Romans 1:18: [18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
"How do you hold the truth in unrighteousness? People read that verse and say that word 'hold' means to 'suppress and to hold down' and they want to retranslate the verse," says Richard Jordan.
"When you hear somebody say that that's somebody who hasn't thought about the passage; they're just telling you what they've heard other preachers say. It's what I call 'campfire theology,' where you just pass the stuff along because everybody has said it.
"Paul is going to tell you what it means in the passage itself. They don't suppress the truth; they hold it in a certain way. [19] Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
"Instead of letting the truth be what it is, you change it. As Paul says, [21] Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. [22] Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
Verse 25: [25] Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
"You can take the truth of reality and turn it into a lie. You look at creation and it tells you there's a Creator. That's reality.
"There was a time for centuries when 'realism' was the basis of people's worldview. Realism says truth corresponds to reality.
"Then people moved into rationalism; that's modernism. It says, 'That coat hanger over there really isn't a coat hanger.' They decide, 'We're going to rationalize it and give it a meaning; take the reality of an objective thing and interpret it into some meaning.'
"That's exactly what they did--they changed reality into vain imaginations. Then you move into 'post-modernism' where you're using imagination completely. Whatever you want it to be--no absolutes.
"I was raised in a world where you would say, 'I may disagree with you, but I'll defend to death your right to say it.' That used to be the American mantra. Today, if you say something that offends, the person wants to rid the earth of you; you're a scourge.
"That whole process is nothing but Romans 1 and what it leads to is darkness. That is, the complete lack of understanding. The ability to look at something and not be able to see what's right there because you've become vain in your imaginations and your foolish heart is darkened. You've got all this stuff going on. Your worldview has become so distorted that you're not able to relate to what's real about you.
"The whole purpose of that is to make yourself God: 'I am who I say I am. I'm not who I see myself to be in the mirror. I'm not who God says I am. I'm who I want to be.' When you get on that slippery slope you wind up where Romans 1 says.
"The culture you see in Romans 1:28 to the end of the chapter is what happens when you do this. That's darkness. We live in a world filled with darkness.
Psalm 119:130: [130] The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.
"That's what's called a parallelism. You say something, then you say it again, but when you repeat it, you use different words to amplify what you just said.
"So when he says the 'entrance of thy words giveth light,' he's telling you light is the issue of understanding, knowledge. But where did it come from? You see how he says words plural? Then he says 'it' and that's singular.
"The Book is singular but it's made up of 66 books. There's a book in a book. The Book is made up of words. This is just a casual statement; there's no theological dissertation in this verse. David's just saying it, but he understands immediately that THE Word is made up of w-o-r-d-s and it takes those words to make THE Book.
"It's not simply the message that the words convey; it's the words that convey the message that is the Word of God. When you come with that fundamental approach to the Scripture . . . all the stuff about the Bible versions controversy is based upon, 'Is the Bible the Word of God or does the Bible simply contain the Word of God?'
"Around the turn of the century into the 1900s, there was the great German modern movement of the rationalism that came out of Europe and infected American institutions, and there was developed a theology called 'neo-orthodoxy.'
"They began to get into that rationalism where the idea was the Bible isn't the Word of God; it simply contains the Word of God. That is, it's the message that's God's Word.
"The fundamentalists back then who fought the modernists suddenly bought into all that and the result is that now you don't have any real authority. It's just 'the message.'
"The largest Protestant denomination in the world today, the Southern Baptists, believes that the 'living Word,' the Lord Jesus Christ, is the absolute final authority, not the written word.
"They say, 'You can't go by the letter because the letter kills; the spirit gives life,' which is a total bogus use of that verse in II Corinthians 3 ([6] Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life). That's their common thought pattern in that whole denomination."
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