0014 The Bible's Origin Story

What do you build your life on when the "truth" you were handed keeps getting updated?

We live in a world where you can ask AI anything and get an answer in seconds — with a quiet little disclaimer at the bottom: this may not be accurate. We've made peace with truth that constantly shifts. Science revises. Culture moves. Opinions evolve. But then we open the Bible, and it doesn't hedge. It doesn't say this might be wrong or check back for an update. It speaks as though it were already settled.

In this episode of the Biblical Passages Podcast, Brittany and Eric sit with that contrast and ask an honest question: how do you evaluate something that admits it could be wrong against something that claims it never is?

Starting from just four words — "In the beginning, God" — they slow down on Genesis 1:1 and the staggering claim underneath it: that time, space, and matter all began in a single moment, and that the God who created everything also gets to define everything. From there the conversation opens up into why a generation with more information than ever can still feel more confused than ever, and what happens when the ground under your feet keeps moving.

Brittany shares openly about years spent believing she'd never be enough without the right credentials on the wall — and the shift that came when she realized God can use anyone, degree or not. Eric traces his own journey as a man trained in science who had to decide what to do with a Jesus who said I am the truth — not I teach it, or I point to it. As he puts it, you don't get to admire that claim casually. You have to decide what to do with it.

Together they explore what it means to run your decisions through a filter of Scripture instead of culture, emotion, or the loudest voice in the room — and Brittany shares a small, real, recent moment where a single verse, blessed are the peacemakers, changed what she did in the span of a breath.

In this episode, Brittany and Eric explore:

• Why we're comfortable with "truth" that constantly updates — and why that should unsettle us
• How AI can quietly become a modern "golden calf" we lean on instead of thinking for ourselves
• What Genesis 1:1 actually asserts about time, space, and matter
• Why Jesus' claim to be the truth leaves no comfortable middle ground
• How faith works as the "currency of heaven" that brings Scripture alive
• Why more information hasn't made us more grounded
• What it looks like to filter your decisions through the Word instead of your feelings
• Choosing an unshakable foundation in a world that keeps revising its own

Whether you're chasing certainty through more research, more credentials, or more answers, this conversation is an invitation to rest on something that doesn't change.

Because while the world keeps releasing new versions of the truth, God never has to hit update — He is truth, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Join Brittany and Eric as they explore where your truth really comes from, and what it means to build your life on ground that cannot move.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Right now we are living in a world where you can ask AI anything, and it'll give you the answer in seconds. Believe me, I know I use it every day, but almost every time you do, it reminds you this little, this little, you know, asterisk at the bottom says this may not be accurate. And what's interesting is that we're totally comfortable with that. We're comfortable with information updates. We're comfortable with truth being refined. But when we open the Bible, the Bible doesn't say this might be wrong or this will be updated. It speaks as if it were already established. Right. So here's what we're talking about today. How do you evaluate something that admits it could be wrong versus something that claims it never is? Eric, have you experienced that contrast in your life?

SPEAKER_00 1:06

I I have. You're taking me back to college days when we would uh be informed by science teachers, physical chemistry teacher, uh, about something that seemed very truthful and accurate. Come back four weeks later, and he would say, We're gonna need to revise our notes from a few weeks back because there's been some new discoveries. Right. And you'd think, well, isn't that contradictory and untrustworthy? And say, no, it's uh it's actually part of the culture that science was constantly updating, uh, and we were we were being given new truth. So it was uh it was exciting actually to be uh to be knowing to know that you were on the cusp and and cutting edge of of new discoveries. So that was just part of the culture. So and then along comes, as you just said, this thing called the Bible. And I was introduced to that, and it seemed at first ridiculous because, as you say, there was there was these deep assertions that um the here's Jesus claiming to not only know the truth, but to be the truth, to be the author. And it's like, wait a minute, if you're gonna do that, you're either a lunatic or you need to be somewhere summarily discarded, or you are who you say you are. And you can't just leave that alone. Not with the kind of training that I had. You've gotta either you've got to investigate it and either discard it and show why, or go, you know what, I have to capitulate. I need to agree with this. So that was a quite a moment for me. So, yes, I have been through that.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

So yeah, so we built this whole world based on knowledge. We're constantly searching for knowledge, science updates constantly, culture shifts constantly, opinions evolve. So, what really happens is that we kind of end up building our life on something that keeps moving. And if truth changes, that's scary because that means that it was never truth to begin with. So, you know, Eric, it seems like to me that we have a generation that's more informed than ever. We have so much knowledge, but we're now more confused than ever. Does that seem true to you?

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Well, we're more reliant uh on on because you know, I've I've been hearing that in in in colleges, uh a student will be asked something by a professor, and the student will quickly type it into AI and get an answer and just provide that answer back. There's no real critical thinking being done. And that's just astounding to me to know that that's creeping into our culture. Uh I it would it's just uh I can't believe that the professors allow it. But nevertheless, it seems to be going on. So uh I I want to train people to be, I would want to train people to be critical thinkers to be able to develop a thought pattern on their own. So anyway, there's a here's AI, as you started off saying, uh becoming a uh a golden calf of sorts that we were just rely on. And it just doesn't have to be this way. We have a we have a God of the Bible who who claims to have been present at the very birth of the universe. And by the way, the the Judeo-Christian belief system, the cosmogeny, which is a fancy word. I know you love my fancy words. I do love your fancy words. What does that one mean? That one means a a a theory of origins. It speaks to the to the very um uh the very concept of of uh the claim of how things were originated. And the that belief system, the Judeo-Christian system, is the only the theology is the only one that dares to assert an absolute beginning to the universe. And so everything else starts with some primordial swamp, and you know, the uh the the DNA came up out of that. Just it's just illogical. Mathematically, it's illogical to believe that. So, but there's this in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and that's Genesis 1-1, and it tells a lot. We can get into that in a second.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Yeah, absolutely. So it seems like today we're kind of talking about the claims that the Bible makes versus the intellectual trap that the world has you in. You know, I know for me personally, this just popped in my head, so we're gonna go there for a moment. Me personally, the world has always told me that what is important is knowledge, information. It's the degrees on your wall. It's if you don't have that, then you can't be smart, that you're not qualified, that you're not this, that you're not that. And for the longest time, I had a kid when I was young. It kind of threw me out of college. I had three classes to graduate. Then I ended up deciding, okay, I'm I'm gonna do this. And several years ago, I went back to college because I just wanted to finish. I wanted to feel like I was smart. And I ended up retaking a class that I had already taken. And so I still have one class left to graduate. And for the longest time, I thought I will never be anything, I'll never do anything, I'll never get a good job, I'll never love what I do because nobody's gonna find any value in me because I don't have these credentials. And when I started working with you and realizing that it has nothing to do with the credentials, but everything that's within you that you're not using, it really shifted my perspective. And I was stuck in this intellectual trap that the world tells you. Always research, always question, always analyze, always have to learn more so you can be smart. But we don't have that absolute truth. And it does say in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Jesus didn't say I teach truth or I point to truth. He said, I am truth. And that kind of shifted everything for me. You don't really have to wonder. You can know what the truth is. You don't have to rely on your your mind or your talent there. God can use anyone in anything.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Keep talking. I mean, I'm I'm just listening. It's captivating to hear you to hear you tell that story and and gosh. Um but to you you you've you not only have a fine intellect, but you also have a framework of God's wisdom that is both in you and continuing to grow and mature in you. And so that um that that that's the that's what Jesus told Pornos to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things, including a job, including you know the uh the financial uh growth that you are seeking, all these things will be added unto you. So I it is just there's just no reason to have self-doubt, like you mentioned earlier. It's as long as you're also seeking uh these these other the wisdom that that uh that the Lord offers. But going back to the original uh thinking, it's like can we believe, can we trust this assertion that's made in Genesis 1.1. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. So what what is that? In the beginning means that there's a stopwatch. It started, time started at that moment. Okay, the the clocks, there's no clocks in heaven, but the clock of of uh the universe began at that time. In the beginning, God created the heaven, and that's not heaven where angels live, but that's that means space, the difference between here and there. So so in the beginning starts the idea of between now and then, and then in it it created the heaven, difference between here and there, and the earth, which is not planet Earth, third planet from the sun, but it is it is matter. So it's a difference between this and that. So now and then, here and there, this and that. And all three things were created in the first micro moment of time, of of of the uh universe. And then then he began to form it and shape it and take it from there. But that's quite an assertion, very different from what I had been taught. But when I heard it and looked into it, it made so much better sense and it held up to scrutiny. So I'm uh I'm fascinated by it. So it it it it means that thermodynamics was birthed at that moment. Uh it uh it it it uh makes it better sense than to think that the DNA molecule could come out of out of nothingness, out of random chance. It just the odds against it mathematically, probability are just are just beyond belief. So uh I just when I've looked at that, I had to admit this is a better uh story about the beginnings of of uh the universe than than the ones I'd been taught.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

I vividly remember uh when we first started talking about this topic. Now, we've talked about Genesis one many, many, many times uh during the two years that I've worked here. And I vividly remember the first time you pulled up Genesis and were like, just pull it up and you're like, uh read this. And I started in the beginning, God created, and you're like, what are you doing? Stop. And I was like, What? Like, what do you mean stop? I just read like four words, and you're like, Yeah, don't you understand that that is where thermodynamics was created, Brittany? That was where time started. My mind was absolutely blown because I was just taught to read in the beginning. Okay, this is where the story starts, move on, but you don't realize in the beginning how pivotal that moment is. This is the beginning of time, this is the beginning of everything. That's right. I found that to be absolutely mind-blowing. So to know that God created everything is to know that He defined everything. So we really shouldn't be asking a question like we do nowadays of, you know, what feels true? What information can I find to back up my source? But it's what did the creator say is true? And we kind of have to have filters to figure this out, wouldn't you say?

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Filters to do what?

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Filters to kind of figure out what is actually true in this world. Because we kind of define, we filter life through culture, we filter life through our emotions, our experiences, but rarely, I feel, do we filter through the word of God.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Well, that's that's well said. I mean, Paul wrote some astounding uh sentences and and to to uh to back up this in Romans 120. For since the creation of the world, his God's invisible attributes are clearly seen. Oh, they're clearly seen, okay. Being understood by the things that are made. So I can understood understand the attributes of God by looking at his creation. That's what that says so far. So that they, people, are without excuse. So he's he's stripping away every excuse we have by saying, look at the attributes of God in his creation. Wow, that means if I if I would do away with the filter of assuming and and accepting evolutionary theory and and uh big bang theory, instead, if I would if I would realize that wait a minute, that there is a there's a of an absolute start time to this universe, if I could accept that, then then then my gosh, then we would be fulfilling what Paul has asserted in Romans 120. He says something else, it's in Ephesians 3, 8 and 9, to me, this grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see, all people, see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages, that's Genesis 1-1, has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ. Now there's 49 words in one sentence, okay? I counted them, and and says only Paul could write like this, okay? But but he's crafting a way of thinking and and leading us to say who created all things through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the word. God thinks it up, the the Lord Father thinks it up, Jesus speaks the word, and the Holy Spirit is the energizer bunny of the Trinity, and He gets it, He gets it done, He brings the power, He brings the uh and the and the um the and it was the the the creation was formless and void and and uh and so God Jesus said Let there be light And there was light and and all the Holy Spirit is is it's infusing that um that matter with all of the um the energy that's needed, the the thermonuclear energy, etc. Every other kind that's needed, gravitational energy that's needed in order to get um all of the planets and all of the um gravitational forces and everything else in in place. It's just amazing when you think about it. It makes, frankly, for me, it makes a whole lot of sense. And Paul is writing about it uh centuries later. So anyway, I get excited about it.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

It is exciting because these are bold claims, and with such bold claims, Jesus really leaves no middle ground. We have to make a decision, really, when we hear this. Do we decide that he's a liar? Do we decide that he's delusional that this couldn't have happened? Or is this the truth? We really don't get to admire Jesus casually. We have to kind of decide what to do with him, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:54

Yes. Yes. It's um we go we go back to even to Colossians. Again, Paul is just laying down a framework for all of that backs up what took place back in in Genesis. He says, For it was in him, Jesus, that all things were created in heaven and on earth. All things, seen and unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities, all things were created and exist through him by his service, inner which is by his service or invention, and in and for him, and he himself existed before all things. Watch that. He existed before all things, so before the clock started, and in him all things consist. Okay, so he is he is the the energy that holds the chemical bonds together. This this is a this is a very powerful assertion. And so anyway, it's it's uh Paul Paul goes into these things and and uh it's not just theology, but it's it's uh it's the concept of of s of science that uh Paul is asserting that Jesus was the founder, he was the creator, he was um he's he's the one that spoke the worlds into existence, and he holds everything together even now by his by his power. Fabulous.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

So why do you think it's so important to realize what the world values as truth versus what God values as truth?

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Well, in my case, I was seeking authentic truth. And I think we live in a day and a culture now where people really want authenticity, and they keep drilling down there like I was back in the day, and they are drilling down to find what is authentic, what is real. And when the world and the culture keeps shifting in terms of telling you what's true and what what's available and what's uh what's the right thing to do, that just shifts. We just the ground beneath our feet just keeps keeps it keeps moving. And that can create some uncertainty and some anxiety, frankly. And then that's uh that does not contribute to our mental health and to our stability and the sense of community. But when we've got something firm that we can uh the the Bible even says my f my feet are planted, David wrote in an even place. Uh firm ground, unshakable. And that's what I think people yearn for is something that is just unshakable. And it is found in in the Lord, not just in Genesis, but throughout the Bible. There's this strategic plan of heaven. It was uh to to build this three-dimensional universe to have mankind to populate it and to govern it. Unfortunately, the first man blew it when he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and he introduced sin and death into the world. Very unfortunate. And the whole story of the Old Testament is how the Lord started to redeem that process, create a uh a government and the the children of Israel, and Moses led them out of Egypt. It's a fascinating story. Uh, but unfortunately they kept blowing it, they kept resorting back to their own um selfish uh desires. Uh and eventually the the Lord introduced um the ultimate um s salvation with in Jesus to get us uh restored back to him in a in a in a permanent relationship that was unshakable. So it's all again, it's you can just see this the storyline that uh that the Lord started this he he he um uh initiated this universe on it in at the very beginning, and then it um and then later on it we kind of as to say the we kind of blew it into not before for very long, and then everything has been a s a s story of restoration since then. So it's um I th so I think it's important. I don't know if that exactly answers your story, you answers your question, but that's um that's an important part of the story.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

I think it is very important. Yes, it does answer my question. But you know, as I'm processing this through, so today we're talking about essentially intellectual knowledge being constantly moving, never any truth, versus the Bible that is truth. I think that we need to talk about how we can't comprehend the Bible or what God is telling us to do or anything without faith. Faith is essentially, you know, like your admission into this wealth of knowledge, essentially, right? Like this wealth of wisdom, knowledge, understanding. And without that faith, you can read the Bible all day long, but it's not going to come alive for you. Is that fair to say?

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Sure, I think that is. And with that without faith, it is impossible to please God, the book of Hebrews says. Uh, so faith is the currency of heaven. So, sure, your point is well taken. And and it's only by faith that we can come to even apprehend and and and agree with the uh opening passage of Genesis. Uh I love what um what's written here. We we think Paul might have wrote written in the book of Hebrews, but in the opening chapter, uh chapter one, he says, You Lord, in In the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth. Here we go again. And the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. Wow. Okay, just poetic language. And then in uh Hebrews 1 2, God in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds. So the Father made the worlds, the entire universe, through his son. It's like it's it's ingenious and it's massive and it explains everything. It's an assertion that I just love and it's worthy of investigation, and it holds up under scrutiny. And there's plenty of scientists that have done massive research in this to um who can speak to it a lot better than I can. But at some point uh we just want to accept this, as you say, by faith. The Bible holds up under intense scrutiny.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Yeah, I think the importance of the podcast today is to understand that that every thought we have, every idea, every here or there, every what should I do, it's gonna come down to us evaluating it through a filter. We're either going to go, this is our situation, what does the world say? Chat GPT, tell me what's the best way to handle this, you know, asking your friends for advice, this or that. But there is a basic foundational truth. And the Bible has all these truths that we can go to, and you can know, you know, uh, this happened to me recently and it's really annoying, but it's it's true. And I had this uh request from someone in my life that I needed to do, and I had a time frame on it to where I could wait to the last minute and you know, fix it then and be fine with it, and kind of just have that over them, you know, just kind of hold that and be like, you know, I'm gonna wait to the last minute. I have all this time frame, I can do this, right? And as soon as that thought came into my head, it was another thought that said, Blessed are the peacemakers. And I was like, uh me. And immediately I sent over what they were requesting. Yeah. Because I knew in that moment, okay, I can live with my truth of the world says I have this much time to pay it. I don't have to do this. I'm not held to any standard. But I knew the truth of the Bible. And the truth of the Bible was don't put off something if you can have peace in this moment. Blessed are the peacemakers. Yes. And so I made that move. And it seems like when you don't when you live, well, let me rephrase that. We don't live without a truth system. We live under whatever we've chosen as our highest authority.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

So if that's our knowledge and information and how we feel about situations and our past experiences that are going to define how we're going to react, we're going to be in a lot of trouble because we're not going to be reacting from the right spot.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Wonderful. Great. So, really, what you've said is not only believing in this theory of origins and this is the foundation of truth, but then that truth extends all the way through the generations through today, so that it can affect you. It can it can give you something to rest your decision making on. And then there was a a benefit and an outcome where you had a spirit of peace that came over you from doing things God's way. Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. I like that. I want to be called a child of God.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

I like that title, I like that identity. And so when we just agree with uh what this this one beatitude that came from the Sermon on the Mount, my gosh, what a benefit it is. Just joyful to hear your testimony about that. So I had this hunger for truth back in the day, and somebody brings me the word of God, the Bible, and I thought, well, this could be maybe it's just a book of moral guidance, Middle Eastern history, ancient poetry. Is is that what it is, or does it truly inform us on the ideal structure of family, church, government? Are we just doing fine in those areas? What do you think? Are we just doing fine?

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Doesn't seem like we're doing fine. I can check that out on the internet, and that looks bad.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Half the families are blowing up a lot of uh fatherlessness in homes.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

My by a nonprofit that uh been running for years. We a few years ago we were really working diligently to get uh fathers back in the home, certain parts of our of our area. So so does this Bible provide uh economic and judicial guidance, or does it simply entertain us with a number of mystical tales of a of a bygone era? You know, so we've we've gotta know is it uh there's no in-between with this Bible because it it asserts uh that is it has uh a substantive theory of origins, and it has a uh structure of government, it has a structure for family, it has advice on on all these different areas of life, and it's fascinating. And even the uh Mosaic law that that was developed by the the uh Ten Commandments and the laws of Moses, um Jesus comes along later and says, Well, you've heard what Moses had to say, but I say unto you, whenever you hear, but I say unto you, you're in trouble because he's he's lifting the bar into a into an area of motive. He's getting beyond just behavior. And he's saying, Check your motives.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

When you do that, say, Oh, I'd like to hide my motives. I'll just give you all kinds of pretty behavior on the outside, but you don't know how much rage I'm feeling on the inside. And so uh but he he was he was shrewd in how he he handled that. Uh and so I I'm just um I'm fascinated by by that. And again, the people were astonished at his doctrine because he spoke as one having authority and not just like the scribes, the lawyers and the religious leaders of the day. So again, it's got integrity, Brittany, from beginning to end, from the very opening words, we can rely on this Bible. The opening passage can count on it.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

Absolutely. So I think this episode is, you know, just mainly diving into what is your truth when you make decisions, when you have thoughts, when you have ideas, when you're doing all these things in your life, where is your truth system? What does it rely on? Do you do you rely on your knowledge? What are you using as your source of truth? Where are you unstable right now? What keeps changing in your life? We need to start replacing and shifting these truths with the unchanging truth. And it says in Hebrews 13 8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That is an unchanging truth. So while the world wants to keep updating its versions of truth, many versions of truth, God will never update because he is truth.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

So, what do you believe today? What are you what are you building your life on? I think that's where we'll leave everyone today.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

That's excellent. I don't have to hit update in the app store. Oh, that's just beautiful the way you into your way you ended it. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

We love it. Yep. All right. Well till next time, guys.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

All right, bye-bye now.