David: 0:02

Welcome to the Boundless Bible. My name is David Shapiro. Hey, I'm Javi.

Jason: 0:06

Marquez, and I'm Jason Holloway.

David: 0:14

Welcome to the Boundless Bible. Hey guys, how are you doing? What's going on, guys? How's it going? Today is a special day. We have a great guest. Our guest today is Brian Osborne. He's an incredible speaker and apologetics expert with a passion for defending biblical authority and reaching the lost with the gospel. He's an author of Quick Answers to Tough Questions and Quick Answers to Social Issues. With over 20 years of experience teaching and equipping youth and families, brian equips the believers of all ages with biblical truth, helping Christians defend their faith. He currently serves on staff with Answers in Genesis, speaking at conferences and churches all around the world. Welcome, brian.

Javi: 0:53

Welcome.

David: 0:54

Great to be with you guys, happy to have you. Yes, we are very excited about this. Before we jump in and start picking your brain a little bit, why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself?

Bryan: 1:04

Sure, yes, I'm a little bit. Why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself? Sure, yeah, so I'm a Carolina boy. I grew up in North Carolina, born and raised, moved to Tennessee when I went to college, met my wife there, went to a place called Bryan College Not because of the name, but this is where God put me and then I met my wife there. We got married, went to graduate from there, had a major in biblical studies, minors in Greek Christian education Got directed to me cool story, no time now but to become a Bible history teacher in a public school. I was in Tennessee, did that for 13 years and then, in the course of doing that, got pretty passionate about apologetics, in particular. Creation of apologetics. Started from the beginning and then God opened doors for me to go to Answers in Genesis about 11 years ago, and so I moved up here to Northern Kentucky, worked for Answers in Genesis as a speaker, literally traveling all over the place.

Bryan: 1:47

Christian faith challenging non-believers, written a few different books, by God's grace. If you ask my high school English teacher, could this guy ever write a book? The answer would be a hard no and that's just not going to happen. But God is powerful and loves using weak things to shame the wise, and so, yeah, now I work as a speaker, content, content specialists and do all sorts of things with answers to Genesis. And if you want to familiar with who we are, we are a biblical authority ministry. We are really about defending biblical authority. That's a heartbeat. Now we give answers about a lot of origin stuff because that's our focus in Genesis. That's where the attack and the big waste happening on biblical authority. Uh, but the whole point is defending biblical authority and the gospel rooted in that authority. That's who we are.

David: 2:27

You're in good company. By the way, I was raised. I was dyslexic most of my life and I'm actually coming out with a book this year, so the same thing Praise God.

Bryan: 2:36

My English teacher would have said there's no way.

David: 2:39

So you're in good company. So just as a real easy, fun question to start with, if you can visit any site from biblical history, where would you go?

Bryan: 2:49

and why it might be the battle between David and Goliath or the valley right there, I don't know. It just sounds cool to me. Of course, the most biblical holy thing would be, say, where Jesus was crucified, or the tomb, the resurrection, that's. Probably that should be number one. But just think about biblical history, david and Goliath, seeing that firsthand, kind of envisioning that That'd be pretty cool.

David: 3:09

I love that answer and, just out of curiosity, teaching a Bible in a in a public school, that had to have been, I mean, political at best, but really difficult. Tell us about that a little bit.

Bryan: 3:21

It was a wonderful thing, a great experience. That was in Tennessee, so there was a different place. It's not California or New York or something like that and it was 13 years ago when I started man, or sorry, it was 11 years ago, started 24 years ago, so it was before some of the craziness in our culture had got so crazy, but still it was interesting, to say the least. But it was biblical history, so I wasn't doing it wasn't proselytizing we're praying in the classroom or something like that. I'm going through biblical history old testament, one semester new testament and another just teaching the bible.

Bryan: 3:55

And as a bible teacher, the rule basically was I could answer any of my students questions, as long as I just used the Bible. I did not give my opinion, which, if you know anything about apologetics done rightly. That's what apologetics is Just tell you what the Bible says. And so it was a great training ground for me to learn how to answer from a, from the Bible on many issues, because I taught high schoolers. They ask all the best and craziest questions, so you got to learn to kind of deal with that from a perspective. So God was gracious in that. But yeah, it was amazing Fun I had a great time with it, especially that time in my life, and, yeah, I'm glad to be out doing what I do now, but definitely got used in many ways.

Jason: 4:35

What a training ground, though right. Like you said, you got these young kids who are surrounded by society. They're being filled with all these different ideas and you get to answer them using the Bible, about the Bible, not with opinion, not with you know, maybe even past tradition, but just speaking directly to the facts and figures of the Bible.

Bryan: 4:57

Oh yeah, no, it's phenomenal and I would honestly say most Christians who benefit from that part of our ministry is a lot of Christians have not been taught to defend their faith, to think biblically from the ground up, to have a biblical worldview, and since we haven't been taught that, we don't have to deal with issues in a real, biblically effective way. So that was such a blessing to me. God was gracious to do it and it's obvious now, looking back, he was preparing me for what I'm doing to train Christians to do just that. Indeed, indeed.

David: 5:23

Now with that worldview? Actually, one of the questions is in what ways have Christians unknowingly adopted a culture-first lens instead of a scripture worldview?

Bryan: 5:32

Yeah, well, it's multiple ways. A lot of it comes out of big biblical ignorance, not knowing the Bible, not knowing what it teaches, not being rooted in God's word. And then, of course, we're saturated by culture. We live in this culture. And, and then, of course, we're saturated by culture, we live in this culture.

Bryan: 5:44

And so if you don't make a conscious effort to really think through the ideas that it's pushing forward, if you just basically, consciously or subconsciously adopt them, then you'll be advocating for ideas that are not biblical and you'll hear slogans in our culture that sound good on the surface, like love is love. Oh well, I mean love, love's fluffy, love's great. Yeah, we should be all for love as love. Oh well, I mean, love, love's fluffy, love's great. Yeah, we should be all for love as Christians. That sounds good, let's go for that.

Bryan: 6:07

Well, you know what you got to define love biblically and also to look at how they're defining what love is and then, be sure, using the biblical definition. So, whether it's about that, or even about origins, and defining what science is and defining history and understanding the difference between operational versus historical science, and where people get confused on that and where people hear ideas about evolution and millions of years. I think, oh well, that's science not really recognizing, that's an interpretation based on assumptions we did in a secular worldview about history. Then they embrace those ideas and just treat them as fact and try to squeeze them into the bible. And that's what so many christians unknowingly do. They take popular secular ideas, think they're right and then try to squeeze them into the Bible, to try to make the Bible, say, this popular cultural idea. And when you do that, it's something called eisegesis, where you're trying to squeeze ideas into God's word and that makes you the authority over God's word, which should never be the case. And so I think in a big way we see that happening in many cases.

Jason: 7:02

That's interesting. Can I ask you a question? You used a terminology I'm not familiar with. You talked about operational science versus. I didn't catch the first, I forgot the first word. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Bryan: 7:15

Oh, absolutely yeah, it's one of the big things we talk about within the ministry. So operational science versus historical science or origin science, and so the word science just means knowledge or to know. But how do we gain that knowledge? We kind of call that scientific method, but it's kind of science today, the method you use to accumulate knowledge, manipulate that knowledge and then to make stuff to hopefully bless humanity. But you can break that down to basic categories and ones I just mentioned operational versus historical. And this is such a key difference.

Bryan: 7:41

Operational science is here and now science. It's observable, testable, repeatable and falsifiable. It's, uh, someone in a laboratory missing chemical a with chemical b. The result. They repeat the process, accumulate knowledge and then use that. They get the same answer again. Exactly right. And, by the way, operational science is only possible because the bible is true, because the god of all things made not only the tangible universe but he made the immaterial universe. He made the laws of nature, he made the laws of logic and holds them consistent. So we can do science. To begin with, I tell people all the time it's not science versus the bible, it's science because of, yeah, the bible I tell my son that a lot actually I'm like you know.

Jason: 8:21

It's interesting that we don't take time often to imagine. Why do the cells in our bodies stay in the place they are? Why doesn't my finger just become a hand every now and then? You know?

Bryan: 8:29

why doesn't?

Jason: 8:30

why doesn't my? Why isn't the knuckle in my finger a knee? You know it. There's not. There's nothing causing that order, other than the fact that jesus caused the or that god caused the order, and that's the origin of science right the physics, the physics the psychology, the science, all of it behind it. It all comes from that original origin, which is God.

Bryan: 8:50

And you take it one step further. Not just the material things, but also the immaterial, like laws of science. Why don't laws of gravity randomly change? Why don't we weigh 10 pounds more than we used to? Well, we might, but it's not because gravity changed, amen. That's a different issue that we used to Well, we might, but it's not because gravity changed, amen. That's a different issue that we have to deal with. Right, but laws of physics, laws of chemistry, laws of logic, laws of non-contradiction, why is it the case that you can't have A and not A at the same time? Same relationship. Why is that a law? Why doesn't it change? Why is it true, existent and exist everywhere?

Jason: 9:26

those laws come from him, come from his thinking right and he does not change.

Bryan: 9:27

Amen. It makes sense of the worldview. The secular worldview has no foundation for that. So I love that's all. A whole different category I love talking about too.

Bryan: 9:34

But get back to, uh, operational versus historical science. So operational, you do it here now, it's observable, accumulate knowledge. Historical science is when you're living in the present, trying to figure out what happened in the unseen past to bring about what we're looking at today. So it's kind of like forensic science. You know, watch the CSIs, there's some of those type shows where there's a crime scene, the crime's overdone with no one saw it. You get there. There are clues. You must interpret those clues. You make assumptions about what happened in the unseen past to try to put it all together. Same thing with origin science. We have the present day world. How did it get here? Who did it? What caused it? Why do we see these different things? You must interpret present day clues through a set of assumptions about the unseen past. And here's the key If you start with the wrong assumptions, put your faith in the wrong foundational authority, you'll get the wrong conclusions.

Bryan: 10:23

And bottom line, gentlemen, there's only two foundational worldviews Either God's word is your authority and he builds your thinking from there? Trust the I with the account of the creator himself, or reject God's word. What are you left with Man's ideas? You're putting your faith in man's authority. Put your faith in one or the other. We all got faith. Just where do you put it? And so, for evolution, what's happened with that is you have people come along in the 1800s who rejected biblical authority, rejected biblical history. You try to explain all things with only natural processes, and so they used a naturalistic, secular, humanistic worldview to interpret all things, all things, to make a guess about origins. And so evolution, big bang, is rooted in a rejection of biblical authority, biblical history, and an embracing of man's word as the authority. And so, but again, when you're doing historical science, you're making guesses based on assumptions, based on authority. Operational is just here and now science.

David: 11:13

So let me ask you because originally you were talking about how there are Christians who kind of blend the two. They go okay, I believe in God, I believe in Christ, I believe all this happened, but I also believe in billions of years and what science has told me, in secular science and all that. And I, I actually started off my journey when I first accepted christ. I'm like great, I'm a scientist, I accept christ, I'm going forward and I believe that you know, there's the gap theory and that's kind of the one I stuck to for a while and I'm going. Hey, you know that there could have been God also, a day for him could have been millions of years.

David: 11:47

And then when you get into the actual wording of it and the translation, you realize no, a day is a literal day, and you know all the arguments you've heard. Yeah, one of the things we do here is we have three people from three very different walks of faith one who is more literal, one who's more symbolic and one who is just a faithful lover of Christ and we come together and the translation becomes something that we try to pursue. We try to pursue the truth in translation. So somebody who is a Christian who is saying, hey, I believe in Christ, but I'm also believing in this secular science that I've learned growing up, what would you say to them? As far as, where can they do some research? Where can they start getting some truth if they want to? You know, they don't even know what they don't know yet.

Bryan: 12:34

Right, yeah, hey, I'll first say this. Now I've been there, I've walked that path, so I'm not coming to this as someone who grew up in a home that always believed. Six day creation, global flood, literal Adam. My parents, my Christian upbringing we never talked about it. It wasn't something we really dealt with that much. When I got saved, I was 17. Was in Christ, I was passionate about him and I wasn't worried about all this stuff, just trusting Jesus and preach the gospel and which it's not. That's not in one sense, it's not a bad thing, but in another sense it can be. If we were missing a key thing. I'll come back to it in a moment. But I so when I first started engaging these ideas no-transcript years later, the guy really kind of opened my eyes to number one, why it matters, and then what the issue is. So why it matters. In short, today, if you think about it, people are. You know. We tell people just trust in Jesus. We tell our kids just trust in Jesus. You meet the guy on the street trust in Jesus.

Bryan: 13:37

But those who don't believe, especially today, they're going to push back and, in their mind at least, say this why should I trust in your Jesus? Because the message of salvation through Christ alone comes from the Bible. And if I can't believe the first part of the Bible, why trust the middle or the end? You see, either all of God's word is authoritative, trustworthy and true, or none of it is. That's really the core issue. If I can't believe what the Bible clearly says in Genesis 1, 2, and 3, why trust John 3? Why trust Revelation? It's an issue of authority and for so many people in their minds today, they think the Bible's authority has been undermined by evolution in millions of years. It's disproved biblical history. So if the Bible's history is wrong, well, I can reject everything else. I can redefine morality, redefine gender, redefine sexuality, I can redefine morality. I can redefine everything because it's just up to me now, because I've rejected God's word, and so it's an issue of authority at an evangelistic level. That's really one of the reasons.

Bryan: 14:34

And then, as Christians, what we want to do and kind of what you're saying, we want to come to the text and say what does the text say in context? I want God's word be the authority. And even if the conclusion is unpopular, if I'm being faithful to the text, reading it in context, in its right literature, right genre, within the broader context of historical context, all those things grammatical, historical, narrative type interpretation. If I'm doing that correctly, rightly, and this is what it says about marriage, gender, origins, well, that's what I'm going to believe, even if the culture does not like it. And then we're going to see. As we do that, as we stand on God's word and have a biblical worldview, an amazing thing happens. Science confirms the Bible. We'll see that. Real observations confirm what the Bible actually says about origins, age of the earth, global gender, sexuality and so forth.

Bryan: 15:24

And so for me, it was the journey, was, you know, first not worrying about it at all. Then I got confronted with this truth of wow, okay, if I embrace these ideas, I'm embracing non-biblical ideas, I'm undermining biblical authority. And so I gotta make a choice. Am I going to repent, submit to god's word, put my faith there, or am I going to keep just trudging on my own ideas and still kind of try to trumpet those over what god's word says? And so it's about, it's a matter of submission. And actually my wife and I both say that when, um, god got a hold of me on this probably, I guess, 20 years ago now, um, there was a reformation in our lives because we had to do some inventory. Okay, we were compromising here, we didn't know we were, but then we didn't know, but we found out and so we started saying, okay, well, where else might we be compromising God's word and really doing a heart check there? And God used powerful ways to do this today.

Jason: 16:10

So, brian, let me ask you a question, because we talk about the importance of, you know, leaning into the text because of its authority. Like you just said and I agree with you a hundred percent I think the authority of the Bible is, you know, unquestionably important, right? So? But now there's the there's the difference between authority in terms of literalism and meaning as well, right, I think there's different people who take this in different ways, and I'm I'm not standing on one side of the other, but, um, I'm curious what your thought. In fact, let me be honest, it's not that I do or don't stand on one side, but I'm a person who went to—I actually went to a Christian college for my first college. I wanted to be a pastor, I was in Old Testament, new Testament classes, and there was some very challenging stuff that they admitted was very challenging stuff in those classes, and I asked one of the professors how they got through this literal reading when there's some things that seem to be non-literal, or contradictory, or controversial or any number of things.

Jason: 17:09

And his answer was very clearly you know, I just have faith, I believe in it. I have faith, which was a great answer in context of what he was thinking in his mind. But to an 18 year old kid I figured, hey, I must not have faith if I'm having a problem with this stuff. Um, it must not be a thing that I hold on to. So literalism is one of the things that pushed me away for 20 some years. So I wonder how you would address authority through literalism, or or if it's only literalism, if it's literalism plus metaphor and plus meaning, plus significance, or just where you? What's your stance to somebody who's having a problem with the literalism or has been pushed away because of it?

Bryan: 17:47

Yeah, no, it's a great. That's a great question and let me kind of miss answering your first question a second ago for more resources to give to dive deep into this. Answers and Genesis dot org. Check that out. Go to YouTube, check out YouTube page Tons of videos there to dive deep in all this.

Bryan: 18:02

But that's a great question, what you pose right now, and there's a key word there and we like to say that we take the Bible naturally. We read it in context, because we get accused all the time from actually Christians and non-Christians alike of being over literal. Like you're just literalist, you interpret everything in the Bible Literally. When Jesus says I am a door, you think he's got hinges and swings back and forth, right, right, no right. We read the Bible naturally. We read it in its context. So if I'm reading historical narrative, I read it as historical narrative. If I'm reading poetry, I read it as poetical, and even in a historical account someone might break out in poetry. I don't interpret their poetry as literal and that historical account, because you just read it as what the context demands and so you read it naturally and so that's that's taking the bible at face value and letting it be the authority and that's part of the right interpretation apparatus a good hermeneutic, reading it naturally, and you can follow, you can follow, you can fall off the wagon on both sides, of course. Uh, for example. Uh, people today and've been there and we can talk about this.

Bryan: 19:02

Who will take Genesis and say, well, I don't think it's literal, I'll try to interpret it in a symbolic way and make it long periods of time and take passages of the Bible, try to affirm that which is wrong and we'll get into why that's wrong in a minute and the others will try to take political passages and try to make them literal. Right, we'll try to take political passages and try to make them literal. For example, there is, unfortunately there's a decent movement of people within the world today leaning towards like a flat earth ideology. And for Christians who are embracing that ideology, what do they go to? Biblically? They typically go to like Psalms, where it says he lays the foundation of the earth. The earth cannot be moved. It's got the rest of all the pillars of the earth and you got the four corners of the earth, and in those passages it's all about describing how the earth will not be moved. God's going to hold it fast. It won't be destroyed randomly. God's got it under control. The whole point of speaking at that point is God's got it, it's not going to fall apart, but they interpret it literally. Let's take a political passage and interpret it literally and get a really bad conclusion based on that so you can fall off the wagon, either side Agreed.

Bryan: 19:59

So that's why it's so important that the text is our authority in its right, proper context. And so when you go to Genesis in particular, what we deal with so often, the text is literally about the most historical text in the entire Old Testament, based on the Hebrew language. Hebrew verbs are used. The walk and second is, which are cause and effect, and then this happened, and then this happened. The language there in Genesis, it's literally as historical as it can get, and so the context is historical. And then when we look at day for Genesis the way it's written, the context, it's a very 24 hour day, and when you allow that to be your authority, then that's your interpretive apparatus for creation, origins and so forth.

Jason: 20:34

Yeah, so that's a really great point. You know, you have to know the context of what you're reading and whether it's a poem or whether it's meant to be one of any of the number of the things you just said. How would somebody who's getting into the Bible know what are some resources that could help them to know? Hey, I'm reading this part and I should be taking it like this, not like that. Is that something that your Answers in Genesis organization does or is that something else you know? Oh, absolutely.

Bryan: 21:02

Of course, we tend to focus on Genesis. Right, that's where we're at and the Bible's got so much content. There's some other great ministries that will deal with some of the other books in detail. We cover so much of biblical history. We have multiple curriculums, go through the entire Bible, all biblical history and so like our ABC curriculum, which is good for homeschooling or churches, definitely a good place to start. But as far as Genesis, our website answersandgenesisorg, and our YouTube with our videos or answerstv, our streaming platform, any of those sorts of things where we have tons of teaching that helps break down why this is historical narrative, why we interpret it within this framework, within the Bible as the authority, and narrative, why we interpret it within this framework, within the bible as the authority, and how science confirms it. And it's really it's a fun thing because once you do that, the reason I think christians have been so squishy on many things is like they feel like, okay, I can't take the bible, but it seems to plainly say over here, and so if I can't trust genesis, maybe marriage or gender sexuality, the old testament seems kind of like god seems harsh anyway. So I'm just gonna stick Jesus, trust in Jesus, and they won't take a stand on cultural issues because they feel like they have no foundational authority to stand on. But when you take Genesis as it's written, plain history, you have the origin of creation, order, the origin of two genders, the origin of biblical sexuality, the origin of marriage, origin and sanctity of life. That's all in Genesis, by the way. The origin of the equality of every human being, made in God's image, from for realization. That goes back to Genesis, chapters one, two and three. When you have that, you get the foundation to address even the social issues of our day in an effective way. So it's not just a matter of winning debates about origins or ready to make sure dating or just the starlight, or who came married. We give answers to all that stuff, but it's about defending biblical authority. That radiates how we answer so many other questions and then how we stand effectively and be salt and light, like it has called us to do, and so I'd say our website is a great place to start.

Bryan: 22:47

If you like watching videos youtube, there's a ton there to walk you through the bible's history. Have you understand what's being said there? I'd also say this, though if you're being honest with yourself when you're reading the bible, if you just read the bible and read it, just keep going through and read it. Naturally it's pretty self evident in many cases. When you get the psalms, like you can tell if you're being honest, like there's poetry going on here, yeah, you get the proverbs, you can tell that's, that's someone, that's like you know, that's like you. The, the old guy stroking his beard, giving you wisdom as he's got. Not, no offense against your beard, your beard's great. But I'm saying like the Kung Fu master, you know, back in the day with a long beard, and you know there's wisdom being passed down there. Those aren't absolute promises, they're general wisdom, generally. True, that's Proverbs and you get.

Bryan: 23:31

If you read Genesis, just read it. If you had no inkling of evolution in millions of years, if you just read genesis 1 to 11, you get just a plain, straightforward reading of god spoken into existence immediately. Well, he's god, he can do that. That makes sense. And then he made man on day six and there was eve, and then there was the fall, and then there was a flood, there was a global flood. It covered all high mountains of entire heavens. I mean, you just can't get away from it. The text is really clear and so read it. Naturally you can tell uh that I'm gonna. I've been for a long time, so maybe I'm assuming, maybe there's too much there, but I think there's a negative truth in that. But we help along the way as well.

Javi: 24:05

I would agree with that. I was going to say I love what you're mentioning before about you know, knowing those historical stuff or just knowing the Bible more especially in Genesis and all that. To me as I look further into it, it strengthened my faith more to know that there has been findings, there is. This is what it really means. When it says Genesis means it is literally one day or two days, whatever it is, and I think and I encourage anyone to continue to look further, to look at your website Answers in Genesis I think it's incredible what you guys are doing and obviously having the museum there and kind of seeing the lifelike. Oh man, it's amazing.

Bryan: 24:40

There's so much there.

Javi: 24:41

Yeah, but I just wanted to just kind of double down on that and just anyone out there just listening, I think knowing further into the historic of our faith and just kind of what happened and how God moved throughout you know, his lights and all that stuff, um, it's only going to strengthen your faith not really push your way, and I would, and I would say too so again, brian.

Jason: 25:03

I was out of the faith for many, many years. I only kind of came back in, maybe two, a little over two years ago now. I mean I I from from eight to 18, I had a solid, solid foundation, so I didn't walk in with nothing. But the one thing I've noticed coming back is I'm going to go back to that original thought of authority right when I didn't have a sense of authority.

Jason: 25:22

Everything had the possibility of being authority. And so you're chasing and chasing and chasing truth. And look, I think it's great to chase truth, I think it's great to seek after truth and to try and find truth. But the funny thing is, you know, you spend 25 years searching neurology, psychology, you know philology, philosophies, you know the whole, you know everything. And it's funny that the truth you end up finding is already sitting there in the Bible, like it was already sitting there the whole time and like it was great to search for it. It's just ironic that it was kind of where it started, or maybe not ironic at all, maybe it's ironic for me being the moron who walked away and tried to go find it on my own. But you know, I think that authority is so important because now that I have it back, so many things fall in line, so much easier.

Jason: 26:07

So many things are answered so much more clearly and so much of my life can be directed so much more simply, it just opens up your you know, your eyes and all that stuff.

Bryan: 26:19

Absolutely Go for it.

Bryan: 26:22

Go for it. Just real quick. I've been speaking in generality so much because I'm trying to cover a bunch of material and get to bigger ideas. Let me just say I do whole talks on rock layers and fossils and radiometric dating and distant starlight and natural selection, evolution and all those things. And so there are other speakers as well. We have PhD scientists in genetics and geology and astronomy. They're really smart people in those different fields. If they go to YouTube they can look up, just if they want kind of layman's straightforward understanding. My name, brian Osborne, answers in Genesis. You'll see me talk on dinosaurs, age of the earth, rock layers, fossils hour-long talks. They go pretty quickly. A lot of visuals, like I do like 150 slides per presentation. So a few jokes in there. Good or bad, they're in there all right.

Bryan: 27:03

So, uh, hopefully it's not stale. So the answers are there. If you want to dive deep, we're covering a lot very quickly so I know I'm kind of, you know, brushing or painting with a broad brush right now. If people want to go back and find more, definitely look it up on YouTube.

Jason: 27:15

Yeah that'd be great, and you know, even talking about it, I'd love to have you on again to talk about some of that stuff more deeply and really get into the nuts and bolts of it.

David: 27:22

That's fine. Yeah, quick question. Just being a teacher right now is actually the first time in history, statistically, there's a movement where young adults, older teens, are actually coming back to the church at a higher number than ever than ever, um, which you know as as a teacher, it has to be, you know, rewarding and great to see, uh. But how does apologetics play, uh into when a lot of these students sometimes you hear the statistics of when you go to college uh, they begin to fall off from going to church? How do you think apologetics plays in to try to hold some of these youth back into the reality and the truth and keep them into church?

Bryan: 27:58

I think, in a couple of different ways. It's great to see, in some cases, where that's happening. We pray for more and more. That's our hope right Repentance and return to Christ. And I think part of what we're seeing is this as our culture has run headlong in autonomy, rejecting biblical authority I can be my own God, and we're reaping the fruit of that, the more people are realizing well, this fruit is horrible, this fruit is rotten Right and it has no answers for my life. And so the more you play that out and let that happen, like, oh, ok, you think about the transgender movement? Oh, my good heavens.

Bryan: 28:28

And there are heartbreaking testimonies of those who have been captured by the ideology. Had you know, quote-unquote reassignment surgery. Their bodies are mutilated or they've been chemically castrated with horrible chemicals to pursue autonomy. Basically, I can be my own god, I can redefine my gender, and then it doesn't fulfill them and actually they find out they're more broken than what they started with. And now they're maybe, you know, they're just broken. They're looking for answers.

Bryan: 28:50

I think we as a church have an amazing chance, as our culture reach this fruit, to say, hey, I've got the answer to be looking for all along. Right here, amen right, and so it's a great way to you know, a great time. Maybe the harvest is right, you know, for bringing people in on that, based on thinking. So I think that's part of it, I think, as they're coming back to show them, hey, you're right, they don't have answers, we do. God's work can anchor you in everything, not just eternity. Yes, it anchors you in that. It anchors you in meaning and purpose and identity. Eternal destination? Yes, no doubt. But it has relevance to today's issue, to every facet of your life. It is the authority and has answers, whether you're talking about finances, marriage, sex, sexuality, gender, race, racism, critical race theory, wokeism, we're talking about origins. It's got answers to all this stuff because it's the word of God and God gets everything right. And then, as you were saying, when you do that, the Bible comes alive.

Bryan: 29:45

And that's something I found teaching Bible history, Because I talked to the Bible chronologically, I just taught it a straightforward history and I answered their questions and I could see it in my students' minds over the years, when they begin to think, wow, the Bible's history is true, this is legit. Well, if it's right over here, maybe it's right in the middle. Maybe it's right at the end Maybe I should bow the knee to Christ, you know, because they begin to realize oh, this thing's actually real and it is right and true. And so as our kids come back, hopefully more and more, and they want answers, as we give them those answers, they'll be more equipped and more rested on a sure foundation to have answers to defend their faith and then to be the salt and light God's called us to be. You know, you look at 1 Peter, 3, 15, jude 1, 3.

Bryan: 30:25

Those aren't suggestions. Hey, if you feel like it, give an answer for your faith. If you've got time, contend earnestly for the faith. No, if you're a believer, you're called to be an apologist in one way or another. You're called to contend. You're called to give an answer. We're called to evangelize. We're called to get out there in our spheres of influence and make it happen to the glory of God by His power and force. For His sake, we need to be obedient to that assurance as they walk in the faith.

David: 30:55

Amen, it's just pretty solid final word. I do want to talk a little bit about the Ark Museum, but just before we get into there, is there anything else you want to offer listeners who are struggling with trust in the Bible in this age of skepticism? Any last imparting words, like I said, that was pretty powerful right there, but is there? Anything else, that's just hitting your mind that you just want to leave us with.

Bryan: 31:14

I would just share with them as they're listening to this. The Bible is true. It's right about everything. It tells us where we came from, that we are made in God's image. We all have equal value. Because of that Are we different, absolutely, but those differences are glorious. But we're so equal in value because we're made in God's image. The Bible tells us that.

Bryan: 31:30

The Bible tells us we're broken. We're broken by sin. So we can look at this world. We can see beauty those are remnants of God's original creation. But we see also so much brokenness, so much pain. Why? Because man's sin brought death and suffering into God's perfect creation. Friends, god made it perfect. We erected in our sin and since we to the last Adam, jesus Christ.

Bryan: 31:52

We all have that need. Because that reality is a world broken by sin, and that's why we need a savior, because we need someone to come in to pay our sin debt for us, because we can't do it, because God requires perfection. We can't be perfect. So God came and he lived the perfect life. He died on the cross in our place. He paid the perfect, infinite death for our sin that we can never pay and then rose from the grave infinite death for our sin that we can never pay, and then rose from the grave, defeating death which we can never do Repent, put your faith in him. And so we had that need of the last Adam because of the sin of the first Adam.

Bryan: 32:21

All the Bible is true, tells us who we are, tells us what our problem is, tells us what the answer is and where the solution is, what lies for us in eternity. All of it's true. It's right about history, morality, sexuality. It's right about salvation and Christ alone. Trust all of it and as you do that, you can stand on God's word, you'll have answers, can defend your faith, and then we can really be the salt and light God's called us to be. If we'll just stand on God's word, it's really not hard. It may not you heart. It's simple. We stand on God's word, build a biblical worldview and as we do that, we can then be to sound like God's called us to be. And so that'd be my word, my encouragement to those who are listening. It's my challenge to myself on a consistent basis but yeah, god's word is true. Trust it and you'll be the light he's called you to be.

David: 33:03

Amen, Appreciate that. So with the Ark Encounter, I will say quickly when I had graduated with my master's of biblical archaeology, I wanted to go there and I didn't get a chance. And then I just graduated now with my doctorate in religious education and still have not had a chance to go there as a gift to myself? I really would like to, but why don't you just tell us a little bit about it, just to make me feel sorry that I haven't been there yet? Oh man, well, congratulations, number one. That's phenomenal.

Bryan: 33:31

Thank you. And then I would say Make me feel sorry that I haven't been there yet. Oh man. Well, congratulations, number one. That's phenomenal, thank you. And then I would say a couple of things. So they're located in northern Kentucky, right below Cincinnati, and actually if you fly into the CVG, you're about 10 minutes from the museum when you land, and so it's right there.

Bryan: 33:50

The museum is a 75,000 square foot walkthrough biblical history, opened back in 2007. It's all started by a guy named Ken Ham. He's the founder of Angels in Genesis, came out of Australia. He started teaching on this back in 1975. So we're celebrating 50 years for him this year, actually. And yeah, that's really cool.

Bryan: 34:05

But really, what is this walkthrough of the biblical history? It's amazing. It's just showing how the Bible is true. It's done in a world-class way. We say all the time it's true, it's better than Disney for my money, the quality is better, the engagement, it's got. Truth. There's so much for the entire family. And as we walk you through biblical history, we're answering the skeptical questions of this age. If the Bible is true, what about evolution, the age of the earth, who did Cain marry? What? We're not scared of any of that. Their answers to all of that and let me encourage people the answers aren't hard if you just have a biblical foundation. The answers are pretty straightforward, rooted in god's work. So the answer questions defend the faith. You'll see the gospel literally everywhere, because our passion is pointing people to the good news of jesus christ. That's our ultimate passion defending biblical authority, proclaiming the gospel.

Bryan: 34:47

And then at the museum we've got a planetarium which is just world class. There's an amazing show called creative cosmos unbelievable. You want to check that out. Special effects theater 4d special effects theater. A zoo, zip lines, botanical garden. Just opened up a brand new conservatory butterfly house. Uh, our garden is. I'm not a plant guy, but it's, it's awesome. It really is stunning, especially during this peak time times a year. Uh, and you can spend a good two days, maybe three, at the creation museum. It's just in their speakers every day. Animal encounters, there's just I can't keep up with it all. There's so much happening.

Bryan: 35:19

And then the ark is located about 45 minutes south of the museum same ministry, just we were landlocked so we need a different location. And so 45 miles south by 45 minutes south of that, and it's a full-size replica of noah's Over 500 feet long, 85 feet wide, 51 feet tall, three different levels and man. It just makes the Bible come to life. You're seeing it right there in front of you, the actual biblical dimensions. And then, as you go into the ark, there's three levels of teaching the exhibits so many exhibits answering questions about Noah's Ark and flood, rock layers and fossils and geology and the age of the earth and all these different things and why the issue of millions of years actually matters theologically, biblically and connected to the gospel. We didn't get that this time, but it's such a huge issue. If you embrace millions of years, you're putting death before sin and death before sin is theologically impossible and we explain why you can't have that and so go to that more detail both locations.

Bryan: 36:08

And then there are again speakers every day at both the attractions. We have a 2,500-seat auditorium at the Arkham Counter, a big conference hall at the Creation Museum, speakers like myself every day, animal encounters, every day. We have concerts at the Arkham Counter in particular Coming up. We have 40 Days and Nights of Christian Music and we've got multiple artists. If you're into Christian music, some big names coming. Check it out on our website and they're part of your ticket when you come. And it's just crazy. So much happening and so much still coming, by god's grace.

Bryan: 36:34

So I know I'm walking billboard at this point like the micro man trying to talk as fast as I can, squeeze as much as I can in, but uh, it is. I tell people, like I told you guys earlier, it's. I know it can be a long trip and somewhat costly. By the way, kids 10 and under are free this year, so nothing to keep in mind. You got a bunch of kids 10 and under. Come on up, but it's worth it. It's worth the investment. And you know we plan trips to the beach, we plan trips to Disney World. Why not plan a trip to a place that's going to be awesome, engaging, bringing the Bible to life. Your family have a great time and it'll encourage them in. That's amazing.

David: 37:09

Actually you brushed it real quick, but one of the reasons I became a Young Earth Creationist was actually Ken Ham's conversation about what that means for millions of years of sin, and that wouldn't be what God stated for original sin and what you just brushed right there. That was actually the moment where I changed, that's huge yep.

David: 37:27

And also one of the things you brushed by is speakers. I mean, there's speakers like you, there's speakers like Ken Ham who come there. Speakers I mean there's speakers like you, there's speakers like Ken Ham who come there. Uh, you get to hear from just world-class speakers, uh, when you're there, which really I mean to me, I know I'm a I'm a Bible nerd uh, but that'd be one of the most exciting parts for me is just to be able to sit in a room and listen to those guys talk.

David: 37:45

Listen to those guys talk, uh would be amazing. Um so I, I listen. I really appreciate this. I think this is a great episode. I'm excited for just hearing more about maybe getting you back on and really digging into some of the science and some of the history and really, you know, testing the waters a little bit more with some of that information. That's it Cool.

Bryan: 38:05

Yeah, it's a great introduction, right, and it was good to hang out, chat and get to know each other a little bit. But yeah, I'd love to come back and we can dive deep about day-age theory, theistic evolution gap theory. We can talk about evolution, natural selection, mutations. If you want to talk about radiometric dating, we can. I mean it's you know, or rocks, We'll talk about rocks. We can talk about rocks too. Rocks are boring to me, but hey, we got to talk about them. We can do that.

Jason: 38:28

All right, Brian. Well, today has been a lot of fun. Thank you very much for coming on. You've mentioned the website already. Do you want to give a couple more shout outs to websites and ways to contact you or contact your organization?

Bryan: 38:40

Sure. So answersingenesisorg is our website and there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of free articles and videos on the website. So you can get any answer you want for free just by going to answersingenesisorg. And they have long articles, short articles. If you're the real Bible Bible nerd we got the journal answers research journal You'd have really deep and all that sort of stuff. It's all there, all for free. And then they can go to YouTube to see our YouTube page. We get we got so many videos up on YouTube. And then answerstv is our all streaming platform. We've got all of our stuff there that has 7,000 plus videos.

Bryan: 39:11

We have multiple shows for everybody in the family Educational stuff, entertaining stuff, all there for the family. And then I've written three books Quick Answers to Tough Questions, quick Answers to Social Issues and then Woke in Justice just recently. And again, it's all by God's grace, but those are available at our website. And my book's my first two. It's just short answers. I know we're Most people like to read a whole lot, so each answer is less than 500 words. Answer stuff really snappy about history and the social issues in the second book, and so it's all there. Many other great resources for our ministry and yeah, go check it out.

Jason: 39:40

Great Well, brian, we appreciate you being with us. We hope we get to do this again. Love hearing fresh perspectives outside of the three of us, and we love to give those perspectives to our listeners as well. So we appreciate you coming on. We look forward to it again. So, guys, if you have any questions for Brian, make sure to reach out to him. If you have any questions for us, make sure to reach out to us and let us know what you want to talk about next time. We appreciate your time.

Jason: 40:01

Thanks a lot guys.

Bryan: 40:02

Thanks so much. Thank you, brian, see you guys Thanks.