“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot.
Would that you were either cold or hot!” (Revelation 3:15)

The world is a cosmic Tabernacle. The first domain of Mediatory Man was between the waters. The waters below (springs) were necessary for life but they were not “a place to live.” The waters above did likewise. However, these were temporary veils, boundaries to be crossed in an increasing advance-by-faith.

The crystal Sea was the Laver before the throne of God. In AD70 it was raised up by the breath of God as “watery walls”, a crystal city for the government of the saints of the old administration. This Sea was a blessing to the saints but a curse to sinners. It was a boundary they could not cross without a ministry of death. In Revelation 19, as final judgment upon the Old Covenant approached, this crystal Sea also became a Laver of bronze, a lake of fire, so the water above must be temporarily divided in some way. The New Jerusalem has a moat. This fiery aspect of the Sea remains until the final judgment, the destruction of the devil.

Genesis 1-10 follow the same “Tabernacle” structure as Genesis 1. The Edenic “mediatorial springs” on Day 6 become the flood waters in the greater pattern. The waters are a Day of Atonement, the sixth feast, a festival of death-and-resurrection.

Interestingly, Creation scientist Barry Setterfield believes that Noah’s flood (or its initial release) was scalding hot. There was most certainly volcanic activity involved in the event. Imagine magma-heated boiling water bursting from the deep.

We also read that it rained. Most people seem to ignore the fact that the springs burst forth and concentrate on the rain, presuming a vapor canopy which collapsed as being the major source of the waters. There may have been some kind of a vapor canopy over the early earth, but it would have been much higher than the clouds we see today if life on earth was to have survived. The majority of the rain which fell was from the waters which had burst forth, carrying with them massive amounts of pulverized debris from under the crust. They would have burst forth to a height greater than even our volcanoes of today. This would have produced a hot rain full of rocks and mud as well as remains of any vegetation and biological life which were in the vicinity of where the waters burst out. In other words, this was a rain that was like no other before, and there has been none other like it since. [1]

I disagree with his idea that the deluge was due to a natural process simmering away since the Creation and waiting to burst. That’s not how God ever works. The earth was blessed. The soil was blessed. The dust was not cursed until after Adam’s Fall. Now, the sea was cursed. Now, the entire globe was “out to get him.” The flood was a miraculous judgment, a transformation of blessed springs into a cursed flood upon Man. Even the mouth of God cannot be a spring of blessing and cursing upon the same Man. The bitter river of the generations of Adam had “filled up” the world. The rivers of blood–and the tyranny that was their source–had to be washed away.

In the Great Flood, both the Sea above and the Sea below became a firmament of burning bronze, closing in and closing forever as great doors on the primeval world, a scalding, hissing mist that brought death to “all flesh.”

Of course, it’s only speculation, based on “cross-eyed exegesis,” but God’s symbols are consistent.

ADDENDUM: Of course we see the same elements of fire and water in the Red Sea crossing. Plus, Psalm 77 tells us there was water above and below in the ministry of Moses and Aaron.

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[1] The Bible  and the Geologic Column.

What do the Psalms mean when they speak of the Lord “bowing the heavens”?

“Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.” (Psalm 144:5)
“He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet.” (Psalm 18:9)

The language is architectural, based on the original and greatest Temple of them all, the cosmic “house” constructed in Genesis 1.

This post has been slain and resurrected for inclusion in my 2015 book of essays, Inquietude.

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We saw Voyage of the Dawntreader last night. Biblical themes and symbols abound. Of course, the story follows the Bible Matrix formula, but the message of a courageous Maturity via Testing at God’s hand, in such a visual form, was striking, especially for young people. All the characters are transfigured by the end, particularly Eustace, whose cowardice and courage were really the heart of the proceedings. Narnia is foolishness to him, but a time in the wilderness gives him a different Spirit. He moves from the unbroken natural, through brokenness, to a humble, spiritual wisdom that judges rightly between good and evil.

The final scene encapsulated everything I have been trying to communicate concerning baptism. It pictures the reception of saints into government as enrobed heavenly elders, God’s council of wise men who sit at court with Him as Great Prophets, co-Mediators.

Although only one character “passes across” into Aslan’s country, all the saints “pass through” in their return home as human argosies of wisdom and understanding. Wise distinctions and tough decisions must be made before the crystal walls and gates.

Doug Wilson writes:

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).

According the apostle, there are two kinds of men in the world—the natural man and the spiritual man. The natural man is described here as “not receiving” and “not knowing” certain things, the things of the Spirit of God, and the reason he cannot receive or know them is because they are just so much foolishness to him. These things are spiritually discerned, and a natural man has no capacity for spiritual discernment.

This division is important to keep in mind whenever we are talking about the external aspects of the covenant. There are other divisions which we can make in the world as well—baptized and unbaptized, tall and short, rich and poor, and so on. But the most fundamental of all divisions is this division mentioned here, that between the natural and the spiritual man, the unconverted and converted, the unregenerate and regenerate. The Spirit blows where He wills, and we cannot capture Him to make Him do our bidding. We cannot do it with unbiblical antitheses, like race or tribe, and we cannot do it with biblical categories, like baptized and unbaptized.

The presence of this category is made obvious by what we might call Spirit-logic. The Spirit communicates His ways, which results in some receiving them with gladness, and others blinking with no comprehension. When a man is converted, his Bible, as if by magic, turns into English.

Yes, but a baptist might say:

Race and tribe were biblical distinctions under the Old Covenant, and there were Levitical distinctions even within that. There were bloody walls and gates and guards everywhere. Blood was the distinction. Enacting God’s division didn’t take much wisdom, just priestly obedience. If you were male, you went under the knife. God was putting the meat on the Altar.

The ascent of the blood, and the descent of the fiery Spirit, changed all that. Race, tribe and family were put into the grave forever, joint and marrow divisions incinerated once and for all.

So baptism, although just as biblical, is entirely different. A spiritual man is to be judged so by wise spiritual men. The church is no longer called to enact, to mediate, God’s distinction between clean and unclean meat, but between meat and smoke, natural and spiritual. This takes wisdom. This takes Spirit-logic. We have the Spirit-lot within us. We are all prophets now.

Baptism must be divorced from family. It is only for those who comprehend. And those who are baptized are called to testify, and to govern with wisdom. Elders might not always judge correctly, but they are called to discernment.

Only paedobaptism looks like forcing God’s hand. Credobaptism is simply a reflection of what He has already obviously done. The key is not always the outward life. There are children under discipline (another thing the church is called to enact) and their repentance will make plain whether they were truly children. The basic key is the wound, the cut heart, the fear of God, that eventually flows as water into the outward life.

Divorcing baptism from Spirit-logic turns God’s simple New Covenant categories into a sad game of Scattergories. That is what a baptist might say.

There was a discussion of purgatory on the BH list. Someone summarised it as follows: [1]

“Or, perhaps, with Peter Kreeft, one might interpret purgatorial cleansing as a form of heightened and perfected awareness, effected by the light of God’s presence as an illuminating and purifying fire. Thus, in death, in coming face-to-face with God, we finally see ourselves as we truly are, the depths of our own sin and brokenness, and all the consequences and ruin wrought by our own sin and unfaithfulness in our own lives, the lives of others, and the ongoing life of our family, church, and world.

In this case, it seems to me, there would be no reason to see purgatory as something distinct from the moment of death itself, entering into the blessed presence of God, and the immediate perfecting of our souls. While such a perfecting awareness would be painful, in the light of the comprehensiveness of God’s promised salvation, it would also be most joyful.”

I think this definition is spot on. Death is one’s Day of Atonement “division”. The corrupt body of death is sent to Azal, and that is a blessing. [2]

Typologically, the Laver is the crystal sea, and the crystal sea is now standing up “as walls.” Purgatory is passing through the open gates [the place of judgment] into the ascended church. [3]

But that means purgatory is prefigured on earth by baptism, church membership and the table. We enter those gates to be washed every week in an ongoing process of sanctification by death and resurrection.

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[1] Neither can I remember who posted this nor locate it now. I have asked for permission to use here but received no reply, and it’s too interesting not to share. Happy to remove it if anyone protests.
[2] See Joints and Marrow.
[3] See Crystal Walls 1 and 2 .

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. 

This power only comes after obedience (in this case, obedience to the gospel). Fasting, then feasting.

Under the Old Covenant, scavengers were unclean demonic “servants” of God. Under the new, the church Herself becomes the greatest “scavenger” of all time, the body of Christ eating the dead and incorporating them into His life by resurrection. Only those who will not die, will not judge themselves, those who are neither fire nor water, hot nor cold, are vomited out as unclean. Lukewarmness is the old life refusing to die. No death (fasting), no resurrection (feasting). Jesus is our food, and we are His. We in Him, and He in us. Greater Solomon reigns, and the world is His table. Unlike Adam, He didn’t seize the kingdom, so the Father gave it to Him on a platter.

Just as the unclean birds carried out the Covenant curses for God, now the church of God is the great clean bird situated between heaven and earth, brooding over the abyss, devouring the corpses of those dead in transgressions and rendering them alive as they pass through her Laver gates. The crystal sea still dispenses angelic government, but now it is the crystal city, and the Advocate has replaced the Accuser.

Greater Daniel fasted, and now eats anything Babylon presents to Him. Greater Esther proclaimed a fast, but now devours even the twisted monsters of the deep and makes Gog and Magog fit for God. No nation is too unclean for resurrection. And no nation is too strong, for she devours them from the inside.

Little by little, the world passes through the tabernacle of Jesus, dismembered, washed, burnt and ascended, until all is a Holy aroma pleasing to God. 

So fast and pray, then go out and eat (with) the unclean, remembering that Jesus always keeps the best till the end.

The Bible is big on mediators. Adam’s role as faithful Showbread would link heaven and earth. He would be a god-man. Fulfilled by Christ, this is the liturgical role of a minister. He faces God as representative of the Bride, and faces the church as the representative of the Bridegroom. He is Solomon at the completion of the Temple dedication.

The ‘hell’ hybrids are the Land-beasts of the Bible. This is what Adam became, conspiring with Satan. It was an unholy alliance between God’s mediator and the Creation, in which the Creation called the agenda. The resulting peoples are hunters like Nimrod and Esau, wolves instead of shepherds, bloodthirsty children of the daughters of men.

Revelation shows the unholy alliance between Herod and Pilate (as heads) matured into full-grown bodies. The Land Beast is allied to the Sea Beast (Nero’s Satanic Rome) with Rome calling the shots.

The Bible is big on intermarriage. The Herodian line was an attempt at intermarriage between the Temple and the Roman State. Solomon’s marriage to an Egyptian was godly, because Solomon called the shots. His later marriages were ungodly, because he was no longer calling the agenda according to the Law of God.

Herod’s Jew/Gentile intermarriage was a counterfeit parallel of the one being painstakingly sewn together by Paul. Revelation is about the marriage of Paul’s ‘Esther’, and the despatching of ‘Greater Herodias.’ It portrays the Herods as a false Solomon with the symbol of 666.

The Bible begins with waters above and waters below. Symbolically, this becomes the crystal sea above, and the Gentile nations below. The rulers on the crystal sea call the agenda concerning the nations.

The mediator is now Christ’s crystal city. Totally faithful, since AD70 she is beyond reproach. Her pattern is being measured out on the earth by faithful churches.

Churches down here, however, are not beyond reproach. Churches are always mediators, for heaven or hell. They are always spiritual doorways. If, like the Pharisees, they close the door to seekers, there is still a door open–the one to outer darkness.

What is the nature of your church’s alliances? Who is calling the agenda in your church? Is it coming from above or below? Is it a flow of living water or Wormwood? Is it distributing the broken bread and poured out wine of the Man-Table, or a false promise of Dominion without sacrifice? Are the elders fathers or manipulators, Abrahams or Nimrods?

Intermarriage is God’s plan for the world, but it is the marriage of Joseph, Boaz and faithful Solomon, heavenly hybrids that produce godly warriors through the daughters of men.

“There were hangings of fine white and violet linen held by cords of fine purple linen on silver rings and marble columns, and couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl and precious stones.” Esther 1:6 [NASB]

In his Esther lectures, James Jordan observes that Ahasuerus is pictured as being enthroned over his very own crystal sea.

Nero was the first ruler in history to be buried in porphyry. For this ‘bad Ahasuerus’ who exercised false judgment, the crystal sea became a laver of fire. We know from Revelation 14:10 that the lake was before the heavenly throne.

“Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.” Revelation 19:20

Herod’s Temple was covered in marble. Revelation shows it replaced with a crystal city. The church is now the Laver. Baptism symbolises the gospel as walls to the wicked and gates to the righteous: fire and ice. Jesus’ kingdom is the fifth empire and His judgment is righteous and uncompromising.

“So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” Revelation 3:16

It might look like I’m colouring outside the lines, but it’s in line with a very consistent Biblical symbolism.