Jordan Asked Me Some Questions About the Bible
here's what i told her
Friends.
The other night I was putting Jordan to bed and after we did our routine of …
Singing daddy’s rendition of “Jesus Loves Me” (I changed the lyrics, HA!).
Prayers.
The Story of Jesus (a story about Jesus I’ve been telling her since she was 2).
Affirmations.
… the conversation turned to “the Bible” - something Jordan has been super curious about of late.
“So, Daddy - the things in the Bible … probably … didn’t all happen, right?”
Ahh. What a question from an 8 year old, yeah? I can remember having similar questions when I was 9 (a year older than her) and sitting in Bible class in my very fundamentalist Evangelical Private School. I even remember where I was sitting - the second row back from the front, all the way to the teacher’s left, my desk directly next to the wall. We were learning about the story of creation along with stories about Jesus and Moses and David … all things our teacher INSISTED happened exactly as the Bible said they happened.
The world was created in SIX 24 hour days.
The world is only about 6,000 years old.
Jesus really walked on water.
There really will be a rapture.
Moses really did part the Red Sea.
The sun really DID stand still.
… on and on the list could go, but all the way from the creation story to David and Goliath to Jonah to Jesus - every story, we were told, happened exactly as the Bible says it did.
At 9 years old, though? I don’t know, man. I mean, I wasn’t about to question the teacher, you know? And not much felt “at stake” when I was 9 in regards to God and faith and spirituality and things. Plus all the other kids around me seemed to agree with her (some had been in that school since kindergarten whereas I came in halfway through my 4th grade year). So rather than ask questions, I just believed what I was told to believe and went on with my day even though deep down inside these stories of Moses and David and Jesus felt way more meaningful than just a book of historical happenings.
Anyways.
So Jordan listened to our usual story of Jesus and then asked, “So, Daddy - the things in the Bible … probably … didn’t all happen, right?”
And.
I mean.
HOW DO YOU ANSWER THAT, right? Of course, I have my thoughts. Many thoughts! But how do I answer that question without imposing my own beliefs onto her 8 year old mind? Because the reality is that buried deep down in that question was a desire to be reassured in her own thoughts, wondering if I thought the same things.
AND.
How do I share context for my answer without overwhelming her with too many details or things she might not be able to process?
“Hmm”, I said. “That’s a really good question. And I’ll tell you right off the bat that lots of people believe lots of different things about the Bible. And so when I tell you what I believe, know that my way of thinking is not the ONLY way of thinking. And as you grow - you’re welcome to think whatever you want to think … even if I disagree.
BUT.
Before I tell you what I think, is it OK if I tell you a few things I’ve learned about the Bible over the last 35ish years?”
“Sure, daddy!”, she said.
“OK, so … first - the Bible isn’t 1 book that someone wrote from beginning to end.
It’s not like one of my books or your books where someone had an idea, sat down, wrote it, and printed it for a bunch of people to read. Instead, the Bible is a collection of 66 different books (some are longer, some are shorter, some are letters that someone wrote, others are poems, others are stories) that span the course of (maybe up to) 8,000-9,000 years.
In other words, some books are as young as maybe 1,900 years whereas others are as old as maybe 9,000 years.
And so what this means is that each of the 66 books of the Bible was written by different people to different people groups who lived in times and cultures and spoke languages that are drastically different than what we know in 2025 United States of America where you and I speak English.
Not only that.
BUT.
Most of those books and the stories in them were shared by word of mouth long before they were written down. And what that means is that long before the stories were written down on some sort of paper, they were passed along by word of mouth.
AND.
Just like the game of telephone you play in school - sometimes the story changes a bit as it’s told.
Secondly, the people who wrote the books of the Bible didn’t know they were writing the books of the Bible.
And that’s actually a really important thing to consider. Why? Well, for example - a guy named Paul who wrote the book ‘1 Corinthians’ was writing a letter to a church in a place called Corinth that was experiencing a lot of different issues. He had no idea his letter that was being written to a small group of people to address a small number of issues relevant to that small community would be read by millions and millions of people for the rest of time.
And THAT makes me wonder - if he thought his words to a first century church that existed in a culture much different than ours and spoke languages much different than ours would be read by Glenn and Jordan Siepert 2,000 years later living in the United States of America where they spoke English … I wonder if he would have maybe said different things? Or said the same things, but differently?
Like.
I wonder if he thought the issues he spoke of to the church in Corinth would be relevant to every person, everywhere until the end of time - forever and ever and … ever?
In other words, if he knew his letter would be part of a Bible - maybe he would have said things differently? Maybe included things that he left out? Or left out things that he included?
Thirdly, the people who wrote the Bible didn’t value the same sorts of things that you or I might value today.
What I mean by that is that they weren’t really interested in recording history or telling details exactly as they happened. Instead, they were writing and sharing stories with groups of people going through specific sets of circumstances and they were writing so that those people might be encouraged in their journey.
Today we have ‘documentaries’ on TV where people go around with cameras to record the day to day life of a person, ask them questions, etc. all to present their story to the world. The details are usually factual and the events are historical in that they really happened.
BUT.
It wasn’t really that way with, for example, the Gospels where we find the stories of Jesus. There was no ‘Jesus Camera’ and they weren’t really interested in presenting facts and history as much as they were interested in telling the story of Jesus in a way that would encourage their readers.
Matthew wrote to one community.
Mark to another.
Luke to another.
John to another!
ALL in different periods of time.
And their stories about Jesus (although similar in some respects) are quite different - not because they couldn’t recall the details, but because they tweaked the story and added to and subtracted from it in order to shine a light on the Jesus story in a way that would most inspire and encourage the people they were writing to.
Even so - some people today believe the Bible IS a history book (I used to), but lots of people don’t (I no longer do). As I’ve said many times - lots of different people believe lots of different things about the Bible AND lots of people will try to make you believe the same things they do.
You, though, are your own person - you can believe what makes most sense to you.
Fourth, the Bible that you and I have today wasn’t finalized right away.
Various church councils or groups of important people declared what books were good to read and what books weren’t good to read; and so some say the final Bible as we have it today wasn’t officially compiled or given a ‘stamp of approval’ until the 1500’s which is only 500 or so years ago. This is because there are lots and lots and lots and lots of books that DIDN’T make it into the Bible. Some people thought those books were helpful, some thought they were evil because they said things that were different from some of the other books. Even though we have a ‘Bible’ today, there are way more letters and books that didn’t make it into the Bible than did! And we even have a lot of those!
And those church groups and those councils? They often argued over which books were important and which books weren’t, a decision that wasn’t finalized or made official right away.
The process of how the Bible came to be, though, isn’t nearly as important as simply realizing that it WAS a process that was much more complicated than simply sitting down to write a book.
SO. To summarize:
ONE - the Bible isn’t 1 book, but 66 books that were written by many people over the course of 8,000 - 9,000 years.
TWO - the people who wrote the books of the Bible didn’t know they were writing the Bible.
THREE - the people who wrote the Bible weren’t as interested in recording history as they were in telling stories that would inspire people.
FOUR - there are lots of books that didn’t make it into the Bible and the Bible as we have it today wasn’t made ‘official’ until maybe as late as the 1500’s.
NOW - back to the original question, ‘did the things in the Bible really happen?’
Well.
With everything I just shared, that’s a hard question to answer, you know? Because it’s hard to know what parts of the Bible are recording history and what parts are just trying to tell a story that would encourage or challenge people.
For instance, there are some stories in the Bible that we find in documents outside of the Bible. In other words, some things that (for example) a particular King did IN THE BIBLE, we have other historical sources OUTSIDE OF THE BIBLE that tell of that King doing the same things. In cases like that, we assume that those stories (even if the details are maybe a little different between the Bible and the other historical sources) actually happened.
However.
We also have some stories in the Bible that are only found in the Bible - things that you would think there SHOULD BE historical record of as some major world event, we don’t find any bits of the stories in any piece of writing except the Bible. For instance, when the Bible says that King Herod killed all the babies when he heard about Jesus being born - that’s a major thing. You’d think a story like that would have been well known. The only problem, though, is that this story is ONLY FOUND in the Bible and archeologists who dig around in the ground haven’t found any evidence of such a horrible event occurring in the area where King Herod would have lived. And so that’s a story that was likely made up by the Gospel writer (or was being orally passed around before and during his lifetime) not to be deceitful, but because he was more interested in telling a story about Jesus to inspire his readers than he was about recording historical details about Jesus’ life.
Now.
All of that said.
Here’s what I think.
I can’t know for certain, because I wasn’t there but my hunch and what I believe these days is that the Bible contains …
ONE - stories about SOME real, historical people that happened.
For example - the Apostle Paul was a real person. The Bible says he traveled around to start churches. Those things really happened and the letters he wrote contain ideas that were important to him.
TWO - stories about SOME real, historical people that did NOT happen.
Jesus, for example, was a REAL person. However, I’m not sure the stories about him walking on the water and things really happened.
And.
THREE - stories about SOME fictional or made up people that did not happen.
Like, there likely was never a person named Jonah who was a swallowed by a big fish and then spit out on land. That seems a bit far-fetched. And so, instead, that story was probably a story that was created to illustrate a point that was important for the people of that time (and is important for us today, too!). And it was a story that was likely spoken orally or passed around by word of mouth long before it was written down.”
By this time Jordan’s face was glazed over. Not like she was lost or uninterested (believe me, I know that face!), but like she was in awe. “Wow. You know a lot of things about the Bible”, she said. “How did you get to know all of that?”
I then told her about growing up in a Private Christian School and then going to Bible College and then Seminary and being a pastor and studying on my own and doing my podcast … “I’ve been studying this stuff for years and years and years and so even though there are many people who know way more than me - I know a few things".
And then I ended with this.
“Let me summarize it all by saying this. I think when it comes to the Bible, the question of ‘did this really happen?’ is a great question. And it’s fun to think about, right? Like, did Jesus REALLY walk on water? Did he REALLY raise a guy named Lazarus from the dead? Great questions to ponder. However, for me, a far more interesting question is - ‘why did this story pass the test of time?’ Right? In other words - why did the stories of Jesus that were told 2,000 years ago make their way into books on our shelves in 2025? Did they happen? I don’t know. But why are they here? That’s a question I can spend a lifetime exploring. Or why did the stories of Moses and David and Jonah - whether they happened or not - that were told 6,000 or so years ago make their way into books on our shelves in 2025? What is it about these stories that has inspired people throughtout history so much so that they were intent on writing them down, passing them along, and telling them to their children, their children’s children, etc.? For me? That’s one of the questions I’m most fascinated with and I think that’s the reason why I’ve poured so much of my life into thinking about this collection of stories.”
I’m sure we’ll have many more conversations, but I think a 40 minute conversation at 8:00pm was enough for one night, HA! I’m sharing this with you because I wanted to say that I think our kids need to know that things can be TRUE even if they didn’t happen.
Read that again:
Things can be TRUE even if they didn’t happen.
Like, for me - the Bible contains stories that didn’t happen. I’d even argue that more than 3/4 of the Bible is made of stories that didn’t happen OR didn’t happen anywhere close to how the Bible says they happened.
But.
Even so?
I think the Bible contains a never ending amount of truth for us to ponder - truths and pieces of wisdom that will forever speak to the deepest parts of the human soul.
Truth about relationships.
Truth about power.
Truth about our identity.
Truth about love.
Truth about compassion.
Truth about forgiveness.
Truth about unity.
Truth about division.
… so many truths about so many things that humans have been inspired by, challenged by, lifted up by, wounded by since the beginning of time and will be until the end of time.
Yes.
There is TRUTH in Jesus even if he didn’t walk on water.
There is TRUTH in Jonah even if he never existed.
There is TRUTH in the Bible even if it’s not relaying historical facts to us.
Likewise …
There is TRUTH in Santa Claus even if there is no North Pole.
There is TRUTH in Disney’s Frozen or Moana even if the characters at Disney World are just costumes.
Do you see what I mean? Far too many of us grow up, learn the “truth” about things like Santa or Jesus or the Bible or whatever, and give up on the magic of it all only to become skeptical of the things that used to captivate us as children. Although I dumped a TON of information on Jordan the other night after she asked me a relatively simple question, my hope is that she’ll come away realizing that even if all the stories in the Bible didn’t happen, the Bible is still worth reading.
AND.
Santa is still worth “believing in”.
Frozen and Moana and her favorite movies are still worth watching.
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
Don’t lose your wonder, friends. In times like these, we need all the wonder we can get.
Much love,
Glenn || SUPPORT / ART STUDIO