P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

CONNIE: Have you ever eaten a Bible Sandwich? Want to be able to digest the Bible better? Join us today as we take a look at biblical Fast Food! A quick look at the Bible from Genesis to Revelation!

CONNIE: Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for more than 70 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery,

LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko. Connie today marks a very special day in the history of our Voice of Prophecy broadcasts for more than one reason. As we enter the month of November, 2003, we begin our 75th year of broadcasting, because it was back in October of 1929 that H. M. S. Richards first went on the air, from a single station in Los Angeles.

CONNIE: From there our broadcast has grown until now it is heard literally all around the world, on hundreds of stations. And we want to take just a moment to thank you, our faithful listeners, for your support and the prayers that have made this possible.

LONNIE: And may we ask you to say a special prayer for us this week. The opportunities have never been larger. But along with opportunities, we face many challenges. So we just ask you to take a moment, whenever you think of it this week, to say a special prayer for Connie and me and for our whole team here at Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: There’s something else special about this particular program also. We began this new format, with interviews and discussion, back in July of 2000, with a program called “The Bible Sandwich.” Ever since then, we’ve been studying our way through the Bible book by book. And last week’s program was the last in that series—it was our second message about the book of Revelation.

LONNIE: Today we take a look back over 74 years of ministry, and also over the whole Bible.

CONNIE: Our program’s titled “The Bible Sandwich Revisited,” and recently Lonnie sat down with our writer/producer, Ken Wade, to talk about what it’s been like for them to journey through the Bible together. Let’s listen in.

LONNIE: Well, Ken, it has been quite a journey hasn’t it?

KEN: It sure has! I’ve really enjoyed taking an in depth look at the Bible over the past few years that I’ve been here with the Voice of Prophecy.

LONNIE: Ken, we started there in 2000, my how our world has changed just in that time since we started reading through the Bible.

KEN: I can remember writing some programs earlier thinking to myself, you know, our world is at peace and it’s a wonderful time, and then the transformation that took place in 2001

LONNIE: First 2001, and then the war in Iraq, and just one thing after another. The space shuttle explodes out of the sky, where do we go from here?

KEN: The Bible has carried us through a lot of times in history, and it will continue to carry us.

LONNIE: Right on! You know, when we come to the end of a journey like this, and you say well we’ve read everything there is to read in the Bible, but we could read it all over again and find an all new perspective not previously seen.

KEN: We barely scratched the surface, because we are doing a half-hour program with maybe a 10-15 minute sermon and do the book of Psalms that way, with 150 Psalms.

LONNIE: So many themes and sub-plots that we just had to neglect due to time constraints.

KEN: I think that we have done a good job though at trying to pick the meat out of each book, and if a person were to listen to these programs straight through, they would get kind of the meat of the Bible.

LONNIE: I have appreciated very much that we have had the chance to look at every single book, even in my pastoral career I haven’t had the chance to cover all the books like we have hear at The Voice of Prophecy. This concept of a Bible Sandwich, where we see that the entrance there in chapters 1 and 2, of sin, sickness, suffering and death and on to 3 and 4 and finally the exit of sin and sadness, it helps people to kind of understand what all of this wallowing around in between is all about.

KEN: I have to confess that as we were reading some of the books like Ezekiel and some of the prophets that sometimes it was a little bit hard going. As we read some of the graphic and terrible things that happened and of some of the terrible things that are planned, it can become a little overwhelming.

LONNIE: Yes, some of these books are hard to grasp, and maybe we haven’t learned all that there is to learn about these prophecies and books yet.

KEN: I think that we get eternity to study some of these; it might take us that long!

LONNIE: But I think that the bottom line is that through it all we see a God who’s carefully at work, dealing with the sin problem and the good news is that He is in control.

KEN: And I hope that we have encouraged people to get out their own Bibles and read them through. This ministry was founded by a man who was great into that wasn’t he?

LONNIE: I can remember as a kid, going to the Voice of Prophecy studios on Chevy Chase drive in Glendale, and watching him walk to the studios from his house there on Bywood and he would have his Bible in his hands as he walked…

KEN: As he walked? Never got hit by a car?

LONNIE: In fact, he used to pick a translation of the Bible and read the whole thing through in just one month.

KEN: I am impressed with that because I can remember one time when I decided that I was going to get through the Bible as quickly as possible, and I chose to read 10 chapters a day, I started in January and it took until May to finish.

LONNIE: There was also a time when he read through the Bible and put it on tape and that nearly took him 4 years. I have enjoyed every year trying to find a new translation to read, and read for the whole year. That’s my devotional process.

KEN: I think that is very good. Too often we promote on our program the Discover Guides, which will take people through the high parts of the Bible, and if we could just get people to read these highlights from the Bible that might be a good idea for reading through in a year.

LONNIE: Just to let everyone in on a little secret, I will be reading through one of the translations on tape, and my voice will be the one reading, so that will help people get it. I f they don’t like to read it, they can at least hear it in their cars.

KEN: And another thing, we’re going to take all of these programs where we looked at the Bible book by book and we will be making those available also.

LONNIE: We’re going to edit these down and they will be available to order from our website in the future.

KEN: We will put the info on the Web.

LONNIE: What does it feel like to have gone from Genesis 1 clear through Revelation?

KEN: Personally, it has been a real growing experience in an understanding of God and how he has worked. I love history, and to see how He worked in the past and to look forward to what He has in store for the future is a very exciting thing.

LONNIE: He’s an awesome God!

KEN: He is!

LONNIE: And He is in control!

KEN: I appreciate the priveledge of participating in this process.

LONNIE: Thank you very much Ken for being here with us today.

Amen! We wanted to get Connie in on the discussion of the Bible too—so we let her sing! Something she does beautifully.

CONNIE: Thanks Lonnie, yes, I’ve always enjoyed singing God’s praises.

LONNIE: I think your dad got you singing on the It Is Written broadcast when you were just a teenager, didn’t he.

CONNIE: Um-hmm—that was just a few years ago you know!

LONNIE: Of course.

CONNIE: Actually, I think I made my first album when I was about sixteen.

LONNIE: And we’re glad you continue to use that talent at our evangelistic meetings, our Vision Builders programs, and many other venues.

CONNIE: Enough about me—let’s get back on topic. Which is the Bible? One of the most important parts of Voice of Prophecy’s ministry for more than 60 years has been the Bible Correspondence School.

LONNIE: That’s right. And today we call it the Discover Bible School. People can enroll and take a course in the fundamentals of Bible teachings through the mail, or right on the Internet on our web page, VOP.COM

CONNIE: Literally hundreds of thousands of people have taken the course and learned to know their Bibles better, and we’d like to encourage you to do the same. You can enroll by writing to us at Voice of Prophecy, Box 53055, Los Angeles, 90053. Again: Box 53055, Los Angeles, 90053, or from Canada Box 2127, Oshawa, Ontario L1H 7V4.

LONNIE: Or you can take the course via the Internet at VOP.COM.

CONNIE: Either way, it’s absolutely free. We’ll give our address again a bit later, and you might want to get something to write it down, so you can enroll in the Discover Bible Course. But right now, let’s listen to Lonnie’s message, “The Bible Sandwich Revisited.”

The Bible Sandwich Revisited

Have you read a good bestseller lately? Someone has said that best sellers are the books everybody buys, but nobody reads. Well, I don’t know how true that is in general, but I get the feeling it may be true of the greatest best seller of all time.

I think you know what book I’m referring to. Here’s how the Los Angeles Times described it in an article published not long ago:

It is the biggest bestseller in the history of the planet.

It recounts gripping stories of sin, sex, brutal violence, awesome miracles, divine compassion and the faith and redemption of the fallen and flawed. Its larger-than-life characters defeat giants, part seas, get swallowed by whales; suffer horrible deaths, spring back to life.

The book is a cornerstone of Western civilization, inspiring the art of Michelangelo, the plays of William Shakespeare, the novels of John Steinbeck and the films of Hollywood. Its ethical standards have launched freedom movements worldwide. Its prose has enlivened our language: Salt of the earth. Wolves in sheep's clothing. Drop in the bucket. Skin of my teeth. Woe is me!

It didn’t take you long to figure out that the book I’m talking about, and that the L. A. Times reporter wrote about, is one that doesn’t show up on the bestseller lists we see in newspapers. But nonetheless it continues to outsell all other books year after year. It’s the book we call the Holy Bible.

The question is, does the Bible fit into that category of bestsellers that everybody buys, but nobody reads? I’m afraid it just might. In fact, the Bible has a reputation for being the book that collects dust on people’s shelves. Bibles used to get to go out at least once a week, when people carried them to church. But I’ve noticed that even that brief trip seems to have been curtailed lately. I don’t see nearly as many Bibles in church as I used to. Do you?

Recently the Barna Research Group took a survey that revealed that while more people are reading the Bible regularly these days than a few years ago, still only about 40 percent of Americans read it at least once a week. Most people can’t name the four Gospels that begin the New Testament, and another recent study revealed that only one out of 50 students enrolling in a Baptist seminary could name all of the Ten Commandments!

Now, that might not be too surprising if the study had been done at UCLA or Harvard. But at a Baptist seminary? Something doesn’t seem right about that.

Many people report that they’d like to read the Bible more, and that they’d like to understand it better, but it just seems overwhelming to them--difficult to understand.

Well, if you’ve ever felt that way, I hope that you’ll listen carefully for the next few minutes, because I want to share with you a simple secret that brings everything in the Bible into clear focus.

I call it the Fast Food Secret. Or the Sandwich Secret.

It’s a secret that helps me remember what the Bible is about, and to get the big picture so the things I read all fit together like a good story. And I’d like to share that secret with you.

Here it is: The Bible is constructed like a sandwich--and here’s what I mean by that:

When you start reading the Bible in the book of Genesis, you find a story--a wonderful story about the great place that God created for people to live in: The Garden of Eden, otherwise known as Paradise. That beautiful story continues for just two chapters and then something terrible happens.

The people God created, Adam and Eve, rebel against God and lose their right to live in Paradise--lose the privilege of living right there with God in the home He created for them.

So, the first slice of bread in our Bible Sandwich is made up of the first two chapters of Genesis. And they taste pretty good, don’t they?

After you’ve read those two chapters, try this. Skip over to the very end of the Bible. To the book of Revelation, and go to the LAST two chapters of that book, chapters 21 and 22. In my Bible, there’s a heading at the beginning of Revelation 21: “New Heaven and Earth are created.” Isn’t that fascinating? The first 2 chapters of the Bible deal with creation of earth, the last two deal with RE-creation of both earth and heaven.

The first 2 chapters tell about an ideal, wonderful place--a Paradise--where Adam and Eve were to live, and where God would come and visit with them. Now, notice this from Revelation 21: 3

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.

The first two chapters of the Bible tell about Paradise, the third chapter tells how Paradise was lost, but then the last two chapters of the Bible tell us how Paradise will be restored.

The last two chapters are the second slice of bread in our Bible Sandwich. They wrap up the Bible with a promise that God will bring back the perfect state of things that He originally created for us to live in. He’ll come back to live with us once again.

Hmmm…. I’ve got to say I like the flavor of the bread this sandwich is made with—don’t you? It’s made up of perfect places where people live with God and there are no problems, no sickness, no pain, and no tears. Seems like good, solid, whole wheat bread, maybe.

But what about the filling? What’s between these two luscious slices of bread?

Well, unfortunately, some of it isn’t what I would pick for a filling, if I were down at the local deli ordering a sandwich. There are some rather sour things in the Bible, I have to confess. And some rather bitter things as well. But the important thing is to see each story as part of the bigger picture: The story of Paradise Lost and Paradise Restored. It’s important to see each part of the story as a part of God’s plan to solve all the problems of the world.

So, when you read Genesis chapter 3, and all the chapters from there on to Revelation 20, you’re reading the story of what happened to human beings as a result of their separation from God.

All the heartaches, all the death, all the wars, famines, and plagues that the Bible tells about are there for a reason. And even though I sometimes feel like I’d just like to stop at Genesis 2 and not read chapter 3 and the things that follow, those stories serve an important purpose. There’s something essential there for us to learn. They reveal what happens when people choose to separate themselves from God.

Now, I don’t want to give you the wrong impression by saying that there are some bitter parts in the Bible. I don’t want to discourage you from getting yours out and reading it. Because there are some beautiful pictures too--of good times that came when people followed God’s guidance. And especially in the New Testament we find the wonderful stories about Jesus and how He revealed God’s love to people. These are a foretaste of what life will be like in Paradise Restored.

But thinking of the Bible as a sandwich helps to put everything in perspective. Whatever part of the story you read; you can see how it fits into the big picture. If you read about a terrible war where innocent people were slaughtered, remember, that’s not the way it was supposed to be--God never intended for those things to happen. And most important of all, remember the way the book ends--with God’s triumph, and with Paradise restored.

Bernard Travaille tells a story about a man who understood the big picture:

There was no gymnasium on our seminary campus, [he writes] so we played basketball in a nearby public school. The janitor, an old [gentleman] with white hair, would wait patiently until the seminarians had finished playing. Invariably he sat there reading his Bible.

One day I went up to him and inquired, "What are you reading?"

The man did not simply reply, "The Bible." Instead he answered, "The Book of Revelation."

With a bit of surprise, I asked, "The Book of Revelation? Do you understand it?"

"Oh yes," the man assured me. "I understand it."

"You understand the Book of Revelation! What does it mean?"

Very quietly that old janitor answered, "It means that Jesus is going to win."

Oh, yes, friend, that’s what the Bible means. Every word of this great book, this great best seller, it is wrapped up in the pictures of Genesis 1 & 2 and Revelation 21 & 22. In the beginning we learn that God created our world as a wonderful place free of strife and sadness, and in the end, we learn that He plans to restore it to that perfect state once again!

It’s a beautiful picture of a beautiful plan: God’s plan for your life and mine! It begins with God in charge, and it ends that way too!

And when you think about it—that’s the way our lives should be, too. We have very little to do with bringing ourselves into existence. That’s all in God’s care.

But somewhere along the way, most of us decide we’d like to take the reigns in our own hands and take charge of our lives, run them the way we want, not the way God wants. And when that happens, we all-too-often end up caught in the middle of the sandwich. Stuck in the sticky, bitter filling.

That’s when it’s time to remember that our life should be a sandwich too. God was in charge at the beginning. He ought to be in charge at the end, too, don’t you think?

In fact, He ought to be in charge right now, shouldn’t He? So that whenever life ends—whenever earth’s history ends—we’ll be ready to go home and live with Him in Paradise Restored for ever.

That’s what I’m looking forward to.

How about you?