Ark Encounter, Oct 16, 2015

On  October 16,2015 I had a wonderful evening attending the Creation Museum Fund Raising Dinner for the Ark Encounter held in the Legacy Hall of the Creation Museum. Ken Ham President of Answers in Genesis a non-profit Christian Ministry which is founder of the Creation Museum which has had 2.3 million visitors in a little over 7 years was the main speaker at the dinner. The Creation Museum was constructed at a cost of 35 million dollars. Mr. Ham gave an update with slides on how construction of the life size Noah's Ark is proceeding as well as fund raising activities. This is one large project and the Ark is huge in size. People who know the information about the Ark as presented in the Bible generally just think it was "big" without having an appreciation of just how large it was and perhaps the significance of those events. It is being built to the size specification God gave to Noah and it will attract millions of visitors from all over the world. In fact projection are that the Ark will attract upward of 2 million visitors a year. The purpose of the Ark being built as was the case with the Creation Museum is that it is to be  an evangelistic tool to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.The meal was very good and consisted of salad, chicken, two pasta dishes, mashed potatoes, green beans and two different cheese cakes to choose from. Water, coffee and tea to drink.. Artist Mark Thesken  did two large painting spending 13 minutes on each. While he painted pianist Evan Dallas performed with some beautiful selections which at time fit in with the theme which was being painted. These paintings were signed and auctioned off in the silent auction. I will describe how he painted these a little later. 

Ken Ham President of Answers in Genesis

Part of the Audience

More of the Audience. Silent Auction Items Were Located Along the Wall to the Right.

Some of the Painting to be Auctioned off.

I want to explain the process the artist followed but first I first must explain that there has always been a battle between two different moralities or put another way two different authorities. Is God the authority or is Man the authority? The answer to these questions affect morality, theology and history.There are two different views of history. On one hand you have the Gospel, salvation and heaven. On the other you have anti gospel ( evolution ) death, hell and nothingness. Throughout the Creation Museum these opposing view points are expressed as the 7 C's in God's Eternal Plan and are depicted in the following photograph and they are Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross and Consummation.

The 7 C's of God's Eternal Plan

Artist Mark Thesken works on his first painting which is depicting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This represent the first "C" Creation. In the beginning God created the heaven and earth and everything that is in them. Often times he would be painting with a brush in each hand and at other times he would actually use just his hands. He has just about finished painting the first. 

Next he totally covers everything ( paints over ) that he has on the canvas and starts the second "C" Corruption. According to the Biblical account the first man Adam and the first women Eve disobeyed Gods Command and thereby sin/corruption entered into the paradise of the Garden of Eden and God Expelled them from the garden. My camera battery was running out and I was unable to get a photograph of each of these different scenes and I apologize for that. He followed the pattern above and completely covered the Corruption scene and started painting the third "C" Catastrophe which represent God seeing that there is nothing on the earth but sin and corruption except for one man and his family who was found righteous and that was Noah. God instructed Noah to build an Ark in which Noah and his family will be saved along with those animals that God has come and enter the Ark. Noah did not go out and bring the animals to the Ark.

Now the artist starts painting the fourth "C" which is "Confusion". Again according to the biblical account once the flood was over and the Ark had landed Noah, his family and all the animals came out and God told them to multiply and replenish the earth. The people did multiply but instead of spreading all over the earth most of them stayed together and they started building a city and a tower so they would be recognized. They were interested in self glory. This was against Gods command so he confused their language so they stopped work on the tower because they could not understand each other. Because of the confusion of not being able to communicate the tower became known as the Tower of Babel. Also they then started spreading across the earth. People moving along with the people who spoke a language they understood.

Again the artist Mark Thesken covers everything he has on the canvas and starts the final 3 "C's" which are Christ, Cross and Consummation. Artist  puts the finishing touches on his second painting shown below which shows Jesus Christ in the foreground and the Ark in the background. The Ark in Noah's day was a sign of salvation, as well as judgement when God destroyed all things on the earth because of their sins. The Ark being constructed can be understood as a sign today pointing to Jesus Christ who is the Ark of our salvation and also to the coming judgement only this time God will not use water. I am sure everyone has seen the beautiful rainbows we have and they represent God's covenant with mankind that he will not destroy the world again with water.

Noah's Ark and Jesus Christ painting being completed by artist Mark Thesken.

Model of Completed Ark. The completed Ark will be over 500 feet long, 80 feet wide and 50 feet tall.

This is from the material handed out at the dinner and it shows the Ark and some of the park features that will be available for guest to enjoy. Under neath the ark you will notice a lot of openings. They will permit entry into numerous shops and eating places. The long structure on top of the ark is to be a restaurant. There will be large parking lots and shuttle buses to take guest to and from parking lots to the Ark. The Ark Encounter is being built on some 800 acres of land at a cost of $85 Million for phase one and is thought to be open the second half of 2016.  Future phases for the Ark Encounter are the Walled City a pre-Flood themed area around the time of Noah. The Noah's Animals and Aviary. The Tower of Babel featuring a special effects theater explaining "Who is Jesus?". The Journey through Biblical History which will be a SFX journey through biblical history from Abraham to Moses. and a First-Century Village which will be a "Walk where Jesus walked" in this village replica.

The Ark Encounter is located at 1000 Eibeck Lane Williamstown, Kentucky which is off I-75 about 40 miles south of Cincinnati, Ohio.

This is a photograph of the Ark painting I got in the silent auction.

Patrick Marsh is Vice President of Attraction/Design for the Creation Museum and the Ark. It is interesting that most of the animal models and features are crafted on site in the studios of the Creation Museum.

This is going to be a world famous creation once finished. It will be the worlds largest wooden creation with a lot  of the work being done by Amish craftsman who are skilled at this type of construction.I encourage you to visit Ark Encounter.com for details about the Ark and how to contribute/invest in this project.

Remember as I always say God loves you and so do I.

Grandpa Bill