeah , apologia , which means to give a logical reason , defense of the faith , and that's where our word apologetics come from . So we're not to apologize for our faith , quite the opposite . But we need to be able to give answers . And it was interesting the first time that I taught science in a public school in Australia in 1975 , probably before you were born .
Speaker 3No , I was born twice by then .
Speaker 2Oh , okay , okay , I get that . Actually , you were probably born way before me . You're older than me .
Speaker 3Just a little .
Speaker 2Way older .
Speaker 3Yeah , no one would believe that , but I am . I'm not buying it .
Speaker 2No , you can tell you do the eye ring dating .
Speaker 1Eye ring dating . It's like the tree , but you count crows feet 10 years every ring 10 , 20 , 30 , 40, .
Speaker 2yeah , he is older than me , so you know what killed Methuselah ?
Speaker 3don't you Blowing out his birthday candles ? Part attack . Look at that , I make Hen Heng smile .
Speaker 2Well , it's typical of Ray Kumpen type joke .
Speaker 5Why is it that it's beans that people always spell ?
Speaker 3And why is it a hill of beans ? I couldn't care a hill of beans .
Speaker 1People spill milk too .
Speaker 3Yeah it's like Try over that .
Speaker 5Why isn't it corn or Brussels sprouts or like cilantro ? Ray , have you ever spilled the cilantro ? I'd love to Into the kitchen . Ray , please eat cilantro . No , don't even talk about it . Does it taste like ?
Speaker 3soap Hang on a minute , poodle in the teeth , ah .
Speaker 5Ah , that's not nice . Okay , but , ray , let me ask you this Would you rather do the whole tide to a chair in a white room scenario or tide down and forced to eat cilantro ? Both Pick one , ray .
Speaker 3No , I'm not .
Speaker 5They're both that miserable for you .
Speaker 1That is horrible . Does it taste like soap to you ? I know to some people cilantro tastes like soap . I thought I ate dead cockroaches .
Speaker 3I'm not joking . I thought something is wrong with it .
Speaker 1Wait , that wasn't cilantro , that was dead cockroaches , if I imagine , if ever I ate a dead cockroach that's what it would taste like .
Speaker 5Are you sure I remember the ?
Speaker 3second I bit into it .
Speaker 5Why does the cockroach have to be dead ? They won't stay still when you eat them .
Speaker 4I figured it out when Ray was eating the cilantro , part of his beard was just stuck up inside of his mouth .
Speaker 1Yeah , I'm convinced you've never had cilantro now .
Speaker 3No , I was in a car . I remember the second I bit into it was a hamburger or something and I went . You're still wiggling .
Speaker 5Ray , there was probably some mouse in there . You've been out on the beauties of cilantro .
Speaker 3I was thinking of that until I tried it again . I found the cilantro as the cockroach .
Speaker 5That's too bad , mark and Oscar . Have you guys ever spilled the winter stitzel ?
Speaker 4Oh boy , you know unfortunately , For the first time ever , I think , in the history of my marriage , my wife said to me the other day we should go get some winter stitzel because I'm always flying solo . Did you cry ? Seriously ? I was so excited she got two dogs . I got four chili cheese dogs , oh boy , and I wasn't even hungry , did you say for the first time , for the first time she recommended us to go get it because , I'm always flying solo , going to get it on my own .
Speaker 1Sounds like we need to put a double date on the calendar . Two winter stitzels , you know what ?
Speaker 4and she did follow it up with . I will never eat this ever again . Why ?
Speaker 5is a woman .
Speaker 3You must have got some salons right now .
Speaker 5Okay , oscar , only coffee with creamer for a year , or Go on , or .
Speaker 3Waiting in a podcast for something intelligent .
Speaker 5Mark , no winter stitzel for a month , or or , I don't know . I wrote no sign . I forgot to finish them . There was something I meant to say . Oh , that's what it was only coffee with creamer for a year , or no winter stitzel .
Speaker 4Oh , I would rather go . No winter stitzel , I'll do no coffee . I can't drink the coffee . It does give me heart , like appetitions , and gives me anxiety .
Speaker 5Why is it that coffee affects me that way too ? It's weird , is it really ? Yeah , like soda . Caffeine doesn't affect me that way , but it's .
Speaker 3Yeah , I've only drunk one cup of coffee . It was about a quarter for a cup .
Speaker 5Only ever .
Speaker 3I was on a pleasure cruise going to Tahiti and I was totally drunk and had cream in the top . I wasn't a Christian and I hated it still .
Speaker 5Ray , why do you say Tahiti ? It's Tahiti , man Look Tah .
Speaker 4Isn't it like Tah-i-ti , tah-i-ti ?
Speaker 1Yeah , it is .
Speaker 3Man , if I was saying help , I'm drowning , you guys would pick on the way I said help .
Speaker 1Hey , listen to him .
Speaker 4Good point and laugh . Say it again . Ray , Sounds funny . We'll throw you like a buoy , like 20 feet away .
Speaker 3A buoy . What's a buoy ? A buoy , I'm making a float on it . It's a buoy .
Speaker 4What it's pronounced buoy . No , it's a buoy . It's not a buoy or a buoy . It's a buoy . It's a buoy . Make you swim to it .
Speaker 5A buoy . This is crazy . You know what ? Something's messing up with my notes , because I'm doing that one drive thing and that's why it's not finished here . It didn't include what I was going to ask you guys .
Speaker 4Never mind , don't be any , bro he needs some of the milk .
Speaker 5Hey , we got stuff , guys . Okay , Mark , you got this package from Louisiana and Texas .
Speaker 4Yeah , when we were in Louisiana and Texas .
Speaker 5Okay , let's see it's gifts for us , they said to open it during the podcast . Okay , socks , what They'll be special socks .
Speaker 4I think it's all socks .
Speaker 1Good socks I love brand new socks . This one extra small for you Ray .
Speaker 3I'm going to use this as a sleeping bag .
Speaker 5I can't express how thankful I am for you guys . Before I found y'all , I knew that Jesus died for me , and after listening to your videos and podcasts how I know why Jesus died for me . Thank you again and I'm praying for you . Wow , praise the Lord . Thank you , caleb . What are you throwing Oscar everywhere ?
Speaker 1Stickers to everybody . That was terrible , Thank you .
Speaker 5Caleb Socks . We need to send these to Ken Hamray so we never see his toes again .
Speaker 3Don't even say it . What's wrong with his toes ? He could put them all on there ?
Speaker 5Ah Okay , all right , frans , here's a comment .
Speaker 1This is from Do you think you're a good sock ?
Speaker 5Thumbs up , thumbs up . What Do you think ? You're a good sock . They're called good socks . Good socks , these look really nice . Thank you , Caleb . Thank you sir . All right , frans , here's a comment . This is from I don't know . It just says thumbs up . Thumbs up To Oscar , ray Mark and E-Asterik Asterik Asterik Z-Asterik . Asterik Asterik , my name is Sutter Green and a while back I wrote a review on the podcast and you guys read it on the podcast and mentioned my YouTube channel . I wanted to say thank you so much for doing that and also congratulations on the 200th episode . Boy , this was right a while back . You guys are such an encouragement for me . Thank you for doing what you do . Ps . Thank you to E-Asterik Asterik Z-Asterik . I can't say your name via Oscar's request , anyway .
Speaker 4Oh boy .
Speaker 5I went on his podcast Neat guy .
Speaker 4Really he's just a young-in , what do you say ? Like 13 , 14 years old , yeah .
Speaker 5I think he's a teenager .
Speaker 4So , so great . I love him . He went on there with his friends and they were just asking questions . That's awesome . Yeah , it was a really neat time .
Speaker 5Yeah , praise the Lord . All right , frans . This podcast is brought to you by Volatile , the nations of the Bible . Wait what the book the nations the Bible says will attack Israel in the latter days , ray , what is it with your like paragraphs for subtitles ? I don't know what you're talking about . What I don't know what you're talking about . You didn't hear anything , I just said .
Speaker 3Yeah , yeah , we had pronounced volatile the wrong way . Volatile yeah , that's what Americans say . It's volatile , it's E on the end . You say volatile . Yes , we all say volatile . Okay , strong we're really mad Volatile .
Speaker 1I think I say volatile . What's that ? I think I say volatile .
Speaker 5Oh thank you , Oscar Volatile .
Speaker 1Volatile . Volatile .
Speaker 5What do you say ? Mark Volatile ? Who cares ? Volatile ? Volatile See , keep saying it , it sounds weird because Volatile the nations the Bible says will attack Israel in the latter days . Volatile shows how , 2,500 years ago , the scriptures actually named the countries that would attack Israel in the latter days . Regardless of whatever your eschatological view may be , you're going to love this book . Sure , and don't forget Fran .
Speaker 3Sure , he said , I've been coming around .
Speaker 5Yeah , and don't forget , fran , the Living Waters Mug , the evidence study Bible and living . Wait At Living water . Wow , living waters Dot com . Wow , we are off today . Oscar , I'm on .
Speaker 4Yeah , he's just Oscar sounded on .
Speaker 5Just me , the off Arab . All right guys . Mark and I were away in Texas and Louisiana . Mark , we had a great time .
Speaker 4Boy , oh boy , those are some sweet guys .
Speaker 5Yeah , for those of you out there , man a shout out , and we met Caleb too . He's a brother who gave us the socks . What a dear brother man . Thank you for he said he found out about it . I think someone gave a flyer out or something in town . He's like what ? He's ? A listener to the podcast . Oh well , yeah .
Speaker 4And we had buttermilk pie , which is just buttermilk crust and sugar which was amazingly good though that was magical , wasn't it ?
Speaker 5It was so good .
Speaker 1Yeah , wait , wait . So what would you rather have ? Buttermilk pie or meat boy , meat boy , Might boy , might boy , probably meat boy .
Speaker 4The meat boy is very good .
Speaker 5Shout out to JR and our sister Shannon . They hosted us and boy that pork that we had Mark . Mark for dinner that night . Anyway , franglons , we weren't here while Kenneth Hameth was here with Oscar and Ray that must have been fun and Joe Boone .
Speaker 3Oh , and Joe Boone , of course , the brother Joe , and the young lady that was with him and the young man .
Speaker 5Yeah , yeah , yeah , young people and Lalo , old people like Lalo , yeah . So anyway , they were here and you guys interviewed them without us . How dare you ? So Oscar did a great job .
Speaker 3I barely held on .
Speaker 5All right , franglons , without any further ado . Here is Ray Comfort , ken Ham , oscar and Joe Boone spilling the beans .
Hello friends and welcome to Living Waters Podcast . This is your host , ez , and today's episode is brought to you by my new audiobook Memorized Bible Verses at 10 Speed . Have you ever wanted to listen to the Bible in under an hour ? Well , now you can Read by yours truly , the Arab Cherub me , found only at LivingWaterscom .
Speaker 3Now that sounds like Mickey Mouse .
Speaker 1More than easy .
Speaker 3I was trying to go for the easy . Yeah , yeah , it was . It's 3 out of 10 .
Speaker 1He's going to punch me in the face when he hears that Today's a very special episode we have with us . I'm not sure if he's a close friend or an enemy . It is Ray Comfort in Ken Ham , close friend , close friend , a friend of me , a friend of me . And Joe Boone . Joe Boone , yes , welcome guys . Thank you .
Speaker 3Joe , the president of Answers and Genesis , we're honored to have you here .
Speaker 6Well , it's great to be here . Thank you .
Speaker 3And to have Ken here . Ken's a good friend and we text each other daily and he's here on the flesh .
Speaker 2We've been doing that for millions of years .
Speaker 6Millions of millions of years . You guys could probably put a book together with your own text .
Speaker 2We just have to just print the text we need to . If we got back and printed all those texts , oh boy , that would be interesting .
Speaker 3No , they'd love it , but they think we're crazy , absolutely .
Speaker 1Yeah , can we talk about this ? That would have us put away it would . I've seen glimpses of this text thread . I hear about it often . Let's talk about this for a second . You guys enjoy just dissing each other and that's basically the sum total of your relationship .
Speaker 3No , no , no , no . Let me explain it . Australians cannot give a compliment without an insult , because they're very proud . They can't say , like an American , I love you and leave it with that . It's like I love you , you idiot Kids like don't touch me . You see there's . No , we don't hug in certain space . Americans can get like six inches or 12 inches from each other . Australians is probably about three feet no four feet .
Speaker 2Yeah , listen , you know how much you like someone in Australia when you insult them . The more you're insulted , the more you like someone , and so I try to insult Ray as much as I can . Every day I get insults In fact , there are days that he texts me and says I'm feeling down today , Can you please insult me ?
Speaker 3And then I send him an insult , and then he says it makes my day and me right out of here . Ken has a gift of insults . Whenever I see the word insult , I think of Ken , who is .
Speaker 1Oh for sure , Joe , do you experience the love of Ken Ham as well .
Speaker 6Oh yeah , ken's been loving me for 17 years .
Speaker 1I know a little bit about this . I had two roommates . I had little Dave and big Dave . Little Dave was about five feet tall , so maybe about a foot taller than you , ray , and big Dave was from Australia . He was a big , muscular guy . I used to think like all Australians were muscular until I met you , ken , and big Dave used to just make fun of me . I'll take note of that . All the time I used to think that he didn't like me until one day I heard him like talking to his mom back home and he's like oh yeah , oscar's my best mate . He's so great and I'm like I thought he hated me . So I guess the question here , ken , is why are you the way that you are ? What is it about Australians that the diss is a part of the ?
Speaker 3affection . Well , Romans 8 explains it's foreign creation .
Speaker 2Well , you know , it goes back to our heritage , because our founding fathers had great convictions . That's true .
Speaker 3Explain that one . That's a little deep for most people .
Speaker 2Americans because they don't understand Australian history .
Speaker 3They wouldn't have a clue .
Speaker 2So you know , Captain Cook started up the East Coast in 1770s you know , that , and when was the first fleet ? When did they come out and settle there ?
Speaker 3I can't remember .
Speaker 2In the 17th and 18th 1788 .
Speaker 31760 , 90 discovered New Zealand . So New Zealand got discovered before Australia by Cook .
Speaker 2I didn't even know New Zealand got discovered . People have tried to not discover it ever since , un-discover it . Yes , exactly so I think in the Australian culture it's just the Australians , because it did start as a convict settlement in a way , I think , and they were treated very harshly and very badly .
Speaker 3So England sent convicts to Australia as punishment .
Speaker 2As punishment , but a lot of it was for very you know . The crimes were just , you know , like Stealing bread , stealing food for your family or something like that , and they were treated very harshly , and Australians tend to always , therefore , want to protect the underdog , and there's always been that little bit of rebellion against authority .
Speaker 1I like that .
Speaker 2And so I think you know all of that's part of our history . So when I see a figure like Ray that thinks he's an authority because he comes from New Zealand , who can literally walk under a dog ? You just have to deal with that you know .
Speaker 1So that makes sense . When we were in Australia a few months ago , every time I met someone , right before sharing the Gospel with him , my opening line was so what are you in for ? It didn't go well , no , no , no , not these days of wood , I know . So we want to talk today about really just like the history of AIG , where it all started .
Speaker 3I have a first question . Oh , you do , Ken . This is for you . Often ministries don't give a very high profile to wives . How many do you have and how many did you meet ? See that expression . No man can serve two masters . You only got one wife , I know .
Speaker 2I have one wife . Actually I have about seven , two . Yeah , there's Mali in the morning , there's Mali mid-morning , there's Mali at lunchtime .
Speaker 3It sounds like a song . It sounds like a song from the 60s .
Speaker 6I'll be in trouble here if she , yeah , I was going to say what she hears as well , as you get Mali bear .
Speaker 2Anyway . So yeah , I have one wife .
Speaker 3And how did you meet ?
Speaker 2We met 50 plus years ago because we married 51 years , so it must be over 50 years ago that we met .
Speaker 3What a woman .
Speaker 2I think she has awards . I think we first met in 1972 , January 1972 in church . It was love at first sight For you . Oh , she saw me in real life , Are you ?
Speaker 3sure it was 72? , because I was saved in 72 . I don't remember that .
Speaker 2It's funny , you remember even what you did yesterday . So no , actually the church had a competition each year . The church that she went to , like Miss Australia or Miss Universe , they had Miss . The name of the suburb was Sunnybank and it was a Methodist church , so they had a Miss Sunnybank Methodist and she won . She was , you know . She would have won Miss Universe , miss Australia , everything .
Speaker 3She still would .
Speaker 2So I walked in . She was handing out hymn books . She looked at me and said I'm going to get you , and she did .
Speaker 1Her story is very different . We have a video in fact of that . Do you .
Speaker 6Yeah , the 50th anniversary recorded separate interviews of the two of them asking those kind of questions . Well , we're going to have to link it , to hear the true story , and we had different stories .
Speaker 1Yeah , some reason we're going to have to link it into the show my interpretation of things is a little different to her interpretation . Yeah , we'll link it into the show notes .
Speaker 2And actually do you know what car I was driving and when we were going out together ? What car I was driving ?
Speaker 3They had cars back then , yeah many .
Speaker 2A BW Beetle , oh really . Yeah , and on our first night out , we went to a drive-in picture theater . Remember the drive-in picture ?
Speaker 1theater yes , I did , it was old enough for me ?
Speaker 3Yes , I did .
Speaker 2And where you drive in and you put the speaker in your window and then you watch the movies .
Speaker 1The old black and white .
Speaker 2And here we were . I was nervous because it was first night out . At the end and movie finished and I put in the first gear and took off and ripped the speaker out of the post .
Speaker 1Oh , did you really ?
Speaker 3That's the most re-comfort thing I've ever heard you do oh , yes , yeah , yeah , that's funny .
Speaker 2So see , I was trying to make a real impression on her .
Speaker 3Well , you did . Yeah , I'm sure Well listen .
Speaker 1I think it's important to not assume . I'm always surprised when I have a conversation with a follower of Living Waters and we bring up AIG and they've not heard of you guys , because I feel like the whole world should have heard of you guys from now .
Speaker 2So let me Well , it's the same thing when I talk about to people who are living waters . They've never heard of that either .
Speaker 1Yeah , no , I believe that . But let me take a step back . And , Joe , why don't you tell us , for the listeners who are not familiar with AIG , why don't you tell us who you guys are and what do you guys ?
Speaker 6do Well .
The focus of the Ministry of Answers and Genesis is on biblical authority in the gospel , which you're very familiar with , and upholding the authority of God's Word , answering the skeptical questions that people have today , christians and non-Christians , that cause them to have doubt that the Bible is true . So that is a big focus of our ministry .
Speaker 1I love that you said both Christian and non-Christian , because what I've discovered in apologetics is that often the things that we put forward are definitely in defense of our faith as we proclaim the gospel , but I also noticed that Christians still need to be edified in the truths and that they believe . Can you travel the country , travel the world ? Speaking on apologetics , how important is it for a Christian to have a firm understanding of what they believe in ?
Speaker 2Well , we live in a world that's really the broad way and the narrow way is very narrow , going the opposite direction . So you're going to meet a lot of non-Christians out there , but you're going to meet a lot of people who certainly don't accept what we accept concerning God's Word and they'll have all sorts of questions . And if we can't answer those questions then we're being a very poor witness . First , peter 3.15 says always be prepared to give an answer or give a defense . Translate it from the Greek word apologia . That's a big word for you , yes , apologia , which means to give a logical reason to defend to the faith , and that's where our word apologetics come from . So we're not to apologize for our faith , quite the opposite . But we need to be able to give answers . And it was interesting the first time that I taught science in the public school in Australia in 1975 , probably before you were born .
Speaker 3No , I was born twice by then .
Speaker 2Okay , I get that . Actually , you're probably born way before me . You're older than me .
Speaker 3Just a little Way older .
Speaker 2Yeah , no one would believe that but I am , I'm not buying it . No , you can tell . You do the eye ring dating Eye ring ?
Speaker 1dating it's like the tree but you count crows feet .
Speaker 2It's like 10 years every ring 10 , 20 , 30 , 40 .
Speaker 3Yeah , he is older than me , so you know , I killed Methuselah , don't you Blowing out his birthday candles ? Look at that , I make Hinheng smile .
Speaker 2Well , it's typical of Ray Comfort type joke . Oh , thank you . Anyway , the students said to me sir , we heard you're a Christian , we know , but they can't be right . How can you be a Christian ? The Bible's not true . How do you know the Bible's not true ? Because of what they were taught in their textbooks about evolution millions of years . And then they asked a question how did I get the animals on the ark ? And so it was important to be able to give answers , and that's what I started to do give those answers to them , and they saw that we could defend our faith , and because they think that we Christians don't have answers , you know , one of the sad things is , I've been to many youth groups over the years in churches and I find that they say they don't know how to answer questions about you know , how do you know there's a God , or where did God come from ? Or what about dinosaurs ? Or to science conflict with the Bible , or they don't . They've never been taught that . Most churches don't teach apologetics . Sadly , and in the research we did that we published in a book in 2009 called Already Gone , we were looking at why young people were leaving the church and not returning , and so on and the questions asked were you know what caused you to doubt God's word and why you leave the church ? And many , many times they said because we didn't get answers to our questions , you know , I would ask their Sunday school teacher or ask their pastor and a lot of times they were told don't worry about that , just trust in Jesus . But it's very important to give those answers , to show we can defend our faith and also to stop the attacks on God's word being a stumbling block to people , as it is to a lot of young people , and then they just walk away .
Speaker 1Yeah , I love that and I think it's actually it's important for Christians to recognize that it's okay to have questions . I think a lot of times where they don't have answers in their regular , you know , everyday Sunday school church , they feel like , oh man , maybe I'm not allowed to . They want me to just trust in Jesus , and trust is absolutely important as it pertains to your salvation . But you should also be able to have an open dialogue . Can you help me understand , Because God has spoken so much truth into our questions and to go unanswered is a problem ?
Speaker 2Well , you know , and you see a consequence of that , because quite a number of times I've been talking to young people in churches and I've actually asked them you know how , if you're a Christian , then how do you know ? You know the Bible is true , and so on . And many times I'll say well , by faith . And I'll say what sort of faith . They say blind faith and I say no , no , no , it's the atheists that have a blind faith , and it's not only a blind faith , it's a faith that lacks credulity . We don't have a blind faith , we have a faith that makes sense of what we see and we can defend it .
Speaker 3and you know objective faith , the reasonable faith , the faith that can be confirmed over and over again by what we see in this world , what we observe , and so on the big nods coming from Oscar is because he was a devout atheist who was Dawkins follower and had a pile of books they used to read and God got hold of him and transformed him . I got a question for you , ken Answers and Genesis . I know why it's called answers and Genesis . Answers and Genesis . I said answers . I was going to correct you before , but I let it go . When you said answers , how did you come up with that name ? Was it you or Mallie , or did you just wake up in the middle of the night and say answers and Genesis ?
Speaker 2Yeah , there was a piece of paper came down out of heaven . I said actually , you know what was interesting . We first started the organization in America , here in Kentucky . We incorporated in 19, . I'm trying to remember .
Speaker 3Just mumbling .
Speaker 2It was 30 years ago . Okay , thank God 1993. , 1993 . No one remembers 1993 . That's right , because we moved to Kentucky in 1994 . So it was December 1993 when we first incorporated . So we just used a name . We just pulled a name out of a hat I think it was creation science ministries , and we said that's just a temporary name for now . And so then in 1994 , towards the end of that year , we had our first board meeting . We had appointed a couple of people , we had asked a couple of people to be on the board with us and there were the three founders myself , mark Lawley and Mike Zoveff and we met in Jackson , wyoming , and as we were talking there , a meeting we were talking about the emphasis of the ministry is going to be a biblical authority and ministry . And even though we're on about young earth and deal with fossils and evolution and so on , that's because they all attack the authority of the Word of God . But ultimately we're on about the authority of the Word and the gospel and we're talking about what name should we give the ministry ? And 1 Peter 3 , 15 has always been one of my favorite verses Always be prepared to give an answer . That's Peter 315 .
Speaker 3You can talk to Trump about one , peter One .
Speaker 2Peter One Peter , yeah , well , he could make a good Australian . So anyway , first Peter 315 , for just so you know what I'm talking about . And it has the word answers . They always be prepared to give answers and we said you know what we're doing is we're giving answers to people . And the answers really start in Genesis because Genesis 1 to 11 is the foundation for everything . There's nothing it's not the foundation for , and we said the answers are in Genesis , so why not answers in Genesis ? And that's how the name came about . And actually , do you realize , no matter what happens , the answers will always be in Genesis , because Genesis 1 to 11 is the foundation for the rest of the Bible , for a Christian worldview , for a doctrine , for the gospel , for everything .
Speaker 1I believe it was GK Bill that said something like the first 11 chapters of Genesis are everything you need to know , and then the Bible after that is commentary , and he was using hyperbole . Of course it's all God's written word , it's all equal , it's all inerrant and authoritative . But the point that he was making is similar to what you're saying , which is Genesis 1 through 11 gives us our worldview , our foundation for understanding what comes next in God's world word and what's happening right now in God's world .
Speaker 2It gives you the information to enable you to build a true biblical worldview . As I say to people , if you want to deal with any issue , it doesn't matter what the issue is . If you want to deal with fossils , or gender , or marriage , or the family , or death and suffering , or stars , or the Grand Canyon or any issue whatsoever , you have to start with Genesis 1 to 11 , because they have the origin of all the basic entities of life in the universe . That's a big word for you entities , the origin of all the basic entities of life and the universe , and it's foundational to everything . It's foundational understanding why Ray Comfort's getting older . That's true .
Speaker 1It's because of sin . Joe , how did you first come across AIG ? What's your before you worked there ? Obviously , I'm assuming that you had some sort of relationship that inspired you in some way . Tell me about that .
Speaker 6So , ken , should I give the long version or the short version ?
Speaker 1Well , depends the Ray Comfort version . The Ray Comfort version .
Speaker 5Short version . Okay , all right .
So actually it was a next door neighbor that invited me and my wife to come to the Indiana Home School Convention back in 1995 . And of course I was like , oh , homeschooling , is that legal ? So ? But anyway , we went with them . We came to this convention and the keynote speaker in Indianapolis was Ken Ham Sorry about that and it was like light bulb moment All of his talks the one dealing with or one race , one blood very impactful of my eyes . I was like wow , I've never heard this before . They gave me answers to affirm a lot of the questions that I had got us into a Bible believing church and very impactful , absorbing all those resources and bringing them in , helping to equip our family . That's awesome .
Speaker 2And you know , an interesting part of that is that in 1995 , at that convention , the homeschool convention I was in a hotel room there basically getting ready to go over and speak , and I got a phone call from my brother to say my father passed away . Now I'd talked to him before that and talked about going home and so on , and he said I won't be here when you come back , and you know , I'd rather you speak to all those people and rather you get the message of God's word out than come home . But just before I was to go over and speak I got a phone call saying my father passed away . And then I walked over there and gave that talk and I didn't know Joe Boone will be in the audience , and actually over the years I've heard of a couple of others that were greatly impacted by that , and so God had a special plan for that .
Speaker 1You know , Ken , actually I made a note because I wanted to ask you about this . I know you've talked in the past about the influence your dad had on your faith . I would love to know what did that look like practically ? What rhythms , what kind of conversations ? How did he pursue you well through biblical truth ?
Speaker 2Well , you know , my father was one . You know , one of the verses of scripture that he often recited was you know , whatever you do , do as unto the Lord . So for him you did everything properly , you did it to the Lord , you threw yourself into it . And he was also one who had saturated himself in the Word of God . Actually , as he was dying a younger brother of mine , who's now with the Lord too , but he sat beside my father and said why did you love God's word so much ? And he said well , my father died when I was 16 , so I didn't have an earthly father . So I turned to the words of my heavenly father and read them over and over again . So he saturated himself in the Word of God and he was one that was . They often in church , and we were in different churches because he was transferred every three years when he was promoted . But they called him . His name was Mervin and he was sometimes given the name Merv the stirrer , because he was always prepared to stand up for what he believed . A lot of people in the church , they just want to brush things under the carpet , they don't want to have to deal with it . But he wouldn't do that . And when a church handed out an devotional booklet and one of the devotions was on the flood and said Noah's flood was local I mean , you see the steam coming in as he is and he made sure he went to the pastor and the owner said you can't do this . You shouldn't be handing that out to people . It's undermining God's word . And they just wanted to make it go away . But he insisted that you have to make a statement to the church , you have to tell them that this is not right and I saw that sort of thing over and over again . And because Australia has so few churches , some of the country areas we went to the pastors were pretty liberal , affected by the liberal theology . My father was greatly concerned about that , so he would study liberal theology and get the answers and teach us the answers so that we wouldn't be led astray . And I remember some of these pastors teaching things like it was the Reed Sea , not the Red Sea , and my father was talking about how could they drown in six inches of water on the Reed Sea and that's not what the scripture says . And a little boy took at his loaves and fishes . So everybody else did the same . He said an example , and he would go to the pastor and open the Bible and say that is not what it says . This is what it says . His favorite verses of scripture are things like have you not read ? It is written . He loved those verses because it was the authority of the word of God . So he was teaching us apologetics . I never heard the word apologetics . End . He didn't use the word apologetics , but that's what he was really doing . He was equipping us . He didn't want us to be led astray by the liberal theology . So he made sure we had those answers . And my godly mother ? She would pray with us . They would teach us scripture and I'll never forget , for instance , things that she taught God first other , second , yourself , last . I mean I can still hear her saying that it's only what is done for Jesus that lasts . And then she would kneel with us as little kids and taught us to pray . And Jesus , tender shepherd , hear me bless our little lamb tonight . There's a whole poem there that goes back a long way . But we would pray that and teach us scripture . Your word have I hid in my heart so I might not sin against you , and so on . And so both my mother and father were really raising us up to stand on God's word no , god's word and be able to defend the Christian faith and answer the critics .
Speaker 1Man . It's so neat to hear that . I think a lot of parents could feel so overwhelmed in the present age and the things that we're facing , and I think it's so valuable to see that all throughout Christian , all throughout church history , parents have raised their children in a world that is antithetical to the gospel . Whether you wanna talk about the Romans , or your parents were raising you in the midst of the modernity controversy . It sounds like in the sense that that was a time in which the church was being attacked and the influence was to remove all the miracles . We can explain this through rationale the Red Sea , the Virgin birth , explain away all of those miracles , and your dad , your mom , stood firm . And Ray I wanna talk into this because you mentioned that it all started with his saturation , with God's word . Ray , how important is it for parents to start with themselves in saturating themselves in the word of God and allowing that to pour out into the hearts of their children ?
Speaker 3Yeah , it must lead by example . Nothing dissipates respect like hypocrisy in parents . And I was talking to a girl the other day . She said my father's a Christian sort of . She was very skeptical and I said what do you mean ? Sort of ? Was he a hypocrite ? She said yeah . I said well , how'd that make you feel ? She said it disillusioned me , and so I had a hard road with her because of that hardness of heart that she'd got from watching a hypocritical father . So it's essential that we're genuine . Ken , I've got a question for you . Promote your arc . That's not a question . Tell us about the arc . It's a statement . Tell us . Tell people why they should visit Kentucky and visit your arc , because I can't tell you how impressed I was when I saw it . I was expecting a little boat with giraffe sticking the heads out the top . Do you see what he did when he said boat ?
Speaker 1Yes , he does not like you when you call it out .
Speaker 3Yeah , boat , boat , boat , boat boat boat .
Speaker 6There's multiple things he's going to correct .
Speaker 2Whenever he wants to insult me he just says go to your boat , go and visit your boat , toy boat , toy boat . He knows it , he knows I get really mad at that the boat's millions of years old .
Speaker 3But anyway , Ken , tell them why they should visit .
Speaker 2Well , we actually have the two leading Christian themed attractions in the world in northern Kentucky and , by the way , the reason we built them in northern Kentucky were if they're in a one day drive of 2 thirds of the population , and then the people in the west . That's their problem . But so there are two attractions . The first one was the Cretia Museum , which is like a whole walk through the Bible and we actually have exhibits dealing with the whole history of the Bible and we have a dinosaur exhibit in sectarian I almost got eaten by a snake there . We have a planetarium with cutting edge technology . We have a 4D theater . We have the most powerful pro-life exhibit in the world , fearfully , wonderfully made . We're building a massive glass conservatory complex right now . A race of plants of the Bible . Have an Eden Teaching Center . So plants and you've got the boat . And then we also built a second attraction , which is a massive ship . So we built Noah's Ark to scale according to the Bible , so it's 510 feet long , 85 feet wide , so it's one half times the length of a football field , half the width of a football field , 51 feet high , 15 feet off the ground . At the moment it's 104 feet high , 3.3 million board feet of timber . Where'd you get the wood ? Real timber , the timber trees .
Speaker 3No , where'd you get the wood , ken ? Where's it from ? From trees , from New Zealand trees ?
Speaker 2Some of it was the stuff on the outside , but we had to treat it first because , it's from New Zealand .
Speaker 6It had to be treated a lot . It was D New . Zealand .
Speaker 2It was radiated out of pine and it was sent over to the Netherlands where it goes through a process called a koi . It's like a vinegar process preserves it . Then it was sent back to North Carolina made into a ship lap . So you know , you just couldn't take ordinary wood from New Zealand and use it . You had to do a lot of stuff before it was suitable to use . And that was what's put on the outside . But actually it's built like , if you can imagine , a loaf of bread and you got all these slices . These slices called a bent and so a half bent would be half of one of the slices . And they have these big lodge poles , massive pieces of timber and post and beam . It ends up being the biggest not timber structure in the world , but it's the biggest freestanding timber frame structure in the world . We had about 90 Amish and Mennonite craftsmen that did most of the timber work and it is actually the biggest attraction in Kentucky .
Speaker 3So how many visitors do you get during the day ?
Speaker 2Well during the day . It depends on the day .
Speaker 3Well , like a holiday .
Speaker 2We could get anywhere from four , five , six thousand , up to ten , eleven thousand . Wow . And actually last year at the Ark in the Creation Museum a total number of visitors was 1.5 million . That's awesome there in northern Kentucky .
Speaker 3And the atheists said it would sink , and it didn't .
Speaker 2That's true , they did , and it has not . No , not at all . We're getting more and more people that are coming . It's filled with three decks , 130 exhibits , answering all sorts of questions . They had apologetics , emphasis and post-flight events like the Ice Age and so on as well , perfect for families to visit . Wonderful family attractions for both the Ark and the Creation Museum . In fact , we have a three day bouncer ticket Bouncer Kangaroo Bouncing Kenham , australia bouncer ticket . So we have a three day bouncer ticket so people can bounce back and forth between the Ark and the Creation Museum as much as they want . And actually we get a lot of Californians who visit there , and when they do , I like to ask them a question how many of you from California will get some hands up ? How many of you are going back ? And most of them are not .
Speaker 3They're not going back they're sort of one by .
Speaker 2Thing .
Speaker 3Well , I appreciate that we love the weather here and we want to enjoy it .
Speaker 1With less people , you know what . Let me just say , having been there , I don't know what it is , maybe because when and I've heard you talk about this , ken maybe because , like you , look at all these children's books and you see this Ark and it's , you know , always kind of looks really small and these gigantic , the emphasis is always put on the animals , right . So you know , the giraffe's head is bigger than the boat and so the scale just always feels small when you see them in the children's book . And there is a moment when you visit the Ark where you're in like the tram and you roll over this hill and there is this just massive structure that takes over the horizon and it is quite literally breathtaking . I know we're about to wrap up here . I want to hear real quick We've talked about so much that you guys do , and it is endless , joe , if someone's like man AIG is doing a lot and they want to learn more , where's a first step ? Where's the first place that you'd say , hey , if you want to learn more about the Ark , about the work that we're doing , but the museum , here's the first step for you .
Speaker 6Start with our website , answersandgenesisorg , and then you can link to both the Ark and Creation Museum from there , arkandcountercom , creationmuseumorg .
But it's I find that for me to bring family , friends , others that are non-believers , is much simpler than trying to get them to come to church with you Because , as Ken mentioned , the structure is amazing and it's known around the world and there's a fascination with the Ark . So , from my witnessing perspective , we have a lot of people . In fact , what's the percentage that our research says ? About 30% non-Christian .
Speaker 2That makes sense to me .
Speaker 1I'll tell you why that makes sense to me , because I think it's worth . I think it is an evangelistic experience , One you guys have the gospel all throughout the experience inside of the Ark and it is awe-inspiring , it's breathtaking , and you know it's not just an Ark .
Speaker 2We also have other things there as well . We have ziplines People say , why do you have ziplines ? Because Christians can have fun too . And we have a zoo or , from biblical worldview perspective , we have a stage where they do special live animal programs . We have a 2500 seat conference center . We have restaurant many different speakers there . We've got a massive restaurant Mzara is one of the biggest restaurants in America . We have virtual reality ride . We have a carousel . We're actually building a building right now that will house a massive model of first century Jerusalem . It'll be the most up-to-date such model in the world and it's going to be 2000 square feet dividing three big sections , and it's going to be quite something .
Speaker 6Wow . So we're working on that right now . Don't forget the key theater film on the third deck of the Ark .
Speaker 2Oh it stars Ray Comfort . Yeah , I know . We have him as a holographic image , which means we can spruce it up and make him look nice and human and all that . But actually do you know what that movie ? I remember when I asked you if you would actually present the gospel for a movie you want to show on the third deck of the Ark , and I even heard that you turned up to film it and you didn't have your shoes .
Speaker 3It was a huge mix up . I just forgot . I ended up in white sneakers and black pants and I thought I can't do that , so I had to borrow easy shoes when they were out . So you got a Jew and Arab shoes .
Speaker 2How Ray Comfort ? But anyway , to give you just one example , just one , and I know that there are many others . But one of our staff was in the bookstore which is down underneath the Ark and someone recognized him as a staff man , a staff badge on it went up to him and said oh , can I tell you ? And he actually videoed him and I've got the video of it . But the man said I just want to let you know . He said I bought my family to the Ark and my son-in-law was not a Christian . And he said we sat and watched that movie and at the end my son-in-law turned to me and said I want to commit my life to the Ark . Wow , wow , that's wonderful . And he said my son-in-law was saved right there . He said you know , for me , he said I've been a Christian , you know just about all my life . I mean he said I've got a real boring testimony . You know , grew up in a Christian home and so , and trust of the Lord as a young person and that . But my son-in-law , he was saved on the Ark and he was so excited about it .
Speaker 3So there's eight people were saved . No , no , no .
Speaker 1Yeah , there you go , man . This is fun One . I don't think there's anything boring about a faithful Christian that grew up in a church home . Thank you so much for sharing everything that you guys are doing . Just promise me you will not try to rebuild the Tower of Babel . It won't end well . I've seen it happen in the Old Testament . Guys , thank you so much for joining us . This has been a treat and a blessing for those listening . Aigorg , that's answers , and Genesis , answersandgenesisorg . That's a great first place to start , if you haven't already , strongly encourage you to visit Kentucky , visit the Ark and all the . I mean it is multiple days of family fun that you guys will experience . So again , joe Ken , thank you guys so much for joining us here .
Speaker 6on the Living Waters Podcast . It's great to be here , thank you .
Speaker 3Amen .
Speaker 5Wow , Ray , how did you survive ?
Speaker 3that there's no one like Ken Ham . He says he's a turkey .
Speaker 5Seriously , you two together man . Insanity . Oscar , did you enjoy that ?
Speaker 1I did what I can to keep them two together . It was like .
Speaker 5It was like herding cats , Seriously , man , yeah , but what a sweet ministry and what a wonderful relationship . It's rare to find people that both that you agree with and that you really enjoy spending time with . I mean , there are a lot of ministries that we would say , hey , that's a great ministry , we stand with them theologically but we don't necessarily have that relationship . But with aig we have the relationship and there's that solid agreement on things and it's fun .
Speaker 3Yeah , we spend that time correcting them , yeah .
Speaker 5Yeah well , we'll have to do it again when Mark Spence and I are here , but anyhow , friends , we hope you enjoyed that . Don't forget volatile , not volatile , volatile . Now I'm not going to read the subtitle again , you heard it already . Don't forget Living Waters Mug , the American Study Bible , all that good stuff at LivingWaterscom . Ray , why are you touching your glasses ?
Speaker 3They're annoying me .
Speaker 5Thank you for joining us friends . Oh , the other stuff too , yeah , oh , don't forget podcastlivingwaterscom with thoughts and ideas and suggestions , and please don't forget to subscribe . Tell people about the podcast and we want your comments and all that other good stuff . Thank you for joining us , friends . We'll see you here next time on the Living Waters podcast . The ultimate cure for insomnia .