Mark follows a convention found throughout all the Bible’s texts, based upon the Creation Week and the Levitical Feasts (Leviticus 23). The gospel has a number of “Covenant-shaped” cycles, and the entire book is itself “Covenant-shaped.” This final cycle is left incomplete if the gospel ends at 16:8 (see below). The question is, does this “clockwork” internal textual evidence outweigh the shabby history of the manuscripts?

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or the Covenanto-Architecturo-Historico-Grammatico-Muso Method

“A seal is meant to be broken.”

During the first of his recent lectures in London, James Jordan tore a page out of his Bible. It was the page announcing the New Testament as a separate book with its own pagination. It is one thing to interpret the New Testament in the light of contemporary literature and history, but their importance pales in comparison to the texts being recognized as a continuation of the Scriptures.

The break between Malachi and Matthew (whom Jordan and others believe was indeed the first to pen a gospel) was not the first period of silence. The New Testament is, in fact, the “fourth testament.” But there is another equally important factor, and that is the continuation of the practice of woven, or fractalline, literary structure based on Covenant history.

The fact that the literary structure of all the Old Covenant Scriptures proceeds in an identical fashion in the New is not something commonly discussed, especially in the kind of detail which follows below. Such an application might be an imposition on the text, but the degree to which it does work indicates a strong possibility that it is actually the key to the structure of the text and thus the author’s “Covenantal” intent.

If the case is the latter, then the position of every phrase within the literary structure reveals it as a powerful allusion as the author recapitulates the  histories of the Covenant people over and over again. If this literary convention is indeed the lens through which we must view the text, all the commentaries so far are wanting. There is a hidden dimension waiting to be explored and discussed and enjoyed and admired.

As we will see, this practice not only enables the author to pull these allusions out of the grave but also to give them some surprising “resurrection” (New Covenant) meanings without saying a word. The structure itself speaks volumes. (I could write about this for decades, so if anyone rich feels like becoming a patron of the arts, drop me a line.)

Identification and “parsing” of such an interpretive grid demonstrates the unbreakable ties between the New Covenant texts to the Old. It also exposes the embarrassing flatness of the historico-grammatical method. When I spout arrogant fire like “there’s so much more going in the text but it goes right over our heads,” I’m not blowing smoke. Thousands of scholars have pored over the text looking for rhyme and reason and not noticed that it is written in a three dimensional architectural-literary code.

If you are coming to this without a reasonable familiarity with the interpretive process described here, you won’t understand what is going on. See the Bible Matrix videos in the link at the top of the page for some basics. But to those familiar with the tune, you can sing along and enjoy Paul’s New Covenant lyrics written to an Old Covenant tune, a tune begun in Genesis 1.

Perhaps we should call this hermeneutical science the “Genetic” method, seeing as it is a combination of history, liturgy and poetry (unimaginable!). The modernist New Testament experts had better learn to whistle along.

Needless to say, if this thesis is correct, the beauty of these precious texts far surpasses anything we could have possibly written — or even imagined. (See The Eye of Sound)

CREATION (TRANSCENDENCE)

The structure of the first stanza not only asserts Paul’s authority from God (his name is the inspired source), it makes his apostleship a new exodus (Hierarchy). The will of God makes him an altar, the symbolic four-cornered Land, and the Gentile saints are his firstfruits, which is surprising because that role under Moses was limited to Levites, the pure of the pure, the Jews’ Jews. This is mindblowing — until we remember Jesus’ words about giving the kingdom to those who would bring forth the fruit God desires. The stanza ends with both Jesus and the New Covenant believers as spiritual offspring of the Father (Succession). Can you see what I mean now, about this “two-coordinate” method? Paul’s letters are “woven” in the same way as the Torah.

DIVISION (HIERARCHY)

Notice the heavenly places at the centre. This stanza reminds me of the structure of the Revelation, which puts the seven churches, beginning with Ephesus, in the heavenly places as a “de-centralized” lampstand, a new hierarchy in the firmament.

Notice that the “choosing” before the foundation of the world in the structure is “bridal,” a summoning at Trumpets, and us being holy and blameless is set at Atonement.

It is interesting that the ESV puts “in love” at the beginning of the next sentence. Yet the structure requires a final line in the second stanza. Who needs punctuation when you have the Bible Matrix?

ASCENSION (ETHICS 1)

This one kind of speaks for itself, but we must remember that this stanza is Ascension. This blessed adoption puts us on the Altar with Christ. Notice the “bridal song” at step 5.

TESTING (ETHICS 2)

The centre of this stanza, and thus of the entire structure, is “the forgiveness of our trespasses.” Here, the bridal result of Jesus’ faithful offering is plunder rather than plagues, the “riches” of His grace. Notice also that “lavished” appears at the Day of Coverings. When the Sanctions are applied to the saints, the Lord only has blessing for His new Creation, and no cursing. Wisdom and insight refers to our position as wise judges, joint-heirs, co-regents, elohim who shall discern between the angels.

MATURITY (ETHICS 3)

The “Tabernacle” thread appears to shine the most brightly in this stanza. At Maturity, it refers to the New Covenant house, the bridal body, the Jew-Gentile Church, eyes opened, unveiled and mediating for the nations, face to face with God in Christ. The use of “fullness” at step 5 in stanza five is “fragrant,” the Springtime of the resurrection.

CONQUEST (SANCTIONS/OATH)

Stanza 6 corresponds to Joshua (inheritance) and coverings (investiture with glory). The Church, covered by Christ, is now His covering, His glory. Notice that the structure places Christ as the firstfruits head and the first century saints as the firstfruits body, the harvest. The structure of the book of Revelation does the same thing. The “counsel of His will” is the Spirit, appearing in this stanza at Pentecost, the “holy fire.” As always, the underlying process not only refers to harvest but also the process of the rite of sacrifice. Revelation is a giant sacrificial rite. Israel is put on the altar as a whole burnt offering (an “ascension”) and divided into harlot and bride, the ashes of mourning swallowed by the Land and fragrant, pleasing smoke rising to God as a witness to her judgment (1 Kings 13:5; Revelation 19:3).

GLORIFICATION (SUCCESSION)

I can see the exact structure of the book of Revelation in this final cycle, which is not surprising. Commentators will rattle on about how precious and wonderful it is that we as saints have been sealed. But what does it mean to be “sealed”?

These last two stanzas are talking about the events in Revelation 7, where the firstfruits saints are sealed (“Numbered” Jews and numberless Gentiles, all in white robes) for the purpose of being martyred. The seals on the saints are not a pretty mark from God but replicas of the seals on the New Covenant scroll, the one the Lamb has opened to claim His inheritance (the nations).

A seal is meant to be broken. These saints were not to simply sit in pietistic wonder at their precious Jesus. Their mission, as the sacrificial body, was to die as an army of firstfruits lambs, a bridal multiplication of Jesus. These blessed were sealed as living epistles, sent out as horsemen to have their seals broken (yet remain Covenant virgins, see Tokens of Virginity) through death and resurrection, filling up the sufferings of Jesus, bringing down the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy upon Israel for the last time. (See The Secret and Images of God.) They would fulfill the book of Leviticus not in animal blood but in their own blood. Now that Jesus had ascended, God could accept human sacrifices “in Him.” These were the sheep Peter was entrusted to feed for the slaughter.

This brings us to the end of the first cycle, so the matrix structure is working at three fractal levels: stanzas, cycles and epistle (and of course the epistle is part of even greater literary and historical structures). But it does not bring us to the end of the chapter, so the remainder must begin the second cycle.

It is passing strange that the modern mind is open to fractals in nature and technology, but modern theology so far seems resistant to the idea that the entire Bible is structured in such a way. Unraveled as it is above, it resembles DNA. Lined up in columns it resembles a woven cloth. The Word itself was knitted together in the womb of Israel, and the birth pangs of the Jewish war — the blood and the water — gave a new body to the people of God in the world. Totus Christus.

The description of Jesus in Revelation 1 follows the Bible’s new Creation matrix.

Jesus is the Word, and His manifestation is described in the pattern of the Creation Week. He is the Word made flesh, the Sacrament who “tabernacled” among us, and so is described in the pattern of the Tabernacle. He is the Word in Government, ruling over the pastors of the churches, and so we also see elements of the corresponding Dominion pattern.

Revelation is indeed a sublime book. Every stanza refracts the structure of every section, which in turn refracts the structure of the book, which in turn refracts the structure of the entire Bible. This literature comes from the mouth of the uncreated, the One who creates things fully formed from nothing; it is irreducibly complex. Nothing can be added, and nothing can be taken away.

(Chart from Totus Christus, with some minor additions.)

Creation – Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me,

Division – and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands [1]

Ascension – one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

Christ no longer wore linen. As High Priest, transfigured Adam, He now wore glorious robes. The linen was left in the tomb. Ascension is Levitical. [2]

Testing – The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire,

Christ is the human Lampstand. With white hair, He is both an elder and a blossoming almond tree, the staff of Aaron, the Watchman. Perhaps white hair was part of the original pre-Fall Creation, a sign of maturity and transfiguration (Leviticus 19:32; Proverbs 16:31). With flaming eyes, He watches over His people.

Maturity – his feet were like burnished bronze, refined [when it has been caused to glow] in a furnace,

Here, the image of maturity as the result of Testing by fire (Daniel 3) is combined with plunder (bronze). In Daniel 7, His legs were streams of fire connecting heaven and earth. As the Captain of the Lord’s armies, He stood ready to conquer, His holy–refined–feet ready to cross the river in Conquest.

Conquest – and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars,

His voice alone would part the river to allow His people into heaven. As the human Tabernacle, He held the rulers of the churches in His right hand as a Lampstand-sceptre. Notice that the seven lamps correspond chiastically to the seven stars. They had been bought with seven sprinklings of His blood before the Ark in heaven. The sevenfold blood is now the sevenfold Spirit. Adam’s corrupted work-week had been redeemed.

Glorification – from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, [3] and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

The Shekinah united heaven and earth. Jesus here is the Shekinah, and the rest of Revelation shows Him filling the New Covenant Tabernacle.

We have seen chariots and letters carrying this sharp sword into all the world in previous patterns. Here is an Adam who obeyed God and qualified to inherit the flaming sword. The sunshine indicates He is Samson, a mighty judge who was bringing down the Temple of God’s enemies to crush them under it. The ruling stars of the Old Creation would soon fall from heaven. They would lose both the earthly sanctuary, and the access to the heavenly sanctuary given to Joshua the High Priest. He was also Solomon, majestically crossing  the firmament surrounded by His elders with shields of gold.

This cycle is actually the second part of a greater sevenfold cycle. It is: DIVISION – the firstborn from the dead (Revelation 1:12-16)

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[1]  When the seven Spirits/Lampstands appear at Division, they are filling and governing the firmament as Covenant Hierarchy.
[2]  Clothing is always symbolic. Like the Old Covenant, the linen was left behind, never to be reused. But like a rigid, broken, empty cocoon, the Old Covenant is a continuing testimony to the birth of a new humanity.
[3] See Jordan’s comment on this in The Liberating Curse.

You can find this over at Doug Wilson’s blog. I’m reposting it here because I’ve just spent over an hour responding to Doug R. and John B.’s good objections to comments on Shakin’ The Tree, so I’ve not got time to write anything new. Also, posting it here means I can find it more easily in future! So, at the risk of becoming the anti-paedobaptist/anti-hyperpreterist blog…

Baptism Points Away

Doug writes:

“The meaning of Abraham’s circumcision was not, ‘Abraham got saved.’ Rather, it was, ‘Salvation will come to the world!’ It is true that Abraham was personally saved, and that he was saved by faith. But he was saved because he believed in the objective promise — that is, in the coming Christ . . . We must always reject the natural tendency to make the covenantal signs into a seal of our own personal righteousness” (To a Thousand Generations, pp. 44-45).

Certainly.

But would a repentant, Spirit-filled, baptized baptist ever mistake his or her baptism for a seal of their personal righteousness? Highly unlikely.

Baptism is like a knighthood. It means you’re ready for service with the authority of the king’s court and you’ve got a job to do as a New Covenant priest-king. Circumcision only got Israel as far as the Altar, and that was only the males, who were all Isaacs. It was about physical offspring.

Baptism gets males and females past the Laver into the actual tent, the Holy Place, the inner court, where God’s advisors bargain with Him in prayer as Abraham and David did. No place for babies. It is about spiritual offspring, which is why all those who believe can be the children of Abraham. “Offspring” has been set alight and is no longer fleshly. Even an Ethiopian eunuch can serve in the new court, and have such offspring.

I think this is exactly where the problem lies. As I have mentioned before, the New Covenant sign has nothing to do with parenting. Circumcision had everyone crowding around the delivery room, waiting to see what came out of the womb. Was it the Messiah?

Baptism sees Jesus grown up and baptized, and then imparting all of this to us. Then He tells us to go out and bring lost people in as believers. The New Covenant is not so much about a people as it is about a unified army. Baptism is not an initiation. It is a commission.

Infant baptists are still crowding around the womb. This errant doctrine, to some extent, keeps them celebrating in the flesh, like barren Abraham. You can crowd around the womb forever, but Christ has dealt with the flesh. He is not here. He is risen. Baptism moved us from the womb to the tomb. That’s where we Baptists crowd around, and the party is much more fun.

Yes, children are a blessing. Christian parenting is a blessing. Children who actually come to faith are even more of a blessing. But the New Covenant has moved way beyond all of that. It allows us to do more than simply maintain the status quo in our physical succession.

Paedobaptism, in that sense, doesn’t really point away at all.

or Baptizing the World

After Pentecost, the firstfruits church met in the Temple. Over the next few decades, the Jewish leaders barred these worshippers from their premises. What they didn’t realise was that the glory was departing as it did in the time of Ezekiel, only this time it was inside people who were living Temples as Jesus was.

In some ways, things haven’t changed. In Britain, apostate cathedrals disallow growing evangelical congregations from using their almost empty buildings. But persecution simply brings matters to a head, and a very public one. It forces hidden issues into the light and shouts them from the rooftops.

From Voice of the Martyrs this week:

Police in China held “about two dozen” pastors and elders of Beijing’s Shouwang Church under house arrest or at police stations over the weekend to keep them from attending a Sunday worship service in a public location, according to Bob Fu of the China Aid Association. Three top leaders of the church remain in jail and several others are under strict surveillance after hundreds of Chinese police cordoned off the walkway to a third-floor outdoor meeting area adjacent to a property purchased by the church in Haidian district, Beijing, and arrested at least 160 members of the 1,000-strong church as they tried to assemble. Most have since been released.

Church leaders claimed officials had pressured their landlords, forcing them out of both rented and purchased locations and leaving them no choice but to worship in the open. ‘The government cornered them into making this decision,’ Fu said, adding that the church had initially tried to register with the government. ‘They waited for two years, and when the government still denied them registration, they tried to keep a low profile before finally deciding to buy the Daheng New Epoch Technology building.’ Shouwang is a very unique church, he said. ‘Most members are well-educated, and they include China’s top religious scholars and even former government officials, which may be a factor in the government’s response to them,’ he said.

Under the Old Covenant, Satan’s strategy was to kill the offspring of the Woman. With a single bloodline from Adam to Jesus, this was very possible. In fact, in one case (under the reign of Athaliah, the Covenant harlot of the day) the line was down to a thread, a single child, Joash.

The New Covenant is Satan’s worst nightmare. When he sends false doctrine, all it does is separate the elect from the damned. It purifies the church! And when he sends persecution, all it does it multiply the number of believers! Chopping God’s servants up with an ax–”sawing them asunder”–not only increases their number, but also their power. This is because the Messianic line is now Spirit, not blood. The children are not those of flesh born of the will (or the willy) of a man, but those born of God by the Spirit (John 1:13). Nothing he can do will stop the flow of living water.

Dispensationalists and paedobaptists both misunderstand this marked difference between the Covenants. We have moved from external laws to an Internal Law. Jews don’t qualify on the basis of their heritage. Christian infants don’t qualify on the basis of their heritage. They are children–children under the tutelage of the Law mediated by those filled with the Spirit. This is why the Law was mediated by angels, and why we don’t need them for this purpose any more. Until the Spirit of God cuts our hearts (circumcision) and moves in, all our heritages, whether circumcision of infant baptism are, well, just so much skubalon. [2] They are entirely powerless (Romans 8:3).

True children of the New Covenant are the miraculously multiplied water chariots of the New Temple. Not only do they have legs and stand and walk upright, the house is wherever they are. Covenant kids are not what they used to be, and this is good. The children of men are symbols of the children of God.

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[1] See An Atheist ‘Gets’ Baptism and New Covenant Virility 1 and 2.
[2] The Greek word for shit. In Finland, 90% of people were baptized as infants, yet only 3% go to church. That’s a lot of apostates. Their baptism ain’t worth, well, you know, and this tragic failure has got absolutely nothing to do with a lack of church discipline when it comes to apostates. The incredible church growth in China isn’t a result of heritage, either bad or good. It is a result of the destruction of it. See Mao, Servant of God. As with Timothy, a godly heritage may be a foundation for conversion, but it is not conversion.

“My pastor has been going through the book of John for the past six years or so. We just recently finished chapter 17, at the same time I came to the section in Totus Christus where you mentioned the Covenantal Treaty.

This struck me as extremely interesting considering my pastor had broken the chapter into five part or petitions of Christ’s final prayer: Request for Glory, Request for Protection, Request for Sanctification, Request for Oneness, Request for His People to be where He is.

I started looking at the chapter through the eyes of the Dominion, Feasts, and Covenantal Treaty patterns. This is the outline that came out of that study. Let me know what you think about it.”

[Download here]

I think Kellen’s layout is a lot more useful for preaching/teaching than my spirals!

“And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying,
Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount,
or touch the border of it:
whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death.”
Exodus 19:12

The Bible beats blood and water into us over and over again. Blood is death. Water is resurrection. Blood is the Bridegroom and water is the Bride.

Blood is the split rock, the Adam ripped open. Water is the river of life, the Eve that flows from inside Him into the world to glorify it.

Blood is circumcision, the cutting of the flesh before it is put on the Bronze Altar below. Water is baptism, the washing of the flesh before it is offered to God as smoke on the Golden Altar above.

Blood is the husband willing to die in the desert. Water is the wife suddenly discovered by a well.

Blood is the Man or Beast speared through at the bottom of Sinai, the Old Jerusalem who is in bondage, tied up like Isaac. Water is the Laver tipped over on the top of Sinai, the New Jerusalem, the Mother of all the living, the Mother of us all.

So, blood was shed at the door to the mountain of God. The blood goes up in the Ascension of Christ and, like Moses, the Spirit descends as purifying fire upon the people. The mountain of death becomes a mountain of life.

The prohibition against touching the border of Sinai reminded me of the Israelite woman who touched the border of Jesus’ garment. (See Healing in His… Tassels?) Jesus’ form as an Adam robed in seamless white was a picture of His completed ministry, the bloodied Lamb at the centre of a purifying, bridal outflow.

Touching the border of Zion does not bring purifying Covenant death but purifying Covenant life. [1] However, it remains a process of purifying. The difference is the blood that went before us. The flaming mountain of death is swallowed up in the victory of the Crystal Sea (Revelation 8:8). As the gospel flows out, Jesus extends the borders of His robe, of His tent, His firmament, and all the nations are healed.

The cherubim and the Aaronic priests guarded the sanctuary with a sword. KEEP OUT. The Temple and the church are guarded, but there are water chariots. The message is different. It is COME IN and then GO OUT. And keep going out until there are no bounds, no bondage, and no borders, no seams.

___________________________________
[1] The sharp rocks of the Law (cut out “without hands”) that execute the unfaithful Bride are now the five (bridal army) smooth stones from the brook that kill the false suitor.

Picture: Bridal Veil Falls by Ian Cameron.

“Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart…” (Psalm 24:3-4)

In Leviticus, an Israelite is to lay his hand on the sacrifice that covers his sin and allows him to draw near to God. It was the red hand of death and the whiteness of a pure sacrifice willing to take the “stroke” (plague).

“And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.”
Genesis 22:10

But the Lord Himself covered Moses with His hand as the consuming fire of His glory passed-over the mountain. It was the hand of life and the whiteness of imparted glory. As far as was possible, Moses saw the Lord as He was, because he was like Him.

We see this pattern of the chosen Head and the resurrected Body in Exodus 4:6-7:

Furthermore the LORD said to him,
…..“Now put your hand in your bosom.”
……….And he put his hand in his bosom,
……….and when he took it out,
…..behold, his hand was leprous, like snow.

And He said,
…..“Put your hand in your bosom again.”
……….So he put his hand in his bosom again,
……….and drew it out of his bosom,
…..and behold, it was restored like his flesh.

The flesh and blood are separated in death and reunited in life.

So, in the Sacrifice, Jesus, death begins to “work backwards.” He starts laying hands on Israelites who are plagued like Egyptians and destined for judgment. As the eyes of the destroyer pass-over, no one can pluck them out of His hand.

Then His ministers (His “cabinet”) do likewise. They are those who identify themselves with Him, willing to die His death to fill up His sufferings.

The Father laid His hand on the Son, with a knife. It was the five-fold hand of death. The Son lays hands on the Bride to rescue her, to wash her from her blood. It was the five-fold hand of life. These are the two Covenants, the dual approach of the High Priest (head and body), the whited sepulchre (Matt. 28:2-3) and the Warrior-Bride (Rev. 19:8; 14).

“And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.” Revelation 1:17

If our ministry is sacrificial in intent, our “white death” under the Law transmits, credits, imputes, the Spirit of “resurrection.” We are advocates, like our Master.

“Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the LORD,
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool.”
(Isaiah 1:18)

Why did Abraham exclude the birds from the division ministered to the other sacrifices? The dove/pigeon is the humble, pure, anointed Head. Although the Body might be divided, the Head is never crushed. (Gen. 3:15; Lev 5:7; 14:22; John 20:7) That judgment is reserved for the serpent and his ministers of accusation.

His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow…”
(Revelation 1:14)

A Christmas sequel to Joseph Gets Passed Over.

The subject matter of this article was corrected, revised, and expanded in December 2018 and published here: Matthew 2: Jerusalem as Egypt.

“Then Jesus told them: You can be sure that tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you ever will!   When John the Baptist showed you how to do right, you would not believe him. But these evil people did believe. And even when you saw what they did, you still would not change your minds and believe.” (Matthew 21:31-32)

James Jordan teaches you to observe the universals in Scripture. I believe one of the most important is the Totus Christus pattern, head and body, and its counterfeits and distortions.

As mentioned around here a couple times (sorry, a couple of times. I’ve been reading too many Americans), the curse upon Adam concerned his head, and his responsibility to provide for and protect the body. The curse upon Eve concerned her body, her role in producing offspring. Both curses were a limited form of barrenness.

But what of the relationship between head and body? James Jordan writes:

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