The Surprising, Actual Story of Genesis 1-2

In modern Western culture, we have two very different narratives swirling around the first two pages of the Bible. In the first narrative, the creation story in Genesis 1-2 represents a literal seven days, and this all happened only a few thousand years ago. In the second narrative, earth and its inhabitants took billions of years to evolve into their present form—and therefore, Bible-believing Christians are fools. What if both these narratives miss the main point of what Genesis 1-2 is all about? In this lecture, Tim explores the Bible’s creation story alongside other ancient creation stories, revealing a very different narrative about the origin of life, our purpose and identity as humans, and what all of this tells us about the God of the Bible. Tim taught this lecture in January 2016 at Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon. REFERENCED RESOURCES Nothing: A Very Short Introductio n by Frank Close The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate by John H. Walton The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder by William P. Brown Check out Tim’s extensive collection of recommended books. SHOW MUSIC “Nob Hill (Instrumental)” by Drexler SHOW CREDITS Production of today’s episode is by Lindsey Ponder, producer, and Cooper Peltz, managing producer. Aaron Olsen edited and remastered today’s episode. JB Witty writes our show notes. Powered and distributed by Simplecast. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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The Surprising, Actual Story of Genesis 1-2 is an episode from Exploring My Strange Bible by BibleProject.

This episode is 01:42:47 long.

This episode was published on Jan 16, 2026.

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