Nov
3
2009
or Every Knee Shall Bow
Day 1
So, Adam fouled the first Sabbath. He failed to be Light.
Day 2
Cain made a false exodus (with Abel as the Passover lamb) and went to “worship in the wilderness.” God marked him as a “covering.” Being “barren”, Cain built a city as a covering, but it was just like Adam’s figleaves. It was a phony firmament, a fabricated Covenant, a city built on the wrong sort of blood.
Day 3
His offspring built a counterfeit Tabernacle - in opposition to the worship at the Gate of Eden. This was a false Land, a false mountain, like Mount Gerizim became to the Samaritans. Lamech, as a false Moses, “ascended” not as a Lamb slain, but as an accuser, the incarnation of the serpent. But someone true ascended as Firstfruits: Enoch.
This brings us to Day 4. As in the Garden, and as in Israel’s wilderness, the test was harlotry.
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no comments | tags: Abel, Babylon, Cain, Egypt, Enoch, Genesis, Herod, Incense Altar, Lamech, Noah, Satan, Seth, Sodom | posted in Biblical Theology, The Last Days
Oct
26
2009
Daniel was taken to Babylon before the destruction of Jerusalem. As the ruler over the king’s advisors, it is highly likely he was involved in the razing of Jerusalem.
The Lord sent Joseph into Egypt as a forerunner, established his house and integrated the old house of Jacob into it. Pharaoh was converted under the ministry of Joseph, humbled himself before Jacob and requested a blessing.
The Lord did the same thing with Daniel. A new house was being established in Babylon before the final demolition of the old Temple. Daniel ascended as “firstfruits”. He stood on the mountain of God as Abraham, as Moses. At the right hand of the power he would bring the curses of the Law raining down upon the Covenant breakers. As Abraham bargained with God, perhaps the mercy shown to Judah’s poor was the work of Daniel.
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no comments | tags: Babylon, Bible Matrix, Cyrus, Daniel, Esther, Ezekiel, Haggai, Haman, Joshua, Mordecai, Nebuchadnezzar, Zerubbabel | posted in Biblical Theology, The Restoration Era
Oct
19
2009
More Thoughts on Prophetic Cauldrons
“Out of the frying pan into the fire.”
The structure of Ezekiel follows the “soundwaves” pattern found in a great deal of the Bible, particularly the prophets. The Lord speaks His word as liturgy from the Most Holy Place, it is pre-enacted by the prophet in a new “Holy Place” (from outside the city - see Rags to Robes) in some terrifying judgments as object lessons (see Liturgy as Prophecy), and then the same judgments are played out in greater detail in the “Outer Court.” All three sections are heptamerous, and in these three areas we have Word, Sacrament (the prophet as a kind of new “acting” High Priestly mediator - see How to Read the Prophets), and Government.
The book of Ezekiel begins with this pattern, so we have the prophetic cauldron turn up three times. Each cycle takes us through the Tabernacle speeches (Exodus 25-31) which follow the Creation Week, so this is a process of new Creation for the anointing of Ezekiel and of de-Creation for the old Tabernacle of Solomon’s Temple. It was decayed and ready to vanish away.
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no comments | tags: Babylon, Daniel, Ezekiel, Luke, Nebuchadnezzar | posted in Biblical Theology, The Last Days, The Restoration Era
Jul
21
2009
or Cutting Off the Generations of the Wicked
O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, Happy the one who repays you as you have served us! Happy the one who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock!
(Psalm 137:8-9)
A further comment on Psalm 137 (following Church and State and Liturgy as Prophecy):
The church has the power to excommunicate, but the state alone has the power to execute. In Joshua’s and David’s time, church and state were one, thus Israel’s army slaughtered God’s enemies judicially. In Mordecai’s time, the slaughter of Haman’s followers by the Jews occurred only after church and state became one under Mordecai’s new executive power.
As an advisor to the state, the church gives the word, and offers the sacraments, but it is always the state that carries out the judgment — government. The state is the “outer court” into which the living sword-water flows. Some taste life and others taste death. [1]
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no comments | tags: AD70, Babylon, Joshua, Mordecai, Nebuchadnezzar, Psalms, Zedekiah | posted in Biblical Theology, The Last Days, The Restoration Era, Totus Christus
Jun
8
2009
or Touch Not, Taste Not, Handle Not II
The dietary Laws given to Moses were an expansion of the command given to Adam. It is the self-denial of priestly obedience to God. Adam wasn’t ready for the tree of judicial responsibility (kingdom) but he seized it.
In the greater Bible picture, Israel’s history (from Moses) is this period of priestly obedience. But Jesus came and reversed Adam’s failure. Consequently the dietary laws are revoked, and with greater maturity, the people of God (through the first century death of Israel and her resurrection as the church) now, like Jesus, have the judicial wisdom of the Spirit, and the power to eat unclean things (Gentiles), consume them and make them clean. Only the power of resurrection can enter a room with a corpse in it, touch lepers and feast on Gentile meats and not be made unclean, but instead make the unclean clean by consuming it. This is the power of the New Covenant.
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no comments | tags: Babylon, Crystal Sea, Daniel, Esther, Food laws, Postmillennialism, Priesthood, Resurrection, Scavengers, Tabernacle | posted in Biblical Theology
May
25
2009
Ascension Sunday
Andrew Katay posted a quote this week stating that when the church fails to emphasise the Ascension, a commitment to church programs instead of to Christ fills the vacuum. This should come as no surprise.
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no comments | tags: Ascension, Babel, Babylon, Herod, Moses, Passover, Revelation | posted in Biblical Theology, The Last Days, Totus Christus
May
20
2009
The Purpose of the Restoration Covenant
“The restoration period is the last era of Israel’s history as the people of God and the climactic period of old covenant. The kingdom of God has grown beyond Israel and spread to the nations, who are the God-appointed protectors of His priestly people. Israel’s loss of independence and submission to Gentile powers was not a backward movement in the kingdom program of God. Abraham had been chosen by God so that through him all the nations of the world could be blessed (Gen. 12:3). In the restoration era, this was fulfilled more than at any other time in Israel’s history. Through the dispersion Jews had spread all over the world and they brought with them the knowledge of the true God.
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no comments | tags: Babylon, Covenant Theology, Daniel, David, Ezekiel's Temple, Nathan, Persia, Restoration, Temple | posted in Biblical Theology, Quotes, The Restoration Era
Apr
17
2009
The Third Trumpet
De-Ascension - the Temple judged
The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch,
After the ascension of Christ, Satan was expelled from his “ministry” before God as the Accuser of man. Like the evil twin of the blazing torch that measured Abram’s sacrifices, he was then used by God to bring an end to the Covenant.
and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter.
These first three trumpets concerned the Land (Judah), the Sea (the world empire) and the springs of water (the Temple). This same order began the song of ascension, Psalm 24:
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no comments | tags: Babylon, Compromise, Esau, Herod, James Jordan, Numbers, Restoration, Revelation, Satan, Solomon, Wormwood | posted in Biblical Theology, The Last Days, Totus Christus
Apr
11
2009
It was always God’s plan that Israel have a human king:
“When you come to the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’ you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.” Deut. 17:14-15
Like Adam, this dominion would only come by obedience: by servanthood to God and faithful mediatory witness to the Gentiles. But like Adam, they seized dominion and demanded “a king like the Gentiles.” With Saul, they had a king who palled around with Agag of Amalek whom Moses commanded to wipe from the face of the earth.
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no comments | tags: Abimelech, Amalek, Babylon, Covenant Theology, Daniel, Exile, James Jordan, Malachi, Mordecai, Temple, Zechariah | posted in Biblical Theology, The Restoration Era
Apr
11
2009
We don’t know how many wise men travelled from the east, but perhaps we can make a guess via God’s deliberate typology.
We do know there were three gifts. With Christ as the human Ark of the Covenant (most holy place), these three gifts correspond to the furniture in the “firmament” (holy place), the chamber housing God’s mediating government. As the Ark contained Word, Sacrament and Government (Hebrews 9:4), the response of these Babylonian elders around the throne was gold (Lampstand - Word), frankincense (Incense - Government), and myrrh (Table - Sacrament).
Even as an infant, Christ ruled over the wise men of Babylon. Like Daniel, He would set up new worship outside Jerusalem. So, as the Herods and their governments continually refused to enter the new Holy Place, faithful Jews and Gentiles became the new priesthood, the elders who came boldly before the throne.
The churches in Gentile cities are seen as seven Lampstands in Revelation 2-3.
The twenty-four angelic elders were the angels whose last acts would be the twenty-four judgments upon Judah throughout the Revelation: the twenty-four hours of the Day of the Lord. Her final destruction was in response to the Incense prayers of the elder-saints.
It was Nicodemus, the epitome of the Jews who would later believe, who brought myrrh for Jesus’ burial (John 19:39). These mourned for the one they had pierced, and entered the firmament vacated by the Old Covenant angelic ministers as a new government—under the scarlet covering of the Man-Table, the Word become flesh.
1 comment | tags: Babylon, Christmas, Incense Altar, Lampstand, Table of Showbread, Typology | posted in Biblical Theology
