“What makes Michael Bull’s books both brilliant and maddening is their conciseness.”

What makes Michael Bull’s books both brilliant and maddening is their conciseness. Writing as a graphic-artist, he lays out the text, and in fact the whole book, in a form that takes the shape of his subject. On one hand, this book on the Revelation is easy to read. In fact, the first half of the book is a summary of the whole Bible and how the shape of creation in Genesis shapes the rest of the text. This is called the “Matrix” pattern. He explains how these themes are repeated and applied to different circumstances. The second half of the book applies this “Matrix” to the book of Revelation. This means he has expertly condensed a monumental amount of information into those last a hundred pages or so! In many ways, this book is much more like brilliant lecture notes that allow you to explore a topic more fully on your own… after you have been introduced to the topic.

This book can be maddening to read, so you have to know that it is worth it. And it is worth it. Beside the format, another aspect that can make this book maddening is that you have to suspend all your preconceived notions about “End Times.” Debates such as those about “Post-Trib” or “Pre-Trib” that are so divisive, yet they are not easily avoided. While I agree with most of Michael’s points in the book, some of his statements struck me as cryptic and sent me searching for substantiation. Sometimes I could make the connections, sometimes I couldn’t. This could fuel his critics.

The book is maddening, but it is brilliant. Even if you don’t understand or agree with much in Michael’s premises, the connections he makes with the texts is rewarding. Any one of his outlines can yield a wealth of biblical insight… and I find that more valuable than having someone confirm what I might already think. While I agree with most of the conclusions of this book, I am sure these “Matrix” outlines (“T.H.E.O.S.”) will be valuable even to those who hold a different dispensational view of history. I think Michael is really onto something by seeing Moses as Revelation’s major interpreter.

For me, I found the book more rewarding and understandable read in light of where it is going. It may have been helpful to have included a section titled, “How to use this book.” I suggest reading chapter 5 and then the last two chapters (13 & 14) right after the introduction, before reading the rest of the book. This will clear your mind of how he sees the big picture fitting together. The rest of the book backs up that vision. I highly recommend this book. It is a much needed word that brings a fruitful simplicity to the text and answers many critics’ complaints about the Bible.

You can read the introduction to Moses and the Revelation here.

The book of Revelation polarises Christians. Some become obsessed with ‘cracking its code’ while others throw it into the too hard basket. Thankfully, recent advances in biblical theology enable us to liberate this enigmatic book from both mistreatment and obscurity.

The prophecy is attractive to some because of its mystery, its beauty and its terror, and also because interpreting it promises access to divine knowledge about future events. But when it comes to its application in everyday life, most pastors are unwilling to venture beyond the letters to the seven churches in their preaching, since these offer some easily identifiable and practical moral advice.

Continue reading at ethos.org.au.

Why do serious theologians persist with a story that reads like third-rate fan fiction?

This is a response to Andrew Wilson’s recent thinktheology post, “Nephilim, Anakim, and Why We Care.”

As the proponents of paedobaptism and full preterism doggedly continue to demonstrate, even the brightest theologians are susceptible to crazy ideas. Unsurprisingly, both of these erroneous doctrines – along with the “fallen angels” reading of Genesis 6 – are the result of a common flaw, and that flaw is a failure to put a finger on the pulse of the actual story.

Substandard fan fiction suffers from the same deficiency: while it is enthralled by the features of the original narratives, it mistakenly identifies these facets as the heart of the story rather than merely elements through which its genius is expressed. While paedobaptism, full preterism, and the “fallen angel” reading of Genesis 6 all manage to scrape together some semblance of support from the Scriptures, they seem oblivious to how “out-of-character” their stories are as intended explanations (or perhaps more correctly, adoring extensions) of the Bible. Many of the trappings of the sacred texts are present, which gives them a veneer of authenticity, but the internal logic – the unseen principle which governs the originals and makes them so captivating – is missing. As with the authors of substandard fan fiction, the driving force of the biblical narrative has not been comprehended by some of its most committed fans.

Ignorance of Covenant Structure

Wilson writes:

I take it as read that the Nephilim (Gen 6:1-4) were the results of sexual relations between angels and women. Many don’t, and I used not to, but I now find the Jewish and early Christian witness compelling, the alternatives (Sethites and Cainites? Kings and harems?) quite unconvincing, and the best counterargument something of a tangent. (For those who are counting, the best counterargument is that Jesus says in Matthew 22:30 that it is impossible for angels to have sex. The obvious response to which is simply: no, he doesn’t.)

Despite the fact that angels are never mentioned in Genesis 6, Wilson has mistakenly written off the intermarriage of Sethites and Cainites as being the best explanation of the story. This is because not only have modern theologians atomised the Bible, they have failed to comprehend the text as repeated iterations of the same sacred architecture. We do not have the freedom to treat the interpretation of Genesis 6 as a multiple choice question in an exam because all the questions in this exam have the same answer. Let me explain.

The history from Adam to Noah is a “macrocosmic” recapitulation of the testing of Adam. The step in the narrative where Adam and Eve grasp equality with God corresponds to the rise of these “god-like” mighty men in Genesis 6, the ultimate outcome of the “seed of the serpent.” This most likely explains the word nephilim which is derived from the word for fallen. These men were no more the offspring of angels than was Cain, who failed to “rule over sin” and instead established his own rival kingdom. Even more significantly, the step where the Lord covered Adam’s sin in Genesis 3 corresponds to the point where God revoked the Edenic atonement through animal blood and covered the entire world. The sin of Adam was “the one,” that is, the cultus, and the sin of the sons of God was “the many,” that is, the outcome of the same sin in the culture. The “fruit” that was stolen was the daughters of men, and they were not stolen by angels but by those, like Adam, who had access to the Sanctuary.

This raises another point: every biblical Covenant is a tour of duty, with a mission, a prize, and accountability. Adam faced blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. The fivefold pattern of the commission in Genesis 2 establishes the sevenfold shape of the entire Edenic narrative.

Although an angel was involved in the temptation, it was only its “bestial” earthly counterpart which suffered a humiliating curse, since it was part of the world which God had promised to put under Adam’s feet. The angel was actually exalted to a place in the heavenly court, not as an advocate for mankind but as an accuser, an office he held until the ascension of Christ. Thus, the flood was the curse upon those who had broken the “new covenant” established by God in the shedding of sacrificial blood. The angels were not under any Covenant obligation which is why, for angels, who are mere servants and not sons, there is no redemption.

This micro/macro relationship between Eden and the world is the reason why both narratives work through the pattern established in Genesis 1. To help us to understand it, this pattern is later expressed not only in the elements of the Tabernacle, but also in Israel’s annual festal calendar (Leviticus 23):

Noah, whose name means rest, becomes the “Day 7” of the process, the first man to bear the sword on God’s behalf as the legal representative of heaven upon the earth. He entered into God’s rest and brought Sabbath to the entire world. Since Noah qualified, the word “covenant” is mentioned for the first time in the Bible.

This point concerning Covenant structure might seem obscure or perhaps even irrelevant to some but it is in fact the most potent argument against the “sons-of-God-were-angels” theory.¹If you care to study the fundamentals of the Bible’s fractal “Covenant-literary” structure, there are some helpful links here. The purpose of this sevenfold process is spiritual maturity. The Lord calls all men to submit to Him that He might exalt us. Priesthood must precede kingdom, just as it did in the history of Israel, and in the ministry of Christ. This is the core of the entire Bible. If we are humble, we will be lifted up. Adam was promised a kingdom but he would only qualify for government if he first submitted to God. It was the same for Jesus, of course, who now possesses all authority in heaven and on earth. What Adam seized, Jesus was given as a gift.

Following Adam’s sin, this rivalry between priesthood and kingdom became incarnate in Cain and Abel. The result was the division of humanity into a priestly line (the Sethites) and a kingly line (the Cainites). The priestly line continued to shed the blood of sacrifices on behalf of sinful people, but the kingly line rejected the mercy of God and instead shed the blood of human beings in unmitigated vengeance. Thus, the intermarriage between priests and kings led to the end of God’s mercy and long-suffering. The ultimate irony is that God once again gathered animals, as He had in Eden, but He destroyed all those who rejected the ministry of substitutionary atonement via the blood of “priestly” domestic beasts.

This revoking of mercy explains the reference to there being “no more sacrifice for sins” in Hebrews 10:26. Almost all mankind had trampled underfoot the blood of the Covenant established in Eden, just as the Jews rejected the offering of Christ for the sins of the world. That is why this exact Adam-to-Noah pattern can be overlaid upon the history of the Apostolic Church. Jesus, as Abel, was slain, which led to the prophetic warnings of the Apostles, as Noah, and finally a judgment which Jesus warned would not only be as sudden as the flood in the days of Noah, but would also bring an end to the “kingly” sins of the Herods, including intermarriage for political gain:

For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:37-40)

This rejection by Wilson of the Sethite/Cainite solution is due to an ignorance of the Bible’s consistency, which is governed by its Covenant-literary structure. However, it is also an outcome of a failure to understand the reason for the establishment of the Circumcision and the Law, which founded and set apart an entire nation as a priesthood which was prevented from intermarriage with the other “kingly” nations. This act by God was necessary to avoid another global judgment, and to maintain a faithful shedding of substitutionary blood on behalf of all nations. This gives us the context of the downfall of Solomon through intermarriage with idolaters, the destruction of the Temple, and of Ezra’s blunt condemnation of the Israelites’ marriages with pagans during the exile. This theme of the confusion of priestly and kingly offices through intermarriage runs throughout the Bible, and is an expression of the fundamental core: man’s unwillingness to humble himself before heaven and his theft of the promised dominion over the earth. If this were understood by most theologians, bogus theories like sex with angels would be relegated to the dust bin where they belong.

Fruit of Land and Womb

Wilson continues:

I also take it as read that the Anakim, the sons of Anak whom we meet in the book of Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua, are descended from the Nephilim: “And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them” (Numbers 13:33). Which is to say that, when Israel first spied out and then conquered the Land, there were very large individuals milling around, who could trace their lineage back to sexual relations between angels and women. Bizarre, admittedly. But biblical.

This claim by the Israelite spies looks like solid evidence only if we ignore the greater Covenant context. Firstly, it must be noted that the spies were executed for their “evil report,” so its veracity must be questioned. It is possible that they were exaggerating in an attempt to deceive their fellows, and simply threw in “of the nephilim” to terrify the Israelites. But does the word refer to an actual tribe whom everyone knew could trace their descent from the antediluvians, or does the Hebrew phrase simply mean “from among the giants”? After all, there were other over-sized warriors in and around the Land of Canaan.

Secondly, the notion that the nephilim as Nephilim, a separate people which somehow managed to survive interbreeding and was able to pass on its genetic attributes through the many centuries following the flood, is not only highly improbable, it also fails to explain how this people evaded inclusion in the Table of Nations in Genesis 10, which contains no mention of Anak or Nephilim. Moreover, where were these Nephilim when Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sojourned in the Land? The giant Goliath was a Philistine, and we know that the Philistines shared a common descent with the Egyptians as sons of Mizraim, a son of Ham (Genesis 10:6). It seems far more likely that the stature of these people was due more to the abundance of food now available in Canaan than merely genetic factors, just as the average height of various races throughout recent history has increased as diet has improved.

Thirdly, and related to the second point, are we also to assume that the size of the haul of grapes from the Valley of Eshcol is due to its lineage from antediluvian grapes? The point of these observations concerning size is that the barrenness of the land promised to Abraham had been reversed by God, along with the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. The Adamic curses (from Genesis 3) were placed upon Abraham on behalf of all nations that they might be reversed by faith, the kind of faith in God which Adam had not demonstrated. (For more discussion, see Stones and Fruit: Divination and Procreation.) After four centuries, not only would the numerous oak trees planted by Abraham now be fully grown, but the size of the fruit of the Land and the fruit of the womb in the Land (its people) showed that it was now ripe for the taking. The mighty people of the Land were to be crushed like grapes, and their houses and vineyards seized as an inheritance for the righteous. The strength and the possessions of these kingly usurpers would be possessed by a priestly people as a witness to the power of God. Israel would defeat the Canaanites just as David would later bring about the fall of Goliath, the one who had called down the Covenant curses upon the people of God, and ultimately (but indirectly) King Saul, who was also a giant bearing a spear. The mighty men (gibborim) of the earth (including its nephilim) would fall before the mighty men of heaven, those whose victories resulted not from the strength of their limbs but from their faith in God (Psalm 147:10). The grapes of Eshcol were a promise of the same kind of rest enjoyed by Noah, so it should be no surprise that the “heptateuch” (the narrative from Joshua to Judges) follows the sevenfold pattern above. Interestingly, just as the nephilim appear at the centre of the Adamic/Noahic narrative, so David and Solomon appear at the center of the Old Testament narrative (see Destroy This Temple).

Numbers 13:33 can only be regarded as evidence for angel-human sexual relations if we lose our grip on the metanarrative of the Torah, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy. Like many others, Wilson fails to interpret every text within the context of Covenant and thus misses the point of the story.

The End of all Flesh

The question is: why do we care? Besides being an intriguing sideshow that raises smirking questions on training courses, why does it matter? Let me suggest two reasons, both of them apologetic in nature.

The first is that they provide a biblical basis for biological continuity between antediluvians and postdiluvians. (Or, in English: they demonstrate that some people on earth, besides Noah’s family, survived the flood.) If everyone on earth apart from Noah’s family had died, then there would be nobody left who was descended from (min) the Nephilim—but the Anakim show that this is not the case. Therefore it is likely that, even from the perspective of Israelites in the Bronze Age, the cataclysmic flood did not wipe out every single person on planet earth outside the ark. Rather, it suggests that the scope of phrases like “the whole land” (qol erets) and “all mankind” (qol adam) is limited to the ancient Near East. Which, given that this was the entire world known to the writers at the time, is exactly what we would expect. It also indicates that attempts to demonstrate geologically that the flood covered the Himalayas are, at least, unnecessary.

I admire Wilson’s commitment to exegesis for the purpose of apologetics, but he fails on both counts.

Firstly, anyone who claims that the Great Flood was local has overlooked the fact that Adam was intended to be the legal representative of “all flesh.” Due to his failure, and the subsequent failure of the culture established by his offspring, “all flesh” was condemned to die “in him.” If anyone had survived the flood, then there were human beings who were outside of the jurisdiction of God. This also goes for those who claim (with a breathtaking cognitive dissonance and an even greater deficiency in basic logic) that the events in Genesis 2 are simply a “liturgical” description of Adam being chosen from among other human beings and given a special role or office before God. There were no “Adamites.” We are all Adamites. That is the foundation of Paul’s theology of the atonement. No one was outside the Noahic Covenant and no one is outside the jurisdiction of Christ. The separation of the human race came with the call of Abraham, not Adam. To claim otherwise is to pervert the narrative beyond recognition in a game of “kick the can.” Moreover, what was the “Covenantal” reason for the disinheritance of Adam’s contemporaries? Had they sinned in some way before Adam sinned? The miraculous integrity of the narrative exposes any tinkering for what it is: disingenuous theological posturing resulting from cowardice and unbelief. (For more discussion, see “Jenga Bible” in Michael Bull, Sweet Counsel: Essays to Brighten the Eyes.)

The real reason behind any toleration of the notion of a local flood is a desire to bow to the paganism which currently masquerades as science, the monkey religion which underpins every corruption in Western culture, and is quickly bringing about its end. As a friend once said, evolutionary theory – the unscientific assertion that chaos, sex and death somehow constitute a creative force – is just “Enuma Elish baptised in post-Enlightenment balloon juice.” Any attempt to harmonise the Bible with an old earth, let alone evolution, is an exercise in futility, and requires basic logic to be sacrificed on the altar of a misplaced faith.

However, what really concerns me here is the failure to understand the Promised Land of Canaan as a microcosm of the “dry land” of Genesis. That is the reason why the same word is used. These “lands” were not equivalent in size any more than the Canaanites constituted all the people of the globe. Canaan was to be a sacrificial substitute for the actual “dry land,” serving as its legal representative before God (see Cosmic Language), and this representation was an act of mercy for the peoples of the world. The story of Abraham’s qualification is a local recapitulation of the global narrative from Adam to Noah (see Microcosmic Abram). To claim that these were both local not only misses the point of the ministry of Israel as a nation among nations, but also demonstrates an utter ignorance of the layered construction of Covenant history: the Abrahamic Covenant was not established in place of the Noahic Covenant but within it (see The Myth of Covenant Membership). The “floods” of troops which invaded Israel under the judgment of God were the reason floods of waters could be averted. Indeed, the original “flooding” of Canaan was the armies of Israel come to claim the Land promised to their fathers, and importantly, to execute God’s judgment upon its inhabitants. This brings us to Wilson’s second failure.

Genesis Matters

If we allow an extraneous theory such as angel-human sexual relations to skew our take on the narrative, we find that scales eventually grow over our eyes and we are unable to interpret the text faithfully. This is evident in Wilson’s (and Michael Heiser’s) erroneous explanation of the kherem warfare in the book of Joshua.

The second is that they provide vital context for the kherem warfare that took place in Canaan under Joshua. This is a point I had never seen until I read Michael Heiser’s The Unseen Realm recently, and in particular his description of the “Deuteronomy 32 worldview,” in which Yahweh has disinherited the nations and assigned them to the rule of lesser gods (Deut 32:8 etc). Heiser explains:

Israel is Yahweh’s elect portion of humanity, and the land of Canaan is the geography that Yahweh, as owner, specifically allotted to his people. In the view of the biblical writers, Israel is at war with enemies spawned by rival divine beings. The Nephilim bloodlines were not like the peoples of the disinherited nations … the target of kherem was the Anakim.

Heiser offers a number of clues that he is right about this. (1) The emphasis on giantism in the initial spying mission (for all that this has since been domesticated in contemporary preaching, the point is not just that the people are large, but that they are descended from rival deities). (2) The explicit statement that the Israelite spies had seen the Nephilim in the Land (Numbers 13:33). The giant-like descriptions of enemies of God who live in the land, from Og (Deuteronomy 3:11) to Goliath (1 Samuel 17) and beyond (2 Samuel 21; 1 Chronicles 20). (4) The way in which the summary of Joshua’s kherem conquests (Joshua 11:21-23) focuses on the obliteration of the Anakim: “And Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua devoted them to destruction with their cities. There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel.” (5) The fact that the very next verse points forward to the ongoing presence of giants in the land of the Philistines, who of course will be the key enemy for Samson, Samuel, Saul and David for the next couple of centuries: “Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some [Anakim] remain. So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses” (Josh 11:22b-23). If Heiser is right here, then the motive for kherem warfare in Joshua was not merely the cleansing of God’s dwelling place, as we know, but the removal of the giant-like offspring of specific divinities.

So why should we care about the Nephilim and the Anakim? Partly because they help us think through the question of the global/local flood, and partly because they provide crucial context for our understanding of kherem warfare, which is one of the most pressing biblical challenges of our generation. And, of course, we should care about things that are in the Bible. There’s always that.

Wilson’s/Heiser’s misinterpretation of Genesis 6 (or failure to interpret it within the context of the biblical Covenants) renders them utterly clueless concerning the reason for the conquest of Canaan. And when I say clueless, I am not being cruel. They really have no idea what is going on. Instead of taking note of what is actually mentioned in the texts leading up to the kherem warfare, they seem totally oblivious to it, focussing instead on evidence for their bogus doctrine of some fictitious angelic bloodline within humanity. Not only does this lead to them offering a stupid “angel sex” explanation for “one of the most pressing biblical challenges of our generation,” they miss a golden opportunity to truly demonstrate the brilliance and integrity of the book of Genesis, and indeed the entire Bible.

The first and most heinous problem is the switch from the moral accountability of the people in the Promised Land to something which is merely racial or genetic. Modern skeptics love to level the charge of genocide against the nation of Israel (and the one true God) but that can only be done if all the previous texts are ignored. Asserting that the necessary context is found in their errant reading of Genesis 6 does nothing to help matters. The warfare is still genocide, but now the targets are giants. They are not destroyed because they have sinned, what they have done, but because of who they are. Besides the incredible theory concerning their origin, this does nothing at all for Christian apologetics.

When Abraham sojourned in the Land, he did not “call upon” the name of the Lord. He “proclaimed” it. He was an evangelist. The people of Canaan were accountable to God, just as later Gentile nations surrounding Israel became accountable once they heard the way of salvation. The books of the prophets all begin with judgment at the house of God (Garden), work their way out into the disobedient tribes of Israel (Land), then out again into the local Gentiles (World). This pattern originated in the history of Adam-to-Noah. As with that history, the process is chiastic, working back into the Land and then into worship established in a new Garden (Noah’s vineyard). The New Testament, as a Covenant lawsuit against first century Israel does exactly the same thing, which is why the letters to the Gentile Churches are placed before the final warnings to Christian Jews, followed by the book of Revelation which begins with a glorified “son of Adam” surrounded by fiery trees and ends with a barrage of Joshua imagery. Jerusalem would be circumcised – “cut around” with a Roman trench – just as Jericho was marched around by a newly circumcised Israelite army. Jericho was a devoted (kherem) firstfruits of the Land, and Jerusalem was a devoted firstfruits of the World.

But to understand the giving of Canaan to the children of Abraham as an inheritance, we must look further back than Abraham. Noah had cursed Canaan, the son of Ham, pronouncing that he would serve as a slave to both of his brothers (see Out of His Belly). So when we reach the book of Exodus, the fact that the Hebrews were serving as slaves in Egypt, “the Land of Ham,” is intended to strike us with horror. But once again, we are clueless as to what is going on because modern theology – which does not take Genesis seriously – has carved the living Word up as if it were a corpse requiring an autopsy. The descendants of Shem not only destroyed the Land of Ham, they also inherited the Land of Canaan. The context is Noahic, and the conflict in Egypt and the conquest of Canaan are both examples of the rivalry between priesthood and kingdom, and the constant attempts to cut off – not corrupt or hijack – the seed of the Woman. This not only renders the angelic bloodline theory redundant, but it also serves as a witness to those who doubt the integrity of the Bible.

“Bull models while he interprets. In other words, one must watch Bull’s visual interpretation in order to understand it.” Mark Tubbs’ review of Moses and the Revelation.

I may have been able to live my life comfortably ensconced in conceptually-based academia if it hadn’t been for the biblico-theological work of James B. Jordan. Like other Jordan readers, I now think in patterns and symbols where I used to think only in words and ideas. When first reading his seminal book Through New Eyes and his various articles, I recall wishing that certain sections – paragraphs, descriptions, lists, etc. – would have been accompanied by visual illustrations. To be fair, Through New Eyes includes ample diagrams. But it fell to graphic designer and theological blogger Michael Bull of the Blue Mountains (almost sounds like something out of Tolkien, doesn’t he – perhaps a long-lost cousin of Beorn?) near Sydney, Australia, to build upon Jordan’s insights in a more visual manner using advanced graphic design technology.

Let it be known (should anyone care) that I am not by nature a visual learner, never mind a visual artist. When learning I engage better with swaths of text than with diagrams, and when teaching college classes I try to avoid drawing anything but simple illustrations on the whiteboard. But what is nonetheless clear to me, at a foundational level, is Revelation’s inherent visual nature. Its words cohere to create a panorama of interplay between heaven and earth. Likely no one will object to those foregoing statements. But what if I said Revelation ought to be explained according to its nature? That is, the structure(s), patterns, and symbols ought to be an integral part of how Revelation means, part and parcel of what Revelation means theologically? Mike Bull has given us such a resource, demonstrating how such interpretation can be done. His is not the last word on Revelation, and he would be the first to say so, while simultaneously defending his interpretations.

But Bull does not stop at visual representation of Revelation’s content. His effort is not a mere repackaging of Revelation, but an unveiling of it using the Pentateuch (more accurately, the Heptateuch, Genesis through Judges) as a control. Many interpreters throughout the centuries have sought to interpret Revelation’s images; some have even made recourse to other parts of the biblical canon for further illumination. But to my knowledge, none have used the beginning of the Bible, into which divine inspiration embedded and uncovered the very structure of the universe and its history, to inform their interpretation of Revelation’s darker sayings – and let’s be honest, almost of all of Revelation consists of darker sayings. Certainly none have wedded such a canonically-oriented approach to graphic design brilliance.

Those trained in other academically-accepted types of biblical interpretation may pooh-pooh Bull’s approach as allegory or some sort of Bible code. They may say Bull is a quack, not a sage. And while it may be true that Bull occasionally sees more in the text than is actually there, I hold that it’s far worse to stop short of mining the Bible for all its worth than to make warranted correlations when and where the Bible sets a good and faithful precedent. In other words, Marsh’s Dictum handcuffs interpretation, whereas Bull’s approach enables it. We are always free to toss out interpretations that do not hold up to scrutiny. Scripture is not a china shop, paraphrasing Jesus (John 10:35).

Bull models while he interprets. In other words, one must watch Bull’s visual interpretation in order to understand it. A novice reader without any prior exposure to his writings may want to pause after Part 1, at page 78, to at least take in his primer Reading the Bible in 3-D, and more preferably, his entire range of Bible Matrix books. For what it’s worth, I myself read Bull’s writings slowly, especially when he is working out a chiasm, and I have read much of what he has published in print and on the web. And a caveat: while I did spend more time on Mike’s book on Revelation than I normally do on a regular text-based book, I haven’t made an in-depth study of most of the chiasms he sees in Revelation.

This brings me to the practical matter of how I would go about using this book, besides personal study. As a college instructor, one of my standard questions while reading any book is how I would employ it in a college course: as required or recommended reading, as a teaching resource, or in the form of juicy excerpts? A few years ago I assisted a colleague in choosing textbooks for an undergraduate course on Revelation, which included Apocalypse and Allegiance by J. Nelson Kraybill (Brazos, 2010), Reversed Thunder by Eugene H. Peterson (HarperOne, 1991), and The Triumph of the Lamb by Dennis E. Johnson (P&R, 2001). While I wouldn’t envision assigning Bull’s entire book as a course text, I can certainly see the benefit of working through a chiasm or two every time the class meets.

I end with a few keys to benefitting from this book, appropriately conveyed in bullet-point format:

• Use it as a launch pad for the study of Revelation, not as the final word;
• Remember that “Moses” comes first, both in the book’s title and in the Bible;
• If you need help, the author is more than happy to help (follow him on social media).

“No one makes it in the jump program on their first try, not even Neo.” Jacob Gucker’s review of Moses and the Revelation.

As a librarian at a theological seminary, I see books on Revelation and “End-times prophecy” frequently. Every time a pastor downsizes his personal library we get at least a few books in this vein and most of them are ephemeral and embarrassing. Michael Bull’s “Moses and the Revelation” is the sort of book I might overlook. It is self published. It lacks the marks of “scholarly” work, and it is filled with structural outlines that seem to make little sense as I peruse the book. Nevertheless, this book is both enriching and accessible for those who read in order to think.

The book is more accessible to certain people. Anyone who has read and enjoyed James B. Jordan and Peter Leithart, among others who view the Bible through a maximalist lens, will gain something from this book. Click “buy” if this is you. People who tend to read the Bible in large chunks at a time over many years will also have a leg up here.

The trick to reading this book successfully is to avoid the temptation to classify it or backwards-engineer Bull’s structural outlines right away. Try to look at the forest first, and then the trees. As an academic with both a Master of Divinity degree and a Master of Library Science degree, this is my tendency, and the book will not blossom for anyone who is looking to stack this book up with the others in this or that school of thought. Was it Søren Kierkegaard or Wayne Campbell who said, “If you label me, you negate me?” At any rate, he says where he’s coming up front. Like the book of Revelation itself, Bull is all about unveiling, not obscuring.

If you have no idea what Bull’s “Bible Matrix” is all about, he tells you. If you still don’t know what it’s all about, keep reading. No one makes it in the jump program on their first try, not even Neo. You don’t even have to believe in it. I’m not sure I do yet and I approve of this book whole-heartedly. I will say that the book of Revelation is a wonderful choice for explaining the Bible Matrix hermeneutic. It was somehow easier to approach the Bible Matrix through this book than Bull’s initial Bible Matrix book, which I also tried to backwards engineer the first time I opened it. If the Bible does have DNA and it can be seen with human eyes, the book of Revelation is certainly a place where it ought to be found. Furthermore, anyone who asks you to consider the book of Revelation in light of the first five books of the Bible is a good shepherd.

Avoid the temptation to read this book without opening the Bible. Don’t even try. In fact, read or skim through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy and then read Revelation in a single sitting. Then, read this book with your Bible open and you will be richly rewarded.

If I have any complaints it is that the information in this book is worthy of being more thoroughly explained, but perhaps that’s just my tendency to revere massive tomes of theology. Nevertheless, may this sort of writing about the Bible increase.

Jared W.’s review of Moses and the Revelation.

Mike Bull has given us the antidote for our collective ignorance about the Book of Revelation.

The book of Revelation is meant to be an unveiling and a blessing to the Church, but most often we treat it as a gordion knot that isn’t worth trying to solve.

However, Mike wants his readers to be “in on the joke” of Revelation. We can get the joke by becoming familiar with the people, objects, and stories of the Pentateuch.

I was greatly helped by the explanation of Jesus’ words to the Jews of his day connected with the words of the Old Testament prophets comprising the “covenant lawsuit” brought against Israel which would close the old covenant era and bring in the new.

This is the second book about the book of Revelation that has made any sense to me. The first was James Jordan’s Vindication of Jesus Christ.

Get this book today to cure your ignorance.

“After the gods of the nations have been dethroned, who will take their place?”

by Chris Wooldridge

Most Reformed commentators have tended to take Matthew 24, up to verse 38, as depicting first century events such as the initial spread of the Gospel, the persecution of the apostles and the destruction of the second temple. From verse 39 and thereafter though, the tendency has been to view it as concerned with the final judgement, the “tribulation” being understood as something beginning in the first century and coming to an end at the final coming of Christ. In this post, I will be examining Matthew 24:29-31 with the aim of showing that it is also concerned with first century events.

Verse 29 begins with a quotation from Isaiah 13:10 depicting the dissolution of the heavenly bodies:

“the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will fall from heaven,
and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

The wider context of the Isaiah passage is Yahweh’s destruction of the Babylonian empire by the hand of the Medes. Verse 10 in particular though is concerned with the heavenly dimension to this conquest, which is the overthrow of the gods of Babylon. Jesus likely has a similar emphasis in Matthew 24, the overthrowing of the gods of the nations, with the saints being enthroned in their place.

Verse 30 shows us the earthly dimension to this heavenly conquest. The tribes of the land of Israel mourning over their dead in fulfilment of Zechariah 12:10. There are also allusions to Daniel 7:13-14 in this verse, which is a reference to the ascension of Christ. The Jews in Jerusalem perceive in part the enthronement and vindication of Christ in the unfolding events of judgement. The verse as a whole could be read as follows:

“Then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven,
and then all the tribes of the land shall mourn,
and they shall perceive the son of man’s coming
on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”

Verse 31 answers the problem of verse 29. After the gods of the nations have been dethroned, who will take their place? The answer is of course, the elect, the righteous in Christ who have died. They are gathered together by the angels into heaven to form a new heavenly council, to reign with Christ over the nations. All of which was fulfilled in the first century.

“Martyrdom is more than a sign of impending doom. Martyrs are agents of apocalypse.”

Christian Formation in Our Apocalyptic Age

by Peter J. Leithart

Every summer brings another string of apocalyptic blockbusters to the movie theaters. Godzilla rises from the sea. A meteor smashes into the earth. Volcanoes threaten towns; viruses spread like wildfire; aliens invade. Robots take over, evolving into ex machinas. Terrorists storm the White House. Superheroes do their superheroics against the backdrop of inky Gotham cityscapes. Zombies occupy Pemberly, of all places, so it’s a good thing Elizabeth Bennet is a ninja. It’s as if every Hollywood studio has hired Left Behind creators Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins as script consultants.

If we can trust the signals coming from pop culture, we live in a world charged with what one film critic, following Kierkegaard, calls “apocalyptic dread.”

Continue reading at Touchstone Magazine.

So often the book of Revelation is treated like a prize in an Indiana Jones story…

Steven Opp’s review of “Moses and the Revelation.”

“It belongs in a museum!”

This is what Indiana Jones always tells the villain who is attempting to steal the priceless artifact.

I remember as a kid watching these movies and finding myself sometimes sympathizing with the bandits. If I had worked hard to unearth a valuable relic, I’d want to keep it for myself too, either as a trophy or to sell and get rich. I thought noble-minded Indy was being a stick in the mud.

But if you watch the films through to the end, you find that the stick in the mud always turns into the only ladder to heaven, faithfully walking in fear of the supernatural power of the living God while serving as a priestly mediator in order to cover the ones he loves, the real treasures.

So often the book of Revelation is treated like a prize in an Indiana Jones story. It is either left buried in the ground because it is too hard to understand, or it is made into an idol and like a Nazi power grab used to build a fantasy world, treated as a generator of grandiose theories or as a magical conduit of secret knowledge. Moses and the Revelation is Mike Bull’s way of bravely snatching the jewel back and telling us in no uncertain terms, It belongs in a museum!

By returning the book to its home with the rest of the Bible, Bull prevents us from making too much or too little of it as he dusts off its glitter while reconnecting it to its golden roots. In its proper place as the finale of a singular story with every line an echo or spin-off of something said elsewhere in the Word, Bull helps us see that while Revelation is fascinating, it is not an enigma. Its truest value is not in its “standing out” but in its “fitting in.” Bull shows us that the glory of Revelation, what makes it authentically heavy, is that it is deeply connected to the other texts and to first century history. This makes it much more difficult to run away with and use to fashion renegade doctrines.

Moses and the Revelation accomplishes two things. First, it takes the polish off of a lot of the exciting interpretations of Revelation you may be familiar with. It is much less interested in the headline news and much more interested in the Pentateuch. Like reluctant Indy in The Last Crusade chasing after his father’s dream, you are forced to go on the quest with the one you are all too familiar with, none other than Moses. And Moses has always seemed to take the fun out of things, what with all his bizarre interest in how to chop up animals or arrange furniture in the tabernacle.

But if you hang in there and give the old lawgiver a listen, you will find that Revelation is deeper and richer than you ever imagined. You will discover, like John did, that the words are not just meant to be read and interpreted, but are to be eaten. When you partake of Revelation in connection to the rest of the Bible the way that Bully serves it up, your mind will be molded by the ancient structures and symbols, and you yourself will become the thing of value because you are walking in step with the cadences of Christ. And thereafter whenever conversations arise among friends about what is going on in the last book of the Bible, you may be chided as the stick in the mud who wants to return the thing to the Gospels, to the Prophets, to the Torah.

But you’ll find that at the end of the day you will be the one with his feet firmly on the ground, standing fast when the catastrophes of bad exegesis crumble around you.

You can read the introduction to Moses and the Revelation here. You can purchase the book in paperback or for Kindle here.

“Mike Bull has, once again, provided us with a unique tool for assisting us with reading the Bible. This time it comes in the guise of what essentially amounts to a guidebook for what has been forever-branded as the most difficult part of the Bible to understand.”

Jared Leonard’s review of “Moses and the Revelation.”

Imagine stumbling across this book in your search for more books to help you study your way through Revelation. You know, from past studies, that Revelation is the most Old Testament book in the New Testament but your brow is furrowed anyway because Moses isn’t often brought up in this context, at least not with top billing. It’s true that there are some parallels between Genesis and Revelation, but beyond that what does Moses have to do with things at the end? Turns out, he has quite a few interpretive tricks tucked away in his writings. Here are a few tips to help you leverage this wonderful tool Mike has laid on the table for you:

First, put all your study books and commentaries on Revelation away; go stick ’em back on the bookshelf, you won’t need them for now and there’s a good chance that, after this book, more than half of your collection will be put in your next garage/yard sale or taken to the nearest used books store. Don’t put away your Bible though! You will need it. Alright? Alright. Now, the reason for this step will be clear once you make your way through the brief introduction, suffice it to say here that Moses, being channeled through Mr. Bull, will be your new teacher on how to read and understand the last prophecy of Jesus. Oh, and make sure the Bible you are using is a) not a study Bible (because the notes will lead you astray!) and b) not a Bible you have written in yourself (because your notes will lead you astray!).

Next, have a notebook and a pen (or their digital equivalents) handy, unless you are one of those strange folks who like to write in your books. Even if you are such a person, take notes on the notebook first! You will need to go through this book a few times and the notes from your first read may not be compatible with your notes from your second read, so if you’ve written them in your book (or in your Bible) then you may need to do some striking; I’m just trying to save you some trouble here. Also, there are a ton of charts throughout the book and writing some of them out yourself is a helpful way to begin visualizing the text of the Bible, seeing how the pieces fit and flow together.

Thirdly, the book is divided into two parts. The first part is your interpretive re-education and the second part is applying that new education to the Revelation itself. Don’t move on to the second part until you have a mostly coherent grasp of the first part. Jumping into Revelation without understanding the patterns is a lot like being told to explain how a tapestry was crafted without having any knowledge about weaving. Moses (part one) gives us the warp-and-weft process so we can really get the full experience of being exposed to (and by) the contents of Revelation.

Fourth, don’t get discouraged if you can’t immediately see what is so “obviously clear” to Mike. This book has to break through centuries of Western culture’s theological and philosophical rust (hence why I suggested putting your other books away). It’s a rust so thick and seemingly ever-present that we don’t even notice it anymore, it’s just the way things are. But rust is a hindrance to movement and the removal process is never easy, or gentle. The end result, however, is always a magnificent freedom and it’s a freedom that will allow you to continue pursuing the greater glories buried in the depths of the Bible.

Lastly, take this blueprint and use it everywhere else in the Bible and outside the Bible too. Moses not only gives us the keys to understanding Revelation and everything that leads up to it, but also to having a biblical perspective on everything that has happened since the close of the canon. Why are America and Europe on the cultural paths they are on now? Because that’s how God adds to his kingdom. Every major cultural failing has brought about the growth of the Church. And every rising of the cultural phoenix brings us closer to the last cycle, after which there are no more fiery deaths (or serpents).

Don’t miss out on this chance to revolutionize your reading of Revelation!

You can read the introduction to Moses and the Revelation here. You can purchase the book in paperback or for Kindle here.