Why You’ve Been Duped Into Believing The Myth That The World Is Getting Worse and Worse

by J. D. King

A former colleague disclosed his anxiety about the violence in the Middle East. Of particular concern for him were the brutal onslaughts against Christians by an organization known as ISIS. This terrorist organization that began as part of al Qaeda in Iraq has spread throughout Arab world. It has beheaded and brutally opposed anyone who differs from their fierce form of Islamic Fundamentalism.

Reflecting on some of the frightening news reports, he said,

“It is obvious to anyone with half a brain that the world is getting worse and worse. Evil is rising all around us and the Christian Church is losing ground. I can’t believe how bad things are getting.”

This acquaintance wasn’t the only one that I’ve heard this kind of rhetoric from. Many have voiced a similar apprehension. You can hear it in the checkout lines, sports stadiums, and in the pews of our local churches. Multitudes are convinced that the world is presently in “freefall” and it’s only a matter of time before everything falls apart.

Yet, is this true? Is evil actually growing throughout the earth? Is humanity descending into greater chaos and destruction?

Continue reading at World Revival Network blog.

According to James Jordan, the seven churches are presented as a sort of “decentralized” menora, that is, seven lamps instead of a single seven-branched lampstand. Once this way of thinking is pointed out, it amazes me how much of what is obvious in the text we miss entirely.

This image suggests that we are supposed to take the Church as a new Israel, a conclusion which would not be so popular with dispensationalists, but one that seems unavoidable. The Bible teaches “replacement theory,” or at least, “transformation theory.” Like Jesus, Israel was about to pass through death and resurrection and come out of the grave renewed and as different from old Israel as a butterfly is from a caterpillar.

The Romans would remove the Lampstand from Herod’s Temple, as is predicted later in the Revelation (18:23). The new “decentralized” worship would not be centered on earth but in heaven, on the true Zion (Paul says as much in Galatians 4).

Further support is found in the fact that the seven letters are a brief retelling of Old Israel’s history (following Israel’s festal calendar). Once this is observed, the use of the names of Old Testament characters suddenly makes perfect sense.

Following the seven letters, the rest of the Book of Revelation is an eighth letter, John’s “little book.” [1] The budding sins which Jesus critiques in the fledgling church are shown to be full grown in the worship in Jerusalem (the harlot and false prophet are a Jewish Jezebel and Jewish Balaam, ruling and cursing Jerusalem). The Lampstand was made to look like an almond tree, literally a “watcher tree.”

The word of the LORD came to me saying, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “I see a rod of an almond tree.” (Jeremiah 1:11)

These New Covenant “watchmen” watch on as she is destroyed. So, the letters are a prophecy of future Church history, but a history of the “Firstfruits” Church, leading up to AD70, with only a brief glimpse of “the age to come” in chapter 20.

The meanings of the names of the cities also seem significant in identifying the “dominion” pattern:

As Jordan observes, the Church pastors are the seven stars in Jesus’ right hand. Jesus is the new Tabernacle, and His right hand is the new Lampstand, one whose light multiplies and reaches every corner of the earth.

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[1] See The Eighth Letter. For more on Revelation, get James Jordan’s lectures or his summary The Vindication of Jesus Christ.

Is dispensationalism a theological framework or a hermeneutical approach?

Dispensationalism pretends to be a “literalistic” hermeneutical approach, but it is in fact a contrived framework which results from a single, fundamental error. The fact that this error is so foundational is the reason why its “prophetic plan” is so complicated.

The basic error bookends the Christian Church:

1. The Jew-Gentile division was permanent, thus:
2. The current Christian priesthood is temporary, thus:
3. The current priesthood must be removed and the Aaronic one reinstated at some point.

The entire prophetic framework is really just this three-fold lens which, to maintain the basic tenet, misclassifies great sections of the Bible. It also necessitates an incredibly fragmented approach to Bible history and the biblical texts.

Most if not all of the post-exilic promises of restoration in the prophets are removed from their historical context and applied to the modern state of Israel, and all of the predictions concerning the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70 in Daniel and the New Testament are applied to some future event.

For instance, the invasion Israel by Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38-39 is taken to be a modern invasion of Israel (the identity of the invaders is always taken from the current news headlines). However, the structure of the book and the content of the chapters shows it is a prophecy of the events in the book of Esther (un-walled cities, Haman-Gog / Haman the Agagite, etc.), a proposed slaughter and plundering of all Jews between India and Ethiopia. This victory was the vindication of a resurrected Israel before all nations — back then.

The misinterpretation allows authors to write best-selling books about a coming invasion, and republish them every few years with different villains.

Also, since the Revelation is “level-pegged” step by step with Ezekiel (but concerning the second temple instead of the first), Revelation uses Gog and Magog as an allusion to describe the end of this current age (in which God is working behind the scenes as He did in Esther). Dispensationalists believe these passages speak of the same battle, even though the specifics are very different.

The idea of “dispensations” is not unbiblical, but the cycle of the various covenants must be taken as a progression. It is chiastic, but it is progressive, and the prophets always allude to previous cycles to explain what is coming — such as the wolf and lamb, the branch, etc. (from Noah) to explain the restoration of the Land of Israel from beneath the flood of the nations. Its failure to understand allusions to previous events means that the allusion is often taken to be another prophecy concerning the same event.

Because the events of the Jewish war are seen as merely a postponement, dispensationalists have a terrible time with the book of Hebrews. It doesn’t fit their system at all. It’s like looking at green through a red filter. It just comes up black. Their interpretive grid acts as a “Mosaic veil.”

It is ironic that it is not the current priesthood of all nations which is bookended by the “one-nation” Aaronic priesthood. It is the other way around. Circumcision was a temporary division, beginning with the blessing of Abraham by Melchizedek (a Noahic priest “of all nations”) and ending with a new Melchizedekian priesthood of all nations, the Church of Christ.

So it is not:

ONE NATION – ALL NATIONS – ONE NATION

but

ALL NATIONS – ONE NATION – ALL NATIONS

For more on this (and a nifty diagram), see chapter 38 of God’s Kitchen, “The Forbidden Feast.”

The downside of dispensationalism is that is has no mind for types and symbols (at least not ones concerning Israel). The upside is that all the dispensationalists I have known have a very high regard for Scripture and Bible chronology.

For the antidote to this doctrinal delusion, see James B. Jordan, The Future of Israel Re-examined.

Hope and Holiness

A Structural Analysis of Numbers 15:37-41

He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.”  Ruth 3:9

The passage in Numbers 15 concerning Israel’s tasseled robes contains all the matrix elements, but it has taken a few days to crack what’s going on structurally (although it’s more like cutting a diamond). The first difficulty is that English translations swap words around, so the text below sticks to the Hebrew word order. Secondly, a number of the stanzas leave out lines, or “matrix threads,” to make a point. The only way to identify these is to parse the entire passage. If you finish the puzzle with the pieces you have, you can see where the holes are!

The richness of the Biblical mode of expression is entirely beyond compare. God makes as much of a point by what He doesn’t say as by what He actually says.

TRANSCENDENCE – Genesis
Creation – Initiation – Sabbath – Light – Ark

The first stanza initiates the Covenant process. The five-fold stanza is a microcosm of the seven-fold poem. This is because the command at the center will be opened into three steps (Law given / Law opened / Law received), which is Covenant Head, Covenant Fire, Covenant Body.

Spoke the Lord  (Transcendence – Who’s the boss?)
…..to Moses, saying,  (Hierarchy – Who’s in charge?)
……….“Speak  (Ethics – What are the rules?)
…..to the sons  (Sanctions – What do I get?)
of Israel  (Succession – What’s next?)

“Sons”  appears at Sanctions because this step concerns “holy” mediators. In the seven-fold “opened” pattern, this is Day 6 (sacrificial animals and the sacrificial man). What is amazing is that this single line of text not only echoes the events in Genesis, it is a microcosm of all of Israel’s history. This ended in AD70 when the Old Covenant administrators handed the baton over to the Church. The “nation” became a priesthood of “all nations.” Are you amazed? I am.

HIERARCHY – Exodus
Division – Delegation – Passover – Waters – Veil

The second stanza is a delegation of authority. Just as God stretched out the heavens, and Moses parted the waters, Jacob gave Joseph a robe.

and tell them (Initiation)
…..to make tassels (Delegation)
……….on the corners [wings] (Presentation/Purification/Transformation)
…..of their garments. (Vindication)
(Representation)

The stanza begins with a command for the mouth of Moses as mediator. The tassels are a delegated authority. The corners are the unopened Law, the trinity of Bronze Altar, Lampstand Fire, and Incense Altar Smoke. The word literally means “wings.”Because of the three-level “Altar” combination (heaven and earth with fire in between) we would expect horns. But it’s wings. This is because delegation is carried by the Spirit, the dove “vibrating” over the deep, the holy fire mediating between heaven and earth. It is also why God refers to carrying Israel out of Egypt on eagle’s wings: Exodus is step 2.

“Garments” appears at Sanctions. This is the point in Adam’s Testing at which he and his wife would have received robes of righteousness had they been faithful. Tassels (authority) and garments (office) are matched chiastically, and what is it that unites them or divides them in the literary structure? Obedience to the Triune Law: Death – Spirit – Resurrection. Have you ever seen so much packed into so few words? Fractals in nature make living structures extremely efficient. In the Bible, they mean that every passage is a commentary on every other passage. [1]

Notice that the final line is missing. There is no rest for Israel in mere delegation. It will only come after the purifying fire has done its work. Only then can Israel truly represent God. In the big picture, this little stanza alone wipes the floor with dispensationalism. Since Pentecost, it is the Church, not Israel, which represents God on earth.

ETHICS 1 – Leviticus
Ascension – Presentation – Firstfruits – Land, Grain & Fruit – Bronze Altar & Table of Showbread

Here is why the last line was missing. Israel is not yet pure. This third stanza puts Israel’s “generations,” her obedient Firstfruits on the altar, and waits for fire from heaven. We see this fulfilled finally in Christ’s ascension and Pentecost, but in the big Bible picture, Israel’s history from Moses to Christ was “Ascension,” flesh set apart (sanctified through circumcision – Abraham) and placed on the Altar awaiting fire – Moses/Joshua.

Their generations (Initiation)
…..shall put the tassel (Delegation)
……….on the corner (Presentation)

ETHICS 2 – Numbers
Testing – Purification – Pentecost – Ruling Lights – Lampstand

The second step of the “opening” of the scroll exposes Israel to the eyes of God, or in this case, God’s Law to the eyes of Israel. It was at this exact point in the structure of the Testing of Adam and Eve, and the Testing of the couple on the Emmaus Road, that their eyes were opened. In the first case, their eyes were opened to their nakedness, but here God uses clothing to open eyes.

A cord of blue (the one)
…..shall become a tassel (the many)
……….to look and remember (the seven eyes of the Law)
…..all the commandments (the Law repeated)
of the Lord (the One and Many)

It’s interesting that “a cord of blue” is placed at Transcendence. The Hebrew includes the word “become” which seems to get ignored in the English because they aren’t looking for any minute structure or process. A cord is not a tassel. A cord is singular but a tassel is plural. The One yet Triune God becomes The Many in Israel through the delegation of His authority.

ETHICS 3 – Deuteronomy
Maturity – Transformation – Trumpets – Swarms – Incense Altar

The Law has been given (Altar), opened (Fire) and is now received (Smoke). The one body of the sacrifice is a cloud, a swarm, a “many.” The Adamic Body has been cut and a Bridal Body has been formed.

To do
…..and not follow
……….after the heart
……………after the eyes
……….which you played [the harlot] after

Not one word is idle. The mention of harlotry is significant to this stanza. The tassel is “Deuteronomic,” or a repetition of the Law. As the blood on the four horns of the Incense Altar was a memorial of the blood shed at the Bronze Altar, so God reminds the sons of Israel of the consequences of their Adamic eyes. This step concerns the results of obedience or disobedience, the multiplied plunder or multiplied plagues. Again, there is a step missing, in fact, two. Stanza 5 has five lines. If Israel disobeys, she is slain, burned with fire, and her future goes up in smoke “forever and ever” as a memorial to her harlotry (Rev. 18:9, 18; 19:3). The whore in Revelation is Israel post-Pentecost. Instead of a sweet-smelling fragrance, she was a stench in Jesus’ nostrils, unclean as a corpse. Not so the new Body, the Church.

SANCTIONS – Joshua
Conquest – Vindication – Atonement – Mediators – Sacrifices and High Priest

Here is where naked Adam was clothed in bloody animal skins. Here is where the High Priest does not wear his glorious robe but a linen “skin” to be stained with blood, spotted by the flesh. Israel’s robe is the robe with which the High Priest was reinvested when he emerged from the Most Holy Place (we see the same process in Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet). It is the robe Jesus wore when He left the linen in the tomb. Israel, as Greater Eve, wore robes of holiness because sin was atoned for.

So remember you may (Transcendence – Command)
…..to do (Obedient Delegates)
……….all my commandments (Ethics – All the Law)
…..and be holy (Sanctions – No Curses, only Blessing)
to your God (Succession – Gathered to their Faithful Fathers)

SUCCESSION – Judges
Glorification – Representation – Booths – Rest – Shekinah

God was the final line, the “destination” of some of the previous stanzas. So now He is the “destination,” the final home, of a holy people. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

I am the Lord your God, (Transcendence)
…..who brought you out (Hierarchy)
……….of the land of Egypt, (Ethics)
…..to be your God: (Oath/Sanctions)
I am the Lord your God.” (Succession)

Notice that “Egypt” is Testing, just as it was in Genesis 15. Israel came out as a swarm, after atoning plagues and with great plunder. In Abraham, Joseph, Moses and Joshua, Israel moved from Canaan to Canaan, from promise to possession. God Himself is the Promised Land in this stanza.

In part 2, we will contrast this blue tassel with the red cord in Rahab’s window.

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[1] See Cross-eyed Exegesis.

By evil age, I do not mean the “terrible twos,” or even terrible teens. Many Christians believe they are living in the “evil age” Paul refers to in Galatians 1. They are wrong.

Paul, an apostle
(Creation – Initiation)

(not from men nor through man,
(Division – Delegation)

but through Jesus Christ
(Ascension – Presentation [Firstfruits])

and God the Father
(Testing – Purification [Rulers])

who raised Him from the dead),
(Maturity – Transformation – Trumpets)

and all the brethren who are with me,
(Conquest – Vindication – Atonement)

To the churches of Galatia:
(Glorification – Representation – Booths)

Grace to you and peace
(Ark – Sabbath)

from God the Father
(Veil – Passover)

and our Lord Jesus Christ,
(Altar & Table – Firstfruits)

who gave Himself for our sins,
(Lampstand – Pentecost)

that He might deliver us from this present evil age,
(Incense Altar – Trumpets)

according to the will of our God and Father,
(Mediators – Atonement ["Pass-through"])

to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
(Shekinah – Booths)

Firstly, Paul aligns their deliverance with the first resurrection, that is, the entry of the Firstfruits Church, along with the Old Covenant saints, into the heavenly country. This occurred some time between the middle and end of the Jewish War. These saints in God’s court called down the Covenant curses upon the city, just as Daniel called them down from his seat in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. This deliverance has past.

The second stanza seems to highlight the Tabernacle more than the other matrix strands, and this allows us to see the seven seals here as well. The fifth seal is the martyred saints under the Altar (from memory, James Jordan thinks it’s the Incense Altar and Peter Leithart recently commented that it was the Bronze Altar due to the blood splashed around its base. They are basically the same Altar. The first is the Adamic body, the natural body, and the second is the Evian body, the spiritual body: ashes and smoke. One sits “above” the other).

Secondly, it’s clear that Jesus believed the last generation of Israel-according-to-the-flesh was an evil time. The Veil between Jew and Gentile had grown irreparably old and was ready to pass away (and as a side note, notice the beautiful symmetry in stanza 2 [bolded]). The face of the Father was about to be revealed to the Old Covenant saints and the New Covenant Firstfruits. Galatians is also a fractal, so where stanza 1 is the Initiation of Paul’s letter, stanza 2 concerns Delegation, the Veil as the robe of Greater Joseph.

Dispensationalists, amillennials and historic premillennials do not believe this current age will see a growth in righteousness. But Jesus was postmillennial. He tore down the Veil, then He tore down the Temple, casting them away like an egg shell to allow a new age. But what is an age, biblically defined?

It’s probably best to swap “age” for “era.” The term seems to mean a Covenant administration. All the Old Covenants were cut “inside” each other, Noah within Adam, Abraham within Noah, etc., God cutting deeper and deeper into Adam till He found the righteous rib, the Christ. Each of these Covenant administrations was an age, but together they were all Adamic, flesh without indwelling Spirit (except for a few exemplary prototypes, such as David).

Amillennials generally aren’t preterists, so all the AD70 warnings are mistakenly applied to our future. This is where they get all their dark expectations from. They are mistaken.

This age is Evian. No cutting required, except for hearts. It’s about binding up, joining, networking, uniting by the Spirit. Eve is about multiplication, growth. So things can only get better and bigger as the nations are transformed and united in Christ. This age is no utopia, but neither is any construction process. And, like yeast, the kingdom of light grows better in the dark. As with any good story, the clues are piling up and the denouement is coming.

The passage of time has a habit of exposing people and ideas for what they are. Every false -ism (Naturalism, Communism, Socialism, Islamism, Zionism, Secularism, etc.) that gets exposed and debunked is one more lie we are very unlikely to fall for again, one less magic trick in Jannes and Jambres’ repertoire. Sure, some mistakes get repeated, but we do learn. This process of cutting away is incredibly costly, but the only one being corporately “circumcised” in the flesh in this age is the devil. It’s only an evil age for Satan. Like Peter’s wolf, the more he struggles, the tighter gets the rope, or in this case, the chain. It must be terribly humiliating for him, and it’s only going to get worse. As with the cross, every blow he strikes turns into a victory for the Church.

As the wheels eventually come off every other philosophy and the Church watches them crash and burn, the gospel of Christ is vindicated and shines in greater and greater glory. Slow and steady…

See also Circumcision and Apocalypse.

The Living Dead and the Dead Living

Creation: In part 1 we saw that the theme of the first stanza of 2 Thessalonians 2 was the “Sabbath” rest of the church. Paul writes to remove the alarm caused by the “conspiracy theorists” who attempted to disturb it.

Division: The second stanza concerned the splitting of the church into two — those who would persevere despite the growing threat of tribulation throughout the empire [1], and those who would succumb to their fears. The attacks would culminate in the completion of Herod’s Temple and the Nero’s burning of Rome in AD64. The first threw doubt upon the words of Christ concerning the Temple, and the second, though hardly believed, was an excuse to scapegoat this new Jew-Gentile sect, now legally separated from the protection afforded to Jews by Rome. The gospel tore Judaism in two. Then it united those believing Jews with Gentiles. But as in the wilderness, new Israel would be threshed and purified.

Ascension (Altar): The third stanza played on the theme of the Temple Altar and the Ascension offering. Rather than humbling themselves to be exalted by God, the rulers of the Land (badly translated “kings of the earth” in Revelation) exalted themselves as blameless before God. Unlike Christ, the dead living, they were in God’s eyes nothing more than the living dead.

The passage has two cycles for Ascension (we can tell this by the subject matter of stanza 5). I have found this is quite common. It allows one line or stanza for the Bronze Altar and one for the Golden Table: one for the earth from which the grain and fruit (flesh and blood) is harvested, and one for their presentation in the heavenly tent as a worthy “nearbringing.” With the sacrificial pattern in mind, the literary structure makes visible some pretty cool stuff.

Ascension (Table) – Firstfruits Church as Lot in Sodom

Do you not remember (Ark – Light)
…..that when I was still with you (Veil/Hierarchy)
……….I told you these things? (Altar – Sinai – Law given)
……….And now you know what is restraining, (Firstfruits – nearbringing)
……………that he may be revealed in his own time. (Lampstand)
……….For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; (Witnesses – Law repeated)
…..only He who now restrains [will do so] (Mediators)
until [out of the midst he is gone]. (Succession)

The word “restrain” appears twice. It also means “bind.” In the matrix structure, the first half concerns “forming” under the Law (childhood). The sacrifice is bound, offered as an Ascension, as Isaac was (the true Adamic “son of cutting off.”) The second half concerns “filling,” the maturity of adulthood, the “loosing” of the Bride. Adam is bound, cut, and Eve is loosed from his side.

The sacrificial type is important, but it is a symbol. Paul was bound with a chain. Moses complained of Israel “breaking loose.” What is the actual nature of “restraint” when it comes to principalities and powers according to the Bible? James Jordan writes:

“…one of the most important duties of a ruler is to restrain the waywardness of the people, using the power given him. To the magistrate is given the sword, to the church ruler is given excommunication, and to parents is given the rod. Those who are given these powers, and who refuse to use them to restrain those under them, become partially guilty when those under them wander into sin.” [2]

When Samuel saw Saul, Yahweh answered him,
“Behold, the man of whom I spoke to you!
This one will restrain My people” (1 Samuel 9:17).

The biblical pattern of restraint concerns governors, including rulers like Eli, who failed to restrain his sons. So who was it that restrained the Herods from another massacre of biblical proportions when Paul wrote? Jordan writes:

The Church and her evangelism in Palestine created fence-sitters who were restraining apostate Judaism. An example is Gamaliel, Acts 5:33-42. Perhaps the falling away of so many early Christians into the Judaizing heresy would release the Man of Sin.” My own best guess is that the restrainer is the presence of believers in Jerusalem, whose presence kept Sodom from being destroyed. Their captain was James. [3]

Besides “Babylon,” Jerusalem is also called Egypt and Sodom in the Revelation, a prophetic practice we also observe in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and originating in Moses (Deut. 32:32). The city could not be destroyed until the righteous were removed. How were they removed? They became a righteous firstfruits offering, a harvest of grain and fruit predicted in Revelation 14, with Jesus swinging the sickle.

Interestingly, the literal translation of the final line is “out of the midst.” The idea of the “midst” at this point is very common. Just as the people of God are set apart with a veil of circumcision (Passover blood), so the Atonement step is a “passing-through.” We see this in the Lord’s prefiguring of Israel’s entry into Canaan by “passing through” the divided animals, and also (and terrifyingly) in Jesus’ passing safely through the midst of the Jews who desired to bring down the Covenant curses upon Him by their own hands. [4] The festal picture is the High Priest passing through the Veil, symbolically tearing it as flesh on the Day of Atonement.

Testing – AD70 as Greater Pentecost

And then the lawless one (un-Ark)
…..will be revealed, (un-Veil)
……….whom the Lord will consume (un-Altar)
……….with the breath of His mouth (un-Table)
……………and destroy with the brightness of His coming. (un-Lampstand)

Now we come to the phrase, “the breath of his mouth.” Some translation render “breath” as “spirit.” Either is fine, because the image comes from the Lord breathing life into the Altar, the earthen mound made flesh, of Adam. Yes, even that process follows the Bible Matrix. Only, here it only gets so far. The Spirit of the Lord came flashing to and fro “in the spirit of the day” as He did in Eden (Genesis 3:18).

The final Pentecost in the first century was the destruction of the Old Temple by fire. The house of prayer for all nations was now the apostolic church. The Jewish war tore the final veil away, and the identity of the true sons of God was manifested (Romans 8:19 – don’t worry, this is what always happens when the Lord comes in judgment, and there is a greater judgment to come).

Maturity – False Witnesses under Covenant
The coming of the [lawless one] (False Advent)
…..is according to the working of Satan, (False Delegate)
……….(False 3-decker Temple)
……….with all power, (Head – Word)
……….signs, and (Hands – Signs)
……….lying wonders, (Feet – Serpents)
……………and with all unrighteous deception
……………among those who perish,
……….because they did not receive
…..the love of the truth,
that they might be saved.

If you have Bible Matrix: The Covenant Key, you’ll know that the Ten Commandments follow the matrix structure (I disagree with Ray Sutton’s structure on this one). The commandments have been renumbered (according to Augustine’s “scroll” division) which puts “Stealing” and “False Witness” at level 4, Sanctions. This seems to be a combination of the Maturity and Conquest sections of the matrix structure. It demonstrates that the context of “false witness” is the courtroom, the same kind of false witnesses brought against Jesus, to have him falsely accused and falsely condemned. Instead of the “two witnesses” pattern begun at the death of Abel/conviction of Cain, the Cainite Herods are Jannes and Jambres, court magicians to a Herodian Pharaoh (yes, this is the context of Paul’s warning in 2 Timothy 3:8).

So, the theme of this fifth point (stanza 6) concerns the lying under Covenant oath of the rulers of the Old Covenant. By destroying Jesus, they brought the Holy Spirit from heaven to the Church. By destroying the church, they led the unbelieving Jews into a fiery holocaust engineered by the Spirit, under the true Covenant “testimony of Jesus.” The unbelieving Jews cursed the brethren of Jesus, and the sharp edge of the promise to Abraham was fulfilled upon them.

“I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you…” (Genesis 12:3)

Dispensationalists make terrible mistakes when it comes to this promise. Those of faith are the sons of Abraham.

The Holy Spirit is a consuming fire. Baptism is a Noahic flood. The Table of Communion is the cross. The Christian receives all of these “curses” as “blessings” because they are given to us in sacramental doses. The old Temple was set alight, “flooded” with Roman troops (Daniel 9:26) and the blood of the slain ran through the city in rivers. Thousands of Jews were crucified. This is why Revelation presents her destruction as a worship service. Vengeance belongs to God.

Conquest – Covenant Oath broken: Black Stone
Atonement: the goat elected to be a vessel of destruction

And for this reason (Transcendence/Covenant Curse)
…..God will send them strong delusion, (Hierarchy)
……….that they should believe the lie, (Ethics 1 – Law given)
……………that they all may be condemned (Ethics 2 – Law opened)
……….who did not believe the truth (Ethics 3 – Law received)
…..but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (No Sanctions/Judgment)

The delegate in this passage is an evil spirit from the Lord. [5]

Notice the ironic “Ethics” pattern at the centre. Following the first 7 Bible books, Israel is condemned in “Numbers,” the book of counting. Only Jews are “numbered” in the Revelation, Gentiles are not. The unbelieving Jews would be “counted among those who go down to the pit.” The sons of Korah come to mind. [6]

And this stanza is missing its Sabbath rest. At the “Atonement” line, the unrighteousness remains uncovered on the day of coverings. There was no more sacrifice for sins. [7]

Conquest – Covenant Oath kept: White Stone
Atonement: the goat elected to be a blessed offering

But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you,
…..brethren beloved by the Lord,
……….because God from the beginning chose you for salvation
……………through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth,
……….to which He called you by our gospel,
…..for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, (Creation)
…..brethren, (Division)
……….stand fast (Ascension)
……………and hold the traditions (Testing)
……….which you were taught, (Maturity)
…..whether by word (Conquest/Oath)
or our epistle. (Glorification/Commission)

This stanza gives a full cycle to its Glorification line, the blessing of New Covenant Succession. I’d say the first line of this stanza probably does the same, but in a five-fold pattern.

Glorification – (Booths) The Church sheltered by God

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
…..and our God and Father,
……….who has loved us and given [us]
……………everlasting consolation (Spirit comforter)
……….and good hope by grace,
…..comfort your hearts
and establish you in every good word and work.

The final blessing in this passage. The rest disturbed by the liars at the beginning is reclaimed — reborn and resurrected as an even better hope — by the Shekinah. Not sure why the Father is in line 2, but it sure is interesting! Possibly because the pattern shows Jesus bringing the saints as an Ascension to the Father.

The structure ends with the Firstfruits Church as the fulfilment of the Feast of Booths, the true shelter for the nations, founded on the blood of Christ.

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[1] One objection against a preterist interpretation of the New Testament is that the Gentile churches would not have suffered during the Jewish war. See Peter Leithart: Jewish War.
[2] James B. Jordan, The Restrainer.
[3] James B. Jordan, The Abomination of Desolation, Part 2.
[4] See Pass-over and Pass-through.
[5] See Strong Delusion.
[6] See The Falling Away and Ashes and Smoke.
[7] See No More Sacrifice for Sins.

Artwork: Herod’s Temple interior by Abe Goolsby from the HCSB Study Bible. Check out his design process here.

Micah Martin (brother of one of the authors of Beyond Creation Science), has kindly read Bible Matrix II and written about my adherence to the Genesis account of Creation as both Covenant and history (i.e. the account is not simply an account of the physical world being given a Covenantal purpose as a Temple, but also its actual Creation). There is much that we agree on, but the disagreement on this subject couldn’t be sharper, or of more importance.

He writes:

I received a copy of Bible Matrix II by Mike Bull.  (I would like to thank Mike publicly for sending me a copy free of charge. I very much appreciate it.)

Like Bible Matrix, Bull relies heavily on James Jordan’s approach and has the same un-questioned young earth creationist presupposition.  On a positive note, this book will open the full-preterist door to many astute readers.

However, I found this incredible quote on page 229:

Covenant is the key to Creation.  The original firmament [which I thought was the atmosphere according to the YEC paradigm, my own comment] is the outer shelter, the physical elements, the macrocosmic “Temple”… [1]

The next paragraph begins:

So, all Creation is Covenantal, but we cannot divorce Covenant from history.  It began with the physical world and will end with its physical restoration: (Emphasis his)

Haven’t we heard that before?

I would note that Bull never backs up this claim.  At one point he cites Chilton regarding 2 Peter but then just adds that it foreshadows the “real” new heavens and earth.  Again, with not exegetical proof.

It is becoming apparent that the entire Partial Preterist world is precariously positioned on the incredibly weak foundation of YEC fundamentalism.  It is even more hilarious when one considers the connections between YEC fundamentalism and Dispensationalism.

Add to that, the fact that the people who are winning the origins battle (like Pete Enn’s, biologos.org, John Walton) do not have an eschatology that fits their protology and I would say invest in Covenant Creation/Eschatology.  Eventually it will have cornered both markets! There really is no where else to go.

In the book, I included a slightly revised version of the chiasm of history presented here, plus an expanded explanation of it. The problem with the Covenant Creationists is their insistence that the Creation account and the Noahic flood were not global Covenantal events, but only local Covenantal events.

I can see their argument, but there are two problems with it. Firstly, Creation and Noah are brackets around one era, an era that defines the terminology of the rest of the Bible. After the failure of Babel, history moves to a “social” definition of Covenant, a nation that is separate from the other nations, a national “Land” raised above the international “Sea.”

So, although there are parallels between the flood and AD70 (as Jesus states), this is because there are other structures going on within this chiastic history. The Gentile “flood” of AD70 and the Gentile “flood” of Babylon are equivalent floods. And guess what? Both of them use Noahic symbols. [2] So to claim that the Great Flood and AD70 are equivalent events shows an ignorance of the Old Testament.

So, where dispensationalists understand the Great Flood as a physical judgment, and misunderstand Matthew 24 as physical judgment, Covenant Creationists understand Matthew 24 as social, but misunderstand the Creation and Flood as basically social.

If we remove the physical element from the initiation of Covenant history (to open the door to bogus science based on Baalistic philosophy) and from the end of Covenant history, we make the death and resurrection of Christ at its centre unnecessary. If the original curse of death wasn’t physical, and somehow death has already been defeated, actual physical history is stuck in an eternal rut of death.

And a rut is just a grave with the ends kicked out.

Covenant Creationism makes a mockery of the Bible, of the death and resurrection of Christ, and of the very physical hope of mankind. It asserts that there will be no future union of heaven and earth.

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[1] The Noahic firmament did come down, but there is obviously a greater one. This would be because the Creation-to-Noah Covenant was a microcosm of all history, a world within a world. But both these “Veils” are physical. See A Firmament of Flesh.
[2] See The Wolf and the Lamb.

“Revelation is not just a vision of the King of Kings,
but of the King of Kings in His court.”

Preterists have a go at dispensationalists for interpreting the Bible through the lens of current headlines. We recognize that the Bible must be interpreted in its historical context, for its “first audience.” But there’s a brand of “newspaper exegesis” that plagues preterism as well.

In 2007, I listened to a lecture series on Revelation by Ken Gentry. I thought it was pretty good, but something didn’t sit right. Next, I got into James Jordan’s series, and it did sit right. Rather than forcing an interpretive framework onto the text, Jordan lets the text speak for itself. In fact, it sings.

What’s the difference? As much as I hate to set the work of these two gents in opposition, Gentry’s approach is to begin with Josephus’ account of the Jewish war and seek to find correlations in the text of St. John. But isn’t this just a first century version of “newspaper exegesis”? Gentry would agree that Revelation is “level-pegged” with Ezekiel as a prophecy against a corrupted Temple. But if we had a 6th century BC equivalent to Josephus, would anyone try to interpret the book in the light of the CNN of the day? No.

But what framework does this leave us with? Where does Jordan begin? How does he make near perfect sense of a text that has baffled scholars for centuries? Rusty Reno gives us a clue, in his foreword to the recent James Jordan festschrift, The Glory of Kings.

James B. Jordan is remarkable. There are plenty of Bible preachers in America who know the Scriptures well. Lots of professors read books in philosophy, history, and literature and have all sorts of interesting things to say about culture. Pundits cultivate a sharp, pungent, and readable style. But Jim is perhaps unique.

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Jim knows a great deal, but I have no doubt that the electricity in his writing and conversation come from his biblical vision. He does something remarkable. He takes the cultic core of the Old Testament—Temple and Priesthood, altar and sacrifice—and reads it into the full sweep of the biblical witness.
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Who else writes detailed interpretations of the Book of Daniel and quotes Allen Tate’s poetry? Who else can give a lecture on echoes of Leviticus in the apocalyptic vision of Zechariah and then chat over cigars about Friedrich von Hayek and Richard Weaver? Moreover, who can cover such a range with vivid images, punchy tag lines, and memorable turns of phrase? Not many, which is why I’ve come to think of Jim Jordan as one of the most important Christian intellectuals of our day.

Jim knows a great deal, but I have no doubt that the electricity in his writing and conversation come from his biblical vision. He does something remarkable. He takes the cultic core of the Old Testament—Temple and Priesthood, altar and sacrifice—and reads it into the full sweep of the biblical witness. The result is not the usual sort of “theological” interpretation we’re all familiar with: Christ’s fulfillment of the Old Testament explained by way of warmed-over theologies of substitutionary atonement or observations that really amount to little more than restating New Testament passages. Instead, Jim takes texts such as Leviticus seriously on their own terms. He brings to life the intense concreteness of tabernacle and sanctuary, and he allows the prophets a retrospective restoration as well as a prospective anticipation. As Jim has helped me see, the Scriptures are forever reaching back and renewing even as they reach forward to fulfillment in Christ.

We live in space and time. Our lives have a concrete and quotidian reality. Precisely because Jim’s reading of the Old Testament takes its bearings from the point of maximal particularity—the cultic focal point that is the most enduring and transparent anticipation of the Incarnation—his reading of the larger biblical witness is saturated with immediacy. Take a look at any of his writings on worship. The life of God’s people has a particular shape in Israel. The tabernacle and temple have a specific architecture. The sacrifices involve discrete patterns of action. As a result, we do not encounter nebulous theological concepts. The immediacy of the cult of Israel is accessible to us today. Indeed, it is more accessible and more immediate, because in Christ we have been brought into the inner sanctuary.

Any particular detail of Jim’s biblical theology is up for debate, but the larger project is compelling—and much needed today. Many of us have limited biblical imaginations. We have stock phrases and favorite passages. We think of ourselves as biblical, but our friends recognize that nine times out of ten we’re quoting from Paul’s Letter to the Romans or the Book of Revelation or the Gospel of John. The Old Testament functions as a hazy background. The Psalms have no living power. Although we would vigorously deny it, we are functionally allied with Friedrich Schleiermacher, who notoriously set aside the Old Testament, or Immanuel Kant, who rejected the “Jewish” parts of the Old Testament as unusable.

Should we be surprised, therefore, that our preaching and teaching remains “spiritual” or “theological” in an abstract and theoretical way? Nothing we say is heretical. Orthodoxy carries the day. But it all floats a few feet above the ground. The gears of faith never seem to do what Jim’s biblical theology does: mesh with the gritty realities of life.

If we diagnose ourselves honestly, then perhaps we can see that, unlike Jim, there are no biblical actualities at the center of our preaching and teaching, things to be seen and entered and touched. Perhaps, for example, we imagine ourselves agreeing with him because we endorse a “sacramental” view of the church. But there is a world of difference between “sacramental” and Jim’s trenchant reading of the Book of Revelation as a handbook for Christian worship, a reading that depends upon his interpretation of the cultic core of the Old Testament. Again, one can debate the details, or the biblical typology, or Jim’s assumptions about how to understand biblical inerrancy, or his conception of biblical history, or any number of other different technical questions. But of this I am certain. Jim does something few achieve, even (perhaps especially!) those who make loud claims about their biblical fidelity. He puts the living realities of the Bible at the center of his thought…

The rest of the foreword deals with the need for Jim’s sort of thinking in the Church today, but here I want to focus on his reading of the Revelation. The book is a “handbook” for Christian worship precisely because it is a worship service. We have little idea of the flow of what is going on because we haven’t internalized the books of Moses. Chilton started us in this direction, but it is Jordan who really makes sense of the details.

All the action takes place in the Temple court of God, and it brings with it all the baggage of Old Testament history. Well, not so much baggage as a royal entourage, tent and all. Revelation is not just a vision of the King of Kings, but of the King of Kings in His court. The detail of the Jewish war of AD66-70 is not what concerns Him. What concerns Him is the “changing of the guard” in His heavenly council. The shadowy concepts communicated by the Mosaic furnitures and rites have found their fulfilment in flesh, in the people of God. Instead of an Altar of Incense, we have actual elders with bowls of Incense, etc.

So, the structure of events cannot be interpreted through the lens of Josephus. The Jewish war is as relevant to the Revelation as the details of the destruction of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar are relevant to the book of Ezekiel. That is, not very much.

However, I do recommend you read Gentry’s brilliant work on the actual dating of the book of Revelation, Before Jerusalem Fell. Current scholarly opinion is wrong on this one, again because they don’t listen to Moses. And on this one Gentry gets it right.

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Jordan’s lectures are available from www.wordmp3.com (click link in right column).

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.