Anchored by Truth from Crystal Sea Books - a 30 minute show exploring the grand Biblical saga of creation, fall, and redempti R.D.Fierro

Episode 204 – Eternal Information – Part 12 – Confidence
Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.
Script:
I will destroy my people because they are ignorant. You have refused to learn, so I will refuse to let you be my priests.
Hosea, chapter 4, verse 6, God’s Word Translation

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VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. We’re so happy that you’re with us here today on Anchored by Truth as we wrap up a series we called “Eternal Information.” This has been a fascinating series because during it we have talked about yet another way we can be assured that God is the creator of everything. Today, as we conclude and summarize what we’ve covered in the series we have RD Fierro back in the studio. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, we use information every day and we take its existence for granted. But information could not exist if the universe consisted only of matter and energy could it?
RD: No. It couldn’t. But before we go to much farther I would also like to welcome everyone and thank them for joining us as we close out this rather extensive view of information. Simply put, information only exists where there is intelligence. Information is an organized system of units or symbols capable of containing or conveying purpose or meaning. I know that sometimes subjects like the laws of information and how information is necessary for life can seem pretty far removed from what people think about when someone mentions the Bible or Christianity or faith. But that’s why we opened our episode today with that quote from the Old Testament prophet Hosea. Hosea makes the link between knowledge and service to Christ abundantly clear.
VK: Just to be sure we’re clear, our opening scripture for this episode was Hosea 4:6 which says, “I will destroy my people because they are ignorant. You have refused to learn, so I will refuse to let you be my priests.” That’s from the God’s Word Translation. The New International Version puts it this way. “… my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests …”
RD: Yes. God is speaking in that verse. And God is saying that because his people – in this case the inhabitants of Old Testament Israel – have rejected the knowledge of His law, He is going to reject them as serving as His priests. A priest was someone who represented the people before God.
VK: A prophet was someone who represented God before the people. Conversely, a priest was someone who represented the people before God.
RD: And in this verse God is connecting knowledge with service to Him. He is specifically saying that He wants His people to possess knowledge of Him and His law for them to be qualified to represent Him before the nations. Jesus would later say the same thing from a slightly different perspective when He said that the greatest commandment was to love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.
VK: That’s the Gospel of Mark, chapter 12, verse 30. In the New Living Translation that verse says, “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.”
RD: Yes. Jesus was telling His audience that God wants us to love and worship God with our entire beings. Yet, in our contemporary church all too often we focus almost exclusively on the hearts of believers and not their minds. And while it is certainly true that we must always be concerned about appealing to people’s hearts, we must never ignore their minds. If we do so, we are not only ignoring a specific command of the Lords but we

Episode 203 – Eternal Information – Part 11 – Doubt
Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.
Script:
Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
The Gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 1, New King James Version

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VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. We’re glad that you’re able to join us here today on Anchored by Truth. For several episodes now we have been working on a series we call “Eternal Information.” We’ve covered a lot of ground so far in this series. If you have missed some of the earlier episodes we encourage you to go to our website crystalseabooks.com where they are all available. This has been a fascinating series because in it we have talked about yet another way where we can be assured that God is creator of everything in our universe. Today, in the studio today we have RD Fierro. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, we have spent a lot of time in this series discussing information because the existence of information – any information at all – pretty much assures us that the God of the Bible must exist. Do I have that right?
RD: Absolutely. But before we go too far into our discussion I would also like to say hi to everyone and welcome them to Anchored by Truth. At Anchored by Truth we have one central focus – to help people discover or rediscover a basic truth: the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. But we cannot be assured that the Bible is the word of God unless we have first assured ourselves that God exists. You can’t very well believe in the Bible without first believing in God. And most Christians know that there is a branch of study called “apologetics” that focuses on demonstrating that God does, in fact, exist.
VK: So, in that sense we might think of the study of information as a new apologetic approach. Studying information can complement other more widely know apologetic approaches such as the cosmological approach and the teleological approach. The cosmological approach to apologetics reasons that we can be sure that God exists because He is, and must be, the Ultimate Cause for the effect that we call the universe. The teleological approach reasons that since we can perceive design throughout nature, but especially in living creatures, that there must be a Designer behind all that design. Design requires a Designer. A created order requires a Creator. In a similar way all information requires the existence of intelligence. Information absent intelligence isn’t information at all. It’s just nonsense or gobbledygook.
RD: Yes. That’s a great summary of why we started this series on information. I was prompted to dig into information by Dr. Werner Gitt’s book called In the Beginning was Information. The title is an obvious play on the first verse of the Bible and the book leads us to the very same point that Genesis 1:1 makes. In the beginning God created the heavens and earth. That’s the most succinct way of stating the cosmological apologetic approach that is possible. If we believe in God we don’t have to wonder where the heavens and the earth come from. If we don’t then we have to try to fashion some other explanation.
VK: And of course people being sinful have tried to fashion alternatives. It’s just that those alternatives always wind up leaving the doubter with more questions than answers. God has fashioned His creation, His universe, in such a way that you can’t avoid noticing His work and His fingerprints.
RD: And that’s a good introduction to the subject I want to tackle today: doubt. There are obviously many in our c

Episode 202 – Eternal Information – Part 10 – Supernatural Information Part 3
Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.
Script:
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram ...
Genesis, chapter 14, verse 18, New International Version

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VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. We’re so happy you’re able to join us here today on Anchored by Truth. For several episodes now we have been working on a series we call “Eternal Information.” We’ve covered a lot of ground so far in this series. If you have missed some of the earlier episodes we encourage you to go to our website crystalseabooks.com where you can hear them. Today, in the studio today we have RD Fierro. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, what is the big idea that we have wanted to get across during this series. In other words, why spend so much time on a show devoted to the Bible to talk about information?
RD: Well, before we get into our discussion I would also like to welcome everyone to today’s episode. At Anchored by Truth we have one central focus – to help people discover or rediscover a basic truth: the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. That truth is unfortunately disappearing in contemporary America and it’s having a devastating impact on our culture. Every other year since 2014 Ligonier Ministries in conjunction with Life Way Research has conducted a survey to explore what Americans think about God and the Bible. Their most recent survey and the results have, sadly, shown the continuation of some alarming trends – especially as it pertains to how Americans view the Bible.
VK: And anyone who wants to see the results for themselves can view them at “thestateoftheology.com.” [THE STATE OF THEOLOGY dot com]
RD: Yes. There is a lot of valuable information that comes out of the survey but one item that particularly caught my attention and is directly pertinent to what we do on Anchored by Truth was the result of this question. The researchers asked people whether they agreed or disagreed with this statement: “The Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but it not literally true.”
VK: In other words, the researchers were asking people whether they believed the Bible was true. That’s really important to note. They weren’t asking whether people BELIEVED in the Bible. They were asking people whether they thought the Bible was true. This goes directly to the whole reason we do Anchored by Truth. You have often said that the church in the west made a disastrous turn years ago when Christians began insisting that we had a right to our beliefs but we stopped insisting that the Christian faith was true.
RD: Yes. And the survey results are indicative of the consequences of the western church receding from an insistence that the Bible is true and teaches truth. The percentage of U.S. adults agreeing with the statement “The Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true” went from 41 percent who agreed with it in 2014 to 53 percent in 2022. So, the percentage of U.S. adults who accept the Bible as being literally true declined by 12 percent in 8 years. Perhaps even more alarming is that the percentage of adults who would be classified as evangelical and who agreed with the statement rose from 17 percent to 26 percent – a 9 percent increase.
VK: And evangelicals, of course, are the group where you might expect that only 1 or 2 percent would agree with a statement that denies the truth of

Episode 201 – Eternal Information – Part 9 – Supernatural Information Part 2
Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.
Script:
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. … for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.
Isaiah, chapter 7, verses 14 and 16, New International Version

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VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. We’re so happy you’re able to join us here today on Anchored by Truth. For our most recent several episodes we have been working on a series we call “Eternal Information.” We’ve covered a lot of ground so far in this series. For those listening today who may have missed some of the earlier episodes we encourage you to go to our website crystalseabooks.com where you can hear them. This series in particular has been one of those series where each episode builds on the material from previous episodes. In the studio today we have RD Fierro. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, we’re pretty deep into our discussion of information. Maybe it would help provide some context to today’s discussion if you would start us off by briefly going over some of the big ideas we’ve been discussing?
RD: Well, before I do that I would also like to extend my greetings to everyone who is joining us here today. The biggest idea that we are trying to convey in this series is that you cannot look at the universe around us and fail to note that it not only contains material elements, like matter and energy, but that it also contains non-material components like volition and information. And it would be impossible for our universe to contain such non-material components without there being a non-material source that possessed both power and intelligence.
VK: One of the first ideas we covered in this series is that information cannot be created, destroyed, or affected by matter or energy. Matter or energy can be used to store, transmit, or receive information but the information itself remains unaffected by the matter and energy. A recipe for pound cake doesn’t change whether it is written on a note card, stored in computer hard drive, or retained in someone’s memory. And the presence of information always requires the presence of intelligence. Or said differently, the presence of information within the visible universe demonstrates that there must be a source of power and intelligence that made it possible. And, when you refer to a non-material source that possesses both power and intelligence you’re referring to God.
RD: Yes. Our universe could not appear as it does without information, and therefore intelligence, being present. But intelligence without creative power would never produce either the visible universe or the information that we displayed throughout the universe. So, one big idea we have been discussing is that the existence of information points directly to the existence of God. Or as Dr. Werner Gitt so aptly put it in the title of his book, In the Beginning was Information. This point is reinforced by the fact that life would not be possible without the presence of information within biological structure.
VK: Even the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary points out that the nucleotide sequence of DNA contains information. That dictionary provides this definition for information: “[Information is] the attribute inherent in and communicated by one of two or more alternative sequences or arrangements of something (such as nucleotides in DNA or binary digits in a

Episode 200 – Eternal Information – Part 8 – Supernatural Information
Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.
Script:
Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.
Ecclesiastes, chapter 11, verse 6, New International Version

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VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. Thank you for joining us here today on Anchored by Truth. For several episodes we have been working on a series we call “Eternal Information.” We’ve covered a lot of ground so far in this series. For those listening today who may have missed some of the earlier episodes we encourage you to go to our website crystalseabooks.com where you can hear them. And, of course, anyone who just wants to review an episode even if they heard it before can always go to crystalseabooks.com for a review. This series in particular has been one of those series where each episode builds on the material from previous episodes. In the studio we have RD Fierro. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, thus far in this series we have covered definitions for the term “information,” the attributes of information, and the laws that govern information. And in our last couple of episodes we saw that information is present in all the biological structures on earth. But what is the big point that we are making by such a thorough treatment of information?
RD: Well, before I answer your question I would also like to extend my greetings to everyone who is joining us here today. We are doing this series on information for the same reason that we do everything on Anchored by Truth – to help our listeners increase their confidence that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. But we can’t be sure that the Bible is the word of God if we aren’t sure that God exists in the first place. So, one of the things we like to do is ensure that our listeners have an abundance of … well, information so they can reassure themselves that the faith they place in God is more than just a leap into a dark abyss. Too often in our contemporary culture we are told that we must choose between logic, reason, and faith. But nothing could be further from the truth. We do not set aside logic and reason in favor of placing our truth in faith. To the contrary, we use logic, reason, and evidence to determine that the most sensible and practical thing we can possibly do is to place our trust in the God of the Bible and the revelation that He has made.
VK: And as we have been discussing in this series, the presence of information always point us to the presence of intelligence. You cannot have meaningful information without that information arising from an intelligent point of origin. The cat walking across a keyboard may produce letters on a computer screen but the cat isn’t going to produce an email telling people where to meet us for dinner. But even a young child can do an email. The transmission, reception, and use of information requires intelligence. So, if we see information present in biological structures – which we do – we can be absolutely sure that those biological structures had an intelligent point of origin.
RD: Yes. Our universe would not appear as it does without information, and therefore intelligence, being present. And that is one of the basic concepts that we have been working our way through during the first several episodes of this series. But today I want to introduce a new thought into our discussion.
VK: Which is ...
RD: Well, if the presence of information req

Episode 199 – Eternal Information – Part 7 – Living Information 2
Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.
Script:
By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.
Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 3, New Living Translation

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VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. Thank you for joining us here today on Anchored by Truth. For several episodes we have been doing a series we call “Eternal Information.” We’ve covered a lot of ground so far in this series. For those listening today who may have missed some of the earlier episodes we encourage you to go to our website crystalseabooks.com where you can hear them. And, of course, anyone who just wants to review an episode even if they heard it before can always go to crystalseabooks.com for a review. This series in particular has been one of those series where each episode builds on the material from previous episodes. In the studio we have RD Fierro. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, would you like to amplify a little more on what I was just talking about – that this series of Anchored by Truth is a series where we are steadily building on what came before?
RD: Sure. But before I do that I would also like to extend my greetings to everyone who is joining us here today. I suspect most listeners are probably like me. When I first came across the concept of information as one more way in which God’s presence in the universe is manifest I was completely unfamiliar with it. Like all listeners, I used information everyday throughout the day. But I never gave any thought about information itself. Information was kind of like air. It was just there. But I never stopped to think about how it got there. Then I came across Dr. Werner Gitt’s book entitled In the Beginning was Information and I had one of those “light bulb” moments. The presence of information requires the presence of intelligence and there is no way we can avoid living in this universe and avoid the fact that it contains information. But to try to communicate all that this concept involves isn’t easy. Unlike some subjects where we connect with them easily digging deeper into how information functions within the universe requires a lot of … well, information.
VK: Studying information requires a lot of information. I’m not sure if that is profound or just redundant …
RD: Probably a little of both. At any rate there are a lot of ideas that are tied up in thinking about how information again assures us that there must be a Designing Mind behind the universe as we know it. So, we began unpacking those ideas one at a time.
VK: Such as the fact that information is an essential component of the universe that we know. Unlike other components with which we are more familiar like matter and energy information stands apart in the way in which it presents itself. Information is non-material. It is not dependent for its existence on matter or energy but matter and energy can be used to transmit, receive, or store it. The same keyboard, wires, and screens can exchange recipes for pies, maps to buried treasure, or diagrams for making bombs. The information doesn’t change the plastic, copper, or silicon in the keyboard or screen. But neither is the plastic, copper, or silicon responsible for the content of the information. These aren’t the kind of ideas we think about everyday.
RD: Right. And those ideas are just the beginning of what we had to undertake. And the specific idea that we have been pursuing for the last couple of episodes of Anchored by