Happy He's Risen!

Jimmy Carter, in his 1996 book Living Faith, tells the reader that while he was raised from a baby in church, and was only three when he began memorizing Bible verses in Sunday School, “By the time I was 12 or 13 years old, my anxiety about (doubting Christ’s resurrection) became so intense that at the end of every prayer, until after I was an adult, before ‘Amen’ I added the words ‘And, God, please help me believe in the resurrection.’ ”

 *****

As Jordan often repeats, “You’ll never meet an honest person who spent 15 hours looking at the actual evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ not come to the conclusion: ‘He came out of the grave.’

Jordan will then say, “Now, you might not like what the resurrection means, but you can’t look at the evidence with an unprejudiced heart and mind and not recognize the historical reality that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.”

*****

From multiple passages in the Gospels, we know that after Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples she had just seen Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead, an emergency closed-door meeting was arranged for that evening.

During the gathering, the resurrected Christ miraculously appeared before them, saying, “Peace be unto you,” and showing them His pierced hands and side.

The immediate response was the men “were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit,” according to Luke 24. Jesus asked, “Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.”

Christ’s next question was, “Have ye here any meat?”, upon which they gave him “a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb,” and He proceeded to eat in front of them.

“What you learn in John 20 is they were in a room they’d locked down and they thought it was secure and, all of a sudden, Christ appears in their midst—literally just came through the walls,” says Jordan.  “That’s a passage that details the veracity and authenticity of the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“They see Him; they see He has a body that has flesh and bones. It’s a real literal body that’s obviously also a supernatural body because it just came into a locked-down room.

“But when it literally materialized in front of them they could touch Him and even see Him sit there in the fellowship of consuming a meal with them. It was a real manifestation of someone they knew so they wouldn’t think He was a spirit, a ghost, or some kind of ethereal hallucination.

“The fascinating thing is what the passage tells us about the resurrection of the body because we’re going to ‘have a body made like unto his body.’ The capacity that His body has to function, you and I are going to have!”

*****

In I Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul takes on the skeptics of the resurrection with the admonishment: “Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
[35] But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
[36] Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
[37] And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
[38] But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.”

 Jordan explains, “Those questions came because people were denying the resurrection. They were asking, ‘How is it the dead are raised and is it a real, physical, literal body, or is it just they live on in our memories, or is there reincarnation?’

“You remember in Acts 17 when Paul spoke of the resurrection in Athens, the great intellectual center of the ancient world? It’s still a center from which you and I are influenced today. It’s really the intellectual center of western civilization.

“In Acts 17:30, when Paul began to speak of the resurrection, they said about him, ‘Just a babbler. Let him babble on,’ and Paul simply turned away from them.”

The passage reads, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
[31] Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
[32] And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
[33] So Paul departed from among them.”

*****

In trying to reason with the unbelieving Corinthians, Paul writes, “Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
[13] But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
[14] And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
[15] Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
[16] For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
[17] And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
[18] Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
[19] If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”

Jordan explains, “If you look at verse 14, Paul defines what that means when he says ‘if you believed in vain.’ What is vain faith? It’s to believe something that isn’t true. If Christ isn’t raised from the dead, then your faith in His burial resurrection is dead. Why? Because you’re believing a lie! So what he’s doing is demonstrating how the resurrection isn’t a lie; it’s truth.”

*****

Jordan continues, “Did you ever hear about Pasquale’s Wager? Pasquale was a French philosopher who became a Christian and his wager was, ‘If it turns out when I die that there’s no God, that the gospel isn’t true, I would have still lived the better life.’

“But you see that isn’t what those verses (in I Corinthians 15) say. Now, it is true that if there’s no heaven, no hell, no God, and Christ wasn’t raised from the dead—if you live in obedience to the truth of the Word of God you will live a better life; a higher life.

“If you live in pursuit of, ‘Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,’ you’re going to make a better life; have a better world about you. But you’re also going to be vexed like Lot was who lived in Sodom with the filthy conversation of the wicked.

“What Paul says is, ‘Hey, if this stuff isn’t real, the Book of Ecclesiastes . . . what Solomon said—let’s just ‘eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die!’ So Pasquale’s Wager isn’t really well-founded. At least it isn’t what Paul thought—the resurrection’s that important.

 
“In verse 36, notice how Paul answers: ‘Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.’ He’s saying, ‘Are you nuts?! You don’t believe in the resurrection?! I mean, don’t you realize that every Spring you witness resurrection (in nature)?! You see it so often you don’t even think anything about it and you’re questioning?!! . . .  Nah, you’re nuts!' "

Done to scale

Romans 5:19 makes clear, “For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”

Jordan says, “You’d have had to have had two heads if Adam and Eve were equally co-separately created. Then the humanity that came from them would come from two people, not one. Well, when God created the angels He created every angel separate. That’s why they’re called ‘the sons of god.’

“They’re each one created as separate entities. God didn’t just create an angel and then they procreated and made all the others. He created all the angels separately and individually and distinctly so there’s no way there could be one redeemer for all of them.

“You’d have to have millions of redeemers, each one for each angel. So there’s no plan of redemption for the angelic host, and that hadn’t come on the table--that wasn’t something the angelic host ever thought about until God created Adam, and when He created Adam, those angels must have been so curious and so confused and so eager to understand what God was doing that they watched the man very carefully and that’s why they watch us still today.

“What you find is when you just let the Bible do the teaching, what you come up with in creation is far different from what science or science-worshipping churchmen come up with.

"When I tell you we can draw the universe on a piece of paper out of Genesis 1 and other passages, and I draw for you this rectangle, and tell you the universe looks like that, and that up here on the top of the universe is a thing called the ‘sea of glass,’ and up here on that is where the throne of God is and where New Jerusalem is, and where the city where God lives is (called the third heaven), and then down here in this container here (‘the deep’) there is where the universe where we have it today is, I know people think, ‘Kuckoo-kuckoo-kuckoo.’

“Isaiah 40:21-22: ‘Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22] It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:’

“So when I’m going to look for the earth in here, what kind of a shape am I going to look for? The form’s going to be a circle and it’s not going to be void; it’s going to have some inhabitants on it. God spreads out the heavens as a tent to dwell in.

“When God created the universe there are various metaphors that are used. One is that He put it on like a garment. What do you do with your clothes? You wear them, don’t you? Don’t you live in them? They’re for covering and they’re for you to dwell in. They’re what you work in and they’re used to express yourself and so forth.

“God also describes the universe as building a tent that He’s going to live in. Now, the operative issue here is living in it; dwelling in it. It’s where He’s going to be. In the Bible, there’s a tent that God lives in. It’s called the tabernacle. The tabernacle is a tent of skin.

“You know what kind of skin the tabernacle’s made out of? Badger skin. That’s a mean, nasty, dirty old, ornery animal. You ever seen a badger? Nobody ever wants to have a badger as a pet. They’re ornery.

“God’s going to live in a tent made out of an ornery, mean, smelly, old rascal’s skin. Sound kinda familiar? You never thought of yourself that way, did you? He lives in you. There’s a picture going on in that.

“The tabernacle in Hebrews 8-9 is said that Moses pitched this tabernacle. God gave him exact instructions about how big to make it, how wide to make it, what to put in it, how to position it, how to enter it. And Hebrews says that the one that Moses pitched was made as a scale model of the tabernacle that the Lord pitched—the true tabernacle.

“Well, where did the Lord pitch a real one? That’s it right there! The universe. So the tabernacle in the wilderness, all those details of all those things that when you read them you say, ‘What in the world are all these details here?!’ like nobody understands what they are, what do they do, and ‘why do I got to read this stuff?’ Some easy, nice story and suddenly there’s all this---ooh.

“The reason is it’s a description of the universe. A scale model. And I can tell you something that you could work on that would do you more good than trying to figure out who’s going to win the Super bowl.

“If you spend a little time with your mathematical genius and studied the Book of Exodus, and you studied it about that tabernacle, you would literally get the information to know and to gauge and to measure the universe in the model of that tabernacle. The means whereby these measurements are there in the scale model done to scale.”

Watchers in wait

Daniel 4:33 reads, “The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws.”

Jordan explains, “That madness that goes in Nebuchadnezzar; there’s a name for it in the books: lycanthropy. It’s when a man or a woman imagines themselves to be an animal and Nebby goes stark-raving buggy, or I should say beastly. He just goes berserk. He’s out in the field and thinks he’s an ox.”

If you look on Wikipedia, clinical lycanthropy is defined as “a rare psychiatric syndrome that involves a delusion that the affected person can transform into, has transformed into, or is a non-human animal. . . Affected individuals report a delusional belief that they are in the process of transforming into an animal or have already transformed into an animal.”

Jordan continues to explain, “Now this madness he’s involved in here, notice the terminology. Over and over again, the madness and the reason for the detailed descriptions (in Daniel 4) are the terms that match the tribulation period. He goes out and he eats grass like a what? An ox. Do you remember when we studied Ezekiel 1 and Ezekiel 10 and Revelation 4 and we saw who an ox was a representative of? The cherub. Who’s that? Satan.

“Folks, people talk about him with the two horns--the two horns are the horns of an ox! People go around like this with their two fingers—peace, victory, that kind of stuff. They don’t know what in the world they’re talking about! You know what that is? Do you remember over there in Genesis 3 when He talked to the serpent and said you’re going to be cursed above all the cattle of the field?

“Some dumb thumps come along and say, ‘Well, see, your Bible’s not very scientific. It doesn’t know the difference between a reptile and a cattle.’ Well, my dear friend, you just haven’t studied far enough! There’s a revelation there that science can’t pick up on and botany and biology can’t get! That tells you that the serpent standing there was cattle—he was an ox!

“ ‘And his hair grows like eagles’ feathers.’ You go over in Ezekiel 1 and you’ll see that eagle associated with that same type of thing. That’s a Second Coming passage, by the way.

“His nails are said to grow like bird claws. You ever read in Revelation 18 about Babylon over there being the habitation of every filthy and foul bird? You know what birds are types of in the Bible? Demons.

“Did you ever read that parable in the Book of Mark and in Matthew about the sower who went out there and sowed that seed, and then the fowls of the air came out and what did they do? They snatched that seed away and Christ said, ‘That’s what Satan’s done; taken that word out of those peoples’ hearts.’ Those birds are demons that go in and snatch out that Book, see? That’s why in Revelation 18 they’re used in a passage that’s describing demonic activity.

“When Hitchcock put that movie out about how the birds are coming, you just thought he had a nightmare, didn’t you? You didn’t know that that fellow had . . . I tell you people that the creative genius of unsaved people is satanically inspired. Satan knows that Book even if a bunch of dumb Christians don’t.

“The greatest handbook on types and symbols in the universe is that one right there in your hands! Don’t you let somebody come along and say that Book isn’t important. That Book right there will explain to you what’s going on in the world when you don’t understand what’s going on.

“The types and the symbolism in art, movies, theatre of today come right out of that Book! In the great movie ‘Star Wars’ they say, ‘The Force be with you.’ That’s a quotation out of Daniel 11.

“See people, that book is THE Book!

“The tribulation period is going to be a time when God looks at the Antichrist and says, ‘He’s the beast! He’s a mad man!’ And what does the world do? They bow down and worship him and exalt insanity! Madness!

“Psalm 49:6 says, ‘They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches.’ Verse 10 says, ‘For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
[11] Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.’

“ ‘They call their land after their own names.’ Boy, isn’t that the telling the truth! ‘Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.’

“He said, ‘If you’re a guy like that, you know what you are? You’re a beast.’ Peter in II Peter 2 warns about a class of people who are literally beasts. II Peter 2:12 says, ‘But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption.’

“Natural brute beasts. Just fit for nothing but destruction. That’s a class of people that are just beasts.

“Notice the reference to Balaam in verse 15? Come over to Jude. Compare II Peter 2 with Jude and you’ll notice references to Sodom and Gomorrah preceded the passage we just read as they do in Jude verses 6 and 7 and then verse 8:

“Verse 10 says, ‘But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.’ All of that’s like Revelation 2:14 and 2:20.

“Verse 16 says, ‘These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.’

“You get the idea that these are a bunch of bad rascals, don’t you? This is just man gone mad and it’s the madness of self-will, and that willful king leads the nations in a mad pell-mell rush to destruction.

“Go back to Daniel 4 and notice Nebuchadnezzar is restored into his kingdom here. Daniel 4:34 says, ‘And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation.’

“Folks, when Nebuchadnezzar humbled himself, God restored him and he’s found in his right mind. In verse 26 he comes to know that the most high rules in the kingdoms of men; he comes to know that the heavens DO rule!

“He’s not just saying, ‘God’s the boss.’ He’s saying that the heavens RUN things!

“There’s an interesting reference in verse 13: ‘I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven;’ That holy one, by the way, Nebby understood that to be angels. If you go back to verse 8 he talks about ‘the spirit of the holy gods.’ Those are angels.

“Verse 17. In verse 23 he talks again about the watcher and the holy one coming down and giving the word. There’s a decree these angels bring down that results in what happens to Nebuchadnezzar happening.

“People, the watchers and the holy one there, that is a reference to the administration of the affairs of the universe. God Almighty has a government over this universe, not just over the earth, but over the whole universe.

“Notice they’re called the watchers. There’s a special class of these people who have the function of going about in the earth and seeing what goes on and carrying back to God the report before the judgment throne of God.

“Go to I Kings 22 and you’ll see a little glimpse of some of the activity of this deal. 22:19. There is a courtroom scene whereby what is going to happen on the earth, and what is determined, is decided upon, and there’s one that’s sent from that court down to the earth to see to the execution of God’s purpose.

“Now I can’t give you perfect understanding about how all that goes on, but Nebby came to understand that God Almighty ran the show and that what happened down here, happened according to His governmental authority and His control and His rule and His decision-making!

“The Book of Daniel is full of this stuff. Daniel 10:13. The reason Daniel and his prophetic import is so full of this is because in the tribulation period this is going to be the issue! Jesus Christ is going to come back down into the heavens and take over the government of the heavens, cast Satan down onto the earth (Rev. 12) and then follow him down here and take the earth away from him.

“People, the issue from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, is the authority of a throne over this universe!”

The tree vision

Chapter 4 in the Book of Daniel is what’s called “the tree vision” and it’s a rather odd account in Nebuchadnezzar’s life.

“What you have is a picture of Nebby’s insanity,” says Jordan. “He had bats in his belfry. He was a dingbat. He was an insane ruler and I’m sure they kept it quiet, and I don’t know if you know much about history or monarchs, but down through the ages, folks, many of them have been lunatics, and some of the most brilliant geniuses who have ever lived, militarily and politically, have been wacko in their private life and Nebby was one of them and he had these spits of insanity.

“They don’t come on him all the time. They come in and they go out and he has one in this chapter here that’s of divine origin. God sends it upon him.

“What you see here in the chapter is a foreshadowing of the pride and the madness and the downfall that’s going to be the characteristic of the Gentile time. And then the restoration of Nebby is a picture and a foreshadowing of the restoration of certain Gentile nations to enter in to the kingdom.

“What you have here is not just a tragic picture of a monarch gone bad, but rather you’re having here a picture of the course of the Gentile nations. Nebby is the head of that image in chapter 2. He’s the first king who reigns supreme in the times of the Gentiles, and in Nebby’s pride that lifts him up, and the madness that followed that pride, and in the tremendous fall he takes because of that, you see the course and the characteristics of what make up the Gentile powers.”

*****

Daniel 4: 1-3 says, [1] Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you.
[2] I thought it good to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me.
[3] How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.”

Jordan explains, “What you’ve got here, and you notice in the first three verses, is that this chapter is really the Babylonian state document. This is an official governmental decree and proclamation that Nebuchadnezzar sends out to the whole world.

“Verse 1. He was king over all of them. Babylon ruled over everything and he sends his proclamation and this thing literally is a confession of his sin of pride and of his subsequent conversion to the most high God.

“Daniel 2:46. You’ll notice there that Nebuchadnezzar, the king, fell upon his face and worshipped Daniel. Nebby is converted to Daniel in Chapter 2. In chapter 3:29. Nebuchadnezzar is converted to Daniel’s God. And in chapter 4 Nebuchadnezzar gives evidence of genuine conversion to the Lord. He gives a personal testimony about how God had been dealing in his life.

“You know what the greatest testimony in the face of unbelief is? A personal testimony about what you know.

“It’s SOME dream and Nebuchadnezzar’s troubled by that thing. The thing that bothers him, no doubt, is not so much that he sees the tree, but it’s the fact that when you get on down there to the interpretation, or rather to the watcher coming down and talking about it, it says in verse 14, ‘He cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit: let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches.’

“See, Nebuchadnezzar knows that that tree represents somebody; it’s not just a tree, it’s a HIM! It’s a personification. So Nebby’s got a problem. He’s all worried and shook up about the thing, and so he gets Daniel. He says, ‘Dan, nobody else can do it, but I know you can, man. You’ve come through before. God’s with you.’

“Verse 19. Daniel’s going to give him the interpretation. ‘Astonied’ is an old English word that means astonished). Daniel was shook up by the thing too. He was ‘astonied’ for one hour. Old boy was just speechless for about an hour. And his thoughts troubled him. He got worried about the thing.

“ ‘The king spake, and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream, or the interpretation thereof, trouble thee.’ In other words, don’t keep to yourself. Don’t be afraid to tell me what it is. If it’s bad news, that’s okay.

“ ‘Belteshazzar answered and said, My lord, the dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation thereof to thine enemies.’

“In other words, this is going to be bad news. The dream is to your enemies. That is, it’s to their advantage. It’s for their good. They’re going to like it and you’re not going to like it.

“Verse 20: ‘The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth.’

“The tree then is who? Now wasn’t that hard to get? See. You know, folks, the Bible is that way. If you’ll keep reading, the Bible will tell you what it means. And when you don’t understand something,  you know what you ought to do? Just keep reading!

“There’s always a verse to explain a verse you don’t understand. And if you’ll make that the basis of your philosophy and Bible study, you’ll begin to understand God’s Word.

“Now a tree in the Bible is used to represent a man (Psalm 1). It’s used to represent nations. Ezekiel 31:3 is almost a parallel passage to Daniel 4 because it’s the same type of a tree. You see how the Assyrian is likened unto a tree? The leader of a nation.

“Trees are oftentime used in the Bible to describe nations and in Daniel 4, this tree represents Nebuchadnezzar and it’s a foreshadowing, folks, of God’s dealings. This is how God’s going to deal with the Gentile nations.

“You see Nebuchadnezzar the head of gold in Daniel 2—you watch how God’s going to deal with him now and you’re going to see how the course of the Gentiles is going to go. So Nebuchadnezzar is the tree. Now notice the madness that follows . . .”

(To be continued)

Painting techniques

Jesus Christ will come out of the northern recesses of the universe at the rapture. In the Bible, the universe has a shape and size to it.

“You can take Genesis 1 and a pencil and piece of paper and draw the universe if you just take what it says the way it says it and write it down,” says Jordan. “If a dumb thump like me can do it, you can do it, but see people don’t think to take the Bible realistically like that. They’re always looking for little spiritual gems and forget to get the concrete reality out of it.

“Well, up there in the north is a planet called the Mount of the Congregation and it’s in the sides of the north and that’s the place where the judgment of God over the government of the universe is carried on and on occasion the courts of justice sit on that place and ‘the sons of god’ come to present themselves. The sons of gods in the Old Testament are angels.

“Job 38 will tie the rag on the bush for you: ‘Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.’ Boy, that’s a good question, isn’t it? ‘You think you’re so smart you got all the answers. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?’ You weren’t, that’s where!

“Verse 6: ‘Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof.’

 “Old Atlas got the world on his shoulders; that’s what the Greeks said. What’s he standing on? A turtle. Wonder what the turtle’s standing on? You say what’s it fastened on? What holds it out there? There are questions in chapter 38-39, about 35 questions there, that modern science doesn’t have any answers for.

“The Book of Job’s the oldest book in the Bible. First book in the Bible written. It predates Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, the writings of those books. Written far before the time of Moses. It’s got scientific questions and queries that some of the greatest brains in science down through the past 4,000 years haven’t been able to figure out.

“Why, you know one of the hardest things to do in the world is ask a good question. And the Lord asked Job some real good ones. You all bugs on science? Why don’t you bore your eyes out trying to figure out Job 38 and 39 and get the answers to them.

“People come along and say, ‘Well, the Bible’s not scientific.’ You answer these questions and then tell me that, would you?

“Verse 6 talks about the corner stone, when God created the heavens and the earth, and He hung the earth out there on nothing. When He did that the angels where there and they gave a big shout of joy and the morning stars sang together. In Rev. 1:20 the angels of those seven churches are identified as stars.

“In the Bible, angels are associated with stars. There’s something about an angel; he has to have light in order to function. They’re so closely associated with stars that a lot of time an angel is identified as a star in the Bible. There’s an affinity between those two things there.

“The son of God is someone who is the result of the direct creation of the hand of God. That’s why Adam is called the son of God.

******

“There is no birth in the Old Testament. That might shock you but there is no record in the Word of God anywhere that there is a new birth or a being born again in the context of John 3 or Titus 3 or Romans 8 or Ephesians 2; there’s no birth like that in the Old Testament anywhere. That is a new covenant blessing promised with the coming of the Spirit of God, so in the Old Testament there aren’t any people outside of Adam who are sons of God. The people who are the direct creation are the angels and they’re always men.

“I didn’t say all men were angels. Rev. 21:17 says, ‘And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.’

“The angels are always male and I say that so you know they’re not neutered and they’re not a bunch of long, blond-haired, blue-eyed pale looking crosses--half-things between men and women. People have them in long robes and some of them are just floating around in a fog, ethereal kind of a thing. That isn’t any angel at all.

“If an angel of God would sit in here tonight he’d scare the britches off of you he’d be so big. He’d be a beautiful looking 33-year-old man that’d have muscles on his biceps and he’d stand up there.

“You know how the world is and religion is. They’ve got this blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus running around, you know. Reddish-looking hair, little-bitty nose. You never seen a reddish-blond-haired, blue-eyed small nose Jew in your life. All that stuff is just a bunch of tommy rot. That Bible says that the Lord Jesus’s hair was black and bushy like a raven’s hair and His eyes were brown. The point is there’s more than meets the eye in all this stuff, see, so you want to be careful.

“ ‘. . . Thou saweset the stone was cut with.’ That stone is god’s stone. Who is God’s stone? The Lord Jesus Christ. I Cor. 10:4. The rock is Lord Jesus Christ. The rocks isn’t Peter. There’s a certain interpretation of this passage that says this rock is Peter because Jesus said, ‘On this rock I’ll build my church,’ and they’ve got their kingdom built on Peter but they got the wrong rock when they got Peter.

“Moses knew they were going to do that. Go to Deuteronomy 32 and notice Moses warns you about it 1,500 years before they did. Isn’t it interesting how the Bible gets a jump on people? You know, you keep studying the Bible and you hear all these people say, ‘Well, David did that and Moses did that.’ Why does it always stay ahead of everybody if it’s so outdated and outmoded?!

“I mean, if the Bible’s so archaic and you got to always have something new, why does the Bible always think so far ahead of people they can’t find out what it says? Lookee here. Deut. 32:30. This whole passage is on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ prophetically. Verse 36. Rock has sold them.

“You see that Rock with a capital ‘R’ set in relation to the Lord. The rock and the Lord are the same. The rock sold them because the Lord shut them up. Turned them over to their enemies. Notice 31. Now isn’t that a pip. The enemies of God got a rock and God’s got a rock and their rock is not our rock but they’re both rocks.

“Verse 37. You see they got a rock that’s associated with a religious system they’re trusting in. So it doesn’t surprise Bible believers when the Lord Jesus Christ sets that kingdom program aside that some old deluded, religious fanatic in the world’s religious system out there would run over there and grab Matthew 16:18 about the apostle of the circumcision and the rock and say, ‘On this rock . . . and I’m the rock.’ That ought not surprise you because Moses said, ‘Hey, when that Second Coming comes out over there, and that bunch of folks out there are posing Israel into that tribulation under that Antichrist, they’re going to have a rock, and it’s going to be the god they trust in; that’s the Antichrist and Satan.’

“The stone in Daniel is the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s God’s rock. In Matthew 21:42 notice there are three functions given to the Lord Jesus Christ in the capacity of being a stone in the New Testament.

“Verse 43. The rock is going to be a stumbling stone. That’s the first coming of Jesus Christ. It’s described in about a half dozen passages as Israel stumbling at that stumbling stone that was laid in Zion. And they stumble over Him and they fall and they’re broken because of that. But then the last part of that verse says, ‘But on whomsoever it shall fall it shall grind them to powder.’

“Now that’s the grinding stone, brother, and when it lands on you, it’s going to grind you to powder, he says. So you’ve got two functions. At the first coming of Christ, he’s the stumbling stone; he’s the rock of offense. Israel sees Him and they stumble over Him and fall. At the second coming, he’s a grinding stone. He comes down (Daniel 2:44) boom and grinds the gentile world powers to powder and destroys them.

“In I Peter 2:3 is the living stone. Verse 6. He’s the stumbling stone and rock of offense for the unbelievers. He’s a grinding stone to people at the second coming of Christ. But He’s a precious corner stone to people who believe. He’s the thing that holds the whole thing together and He caps it all off. To us who believe, He’s precious and like a jewel. He’s the grinding stone coming back to set up His kingdom.

******

Daniel 2:46 says, ‘Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.’

“Nebby recognizes that the dream is the real one and he knows he’s got the right interpretation so you notice what he does—he falls down and worships Daniel.

“You know there’s something missing in that passage. There’s an angel over in Revelation 22, you know what he said, ‘Don’t worship me, man, worship God.’ And old Daniel, that fellow falls down and worships him and offers burnt offerings and sweet odors to him and you don’t read about Daniel every saying, ‘Stop, man, stop.’

“Folks, there’s not a blemish on Daniel’s record in all the Bible except that. And that reminds to say that that’s an illustration of Ecclesiastes 7:20 when it says ‘there’s not a just man on the face of the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.’ And the Bible, when it paints the saints in the Bible, it paints their sins and their shortcomings just like it paints the glowing side.

“Later on, you’ll see Daniel join the lion’s club over in chapter 6. The Bible paints that, shows the glory and victory he got over Leo and over the lion’s den. Brother, the Bible will show you the glory, but it will show you the dirt on their feet too. Just to remind you.

“There’s not one saint in the Bible I know anything about that doesn’t have at least one blemish on his record. It’s hard to find some of them. It’s hard to find the one on Daniel but that’s it. And that’s all there is.

“It’s hard to find one on Joseph. There’s not but one little small blemish on the life of Joseph. He’s a type of the Lord Jesus Christ in at least 150 different ways, the most perfect one in the Bible, and there’s only one little small blemish on his record, but it’s there and it reminds you, folks, that before you hold a guy up and make him a big shot, remember, we’re all flesh.”

Strictly men only

Daniel 4:43 says, "And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.”

Jordan says, “This just sort of throws your mind back to Genesis 6 immediately. Now, you might think I’m fixin’ to get a little spaced out here in a minute, so I’m going to tell you ahead of time, I don’t require any of you to believe all this stuff I’m fixin to say, but there’s some things right in here, folks, that when you look at it, it can make you paranoid but I don’t want you to be paranoid;  I want you to be equipped and know what’s going on.

“I want you to have a grasp of it, know what’s fixin’ to happen on this planet and how the Adversary is going to work, and what he’s going to do, so you right now can be motivated to thank God for His grace that’s going to get you out of that and that you’ll get out here in this community, and the people you rub shoulders with, and try to get some of them saved so they too can get out of it!

“If you can study this stuff and it won’t motivate you to take advantage of every opportunity you have to share the gospel the grace of God with others, there’s something bad wrong with you, spiritual speaking.

“You might have a bank account of 5 million dollars, I don’t care, something wrong with you spiritually if this stuff won’t motivate you to get out and get some of those people you see day-in-day-out, and then get those you don’t even know, confront them and get them saved.

“Sons of god in the Bible are angels, over and over and over and over again. People say, ‘Well, that’s really the godly line of Seth.’ Folks, there isn’t any such thing. Where’d you ever get that idea? Where’d you ever see that in the Bible? You saw that in Scofield’s book notes is where you saw that.

“There’s no such thing as a godly line of Seth. You know what Seth was? He’s an ungodly sorry rascal just like you are. It’s true, isn’t it? And he was probably as refined and sweet and nice as any of you people, and as educated as any of you, but he’s still an ungodly man. I mean, Christ died for the ungodly. Ya’ll aren’t godly, are you? Aren’t you glad He died for you? If you aren’t ungodly, He didn’t die for you. I’m willing to take the label. Proud to wear it in that context.

“Seth was a sinner. Now there was a messianic line, that’s true, but it isn’t a godly line. You go over there in Matthew 1 and read down through the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ and there’s some of the biggest hypocrites and liars and sinners and adulterers you ever met in your life in His genealogy. Matthew 1. David, for example. There’s a man who committed adultery, stole a man’s wife and killed the man to cover it up.

“The sons of god over and over again are angels. That’s the terminology used in the Old Testament to describe angels. Someone who is the result of a direct creation at God’s hands. Genesis 6.

“Jesus Christ says in Matthew 24:37, ‘As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the son of man come.’ The things that were going on in Noah’s day are going to reappear on the earth in the time when the Lord Jesus Christ comes. Now with that in mind think about something for a minute.

“The clay and the iron. What is clay a type of? What were you made out of? Clay, the depths of the earth. Isaiah 64:8. Jeremiah 18:6. Clay is used over and over to represent men. Well, what about iron.

“Very often when fallen angels or the sons of god, or these giants who are the offspring of the sons of god and daughters of men, show up, iron is connected with them in some way or another.

“Iron is connected with fallen angels and especially the giants that are the offspring of the angels and the women.

“By the way, somebody says, ‘Well, I thought angels were sexless.’ Well,  again, you read that in Scofield’s notes; you didn’t read that in the Bible.

“Angels in the Bible are always men. You say, ‘What about that verse that says they’ll be like angels in heaven; they can’t marry and can’t give in marriage?’ Well, folks, if all the angels were men there isn’t any way for them to marry is there? It says as the angels in heaven, and there aren’t any lady angels up there for them to marry. And just in case you’ve been politicized by the common debate of our day that doesn’t have anything to do with reality, God isn’t a homosexual and God didn’t create homosexuals and nobody in His creation was ever made to be that way.”

Hanging on a word

Hebrews 12 says, [24] And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
[25] See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
[26] Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
[27] And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Jordan explains, “What these people are receiving is that kingdom that He’s going to bring back with Him when He comes.

The Book of Hebrews begins with, 1] God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
[2] Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

Jordan says, “It’s wonderful, you go back there in Genesis 1 and it says, ‘And the Lord said.’ And the Lord God said 'let there be, let there, let there be.' God spoke. That to me is marvelous. A silent God is an unknown God. If God hadn’t spoken you’d never know Him. And God isn’t silence. And the conflict of the ages revolves around, as far as you and I are concerned, what God said. That’s why that book’s so important.

“Notice down in verse 6: ‘And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.’ God says and then he quotes the passage. Verses 7-8 says, ‘And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.
[8] But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.’

“He quotes the passage in psalms. God said it. God talks. He speaks. And He makes known what His will and His purpose and what His desires are, and when you study the Book of Hebrews, it’s fascinating to see where God has spoken and given His Word to these people.

“Think how often in Hebrews the writer will take and hang a doctrine on just a couple of words out of the Scripture.

“Hebrews 12:26. This is a quotation out of Haggai. You see how the writer is teaching you what Haggai is talking about? He’s said, ‘Back there when Haggai said, ‘Yet once more,’ what he’s talking about is the things that remain ain’t going to remain forever anymore. God’s going to shake this thing again and he takes that phrase out of there and teaches you the thing based on that.

“When you find the Bible writers teaching the Bible, they’ll put all kind of reliance on the authority of one word or one phrase in God’s Word. Not just an idea; not just, ‘Well, maybe possibly it ought to have been translated this way or maybe possibly it’s that way.’

“You never find them doing that. You know who you find doing that? Genesis 3:1: ‘Yea hath God said.’ And you know what happened in Genesis 3, don’t you? Well, we all went in the can.

“You find the Lord where He’ll take one word out of, say, Psalm 82 or John 10, and build a whole argument on it. So you ought not be too surprised when you study the Bible and one word can transform your whole life. That’s the way the Word of God is.

“I John 5: 7 says, ‘For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.’ Here’s a verse the new bibles leave out, oddly enough. That’s the doctrine of the trinity. So when he says back over there in Hebrews 1 that ‘God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets . . .’

“What he’s talking about is God the Father. But it’s still true that God the Son spoke in time past to Israel and also God the Holy Spirit spoke to them. You know that from Hebrews 3:7: ‘Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice.’ That’s a quote out of the Psalms. Well, who said what’s written in the psalms? The Holy Spirit did. In time past, the Holy Spirit said to Israel and then he quotes you the passage that they said it.

“But also Jesus Christ spoke to them in time past. It wasn’t just God the Father; it was every member of the trinity involved in this.

“I have to warn you when you study the Book of Hebrews you do a lot of chasing verses because the book is so . . . well, it’s a book to the Hebrews and you’re going to study the Hebrew scripture when you’re studying it.”

Uncustomary grace

Acts 6:8-15 says, “And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
[9] Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.
[10] And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
[11] Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.
[12] And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,
[13] And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
[14] For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
[15] And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.”

Jordan explains, “Folks, that’s flat the truth. Jesus Christ did say the temple would be destroyed. Matthew 24. Jesus Christ is going to change the customs of Moses. Matthew 15 and Mark 7. The customs of Moses is just another title for the tradition of the elders. The customs and traditions that had been applied ONTO what Moses had taught them.

“You know, they got this thing today about holiday traditions and customs and how the big thing now is you need to have traditions in your family--a family tradition to hold your family together and all that kind of stuff. That’s not what Moses gave; he gave commandments. No cultural orientation to it.

“You know what they do with Stephen? They want to hang him. Watch him preach to them. Acts 7.

“He’s going at them now. He takes them back to Abraham and then he reminds them about Joseph. He said, ‘You know with Joseph, you didn’t accept him the first time, but the second time he was the deliverer.’

“ ‘Moses the first time, you remember Moses, he thought he delivered you, the second time he was the deliverer.’ He’s making the parallel between Christ coming the first time rejected, the second time delivering them.

“But then Stephen starts talking about the temple and says some things in this passage that are weird. In fact, there’s things here that I’ve never heard anybody talk about on any kind of a scale about what Israel was doing!

“For example, verse 40-41: ‘Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.’

“He said, ‘You guys have been apostate from the wilderness back there!’

“In the wilderness, while they’re going around out there with that golden calf and the six-pointed star of David, they call it today, the star of Moloch your god, I mean these were religious symbols, people.’

“Religious symbols that are even used today in Israel on their flag. The six-pointed star of David and all that kind of business. They actually carried around with them in the wilderness a tabernacle to worship that god in.

“I don’t know if you ever thought about it, or ever noticed it, when you study Exodus and Amos and Acts, but they actually had an alternative meeting place in the wilderness. They had the tabernacle that God through Moses gave to them.

“Verse 44: ‘Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.’

“Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
[46] Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.

“When it says ‘Jesus’ that’s really Joshua. It’s called Jesus because Joshua in Hebrew is the name Jesus in Greek and the reason it’s translated that way is because all of that stuff back there is a type of the Second Coming.

“They bring that tabernacle God built into the land, but there’s also another tabernacle out there. The one in verse 44: ‘You took up the tabernacle of Moloch your God.’ I mean, they’ve got this alternative religion working out here in Israel. There’s a mixed multitude.

“There’s a bunch of apostates out there with the Baal worship going on right there in the nation, and instead of the nation going and stamping it out and destroying it like they should of, they tolerated it and they assimilated it and they partook of it.

“That’s where that verse back there talks about ‘wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, touch not the unclean thing.’ That’s a quote out of Isaiah that says, ‘Don’t be a part of that false religious system in your midst!’ and that thing just goes right on; it corrupts Samaria . . .

“You go back there in I Kings 12 and you see what happened to Samaria. He set up the golden calves up there, set up the gods, and that tabernacle of Moloch.

“Christ said that’s going to infect Jerusalem itself so that the temple in Jerusalem isn’t going to be safe. Now watch what he says starting in verse 47: ‘But Solomon built him an house.
[48] Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
[49] Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?
[50] Hath not my hand made all these things?
[51] Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.’

“You see, folks, when he comes to the temple, it’s part of his message. ‘You’re not going to worship anymore in the temple!’ Well, what are you going to do?!

‘Ye stiff-necked resist. And what do they do? They try to kill him. And what does Stephen do?  He looks up steadfast into heaven and sees Christ standing at the right hand of God.

“You know where you are? You’re in Zechariah 12:13. When the Lord stands up to judge. And you know what he does in Zechariah 3? You know the first people He goes and judges are the priests?! The unclean priesthood. Listen, they knew why they were killing Stephen! They knew exactly what he’s saying.

“He’s saying that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. ‘Jesus Christ is up there; you’ve polluted the temple. God Almighty isn’t dwelling in that temple.’

“You remember what Jesus told them back there in Matthew 23? He said, ‘Behold, your house is left desolate.’ Prior to that it was, ‘You made my house a den of thieves.’ Now it’s your house. He left. That thing in Matthew 23’s beautiful. Jesus Christ stands there in the temple and says, ‘I’m leaving and you aren’t going to see me again until you see me coming in the clouds of glory.’

“You know what He’s saying to them and they understood it and they hated Him for it! He’s saying to them, ‘I’m God Almighty and I’m leaving and God Almighty isn’t going to have any presence in this temple of yours until I come back.’ Malachi 3:1. And they knew exactly what he was saying. He was claiming to be the Shekinah glory of God, the presence of God, and He walked out and said, ‘I’ll leave your house desolate. Empty!’

“When He died at Calvary, God the Father reached down and rent that veil of that temple from top to bottom. You know why He did that? He did it to show the people there that there wasn’t any more presence of God on the cherubim in the holiest of holies; that it was empty and God had left. That’s amazing, isn’t it?

“Now, when you get over there to Hebrews, the book is written to some people who don’t have anywhere to go! They don’t have a temple; they know they got one coming, they’re looking for a city whose builder and maker is God but isn’t there yet .

“All of the warnings in Hebrews are designed to tell those people that temple up there is apostate, it’s in the hands of the wicked one; the ultimate manifestation of Baal worship is the Antichrist; the idol shepherd.

“Hebrews is written to warn them, ‘Don’t go back there!’ but more than that to motivate them to go on to where they ought to go.”

Going forth therefore . . .

Hebrews 13: 10-13 says, “We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
[11] For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.
[12] Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
[13] Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.”

Jordan explains, “The whole issue in the Book of Hebrews is to explain and motivate Israel. The Believers in Israel are not to go back to the Mosaic system of the old covenant but to go on outside. Leave the temple, leave Judaism, go on to Christ and the new covenant, which Christ is going to inaugurate when He returns.

“They are warned strongly and severely in Hebrews: ‘Don’t go back to the old covenant,’ and they’re motivated by all that Jesus Christ does, and is, to go on to the new covenant. They’re to leave the shadow and go on to the reality--the new and living way, the perfection that’s in Christ: ‘Put your eyes upon the Lord Jesus Christ; He’s the one with the more excellent glory, the higher alternative than angels, Moses, Joshua and Aaron, because He’s got a better sacrifice.’

“You know why they’re going to need that? In that tribulation that temple’s going to be rebuilt. All of the Old Testament sacrifices, the Mosaic Law system, are going to be reestablished in the tribulation.

*****

“I’ve told you about the brother, an orthodox Jew down in Selma, Alabama, that I used to visit with. Old Henry was a Jew who was caught up in Germany in WW II. He hid from the Nazis, hiding in ditches and in culverts under the roads. He hid in Belgium for three years while the Nazi occupation was going on, and a Belgium couple hid him in their attic day and night. He had to hide in fields and in culverts. He finally got out of there and into the U.S., and he was the only orthodox Jew in the whole area and I got to be good friends with him.

“I’d take my Hebrew Bible over to his place and he’d get his Hebrew Bible, and they were the same ones. His Hebrew Bible was just like a King James Bible, just a different language. He taught me an awful lot about it. He loved to study the Old Testament, and I sat there one day in his living room and talked to him about the Lord and he said, ‘Let’s don’t talk about that Jesus.’ He didn’t want to hear about the Lord.

“And I said, ‘Henry, I want to describe somebody to you. There’s a guy one day going to take over in Jerusalem,’ and I described the rebuilding of the temple, the reinstitution of the animal sacrifices of the Mosaic system. I said, ‘They’re going to take the Book of Leviticus and reinstitute the priesthood and the sacrifices.’

“I said, ‘Henry, I want to ask you, as a 20^th Century, enlightened, sensitive, modern American--if they start those animal sacrifices over there next week, would you get on an airplane and go over there and offer an animal sacrifice?’

“And he sat there for a minute, and he thought, and he looked at me and said, ‘Yes.’ You could have knocked me right off the seat when he said that! I never would have thought anybody would have went and done something like that. Not an enlightened, 20^th Century American! Educated man.

“That’s what they’re going to face in that tribulation. They’re going to have that system reestablished and you know what’s going to happen? Those Jews are going to start going back over there and reestablishing . . .

"I asked him, ‘Who is that man that’s doing all that, Henry?’ He said, ‘That’s my Messiah.’ I said, ‘No, Henry, that’s the phony one.’ I was describing to him, not Jesus Christ, but the Antichrist, and that’s what’s going to happen.

“These Jews, they’re going to have it, they’re going to see it, and it’s going to be going again. ‘C’mon guys, our religion, our temple is reestablished and the sacrifice,’ and the pressure’s going to be on those Jews in the tribulation to go back to that.”