Big Buts of the Bible

Nothing to Everything

The Bible begins with Genesis. The first of sixty-six books that together make up the most beloved book in history takes its name from its opening words. Genesis simply means beginning. That seems fitting, because the Bible opens by inviting us into the beginnings of everything.

How did all of this come to be?

Although the word but appears throughout Genesis—more than 160 times, in fact—you won’t find it in the opening creation account. These first verses need no conjunction. This is creation itself.

No buts about it.

Have no fear, though. Our favorite little three-letter word still has something to teach us. Sometimes the most remarkable but is the one our own minds begin asking. The very first sentence of Scripture almost invites one enormous question:

But what about God?

The Bible opens with these words:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

All right… but where did God come from? Who created Him?

Genesis offers no explanation. It simply begins with God.

The writer introduces Him as though no introduction is necessary, quietly assuming that God was already there before anything else came into existence—before light, before land, before oceans, before stars, before time itself.

In a courtroom there’s a familiar objection: “Assumes facts not in evidence.”

A lawyer raises this objection when someone treats an unproven statement as though it has already been established.

For some readers, that’s exactly what Genesis seems to do. It assumes God.

The Bible, however, consistently speaks of God as eternal—without beginning or end. Moses prayed,

“Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

Later the psalmist would write—with a beautiful big but, no less—

“But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear Him.”

Everlasting. The word itself stretches beyond our ability to comprehend.

God always was.

God is.

God always will be.

Genesis doesn’t attempt to prove that. Instead, it quietly invites us to keep reading. It’s almost as though the writer is saying, “Watch what happens next.”

The Apostle Paul would later make a similar observation in Romans:

“Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.”

Creation itself becomes the testimony.

The order.

The beauty.

The complexity.

The breathtaking precision of a universe that somehow holds together. Genesis invites us not merely to believe, but to wonder.

Big Latin Buts?

Believe it or not, one of the leading search phrases bringing people to this website is “Big Latin Buts.” Uh… I’m guessing those visitors aren’t looking for grammatical conjunctions —or Bible studies.

Imagine their surprise.

Since they’re here anyway, let me offer them some genuinely beautiful Latin: Creatio ex nihilo

It means creation out of nothing.

That’s an astonishing thought. Not creatio ex materia—creation out of existing materials. Not God rearranging cosmic building blocks already lying around. Creation out of nothing.

The phrase itself doesn’t appear in Scripture, but Genesis certainly points us there. Before anything existed… there was no clay for the Potter. The earth was formless and empty.

Some scholars describe it as a primordial abyss.

Nothing.

But God.

Then the Creator simply spoke: “Let there be…” And there was.

Light. Sky. Land. Seas. Plants. Sun. Moon. Stars. Creatures of every imaginable kind. And finally, His crowning work: “Let us make mankind in our image.”

Everything that exists begins with those simple words: “And God said…” That’s where hope hidden in plain sight begins. 

Before there was something… there was Someone.