00:00 Welcome to the Daily Bible Podcast

00:48 New Year Greetings and Reflections

01:12 Encouragement for Daily Bible Reading

02:20 Benefits of Regular Bible Reading

05:03 Diving into Genesis: Creation and the Fall

05:29 Discussing Young Earth Creationism

08:31 The Image of God in Humanity

10:52 Ethical Questions on Genetic Transplants

15:19 Genesis 2 and the First Law

16:44 The Fall and God's Mercy

18:33 Closing Prayer and Encouragement

Audio Only - All Participants:

Hey, everybody.

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Welcome back to a brand new

year of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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Happy New Year.

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Happy New Year.

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Do you want to be the first to wish

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Let me be the first.

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To say, to say to you,

Happy Valentine's Day.

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It's on the horizon.

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It's coming.

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It is coming up.

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Get your loved one something special.

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Do something.

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Yeah.

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Actually, I don't really

care about Valentine's Day.

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Who am I kidding?

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It's not a big deal to me.

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And our family, we don't basically

do, the kids do something because they

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have, you know, their cards and the

candy and whatnot, but Kristen and

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I are like, this is, this is dumb.

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We celebrate our love every

day in a variety of ways.

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We don't need no holiday

telling us what to do.

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Exactly.

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Yeah, Hallmark.

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So there, but it's still good.

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Who invented, who

invented Valentine's Day?

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I want to know.

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I know it's St.

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Valentine.

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Is it Catholic?

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Why are we talking about Valentine's Day?

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It's, it's January 1st.

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Okay, I'll save it till February.

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In that case, Happy New Year.

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Happy 2025.

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I can't believe it's another year.

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In fact, right now, it's not.

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But when they hear this, it will be.

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And that's just a mind twist.

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Lord willing.

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Yes.

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Yeah, it is.

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Yeah.

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Um, yeah, we've got some,

uh, some exciting things

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going on in 2025 as a church.

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We are, uh, excited for

what God's going to do.

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You're preaching on Sunday this week.

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I'm actually not here presently.

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I'm on the road.

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I'm in California, so hopefully you're

ready to preach or, or getting there.

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We'll see.

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Um, Yeah, and, uh, hopefully

everybody listening to this is

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excited for another year in the Bible.

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This is, and I, hey, you can do this.

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That's what we want to tell you.

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We finished last, last, uh,

year up yesterday saying,

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Hey, good job for doing this.

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Celebrate.

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It's a, it's a good thing that you did.

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We want to start this year by

saying you can do this and don't.

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Don't look at this as too daunting.

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I know a lot of times it's like new year's

resolutions You're going to hit the gym.

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You're going to read the bible every day

You heard me preach on that last sunday

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saying hey you need to be in the bible

regularly steady Daily intake of god's

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word is key for you You can do this.

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This is not too hard and when you get

to the parts where it's like, oh man

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Numbers or leviticus or ezekiel or any of

these books that you aren't as familiar

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with Stay the course, just keep going.

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Tune in here.

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We'll try to help you

understand some things about it.

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Ask questions, press on, press through.

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This is the best investment of your

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spending time in the word of God.

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There's nothing else as powerful

as God's word to make you more

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ready to stand before him.

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And, and to make you more useful

to Him in the, in the interim, in

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the time that you're, you're here.

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And so hopefully those are

two desires that you've got.

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And being in God's Word daily is going

to be huge for you in that regard.

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What would you say, PPJ, is

some of the best benefits that

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you've received, enjoyed, because

of your Bible reading habit?

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Is there anything that stands out

as peculiar, or, I mean, there's

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things that people would expect.

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Like, oh, you're closer to God,

you, you know the Bible better.

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Is there anything that might surprise

people about your journey through the

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Bible these multiple times as being

especially cool or helpful or beneficial?

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Just learning more about God is is

helpful as far as just his personality

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and and His love for us through

seeing the continuity of the thread.

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That's why the chronological

plan has been so helpful.

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Does to see it from a different angle.

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So there's that.

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I guess that's more obvious.

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I think part of it is just that

the way that it helps in unexpected

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conversations, you are going to

have God's word at your fingertips.

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The more you spend time in it to be

able to bring it to bear in the lives

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of people that need encouragement,

that need hope, that need counsel, that

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need, um, Whatever it may be wisdom,

um, guidance, the more steeped in God's

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word that you are, the more readily

available it's going to be in your tank

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to be able to bring it into conversation.

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And people are unbelievers.

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You're going to be able to share

principles that you've learned

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from God's word with them.

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And they're going to think, man, that's

the most profound thing I've ever heard.

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Would you get that?

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And you're going to be able to say, God's

word, the Bible is what teaches us this,

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um, it's going to keep you more even

keeled and steady as, uh, the things in

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the world go awry and, uh, and we believe

that they're going to go awry and, uh,

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and, and yet being anchored in God's word

is going to help you process these things.

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So those are some things that, that I've

found to be particularly beneficial is

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just how I'm able to, to help other people

with, with the truth that I learned it.

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And then also how it just keeps me

grounded as the, the waves of, of, of

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turmoil happen in the world all around us.

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That's a great, that's a great thought.

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I think one thing for me, and it's just,

I'll keep it at one, because I have like

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a 30, 30 or 40, I could easily just name

off the top of my head, but one thing, no,

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no, no, I don't mean to brag at all, I'm

just saying it's that valuable, one of the

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cool things about being in the scriptures

this many times, and it's not as many as

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I would like, let's just state that, I

don't want to make it sound like I've been

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through a thousand times, it's not nearly

as many as I would like, but one of the

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coolest things I find is that after the

Bible was hard, It started becoming fun.

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It's like the it takes a lot of mental

motivation and momentum to get the ball

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rolling But once you stay with it You

begin to see things that you had never

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seen before and that still happens We

were just talking about that yesterday

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But we see things That start to raise new

questions and, and more profound questions

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about who God is and what he's done and

why it matters and who we are and the

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way that we work and how God designed

us to respond to certain situations.

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I, I think Bible study is one of

the most fun things to do because it

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explains so much and yet it also creates

new and interesting and fun questions

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that are just a blast to go through.

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I love my, I love my Bible more than I

ever have and I attribute that to being

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in the Bible more than I've ever been.

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That's great.

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That's great.

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Well, let's do just that.

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Let's jump into the Bible,

uh, Genesis 1, 2, and 3 today.

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Genesis 3, familiar territory.

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This is easy.

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Yeah, yeah, exactly.

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Easy.

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No big deal.

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Here's a question.

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Genesis 1 is about the days of creation.

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Genesis 2 really jumps into and zooms

into the creation of mankind and then

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Genesis 3 is about the fall of mankind.

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So that's kind of where we go in this.

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Genesis 1, the days of creation.

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Pastor Odd, you and I have

kicked this around quite a bit,

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but I just want to revisit it.

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I think it's it's evergreen as

far as the topic is concerned,

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but A young earth view.

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So that's, that's my personal

view is that the earth is

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roughly about 6, 000 years old.

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Um, give or take, and for me, that's a

pretty important position to hold to.

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And I think you're with me in the

younger position, but would you say it's

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necessary to hold to a younger position?

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As a Christian, that it's a

point of necessity for us to

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hold to that point of view.

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That's a really important

question for all of us to answer.

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And I'm going to give you the short answer

and it's no, I don't really important,

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really, really important stuff here.

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And that's why people have argued

and debated about it for so long.

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But I'll also say that there's

lots of godly people who

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people that you would respect.

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I think Spurgeon is one of them.

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Who don't hold to that same view

that we would say are clearly Godly

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men who are of high quality caliber

people, uh, that people will respect.

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And so we have to have some doctrinal

humility here to say, look, there are

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certain things that are more clear to us.

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And there might've been 200 years

ago or 500 years ago, or even at the

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beginning of the church, 2000 years ago.

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And the reason why is because we

stand on the shoulders of giants.

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So on the one hand, I think there's

compelling evidence to suggest we're

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probably looking at a a 24 hour

time frame here of six literal days

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and on the seventh day God rests.

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We think this makes the most sense of

the text and the totality of scripture

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and in addition to the To uh to what

jesus says later on in the gospels so we

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can feel pretty confident and convicted

This is this is the right position.

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We should feel that way honestly But at

the same time have the doctrine humility

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to say look if I have a brother or sister

who's a believer And is approaching this

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with a different perspective We don't

have to automatically throw the H word at

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them and say you're no longer in Christ

to get out of my face I'm cutting you off.

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You're clearly a heretic So I would

say there's a there's a good deal of

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credibility to the 24 hour six literal

day creation Approach to scripture, but

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I would also say that if someone if one

of our friends is holding to a different

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position I'm not gonna throw them out

of the church at least not immediately

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How would you approach the TPJ?

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Yeah, I would agree with the caveat.

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It depends upon the position being held.

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Touche.

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That's an important part, too.

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I think probably the most common

alternative position that you'll hear

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within the confines of evangelical

Christianity is one that's known as

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the day age theory or the gap theory.

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That between Genesis 1 1 and Genesis

1 2, which is the gap theory,

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there could have been, you know,

millions or billions of years.

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The day age, they would say it's,

it's not a literal 24 hour period, but

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more a period of ages that each day

represents, um, the, the, where I would

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draw the line is with theistic evolution.

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I don't think theistic evolution fits

within the confines of a, an orthodox

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Christianity, because I think it

calls into question too much regarding

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creation and the, the clear testimony

of scripture to allow for the idea

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that, that, God used evolution in the

create creative in the creative process.

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Um, so I think it depends on the view, but

generally speaking, no, I don't think it's

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a direct measure of orthodoxy, but I do

think it, and you said this is important

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and it's, it is significant for us.

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Let's move on to another issue here.

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That's raised in Genesis one that I

think is important for us to consider.

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And that is the fact that we are created

in the image of God, which is what

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separates mankind from the rest of.

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Creation, um, God says multiple times,

he says, we want to create them in our

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image after our likeness, verse 27.

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So in his own image, in the

image of God, he created them.

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It's stressed there.

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It's emphasized by Moses as

Moses is writing these things.

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So how do we understand PR

the significance of being

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created in the image of God?

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If God is spirit, we're not going

to say that this is a physical

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resemblance, but in what ways do

we image God as his image bearers?

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One of the cool things about studying this

particular topic is, is I think one of

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the best answers that you'll come across,

and there are many answers to this.

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Uh, one of the most common that you'll

hear is that we possess emotion,

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intellect, and will, that we reflect

God in that particular aspect,

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and that's one of the things that

distinguishes us from the animals.

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But, and that, there may

be some truth to that.

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Uh, you get into really choppy

waters though when you start to ask

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the question, okay, well if someone

is born without an intellect, And

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without regard for their emotions,

without the ability to control their

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emotions, are they less image of God?

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Are they less a person?

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And of course we'd say, no, of course not.

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That would include babies.

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You know, babies may not have the

ability to have the same intellectual

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capacity as I do, but they're just as

much an image bearer as the next guy.

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Uh, similarly, if you have someone who has

a mental incapacities in some way, shape,

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or form, you're not going to say, well,

they're less image bearers than myself.

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And of course that's, uh, that,

that kind of theology was a real

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thing, just not too, too long ago.

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Last hundred years, uh, but, but

beyond that, we're going to say that

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one of the best ways to approach this

is that the image of God is stamped

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on the very right of being human.

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It's a positional description,

and not a functional position.

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It has functional implications, but

positionally, we are the image of God.

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We are, um, another way to

put it, are His vice regents.

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We're his representatives and that

position does not change whether you're

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Christian or non You are an image bearer,

but as image bearers There are functions

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that come along with that that you can

do to varying degrees better or worse

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So that'd be my short answer is it was

that is that something you're looking

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for or do you want to add on to that?

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Yeah, no that that's that's helpful.

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I would agree with that it the the

idea of the dignity that's in imbued

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in Humanity as a result of this It's

repeated even this idea just to stress

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the importance of it in Genesis 5

1 It says this is the book of the

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generations of Adam when God created man.

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He made him in the likeness of God and

so this idea of Right, but but just the

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get that for free Of being created in

the image of God is significant here.

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It's it's repeated.

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It's something that matters and so along

those lines We had an email submitted

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to us uh from one of our listeners lily

and kim wrote in and said hey, we're

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watching something and uh, There was

a recent pig Kidney transplant with

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10 genetic changes that was planted

into a human being so wow pastor Are

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we doing damage to the image of god?

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If we are taking the organs of animals

and using them now to transplant them

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and sustain life in a human being.

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Is there something that we as

Christians need to be uncomfortable

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with on that or is this something

that we're like, yes, bring on the

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wild west of genetic transplants

and let's see what happens here.

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Man, this is such a fun question.

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I thank you Lillian for sending this

in because I've been noodling on

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it for a few days now, just trying

to trying to ingest the ethical

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implications of what we're doing.

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And I have a couple quick thoughts.

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The first thought is to what you were

saying ppj does this in any way violate

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or compromise the image bearing status?

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And I don't I would say not necessarily

Because it is a biblical principle that

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we utilize As image bearers as as a vice

regents of creation those who are to take

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dominion over creation We're to utilize

god's creation to support humanity So on

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the one hand I could see this being a very

cool development where we're saying hey,

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there's enough Genetic similarity and with

these tweaks that we can now do with our

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technology We can make the human body be a

willing recipient to a foreign organ which

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baffles my mind The fact that it belongs

to a pig or some other farm animal I guess

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for that matter can be disturbing but

it can also be a really cool thing that

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god has said Look, you you've discovered

something that I intended for you to find

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And clearly, he intended for that, because

we're here, and we have the wisdom to know

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if it works, and if it can be received.

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So, I think this is of God, and

it doesn't necessarily violate.

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Human and, uh, human dignity or the image

bearing status where I think you can get

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into tricky and choppy waters is when

you're more so you do it with one organ.

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Fantastic.

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What about two organs or three?

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Or you start replacing that right arm

with a hoof because hey, we can do it

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now and we can make the body receive it.

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At some point, you're going to cross the

line between this is a good and godly

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utility of technology and, and science

versus this is now a distortion of that

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thing or body modification becomes a

thing in and of itself where people

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are doing this all over the place.

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I mean, I could look at plastic surgery.

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You may not be ingesting animals

into your body, but you're ingesting

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animal based products into your

body, your lips, or wherever else

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you might want to enhance or change.

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So I think the question has been asked

before, just in a different application.

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Again, with body modification

as it pertains to surgeries

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and, and things like that.

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But when it comes to life saving

mechanisms, I'm a lot more open to it.

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Positive on that because of its supporting

human life, which again, Jesus is going to

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do, or rather God's going to do that when

he kills animals to clothe Adam and Eve.

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And so I see God saying, look, I can,

I can expend an animal for your good.

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I see the same principle at work

in theory, at least in principle,

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but not necessarily in every

possible application of using an

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animal to support a human being.

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Does that make sense?

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Would you clarify anything on that?

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Yeah, no, I think that makes sense.

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I think your answer is spot on.

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Um, In that and it's it's not

compromising the immaterial either, right?

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The immaterials are our soul there's

there's no way to take the soul of

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an animal and and transplant it into

the the soul of a human being and

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and you're not playing in other words

with the the eternal components there.

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Um, our bodies are going

to go from dust to dust.

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In fact, in chapter two, we read about

that God created Adam from the dust

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and the significance of life in Adam is

found in two seven, where it says that

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he breathed into his nostrils, the breath

of life, the breath, the word Ruach in

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the Hebrew there is the same word that

is used for the spirit in Old Testament.

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And so, um, We get the

immaterial measure there.

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Now, I agree with you if we're all

of a sudden, well, I want legs of

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a horse and the torso of a bull.

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And now we're playing God in

ways that that is to the extreme.

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We're not far from that though.

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I'm guessing we're not far from that.

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Yeah, right Chronicles of

Narnia coming to life real live

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action Chronicles of Narnia.

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Thumbness!

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He's here!

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But yeah, if this is more like this

I mean if if I'm buried and my my pig

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kidney is going to Disintegrate and

go back into the dust just like my

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human kidney would disintegrate and go

back into the dust But that pig kidney

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sustained my life by an extra 15 to 20

years so that I was able to serve the

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Lord more faithfully During that time I

don't think that's calling into question

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anything about my dignity or the creation

order as God has ordained it to be.

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That's a fun question.

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Thanks for sending that in, Lillian.

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Great question.

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Great question.

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We're not done with it.

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We're just, we're just saying that's

about as much as we can say right now.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Uh, chapter two, we do get

into the creation of humanity

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zoomed in a little bit more.

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Um, we, uh, find something interesting

here about the description of Eden

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and where Eden, this garden is, by the

way, uh, there is a YouTube channel.

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I've plugged it before.

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Let me plug it again for you

here and I'll do it again.

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I'm sure throughout the year, but

expedition Bible expedition Bible.

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Uh, he's got a video up on YouTube

called searching for the garden of Eden.

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Pishon River, searching for the

Garden of Eden's Pishon River.

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And I would commend that video to you.

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It's fascinating as he's trying to

find where were these four rivers?

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Where did they go?

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Where perhaps was Eden when

it was in its existence there?

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And so it's worth watching that video.

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That video, but chapter two,

he walks through, uh, the,

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the, the formation of mankind.

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Uh, he also in chapter two,

we, we find the first law given

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and that's in Genesis 2 17.

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And this is going to be significant

for chapter three, because he says

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here, the tree of the knowledge of

good and evil do not eat from that

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tree in, uh, in Romans chapter five,

Paul makes an argument that's, that

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this is important to understand for it.

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Cause in chapter five, verse 14.

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He says that death reigned, uh,

over those whose sin was not like

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Adam, uh, between Adam and Moses.

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And why, what made Adam's sin

unlike the sin of those that

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live between Adam and Moses?

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Well, Adam had law, and

that's what we find here.

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God said, don't do this, and it was

codified, and Adam transgressed that

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law, that law that he was guilty to,

to, uh, or accountable to, rather.

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And so we get the law there in

217 chapter three, uh, they're

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going to break that law.

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And you probably know the story at

this point, but, uh, the serpent

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comes up by the way, again, the

serpents talking and Eve is not

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freaking out about a talking snake.

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And so apparently creation order

looked different at that point

381

than it does today, because

animals aren't talking to us today.

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Who knows what it will be like

in the new, new earth, but here.

383

All right.

384

Well, animals aren't talking to me, Dr.

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Doolittle.

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Um, but, uh, the, the, you, if

you familiar with the text, you

387

know, the story, he questions God,

he undermines the word of God.

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He causes doubt to creep in and

that eventually leads to the fall.

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Uh, God confronts and it's a

gracious thing for God to call

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Adam out, say, Adam, where are you?

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Uh, this is an act of grace and mercy

from God that he is drawing Adam into

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repentance so that Adam could be forgiven.

393

Amen.

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And restored and have the promise

given even in 315 of the what's

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called the proto euangelion, the

first gospel, this hope that we have,

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that he would, uh, bruise his heel.

397

That is Satan would bruise the heel

of the offspring of the woman, but

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the offspring of the woman would

crush his head, the serpent's head.

399

So looking forward to Jesus

already here in Genesis 315.

400

So a lot happens again,

creation, big picture chapter one

401

creation of mankind chapter two.

402

And then the follow me and Kat chapter 3.

403

Anything more on this?

404

Yeah, yeah, just one quick thing here.

405

One of the cool things that you're

not going to think of it as cool

406

But death here is actually a sign

of god's mercy Just as you're saying

407

it was a sign of god's mercy to call

out for adam and say where are you?

408

Now god's mercy is displayed in letting

them die Because if they ate of the tree

409

of knowledge or ate of the tree of life

and ate The for eternity, if it lived

410

for eternity, they would be subject to

the curse of sin and eternal existence

411

beyond that, uh, which would be awful.

412

So it's really, it's a really good

thing here that God says, I'm going to

413

make you die in response to your sin

and not let you live forever because

414

that would be a catastrophe for you.

415

That would that would all right.

416

Well, there you go.

417

One in the can one done.

418

Congratulations.

419

You made it 64 more to go

Yep, but hey, uh, let me pray

420

and then we'll be done god.

421

We we do.

422

Thank you for your word We do thank

you for your grace and your mercy to

423

us of drawing us into repentance and

confession even in giving us your spirit

424

as believers as we understand that now in

the new testament area As christians who

425

have the spirit within us the conviction

that we feel is an Yep evidence of your

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grace and your mercy to prompt us to

Confess and to seek your forgiveness

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and just like you were able to forgive

adam and eve you've forgiven us not

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with the sacrifice of an animal to cover

our Our shame but with the sacrifice of

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your son to provide forgiveness through

the blood of christ And so we pray that

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we would always be quick to keep short

accounts with you And be ready to stand

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before you when you call us to be home

with you And so we ask that this year

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would just be a great year a year that

we are committed to your word that we

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are Persevering in our time in your word

and that we reap many benefits from that

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time And so we pray this in jesus name.

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Amen.

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Amen All right, y'all keep reading your

bibles tuning again tomorrow for another

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edition of the daily bible podcast.

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Bye