“Rivers of water run down from my eyes,
because men do not keep Your law.” Psalm 119:136

I might bag out [1] the Biblical Horizons crowd for their views on baptism, but otherwise they are giants. They have a hold on Scripture and history that enables them to understand the times.

Rich Blesdsoe recently made the observation that the unbelief which constantly confronts us Western Christians is quite a different animal to the demonism found in other cultures. We don’t suffer the full-scale “possessions” seen in pagan cultures. The rebellion is just as self-destructive, as crazed and zealous, and just as much a “nothing” as the idols of the pagans, but it is a different kind of nothing. What’s going on in our culture?

[This post has been refined and included in Sweet Counsel: Essays to Brighten the Eyes.]

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“There is a curse on Mankind.
We may as well be resigned.
To let the devil, the devil
take the spirit of man.”

War of the Worldviews

I first heard Jeff Wayne’s musical version of The War of the Worlds when I was 11. My brother and I and some cousins listened to it in a dark room. It was electric and terrifying. Hearing it again years later, the worldview behind the story is much more apparent. One song in particular lays it bare, The Spirit of Man.

[This post has been refined and included in Sweet Counsel: Essays to Brighten the Eyes.]

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“Immediately, the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.” —Mark 1:12

NOTE: THIS POST HAS BEEN REMIXED AND INCLUDED IN GOD’S KITCHEN.

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[1] My Utmost For His Highest, March 14th.
[2] The Old Covenant Day of Atonement (covering) could only put the lid on the trash can and spray a fragrant deodorant around (incense). Jesus came to take out (ekballo) the trash.
[3] James B. Jordan, Obama As Fool. There is some talk now about Obama’s foreign policy being “cruciform.” We’ll see how this pans out.

Matthew 1-10 follows the Dominion pattern. After Jesus’ testing in the wilderness, in 4:18-8:13 Jesus called His disciples and began mustering a new holy army – the “next generation”.[1] It was reported to Him that the last Old Covenant Nazirite (holy warrior) was dead. It was time for new warriors. Jesus healed the uncleanness of many, creating a new priesthood. His success in the wilderness as a new Head made possible this new body. Peter Leithart writes:

By my count, there are twelve disfigurements listed in Leviticus 21:18-20 that disqualify a priest from serving at the altar and in the tabernacle: blind, lame, slit, deformed, broken foot, broken hand, hunchback, dwarf, defect of eye, eczema, scabs, crushed testicles. The listed disfigurements point to a disfigured Israel, twelve disfigurements for twelve tribes. And this adds some depth to the fact that Jesus heals many of these disfigurements as He creates a new Israel. [2]

There was not one factor that could possibly make a child of Adam unfit to serve in this new Tabernacle. Everyone could be made an acceptable sacrifice in this new High Priest. Yet, not everyone was chosen.

After this Trumpets section, 8:14 to 9:8 concerns Atonement, so Matthew quotes Isaiah to support his presentation of Christ as High Priest, carrying the sins of Israel:

This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

After Jesus making the storm tossed sea into a sea of glass (the Laver, the veil), the Atonement symbols continue with demoniacs living among tombs (the Most Holy Place). Jesus symbolically took their nakedness. The demons, as the second goat, were expelled into a herd of unclean beasts (pigs) which attempted to cross the sea but were drowned. These two pictures present Christ as a boat, the ark of Noah that brings resurrection to Greater Eve but condemns the legions of the unclean. [3] He crossed the sea twice perhaps because the High Priest approached the Most Holy twice: once for the priesthood and once for the people.

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[1]   The sermon on the mount within this structure of chapters 1-10 is “Deuteronomic.” Jesus “received” the Law from the Father as He ascended from the waters of baptism, and now repeated it to a new Israel to prepare them for conquest.
[2]  Disfigured Israel 
[3] Cobbled together from bits of Totus Christus chapter 26. Read the intro and chapter 1 here (PDF).

An important tenet of James Jordan’s interpretation of the Revelation is that it shows the Old Covenant angelic government vacating the premises and a human government moving in as a new administration – in AD70. This sounds strange to our ears, but I have found that it does play out in many ways, which it should if it is the correct interpretation.

Now, this handover of heavenly government was a gradual process in the first century, but consummated at the marriage feast of the Lamb. But its outworking in history is gradual. Interesting stuff. Here’s some thoughts.

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