Plenty of Christians, preachers included, think they can discern the will of God simply by opening their Bible and blindly plopping their finger down on a specific verse. I even admit to having done this myself more than a few times in my “dumber” days.

Jordan says of the popular practice, “It’s nothing more than rank superstition but tons of people don’t look at the Bible in any more intelligent way than that; they just look for a verse that says something they’d like it to say.”

He continues, “Myself, I would think if I’m going to say, ‘Lord, show me a verse!’ and open up to one that doesn’t say anything that He must not be going to tell me. But most people just go get themselves another verse.

“You heard about the guy who did that once and first he found, ‘Judas hung himself.’ Well, he didn’t like that so he hit another verse that said, ‘Go, do thou likewise.’ Well, he really didn’t like that, so he said, ‘One more time!’ and he hit that verse that says, ‘What thou doest, doest with haste.’ ”

*****

Paul explicitly tells us in Eph. 1:9 that God has “made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself.” Obviously He’s done this through His Book.

Jordan says, “By the way, if He made known the secret of His will, is there any secret will of God left for you? Think about that. If all the secret’s been revealed, then there isn’t any mysterious, unfathomable will of God out there that you need to go seek and discover, is there? You simply need to get in your Bible. . . Have you noticed that when you go to the Bible, answers don’t necessarily just pop right out at you; you got to hunt ’em?”

*****

Because Jesus Christ in His Second Advent is not only coming to deliver His people from their enemy, but to avenge to destroy their enemies, it takes awhile—the actual flight path He comes back on to defend and deliver Jerusalem takes some time.

After the subsequent battle of Armageddon (inside a 10-day period), Christ comes back to Jerusalem for the “day of atonement.”

Jordan says, “The ‘day of atonement’ isn’t just, ‘I’m here!’ There are some specifically designed things for the nation. For example, Deuteronomy 21 says they’ll acknowledge the fact they have shed innocent blood. That expression in Matthew, about shedding innocent blood and His blood being on us, comes right out of Deuteronomy 21.

“Now on that 15^th day, that’s the day of the coronation of the king. The nation, the redemption, the mourning—all that’s been accomplished and they’re going to have a parade like you’ve never seen.

“Go back and read Psalm 24, Psalm 45, Psalms 96-100, and then go over and read Isaiah 11, 12 and 26 and all these passages that talk about this tremendous parade. Psalms is where he talks about Moses, Aaron, and Samuel all going down the procession with Him.

“On that inauguration day, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are going to sit down in that kingdom there. Job says, ‘I know my Redeemer lives on the earth—I’ll see Him.’

“And the first official act of the Lord Jesus Christ as He sits on that throne as the rightful king will be to call forth all the saints from Adam on down except us. We’ll already be up there reigning in the heavens.

“There’s going to be a parade of parades as they take Him and enthrone Him and they sing His praises throughout the planet. I read all that and say, ‘Wow, man, what a day that’s going to be! I’m going to be watching on Telstar! I’m not going to be off twiddling my thumbs off somewhere on the backside of a nebulas!’

“And the whole universe is going to be focused on that day, by the way. Understand the corruption of time won’t be there on that day. You’re not going to feel the separation and the tick-tock-tick-tock of time.

“The whole creation’s in bondage of corruption now, but at that time will be delivered into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.”

*****

Bible teacher Noah Hutchings writes in his 1990 book Daniel the Prophet, “We are told that the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream would have prophetic significance from the generation of Daniel’s day to the very end of the age; therefore, it would hold a lesson for us today.

“If you were to ask most of the seminary graduates or modernistic preachers what lesson the image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream would have for us today, they would probably reply: ‘Don’t build statues with clay feet, and watch out for those falling rocks.’

“This is all the prophetic Word means to the vast majority of the clerics today, because they are carnally minded and cannot spiritually discern the revelations of God that came as the Holy Spirit moved upon the prophets to record what would come upon the earth in the ages to come.”

*****

In another great passage, Hutchings writes, “Daniel knew the interpretation of the dream immediately, but he was so stunned and shocked that he sat for a full hour without speaking.

“There are certain things you cannot tell others. Even though it may be painful to tell a friend about the death of a loved one, or of a grievous financial loss, this is something we can do because it is our duty.

“However, there are other types of news that are difficult to transmit. For example, it is difficult to tell a friend that he has dandruff, or possibly body odor, or that his wife is having an affair with another man.

“This is news which gentlemen find difficult to call to the attention of friends, and Daniel was certainly a gentleman. And the interpretation of this dream which Daniel received was of such an obnoxious and personal nature that he dreaded telling it to the king.

“So Daniel sat for one full hour with a frown on his face, and we would imagine that every few minutes he would cast a worried glance in the king’s direction.

“Finally, the king could stand it no longer. The suspense was killing him. And so he finally said to Daniel: ‘Come on now. Nothing could be all that bad.’

“And Daniel replied: ‘What is going to happen to you shouldn’t happen to your worst enemy.’ ” (Daniel 4:20-27)