Peter Jennings’ ABC primetime special last night on Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul made me nervous it was so full of error and distortion.

I found it a scary indicator of how far the media has strayed from balanced and factual reporting about Christian belief that this three-hour “documentary” was put on by a major network and written and hosted by its top anchorman.

Just to examine Jennings’ portrayal of Paul alone, he would have us believe the apostle was a puritanical, homophobic, anti-Semitic chauvinist pig whose ministry centered on not circumcising babies, competing with Peter and James and having members of the “Jesus Movement” abstain from marriage and procreating because the world’s coming to an end any second.

“He thinks the world is going to end,” says one of the interviewees, repeating the recurring theme drummed in by Jennings and his corral of book authors and professors who, at every turn, refute the trustworthiness of the Bible and push their own extra-Biblical spin.

“It is true Paul could be very nasty,” Jennings says at one point, flaunting his bias. Not once does our evening news anchor solicit commentary from any old-fashioned fundamentalist preacher or Bible scholar.

At the end of the show, a smug and sarcastic Jennings incorrectly states that Paul wrote in his last published letter, “The end is nearer now than we first believed.”

The actual verse appears in Paul’s letter to the Romans and reads, “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” (Rom. 13:11)

Paul is preaching about the Believer’s “walk.” In his last letter, which was to Timothy, he warns about the “last days” as they relate to the close of the Dispensation of Grace, which will coincide with the Rapture.

Of course, the Rapture is conveniently excluded from all discussion in Jennings’ special, representing an abhorrent lack of journalism when you consider there’s been a whole series of recent New York Times bestsellers on the subject (under the main title, “Left Behind”) and Paul is the only Bible author to talk of the event.

The Rapture, while hardly signaling the end, is the BIG sign for everyone still on earth that BIG trouble’s ahead, starting with the ensuing Tribulation Period.

At the crux of this current Dispensation of Grace, ushered in by Paul’s distinct ministry, is the setting aside of the nation Israel spiritually to allow for the spiritual times of the Gentiles. The plan is to form and complete the Church the Body of Christ, which is made up of Jews and Gentiles who have trusted exclusively in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

“In times past, the Gentile was required to go to Israel and associate himself with Israel and become a part of that favored nation in order to gain the blessings of God,” explains my pastor Richard Jordan, a 40-year student of the Bible who could have easily set Jennings straight on issues related to Paul’s ministry.

“But today, in the Dispensation of Grace, that nation has been set aside. They have no status as a nation today. God does not recognize any nation for its nation’s sake today. They all come as individuals and Paul exhorts the Jew to become like a Gentile. The tables have been reversed.

“He said, ‘I magnify my Gentile apostleship if, by any means, I might provoke those who are my kinsmen, the Israelites, to come and be like the Gentiles, not claiming any superiority or any status before God, but just coming as unworthy sinners and trusting a Savior who gave Himself completely and totally for them.’ ”