In an afternoon “evangelism training” seminar I attended the other Sunday, Jordan suggested that when someone argues, “Don’t you know the Bible was written by men and has mistakes in it?” you can come back with something like, “Oh, I didn’t know you were such a student of the Bible! So, what would you say the main theme of the Bible is? Can you show me a verse that’s incorrect?”

If they respond with the ever-famous, “How did Cain get his wife?” simply inform them, “Oh, you’re behind the times! That issue was settled a long time ago!”

*****

An acquaintance of mine who enjoys collecting antique Bibles recently admitted to me that he’s never read the Bible even though he’s made a dozen or so attempts, always starting in Genesis 1 but fizzling before he even gets half way through the book’s 50 chapters.

What a lot of people don’t realize is that while the first 11 chapters of Genesis cover approximately 2,000 years of human history, the rest of the book doesn’t even cover 350-375 years!

As Jordan explains, “First, you have the beginning of the human race with Adam. Then you have the beginning again with Noah after the Flood. You say, ‘Well, why would He put 2,000 years in 11 chapters and chapters 12-50 cover less than 400 years?’

“The reason is the first 11 are foundational material. They’re not there to describe all of the details; they’re there to show you those four divine institutions God established for the perpetuation and the foundation of the human race—volition, marriage, the family and nationalism.”

*****

Jordan goes on, “You got all these clucks on the TV telling you what they think might be gonna happen tomorrow. I thought the news was to tell me what already happened! These dudes that talk about what’s gonna happen don’t have ANY idea what’s gonna happen!

“In Genesis 12, something far more significant on the world scene took place then in 1776 with the signing of the Declaration of Independence of the colonies that laid our country’s groundwork.

“You see, folks, those kind of things come and go, and while this might happen and that might happen, in Genesis 12 God gave birth to a nation! Now, when a nation is born it’s a wonderful thing but, brother, when God gives birth to a nation, that’s something special because God didn’t do that but ONE time in all of human history. And it’s with the nation that He gave birth to through Abraham that we arrive at Genesis’ third ‘beginning.’ ”

*****

With God’s four institutions for re-populating the earth after the Flood, the idea was that in order for man to function properly, he would, on the basis of volition, bind himself to the authority of God’s Word and choose a mate based on the Word’s principles of marriage and then he and his wife would produce a family in the same God-devised structure, teaching and passing onto that family the culture and the understanding for divine authority.

“When you break down the family unit—breaking down volition, marriage and the family—you have the chaos you see in the modern cities,” says Jordan. “The chaos that goes on in cities like Chicago, or New York, or Los Angeles, comes basically from the breakdown of the family unit. You find there aren’t families. Just being married is a big thing nowadays—being willing to make the commitment to be bound together and become one flesh, becoming this one new personality that comes through marriage.

“Nationalism and human government is designed to give those other three institutions the protection necessary for them to function without interference. In Genesis 12, the world has come to the place where even that has been subverted.

“Nationalism is subverted by the satanic policy of internationalism at the Tower of Babel, and God is going to give up the nations of the earth as He chooses out one great nation, and that comes as a response to the Tower of Babel.

*****

Before the Flood, the earth was filled with violence, compelling God to fully destroy that wickedness. After the Flood, the world was filled with idolatry, prompting God to set aside a people for Himself.

“When the world deserved only His wrath for its rebellion, God chose one man by the name of Abraham to bring salvation and blessing to all the nations,” explains Jordan. “He separates Abraham out and, later on, He builds a middle wall of partition between Abraham and the other nations so it’s obvious that there can be no union; no compromise. They’re set apart and big wall is built between them.”

God exhorts His nation in Isaiah 51: 1-4, “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.
[2] Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
[3] For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
[4] Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.”

Jordan explains, “Abraham being called out and told to ‘get out of thy country,’ was God’s judgment upon the nations of the earth. God left the nations, gave them up and pulled one man out and said, ‘You separate yourself from them.’

“In Scripture, the separation of Abraham from the world is extremely important because God set him out separate and distinct, and no other nation’s going to be like him.

“Notice in Isaiah, He calls Abraham ‘the hole of the pit.’ That’s not a real flattering title!

“Deuteronomy 26:5 says, ‘And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:’

“Abraham was over in Mesopotamia, just a Syrian ready to perish; he’s a guy who’s ripe to die and go to hell. The reason he was that way is in Joshua 24:2: ‘And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.’

“They were idolaters! They bought into the scheme of Gen. 11! They had become a part of the satanic purpose to thwart what God was doing and they had bought into that scheme.

“In fact, they had even moved over there to the Chaldees. They were in the land of Shinar as participants in that program. God says, ‘You were just a hole in the pit; you were lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut,’ as we’d say Down South. ‘You weren’t some exalted guy; you were just a reprobate ready to go to hell.’

“In the Bible, election—and that’s what we’re talking about here—always has to do with God choosing with the purpose of service. God reaches down and appears to Abraham to make of him a channel through whom His salvation and blessing was to go into the nations of the earth.”