“Time
is called history,” explains Jordan. “You ever read religious books? They start
out talking about the ‘ultimate essence’ and the ‘basis of reality’ and the ‘true
meaning of life.’
“You
know how the Bible starts? You have two people naked in a garden. That don’t
sound like any religious book I ever read. It starts out talking about whether
you ought to put something in your mouth or not.
“The
fact that it’s a book of history is really what rubs people the wrong way about
it. It’s a record of what’s gone on. Now, God is all through the Bible. His
history is HIS story, but it’s a record of what’s actually happened on this
earth for 4,000 years.
“The
trouble is that if it’s history, than it’s what’s really gone on, it’s what’s
really happened and it’s what really is going to happen, and it really doesn’t
matter what you believe about it.
“Listen,
you can believe Jesus died and was buried and rose again and still die and go
to hell if He didn’t. If He wasn’t resurrected, what you think about it doesn’t
make any difference in the world.
“The
worst thing in the world is to be sincere and be sincerely wrong. What you
believe, if it isn’t true, if it isn’t historically accurate, if it isn’t real,
it don’t make any difference if you believe it or not. If you believe Jesus
rose again and He didn’t, believe it all day long; it’s not going to do you any
good.
“Because
the Bible’s a book of history means heaven and hell are real places. They’re
not just theology, dogma. It’s not just religion. Paul says, ‘Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
And that he was buriled, and that he rose again the third day according to the
scriptures.’
“That
has to be true and that’s why he says in I Corinthians 15, ‘And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain,
and your faith is also vain.’
*****
“Jesus Christ, truth personified,
once prayed for His disciples and said, ‘Sanctify them by the word; thy word is
truth.’ Just like Jesus Christ was the perfect truth of God, He said His Word
was the perfect truth of God. That’s what Paul said when he wrote, ‘Study to
shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.’
“If you’ve got a bible and you
don’t believe it’s the truth—and I don’t mean generically the truth; I’m
talking about when you read a specific verse and the words in the verse—then
you have an entirely different attitude toward the Word of God than God Himself
does. That’s why the Bible version issue is not just something to take
casually.
“I understand there’s a lot of
folks who don’t like what I say. I used to work with people who, when they
began to tell me I couldn’t believe my Bible was all true, and that I had to
believe it had errors in it, I had to then say, ‘You know, I don’t think we can
work together anymore.’ ”
(new article tomorrow)
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