“You talked about math. Where do these invisible laws of mathematics come from and why don’t they randomly change? They come from the mind of God, and they don’t change because God doesn’t change. Laws of nature. The whole reason we can do science to begin with is we have laws of nature that are, they’re not tangible, but they don’t change. They’re consistent every time and that’s why you can do an experiment today and tomorrow and get the same results if you do it the same way. Well that’s only possible because God made not only the tangible world, but the non-tangible world. He made the laws of nature. He holds them together so they don’t randomly change. They reflect Him. And so the only reason you can do science to begin with is because God is real and the Bible’s true. And you can point out all of that when you’re teaching it from a Biblical perspective.” – Bryan Osborne, Answers in Genesis
Bryan Osborne is a well-respected speaker, author, and curriculum specialist for Answers in Genesis. He holds a master’s degree in education and taught Bible history in a public school for 13 years. He has been teaching Christians to defend their faith for nearly 20 years.We had the privilege of interviewing Bryan for Schoolhouse Rocked, at the Creation Museum, and that interview was one that dramatically shaped the direction of the rest of the film. We can’t wait for you to see his contribution when the film is released, but in the meantime we were able to interview him for The Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast and we know you will be encouraged by his insights into education, Biblical worldview, and discipleship.
Yvette Hampton: Brian, welcome to The Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast.
Bryan Osborne: It’s really good to be here with you. It’s so good to catch with you and hear what God is doing with Schoolhouse Rocked.
As you mentioned, God has blessed me to be a part of Answers in Genesis. For about the last five years I’ve traveled over the US speaking at multiple churches, a lot of different conferences, equipping Christians to defend the faith, to defend Biblical authority where it’s being attacked today at a real level, and then to proclaim the Gospel. That’s really the heartbeat of AIG. We are not about winning an argument or debate, but about defending Biblical authority and to proclaim the Gospel. That’s our heartbeat. And so I’ve got a chance, a great privilege to travel a lot across the US and actually to different places as well outside the US and to see what’s happening over there in places like New Zealand or Africa or Malaysia or Japan and the fellowship of believers over there to see how God is working, to see how God’s Word’s being attacked in different ways in different places, and how really literally Christians all over the world need to be ready to stand on God’s Word, to defend the faith, and to proclaim the Gospel.
And so that’s what we like to do. That’s what our ministry focus is. So, whether it’s speaking, whether it’s writing books or curriculum for homeschooling, which we love homeschoolers, we love equipping them to do a what is so needed in our day and age. And we’ll talk about this more later on, but homeschooling is such a powerful mechanism to really equip your kids to defend their faith. And God’s doing great things here at AIG.
Yvette Hampton: Yeah, he is doing great things there. I was talking to a friend the other day who is planning to go to The Creation Museum and The Ark Encounter for her anniversary in May. And they’re really excited about it. And I told her, “You know, there’s no way that anyone can walk through there and not see the power of a divine creator.” I mean, it is just absolutely amazing when you go there and you just see so much of God’s creation all in one place. And you guys have done such an excellent job of displaying and portraying the awesomeness of God. “The heavens declare the glory of God.” And I don’t know how anyone can walk through there and just say, “Yeah, Nope. It all just happened by chance.”
Bryan: Praise God for that. We hear that so often. And as people come through, and not only do they see the glory of God’s creation, but also they realize there are answers to a lot of questions that for many people, Christians and non-Christians alike think the Bible has been really disproved by certain ideas, like “millions of years”, like the so-called “fossil record of millions of years” or evolution or distant star light or the age of the earth or modern day science. And you start to realize that no, there are actually really good answers to all of those issues. If you’ll stand on the Bible and use a Biblical worldview, there are some great answers for those questions. We use all those answers to point them back to the Gospel, to proclaim the creator of creation, and to give them the Truth.
And I like to compare the quality of the attractions here at The Ark Encounter and The Creation Museum, they’re so well done – Ken Ham likes to say “equal to Hollywood if not better.” We’ll have real wood in our attractions! The ark is made of real wood.
But you know, if you look in the old Testament when God had the Israelites build the tabernacle and he had brought people with different skill sets who were good at different things to come and build a different part of the tabernacle. I think of that here at the ministry of AIG. There are so many talented people who God has brought to do different things to make this ministry flourish and to be done at such a top notch level. All of the attractions, all of the sculptures, all the clothing, all of that stuff you see in the attractions, that’s done in house. The paintings are by our own artists. The writing for the signage is done by our guys. We write the curriculum in house, because God has brought some incredibly talented people in different areas to do all these things. And so we just praise God for that and definitely give him all the glory.
Yvette: Yeah, that’s so awesome. It’s the body of Christ working together just as it should.
Bryan: It really is. And then you mentioned that, I’ve got to say this, one of the things I love about working in the office, when I’m actually here, is that there are so many different denominations represented in this office, and we all fly under the banner of Christ and under the authority of God’s Word. And that’s our heartbeat as a ministry – Multiple denominations of Christians standing on the the authority of God’s Word. It’s just an awesome thing.
Yvette: So cool. I love it. I want to talk with you about a couple of different things today. So you had mentioned briefly that you used to be a teacher, and you taught in the public school system for 13 years.
Bryan: I did.
Yvette: And you know, we interviewed you for Schoolhouse Rocked, and yours is by far one of the most powerful interviews, and we have a lot of good interviews. But yours was so powerful because you were able to just talk about your experience of being in the public school and how even just in your 13 years there, and this was a few years ago, it’s been a few years since you stopped teaching, how you saw the transition of our culture in the kids and just the things that you were experiencing as a teacher and that they were experiencing as students. Can you talk a little bit about your time as a public school teacher, and just what you saw going on?
Bryan: Yeah, no, absolutely. As you mentioned, I taught for 13 years. I mentioned that too. Also, my wife was a teacher for 13 years in a public school, so both my wife and I have that real boots on the ground experience of teaching in the public schools. And of course, I’ll say up front there, we have some really wonderful memories and so many great friends who are still in that system. And we taught many wonderful kids. And so there’s some highlights, no doubt about that.
But if you’re just looking at the trend of where the schools are headed and the philosophy that’s driving education today, it has drastically changed. I think I mentioned last time when we were talking about, when I first saw… I taught an interesting subject. I told Bible history in a public school. People need to understand that. It was in Tennessee, a very unique thing, a great opportunity. But I taught Bible history in a public school setting. I started back in the year 2000.
And when I started in the year 2000 teaching that particular subject, most my kids, and I was teaching the buckle of the bible-belt. They had a general foundational understanding of many Biblical things. They understood some of the basic lingo. They could speak some of the Christian lingo. They understood those words because they grew up in a church setting. And then here’s what I found in my classroom, that year by year as I taught my students, each coming generation knew less and less about the Bible. They knew less and less. And these are kids who grew up and the buckle of the Bible belt and they’re like we said earlier, maybe the shiny part of the buckle of the Bible belt, and each year they knew less and less about the Bible. And so what I had to do with my curriculum is start at a more foundational level each year.
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Eventually it got to a point by year 13 when kids came into my classroom, my first lessons were on how to understand a Biblical reference. You know, what does Genesis 8:22-23 mean? A lot of my kids didn’t even know what that meant because they weren’t used to reading their Bibles. They didn’t have that foundational understanding. You know, easy things from a Biblical understanding. What’s the Bible say about marriage or sexuality or different things? They didn’t understand clear, easy Biblical teachings because even though they grew up in a very churchized area, they did not have that foundation. And so I saw that in my own classroom.
And then with what you saw in the culture of the school was also changing. More and more a secularly influence was dominating the thinking of the system.
And I tell people all the time there were and still are many good godly people in the system. There are some great Christians who are in the public school systems and they are doing their best to be light in a dark place, and we praise God for them and we pray that God uses him in a great way. There are many great in the system. But what people really need to understand is that the system itself is inherently atheistic, and has increased in a secular philosophy over the years while I was there and since I’ve left. And so even though there are good people in the system, the system itself starts from the basic premise that you can explain all of life, all of morality, all of sexuality, you can explain all of reality without God, without the Bible. And that by definition is a religion of secular humanism also called atheism.
So that’s the undercurrent of much of our educational system today in America, throughout the West. And more and more the undercurrent has pulled the kids along with it. So what you see is with the kids in the classrooms, they’re thinking is that becoming more and more secular, more and more aligned with the secular persuasion, less and less Biblical. And generation by generation that they get less in terms of a Biblical framework and more in terms of a secular framework. And of course as we know, that has real world repercussions in how they live and how they act and what they do and what we see happening in our schools today. So lots of change happening for sure.
Yvette: Yeah. One of the things I remember you talking about in your interview for the movie was that if Christian parents are putting their kids in a public school system, they need to be ready to undo all that’s being taught to them when they come home. And I actually just recently, I talked to a mom who they feel very strongly that God has their kids. They have a very, very strong solid Christian family. And they have their kids in a public school system intentionally. And she said when they come home from school at night, I have to undo all that they’ve been taught. She said, “But my kids are making a difference. And they’re holding Bible clubs and they’re doing all sorts of things, which I think is fantastic. And, and like you said, you know it, there are so many great people in the public school system. There are teachers who love Jesus, there are administrators who really it is their ministry, their mission that God has called them to, to be in this role because they’re really making a difference.
But I know it’s a very difficult position to be in. And there are kids. There certainly are kids who love the Lord, who come out of public schools loving God. You know, we’ve said it many times. Our listeners have heard us say it a million times. Homeschooling is not the Gospel. Homeschooling is not what saves our kids. And Jesus is what saves them. And there are plenty of kids who come out of Homeschool families who go off on their own way and they, they choose not to follow Christ. And then there are lots of kids who come out of the public school system or private schools and they go on to have an enormous impact in our world. And so I love that dynamic of it. But I think sometimes today, parents don’t really know what’s going on behind those doors. Or they choose to maybe ignore it. Not all, but some.
“Dear Christian, please recognize that God’s Word is being attacked at a foundational level, and that’s why so many of your kids and grandkids are walking away from the faith. We’ve got to give them the right foundation, which is based on the idea that the truth that God’s Word is the absolute authority, and all things will go from there.” – Bryan Osborne
Bryan: What I think a lot of times in our ministry, we talk about this so often in Answers in Genesis, what so many I think Christians are missing in the culture at large, including in the schooling arena, is that they don’t recognize that what’s really happening is a foundational attack on the authority of God’s Word and the foundation of Christianity itself. And so I think for many, they think, “I’ll send my kids off to a public school and they’ll learn some ideas that are Biblical, but that’s okay. I’ll still give them some Biblical teaching and they’ll be fine.” What they’re missing is what they’re actually learning from the secular institutions of our age, including the school system, is they’re learning a different foundation. They’re learning that man’s word ultimately as the authority and that God’s Word is not. They’re getting a different foundation from these different places. And so in a sense, what we allowed to happen quite often is we’ve allowed the secularist, ultimately the enemy who’s driving those secularists, whether they recognize it or not, we allowed them to get a new foundation put into their lives.
We try to stack up Christian doctrines as a framework on that foundation, and eventually that framework’s going to fall because they’ve got the wrong foundation. It’s not based on God’s Word. They put their house on sand, not on the rock. And so it looks good for a while. Oh, they got some of these Christian doctrines. They seem to be fine. But when later off they leave, and according to multiple studies, over two thirds are walking away from the faith by the time they reach college age. Why? Because they’ve been given a different foundation. It wasn’t built on God’s Word at all. They’re falling away because of that wrong foundation.
And so if you’re going to do those, we talked about before putting your kid in that particular setting, if God’s called you to that though, that can be a thing and you can do that, but we must recognize, be sure your kid has that right foundation truly in God’s Word that they are indeed saved, they are His. His word is their rock. They’re going into this environment recognizing the attack that they are engaging with, they’re coming home and decompressing all of these ideas and engaging with your parents to understand, “Okay, how do I deal with the fact that a drag queen spoke to a bunch of fifth graders at a public library? How do I understand that from a Christian perspective?” I mean, these are ideas I couldn’t even think about engaging when I was a teacher just five years ago before I left. A drag queen speaks to kids in America. And so we got to recognize that all of these things are not just peripheral attacks on Biblical ideas about marriage. Ultimately these things are attacks on a Biblical foundation of how we understand all of reality. And if we allow the secularist to give our kids their foundation, don’t be surprised when the kids embraces that entire worldview ultimately. And so we’ve got to be really careful.
And for my money and for what I’ve seen, my wife and I both as we’ve gone through teaching for a while, recognizing what’s happening, we’ve recognized that the best way from our perspective to give our kids a good foundation on God’s Word to equip them with a Biblical worldview is through homeschooling because we have control of the content. We can teach every subject to the glory of God. And from that Biblical perspective we can still talk about what’s happening in the culture, but do it through a Biblical lens so they understand it from a Biblical perspective. And we’ll present them with the secular arguments, but in the right context and how we can probably break it down over time, and then we can do that. And then after years and years from now when our kids get older, if they’ve got a great foundation and God calls them to that, we’ll work through that then as well.
But what better way to give a Biblical foundation than through homeschooling? And there’s so many practical benefits to that. I’m sure you guys talk about it all the time and the homeschooling setting as far as your classroom size and the student teacher relationship and love for students, it doesn’t get any better than the homeschooling setting. But just recognizing that foundational attack. And so often that’s what we’re trying to as a ministry, bring awareness to it with Christians. Dear Christian, please recognize that God’s Word is being attacked at a foundational level, and that’s why so many of your kids and grandkids are walking away from the faith. We’ve got to give them the right foundation, which is based on the idea that the truth that God’s Word is the absolute authority, and all things will go from there.
Yvette: Yeah, that’s awesome. Let’s continue talking about this idea of setting a Biblical foundation, because you know, you said homeschooling is the best way to do that. But then you’ve got parents who kind of say, “Okay, well how? How do we do that? How as Homeschool parents is the best way? How do we do that? How do we set that foundation for our kids and say this is truth, and integrate that into every part of our teaching in a day to day setting with our kids at home?
Bryan: Sure. I mean I think there’s a lot of ways to do that when you, especially in a homeschooling setting, there’s a lot of flexibility. It’s one of the things we love about homeschooling is you do have flexibility to do this in different ways. I would say overall getting the resources you need to help you to teach yourself and your kids to think Biblically.
Of course, from our perspective as we as a ministry, we deal more with history, origins, scientific issues, getting resources into the hands of believers that they can use to equip themselves and their kids and their grandkids or their homeschooling kids to think with a Biblical perspective. Whether it’s the answers, Bible answers books one through four. I wrote a book called Quick Answers to Tough Questions. It’s actually kind of cool thing. I talked to a guy the other day at a Christian school who uses my book as his curriculum for his Bible class. It’s really kind of neat to hear that to hear that.
So, whether it’s one of the books or the DVDs or in the curriculums, the ABC Curriculum is a great Bible curriculum, whether it’s some of the homeschooling curriculums we have on chemistry or science or mathematics. And there are other good ministries out there as well. But finding curriculums that’ll help you teach that subject from a Biblical perspective, to recognize that the goal of that curriculum is to honor the savior, to honor our creator, honor our god. And that we don’t learn and we don’t gain intellect just to lift up ourselves. It’s not about that at all. We learn to glorify our creator. And I might use this in a great way for his glory.
And so, I think there are lots of ways to do that within that setting. I’ll say also with that, we recognize the Biblical encouragement that at all times whether we sit down, rise up, eat, that we are teaching our kids to think through a Biblical lens. We’re teaching them God’s Word, connecting the real world to God’s real word and connecting those things for them to help had that Biblical worldview. And again, homeschooling has that wonderful benefit of as you live together and there’s more engagement, there are more opportunities to have those really good teachable moments where you can talk about an issue or something you saw or a trip that you took or whatever, and filter that through that Biblical lens to equip them with that Biblical worldview.
And so, I think all those things of course, I think a consistent Bible study within the family, which is rurally something we want to encourage families to do, especially have fathers lead in that, to recognize the importance of that with their families. All those sayings, you can just do them step by step, moment by moment, year by year, not all at one time, but as do life together and do those things and teach them from that perspective, it’s going to give them that foundation brick by brick by brick on the word of God. That foundation will need to have good structure that’ll lead to hopefully a life that glorifies him in that setting. So yeah, I think you can do it a lot of different ways, but there are some ideas.
Yvette: I love it. Well, I’ve said this so many times on the podcast, so for listeners who’ve heard me say it, I’m just going to say it again. As we started homeschooling our girls, the Lord really opened our eyes to the fact that it’s not just about the academics, it’s about teaching everything from that Biblical perspective because it always points them to Jesus. And you know, the one I think that really surprised me the most is math because people will say, “Well, how do you teach math from a Biblical perspective?” And it’s not that we teach, you know, two plus two is four. Jesus loves you. That is true.
Bryan: I might steal that for later.
Yvette: Maybe you should do one plus one is two, Jesus loves you. That would make more sense that rhymes. But in teaching it that God is a god of order, he is not a god of chaos. So math makes sense because God created it to make sense. Man didn’t create math. God created math. And teaching science. I mean that’s the whole ministry of AIG is science and history. And so you teach science from a Biblical worldview because it helps us to understand our creator. If you can understand Psalm 24, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” You look at the heavens, you look at the universe that God has created, and how do you look at that and say there’s no creator? And when you teach that aside from apart from a Biblical worldview, then you’re not really teaching science. And history is the same way. History is the story of God’s world, and of God’s plan for mankind. And so when you don’t start history in the beginning, you know answers in Genesis, if you don’t start in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, then you’re not teaching history as it’s meant to be understood. And so we, we see it as such a great opportunity.
And it doesn’t have to be taught perfectly. I think that as Homeschool moms especially, we feel like we have to know everything. Like we have to have mastered all of these topics and in order to teach them to our kids. And I’ve learned, I’m just learning right along with them. There’s so much that I don’t know. And Garritt always reminds me, “You just have to stay one step ahead of them. That’s all you have to do.” And if that means reading the page 10 minutes before I read it to them, or even sometimes just reading it for the first time when I’m reading it with them and if there’s something I don’t understand, we pause and we look it up, or we ask Garritt and he answers the questions for us.
Bryan: Is that a new sort of ask Siri?
Yvette: Yeah, yeah. It’s like Wikipedia, but it’s Garrittpedia. That’s what we have in our house.
But you know, there just are so many opportunities, like you said, to teach our kids from a Biblical worldview. And it’s not all about academics, it’s so much about character as well and just taking that time to teach our kids who they are in Christ, why God made them on purpose and for a purpose, and what God’s purpose is for them in this world.
Bryan: Yeah. That’s good. I like that purpose. The trilogy of purposes you just used was good.
Yvette: You can use that too.
Bryan: That’s great.
Yvette: I should trademark that.
Bryan: But even as teachers, my wife and I would often comment, especially your first couple of years as a teacher, you’re always one step ahead. And that’s it. That’s how it kind of rolls. That’s not uncommon. And you’re not going to know everything, especially as you advance the subjects. But that’s one of the blessings of doing homeschooling now in our current age, there are so many good resources to help you do even the difficult subjects, and you can tell there’s enough to choose from. We can find some that are still going to be Christ honoring, and you can help filter through those and that’s part of the process. And so you have such a plethora of resources to choose from to do so in a good way. And I loved what you were saying until my other favorite topics to talk about, is that not only does creation show our creator, but also the invisible attributes of our world show the invisible attributes of our God.
So, you look, and you talked about math. Where do these invisible laws of mathematics come from and why don’t they randomly change? They come from the mind of God, and they don’t change because God doesn’t change. Laws of nature. The whole reason we can do science to begin with is we have laws of nature that are, they’re not tangible, but they don’t change. They’re consistent every time and that’s why you can do an experiment today and tomorrow and get the same results if you do it the same way. Well that’s only possible because God made not only the tangible world, but the non-tangible world. He made the laws of nature. He holds them together so they don’t randomly change. They reflect Him. And so the only reason you can do science to begin with is because God is real and the Bible’s true. And you can point out all of that when you’re teaching it from a Biblical perspective. I love that stuff.
Yvette: Yeah, that is awesome. You touched really quickly on it, and we have just a couple minutes left, but I’d love for you to talk to the dads out there who you touched on the topic of dads leading their family spiritually, talk to those dads. How would you encourage them to do that?
Bryan: You know, my kids are younger right now, five and one. As I think about my kids and being a father, the weight of being a father, the weight the responsibility Biblically we’ve been given by God as the head of the household, that weighs on me more and more. So I think about my kids and raising them correctly. And it’s interesting. I think in our culture that’s so secular in its nature, it’s easy to get wrapped up in that secular thinking, so we tend to think, “Okay, if I’m meet their physical needs, if I bring home the bacon, which Peter says we can’t say anymore, but if I put a roof over their heads, if I’m giving them clothing, if I’m giving them opportunities and I’ve done my job, and I would say to myself and anyone who’s thinking that way, ‘If that’s all you’ve done, you’ve missed the whole thing entirely.'”
I say that to myself first and then to other dads as well because our primary responsibility is to raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord that their focus will be on Him. And the only way to do that is to build our thinking on the word of God, where we see God on display, his attributes clearly portrayed for us, reaching on through that grid to give them a Biblical worldview by standing on that right foundation.
And God has called fathers to lead our families in that endeavor. It’s not the mom’s job. Now, praise God if he’s giving you a wonderful wife that can come alongside you and be an incredible help mate and can do some wonderful teaching in a homeschooling setting and do some great things. That’s a blessing and that’s a gift from the Lord and we praise God for all those incredible homeschooling going parents or moms out there doing a great job.
But ultimately when we stand before heavenly father, God looks at us men, dads, did you lead your home in such a way that I was the center of attention, that you showed my kids how to know me and love me and pursue me from my word? That’ll come directly to us as head of household. And so it is our responsibility to be sure a home is being run in such a way that our kids are getting that. So I know the situations will vary in households. Fathers may work in different ways, different capacities. They may not be home as much as the mom. That makes sense, right? But still are you engaged when you are home? And then are you adding to what your wife is doing within the curriculum with teaching a Biblical framework? Are you doing what’s really needed? And in those devotions. Spending time together as a family consistently around the word of God, that you show your kids that you know what God’s Word is preeminent and my heart is preeminent in our founding because it’s worthy of all honor praise because it’s from the creator. Is that on display?
I managed to convict into myself even as I speak it. But is that you’re clear joy to your kids and your clear passion to your kids so they see that from you, not only what you speak, but how you spend your time with them, that you’re not just merely bringing home the bacon, but you’re bringing home the word of God to them they may feast on that and know that God’s Word is true? And for me the more I think about it, the more I grow in this role that God has put me in, the more I speak to people, the more that responsibility weighs clear and heavy on me. It’s a precious responsibility. And it’s also a privilege to have that, but it does bear weight and we need to take it seriously that again, if we’re not equipping our kids with the right foundation with a Biblical worldview or give them all the other things I need, but not the spiritual truth based on the word of God, we’ve missed it entirely and we are accountable.
But on the flip side, if we’re obedient for helping our wives and helping our families to stand on God’s Word and we’re equipping them with the truth of God’s Word, we see God work through that, and then when we stand before God, you get those words well done by good and faithful servant, and what a beautiful thing that is, and so it’s serious. God counts it as serious. We see those commands in God’s Word over and over and over again to be sure we’re building our thinking and thinking of our families on God’s Word, and we need to take it as such. But when we do so, we’ll see God work in an amazing way.
I think as you mentioned too, you mentioned that sometimes the homeschooling moms, whoever’s doing the homeschooling will feel inadequate. You know, “I’m not up to tasks. It’s Too much to know.” Well, dads are going to feel the exact same way, right? They’re going to feel inadequate quite often. “I don’t know enough. My theology isn’t robust enough. I don’t have these understandings I should that teach my kids.” But dear Father, study God’s Word, put it in the work, do your best, and then watch the Holy spirit of God work in an amazing way to his glory. Because honestly, our call is not perfection, but our call is obedience. Do what God has called us to do, and then watch him work and do great things to his glory through your family.
Yvette: Yeah. Oh, I love that so much. You know, God’s Word does not return void.
Bryan: He does not.
Yvette: And I think it was Scott LaPierre, I can’t remember who said if you can read, you can lead your family spiritually. All it takes is just opening up The Word. And quite honestly, even if you can’t read, there are, how many apps are there that you just open it up on your phone and it will read the Bible to you?
Bryan: I might steal all that from you later on, by the way.
Yvette: You got it.
Bryan: I’ve got some great stuff from this interview!
Yvette: Yeah, well you’re welcome. Oh, well, Bryan, I am so grateful for you and for the ministry that you have there at Answers in Genesis, for Ken Ham and the whole team there. I know you guys really work tirelessly to just help parents and families to set that foundation of Biblical truth. Where can people find you? You were talking about curriculum and parents being able to just set that foundation by using some of the Biblical curriculum that you have. Where can people go to find that?
Bryan: So, the easiest way to get there is to go to AnswersInGenesis.org. Go to the website there, plug in in the search bar, “homeschool” or “homeschool curriculum”. And we have a whole store set up online that has so many different resources on so many different subjects for different age groups for a homeschooling setting. And so, there we have many dedicated curriculums to homeschooling and you can find those on the website at Answersingenesis.org. There are also many things you can add to your curriculum. We have many books and DVDs that are good supplements to what you’re already doing, and it can help make it more robust in what you’re teaching from a Biblical perspective. Also, they can follow us on Facebook or Twitter. I’m there personally. Also the ministry is there. You can find those pages. Just look up Answers in Genesis or look up Bryan Osborne, you’ll find us on those particular platforms. And you can follow us there. And then as you know, as time goes, we are putting stuff on those places, useful tools for teaching, whether in a homeschooling setting or a church setting to equip Christians to defend the faith. And so typical media platforms that people use, but they’re so handy. And they’re on there, so I encouraged people to check those out and look those up.
And of course, if they are in the area, and by that, I mean in the US, they should probably visit the Creation Museum and The Ark Encounter. I even mentioned it earlier. I know I’m biased. I work here, I get. But it is incredible.
Yvette: It is incredible.
Bryan: It’s amazing what God has done. It’s all his and Ken was saying this the other day, “it’s God’s ministry” and God’s done wonderful things, and it’s so unique in what it is. And it’s such an encouragement to the Christian’s faith and a challenge to a nonbeliever. And so if you’ve got unbelieving family or friends, it’s a great place to come and to look at these things together and to talk about these things. And it opens up great conversations. You’ll hear the Gospel numerous times. It’s really powerful in multiple ways.
Yvette: So okay, really quickly, for those who are not familiar with the Creation Museum or The Ark Encounter, give like a one-minute brief overview of what that is.
Bryan: Okay. So we’re located in Northern Kentucky, right below Cincinnati. And the Creation Museum is a, there are two separate attractions, the museum and The Ark Encounter. The Creation Museum is a 75,000 foot walk through Biblical history. And we use the seven CS to walk through Biblical history. Creation, corruption, catastrophe, confusion, Christ, cross, consummation. And as we go through that Biblical history, we are answering the skeptical questions of this age and showing how the Bible really does have answers and actually the Biblical worldview is confirmed as true time and time again by real science.
And then in the midst of all that, we’re giving the Gospel in numerous ways, numerous times. And there are multiple lectures, there are workshops you can go to. There’s a special effects theater. It’s a 4D theater. It’s now 3D with added affects their like wind blowing, all new change in temperature of water. Really cool stuff. We’re adding a [base] [phonetic 00:35:03] right now to the Creation Museum, phenomenal. And then The Ark Encounter, that’s also Northern Kentucky about 40 minutes South of The Creation Museum. Same ministry, two different attractions. It’s a life size replica of Noah’s Ark. Over 500 feet long, 85 feet wide, 50 feet tall, three different levels. There are over 130 exhibit bays as you walk through The Ark Encounter. And again, in that context we’re answering multiple questions defending the faith.
And really The Ark Encounter, it’s an attraction within an attraction within an attraction. And what I mean is you walk up to it at first, the size of it would blow your mind.
Yvette: It’s massive.
Bryan: So immense. It just gives you a whole new perspective that you can get about Noah’s Ark unless you see it like you do there. And then once you go inside, the architecture of The Ark Encounter is incredible. It’s the largest timber framed structure and the world. And so just looking at the woodwork, it’s so well done. And then all the exhibits, all the answers you get, they are… The artists God has brought to the ministry to put those things together, they’re phenomenal and they do a fantastic job. And so it’s so good on multiple levels. We’ve got Emzara’s, a buffet by The Ark Encounter, which I know I’m biased again, but it is a great buffet. We have a whole east village and west village by them, by The Ark Encounter.
The answer center’s opening up soon. There’s a zoo behind The Ark Encounter. And I really encourage people if you’re coming this way to the Northern Kentucky area, you want to get just the get the pass to both the museum and The Ark Encounter, it’s cheaper, it’s multiple days, it gives you good time to see everything there is to see. And you can spend easily two days at the Creation Museum. I mean sincerely, in addition to the museum there is the botanical garden outside. And then The Ark Encounter takes a good day or two. So the people hopefully can make plans accordingly. But again, I’m biased, but it is incredible and it’s amazing watch God work.
And I will say this to wrap up, we’ve had over a million people come up for each of the last two years to The Ark Encounter, and so it’s been amazing to see that. And we’re averaging around 500,000 a year now at the Creation Museum since the Ark has been open. So it’s just been awesome to watch God work through all that.
Yvette: So cool. While you guys are having a great impact for God’s kingdom, and we are so grateful for what you’re doing and all that God is doing through the ministry there at AIG and through you personally through the books that you’re writing. And I did want to mention one book really quickly that this just came to my mind. I thought about it when you were talking earlier about setting a foundation and children walking away from faith. Already Gone written by Ken Ham. That is a fantastic book. We’ll link to that in the show notes, but Garritt and I read that years ago and that was actually pretty instrumental and in part of our decision to start homeschooling. It is a fantastic book. It talks about why children are walking away from the faith once they get into those college years, because it’s not really in those college years or young adult years. Oftentimes it’s earlier than that.
Bryan: Their foundation was shaken a long time ago.
Well, praise God for what you’re doing. I’ve known you guys for a couple of years now, and just to see your heart and to watch God bringing this all together, I’m excited for you guys. I’m so thankful for what you’re doing, how God is using you, and it’s so cool to partner with you in ministry. It’s a blessing.
Yvette: Thank you.
You can find Bryan Osborne online at the Answers in Genesis website and on his Facebook page.
Get Already Gone, by Ken Ham and Britt Beamer and Quick Answers to Tough Questions, By Brian Osborne
Ready to take your children back? Stream Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution for free tonight and learn how. After you have watched the movie, download the Free Homeschool Survival Kit. This free 70+ page resource will give you the encouragement and tools you need to start strong and finish well.
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