Bully's Blog

One of the best ways to communicate truth in such a way as to grip the hearts and minds of the hearer is by means of story telling. The Bible is full of stories, designed for just this purpose. The whole theology of story telling could use a treatment in itself…

God is Himself the Great Story Teller. Being God, He can sovereignly superintend all events so as to bring His stories to life. His stories really happened. The fact that they are told as stories does not subtract one whit from their real historical character. Still, what gives them their thrilling power is not only that we know that they really happened in a certain year and at a certain place, but because they speak to us today.

Why do good stories speak to us today? Because, as students of literature would say, they embody universal characteristics, and deal with universal problems, hopes, fears, symbols, and so forth. This is exactly correct. Universal truths are not the same as abstract generalities, however. It is precisely in the specific events themselves that the most universal aspects of the stories are seen.

James B. Jordan, Judges: God’s War Against Humanism, p.ix
http://www.biblicalhorizons.com/pdf/jjju.pdf

Judges, like all the so-called “history books” of the Old Testament, is really a prophecy. Judges is numbered among what are called the “Former Prophets.” These books were called prophecies because the histories they recorded were regarded as exemplary. The histories showed God’s principles in action, and thus formed prophetic warnings to the people. If we read Judges merely as a set of exciting stories, we miss this.

To get at the prophetic meaning, we need to know four “secrets” of interpreting Biblical narratives. First, we have to take seriously the universals, as mentioned above. The first enemy who invades Israel in the book of Judges is Cushan-of-Double-Wickedness from Aram-of-Double-River. This is Mesopotamia. What is the prophecy? If the people do not live righteously, the enemy will come from Mesopotamia. And so it was. First Assyria conquered Northern Israel, and later Babylon conquered Southern Israel, so that even the idea of a two-fold destruction came to pass.

James B. Jordan, Judges: God’s War Against Humanism, p.xi
http://www.biblicalhorizons.com/pdf/jjju.pdf

“It is surely a remarkable incident, if it is not the Providence of God, that these human, un-selfconscious letters of the very early days of Christianity should have been preserved. What is even more remarkable is their astonishing relevance today. It seems that the men who wrote these letters concentrated upon the essential spiritual core of human life. They provide that spiritual vitamin, without which human life is at best sickly, and at worst dead. While scarcely touching on any “modern problem” they yet manage to give pointers of principle which show the way, and the spirit, in which the problems of even a highly complex age such as ours may be tackled successfully.

The present translator who has closely studied these letters for several years is struck by two things. First, their surprising vitality. He is continually struck by the living quality of the material on which he is working. Some will, no doubt, consider it merely superstitious reverence for “Holy Writ”, yet again and again the writer felt rather like an electrician re-wiring an ancient house without being able to “turn the mains off”.

From the Translator’s Preface to Letters to Young Churches (The New Testament Epistles) by J. B. Phillips

Read Translators’ Impressions:
http://www.bullartistry.com.au/pdf_bestill/037BeStill.pdf

From Steven Wedgeworth’s blog http://wedgewords.wordpress.com

Our Faith is not primarily intended as a way to create a great culture. It is not primarily a way to run for political office. It is not primarily a way to advance literature, poetry, or song. All of these things are great effects of our faith, but they are not the reason to become interested in Jesus. Continue reading

“Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were living in that nation, their faithfulness would not save anyone but themselves. …even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were living there, I, the Lord, promise that the children of these faithful men would also die. Only the three of them would be spared.” (Ezekiel 14:14, 20)

The mediation of even the holiest men would not avert God’s judgments. Noah had failed to prevent the destruction of the old world. Daniel had failed to prevent the destruction of the Land. Job had failed to prevent the destruction of his children. Like the three domains under these men, Jerusalem was beyond deliverance. And even if these holy watchmen were present in Jerusalem, they alone would be saved. These three only would be rescued from Sodom like Lot. In chapter 23, Ezekiel refers to Jerusalem as Sodom. Jerusalem the oppressor was also like Egypt. As the Land symbolically had four corners, four judgments would desolate it: sword, famine, beasts and pestilence, the Covenant curses from Leviticus 26. This was the Levitical sword indeed. The exiles, as watchmen, would see the repentance of the “marked” survivors and know that the Lord had not acted without cause.

When the Lord parted the Red Sea with His breath, He made the waters to stand up as walls. When He parted the overflowing Jordan for Joshua, He made the water stand up in a heap.

Revelation shows the crystal sea before His throne replaced by a crystal-walled city, the New Jerusalem. The overflowing waters of judgment were transformed into walls and gates by the Spirit of God. The bride city is now the entrance to the Promised Land. The city gates, the place of judgment, are open for the repentant.

Both the Red Sea and Jordan were doors of water and blood. They were two-edged flaming swords at the doorway to God.

Higher criticism’s rejection of the Bible’s chronology (followed by much of evangelicalism) robs Christians of some amazing facts. According to James Jordan, Joseph was sold by his brothers before the birth of Benjamin, and Isaac (the sacrifice) died a year before Joseph’s release from prison.

 

James B. Jordan, Reading the Bible (again) for the First Time (Audio series).

“The French Revolution caused many Protestants to begin to consider whether there might be evils even worse than Roman Catholicism. Once it was clear that history had moved beyond the Papacy, many commentators shifted to a futurist approach to prophecy. They continued to roll all the bad characters in the Bible into one evil personage, this time not the Pope but some “Antichrist” who would appear in the future just before Jesus returns.

Few of these expositors seem to be able to resist the temptation to suggest, if not insist, that this “Antichrist” is due to appear shortly after their commentary is published. In this way, cultural bigotry has continued to inform most advocates of the futurist approach: The decline of European-American (nowadays called “Western”) civilization is identified as the final decline of Christendom and as a sign of the “last days.” The rest of the world does not count. Events in the Middle East and Europe are identified with Biblical prophecy and accorded status as signs of the end of the world. That this approach relegates the red, brown, black, and yellow peoples of the world to the status of historical non-entities does not seem to be noticed by the advocates of this unintentionally racist approach to predictive prophecy.”

James B. Jordan, The Handwriting on the Wall, p. 4.

“Being in prison is not bad news . . . it’s the first stage of dominion.”

“Unity is a gift and a mandate.”

“Paul is a Trojan Horse for the gospel.”

“The support of the Spirit comes through the prayers of the people.”

“Paul saw his mission as making people joyful. This is the pastor’s job.”

Quotes from John Barach’s lectures on Philippians: http://auburnavenue.wordpress.com