Some preachers will tell you that God just blanked out the minds of the Bible writers and picked up their pen and did sort of a hocus-pocus kind of operation that caused them to write what they did. This is complete baloney, of course.

As Jordan explains, “God reached into the library of the writers’ individual vocabularies and out of that chose words, and moved upon them in such a way that the words they wrote down were the words He wanted them to write down, and the words came out of His mouth through them onto the paper.

“That does not imply He did not use their faculties, their understandings, their capabilities, or their vocabularies even. Peter, for example, was a man who used bad grammar. He was a fisherman. If you’ve ever met commercial fishermen, they usually use pretty bad grammar, and when you find Peter speaking in the Book of Acts, every now and then he uses bad grammar.

Now Paul was a very educated man. He was a rabbi. He used wonderful and perfect grammar. So, God in the framework of those men . . . He didn’t correct Peter’s bad grammar necessarily—I mean, can’t God use Peter’s bad grammar? Well, I better hope He could! I can’t get most of it right myself.”

*****

Luke tells the reader he personally researched all the data in his book. He says in essence, “I’ve checked all the facts you’re going to read in here,” and yet the book of Luke is inspired by God.

Jordan explains, “So inspiration doesn’t mean that the writer is prohibited from doing personal research. Inspiration does not deny the use of extra-biblical sources either. Paul, for example, says in Acts 17:28, ‘For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.’

“Now that doesn’t mean that God Almighty put those words in the poet’s mouth but it does mean God Almighty accurately recorded it here and the source of the reference there—if you go into history you can find it. In fact, I’ve got a book, I don’t have on the top of my tongue, but it’s listed there. Paul also says in Titus 1 that, ‘The Cretians are liars, evil beasts and slow bellies, as even the old poet says.’ ”

*****

In the compilation of the books in the Old Testament it’s quite obvious that much data was taken from public records. In fact, there are whole chapters in the book of Daniel that are records of public decrees.

I Chronicles 29:29, for example, says, “Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer.” The term seer and prophet are the same.

Jordan says, “What the verse demonstrates is the nation Israel had extensive archives of public record—they had a public library system—and what’s written in Chronicles here is easy to verify, taken from well-known public records that only prove the bona fide nature of the work that you’re reading as being that of a well-informed author.

“There are at least 14 different source references quoted in I and II Chronicles. II Chronicles 9:29: ‘Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat?’

“You see, that’s public record that they can go read and check what’s being written down in the Scripture. Chapter 13:22 says, ‘And the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways, and his sayings, are written in the story of the prophet Iddo.’

“The man who wrote them down is basically doing what we do when we give footnotes—he’s saying, ‘Go check it and so-and-so and so-and-so.’ You understand how you do that and that’s what he’s doing. And you know what you can do? You can go check it.

“See, it’s giving you the understanding that the man who wrote Chronicles, and compiled this information together, was a well-informed man using easily verifiable information that was readily accessible to the public. I hope you don’t have the idea that Israel’s past was dim, dark and nobody writing anything or knowing anything.”

*****

Jordan was contacted recently by a native American Indian (Wausau tribe) in Oregon who for many years understood “right division” of the Bible but didn’t know there were any others around the country who believed the same thing.

After meeting the man, who has the Indian name Shadow Hawk, Jordan was given a gift of a handmade traditional “talking stick,” made of feathers, beads, wood, etc. The idea of the stick is that when a person holds it, he/she commands the full attention of the group and everyone must listen.

The talking stick has a bead pattern of 12 rows and Shadow Hawk told Jordan that in their tribe’s understanding, the twelve rows represent the 12 divisions of mankind that God made. The 12 rows are divided into 10 of one color and two of another (representing American Indians).

Jordan explains, “Moses says in Deut. 32 that God divided the nations, the sons of Adam, according to the number of the children of Israel, which makes it a fascinating thing that the Indians would have that same number!

“Shadow Hawk also said that in the Wausau language, their name for God—the God of creation—was YEHO, which, as soon as you see it you know it’s a contraction or a corruption of Jehovah. You say, ‘Where would these people out there with no connection to Christianity or Judaism or the Bible get this stuff?’

“What it is is the remnants of that truth that was spread out still staying in their ‘origins’ ideas. It’s fascinating that that information would still be in their culture. He said there’s a bunch of things in the Wausau tribal culture that, after they learned the Scripture, they could see where things that had come out of the Scripture still hung with their pagan ideas and so forth.

“. . . You know, when you study archaeology, you discover that every ancient civilization has a flood story in its traditions. Now, if you’re in an Indian culture you’d be in canoes. If you’re in today’s culture you’d think Noah was on the Queen Mary or something—have you ever seen the ark in Sunday school stuff around here?

“Another thing all civilizations have is a creation story. A lot of them have a Ten Commandment story too. It’s fascinating.”