Alan Kerr (The Temple of Jesus’ Body: The Temple Theme in the Gospel of John (Library of New Testament Studies), 71) offers this comment on Jesus’ statement that Nicodemus had to be born of the Spirit before entering the kingdom: “It is almost universally accepted that Spirit here refers to the Spirit of God. But at this stage in the Gospel there was no Spirit (7:39), because Jesus was not yet glorified. It is not until Jesus is risen and appears to the disciples and breathes on them and says, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ that the Spirit is given (20:22). So from the point of view of Johannine timing what Jesus says to Nicodemus should only be realized in a post-resurrection setting. Properly speaking he can only be reborn from above when Jesus is glorified.”

This obviously affects the use of John 3:5 as a proof text for the doctrine of regeneration.

Is this support for the ‘giving of the Spirit’ in paedobaptism?

Read Bowing the Heavens.

Firstly, we must make a distinction between the Spirit “coming upon” people and “indwelling” people. The world is sacrificial in nature. The process of sacrifice is a recapitulation of Genesis 1. The process begun in the physical Creation (Genesis 1) is repeated in the social Creation (Genesis 2) and then the spiritual (ethical) Creation (Genesis 3). Flesh is cut, the Spirit comes down (upon it) and the flesh is transformed into a smoky (spiritual) body, a one-and-many.

When Jesus breathed on His disciples, they didn’t receive the Holy Spirit. That happened at Pentecost. All they received was His physical breath (as did Adam in Genesis 2). But the physical breath was a “liturgical” promise of spiritual, that is, ethical breath. Adam would not only have life, but “abundant life,” that is, life in the Spirit, life that reproduces not only the form of God in flesh, but the filling of God, making men of one mind with God and with one another. Only one this threefold process was complete would Adam be a “living sacrifice.”

So, generation (flesh) and regeneration (fire and smoke) are part of the same process, but they are not the same events in that process. With that sacrificial process in mind (flesh, fire smoke), we can get down to business.

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

This is a reference to God’s cloud, the one Jesus was taken into just before He sent the Spirit. Jesus was taken up in the flesh (take note hyperpreterists), He sent the fire of the Spirit, and His disciples, the true Jews, became a cloud of fragrant smoke (note that the Judaizers are describes as a ravenous cloud of sulphur in the Revelation).

Nicodemus speaks of a second earthly (earthy?) birth. Christ says the second birth is from above. Water and Spirit refers to His baptism, at which Jesus was the same as all John’s previous clients according to the flesh (just like Samuel working his way through all Jesse’s sons before the Lord chose David. See A King Among Sons). What was different about David (“Beloved”) and the Beloved Son? Not the flesh.

Jesus turned John’s “waters below” baptism into a “waters above” baptism, which is exactly what the first Elijah did on Mount Carmel. [1] The baptism of John was the water Elijah tipped over the altar. Physically it was the same as the altar of Baal, only wetter — until the Spirit descended and heaven met earth. Then it became prophetic. Elijah “bowed the heavens” — calling them down so that God’s will would be done on earth as in heaven. As in the days of Noah, the waters below came up and the waters above came down, and washed the Altar-Land clean. The end came with a flood and the wicked were washed away.

Elijah’s twelve-stone altar, like Jesus’ body, was the holy mountain in miniature, a representative of all Israel. Because it was a faithful reproduction, God honored it and reproduced it at full-size. What Elijah did as “liturgy,” God then performed in reality.

Then the whole mountain became Elijah’s altar, and the blood of the priests of Baal was the blood in the brook at its base. The singular descent of the Spirit turned God’s people into fiery chariots. Elijah “bowed the heavens”, which is what John did at Jesus’ baptism. Eyes were opened, men were suddenly in the heavenly court, and the truth was exposed. Jesus was vindicated from heaven. Unlike John’s earthly model, Jesus’ “waters above” baptism designates us as representatives upon the crystal sea, the place of vindicated elders who eat and drink with God on the mountain and come down as flaming swords.

John 3 is certainly a reference to Pentecost. Even though the events had not yet taken place, every event in the Old Testament prefigured what was about to take place at the centre of history: the descent of the fire upon all flesh. Some men would be smoke. Others would be ashes. Jesus is talking about every individual becoming a glory cloud, a chariot, a mysterious prophet motivated by unseen things, marching to God’s drum — a miniature of the whole New Covenant prophetic body.

So, regarding regeneration, it’s not either/or. The process of regeneration begins with santified (set apart) flesh on the altar, but the “watershed” moment is the descent of the fire.

What was the result of this fire? Seeing the kingdom of God. To “see” the kingdom is to “perceive” or “discern” it — like the prophet opening the eyes of his servant to the spiritual war behind the flesh and blood.

And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.”

Being “born again” makes one a spiritual warrior. The fire that came upon now indwells, and God’s people become His body. This means Baal and the other flesh-cutters are goners, as they were in AD70.

Even at its best, paedobaptism could only ever be a baptism of John, and that was only for the twelve stone Altar, for repentant Jews awaiting the Spirit, like Nicodemus. The sacrificial body was washed and placed on the altar. But it wasn’t alive.

As a corollary to this, once the body was transformed by fire, there was no going back, no apostasy possible. There are certainly pretenders to regeneration, but over time the saints get a whiff of sulphur and have to drag them back to the Altar and the knife of the Gospel.

______________________________________
[1] Interestingly, for Israel, the Nile was the “waters below” and the rain of Canaan, the “waters above.” Now that Herod had slain infants, the Jordan was a new “waters below.”

From Tim Gallant’s blog:

The Sabbath and the Day of Yahweh

It strikes me that people tend to read the conflicts between Jesus and the Pharisees in the Gospels as a matter of incompatible casuistries. “The Pharisees are applying the fourth commandment wrongly because they don’t make the proper exceptions for works of necessity, works of mercy and works of piety.”
But when we consider the Gospels themselves, it is hard to take that approach all that seriously. The Gospels globally are not about Jesus needing to correct the moral vision of His opponents in connection with their reading of Torah (even if that may come up occasionally on the fringes).

The Gospels are about JESUS. The reason He comes into conflict repeatedly with the Pharisees on this is not merely that they have too many minutiae attached to the rulebook, nor that they forgot some categories of exceptions.

Rather, the reason is that Jesus presents HIMSELF as the embodiment of true Sabbath, doing what Torah could not do. We look at Jesus’ Sabbath healings and conclude: “Aha, works of mercy are exceptions to the general rule.” But although Jesus observes that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, that is hardly His fundamental point. We should not miss that Jesus is performing HEALINGS by a power that His opponents did not have, no matter how good they may have been at lawkeeping.

So long as we view the Gospel Sabbath episodes primarily as moral directives, we will misread them. They are primarily signs of an inbreaking kingdom that transcends the old creation and its Torah.

This of course is why the supposed problem of “only nine commandments” is beside the point. As Jordan says, the Ten Words were Israel’s charter. While the other Nine Words are transformed but retransmitted to the Church, it is not at all problematic to say that the Fourth Commandment does not simply switch days of the week and carry on. In the Gospels, the Fourth Commandment plays a key role, but not because it needs to stick around in any independent way. It plays a key role because Jesus is emerging from its heart with something new: His arrival is the arrival of the Day of Yahweh, promised throughout the prophets.

It is no accident that in Matthew 11-12, the narrative flows from John the Baptizer to Jesus the rest-giver, and on into Sabbath conflicts. In Malachi 3-4, the Day of the Yahweh would be marked by the messenger of the covenant purifying the sons of Levi as well as bringing justice and hope to the poor and oppressed. A time of new creation would arrive. This would be preceded by “Elijah the prophet.”

Jesus’ Sabbath healings are not merely intended as a generalized picture that doing generic good (“works of mercy”) is a suitable activity for the Sabbath. Rather, they demonstrate that in Him, not only is a “greater than the temple” present, but that the Day of Yahweh has arrived, transcending the Sabbath. The seventh day Sabbath is part of the first creation, but now, in Jesus, the new creation has come in the eschatological Day of Yahweh.

He is Yahweh; and His ministry is the Day of Yahweh.

And thus He says, “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”—a rest that the law’s Sabbath could not give.

The “Day of Yahweh” is translated “the Day of the LORD” (Kuriou) in the LXX (Greek OT) and thus into the New Testament. It is therefore no surprise when we get to the Revelation of St John, and he uses another form for that genitive: “the LORD’s Day” (Rev 1:10). On the first day of the week, when the disciples around the Roman world were gathering into the presence of the God of Israel, John was alone, exiled on Patmos, but “in the Spirit” he enters into God’s throne room where that host of believers has also gathered for worship.

And there, John sees what? He sees the unfolding apocalypse (revelation) of “the Day of the LORD,” beginning with preliminary judgments and culminating in the final one.

It is fair to say that in the New Testament vision, Lord’s Day worship is a miniature, a preliminary anticipation of the final Day of Yahweh. The reason that Hebrews says not to forsake the assembling together “as you see the Day approaching” is that the assembly itself partakes of the character of that Day.

The Sabbatarian vision is too small. This is why Paul chides the Galatians for observing “days and months and seasons and years.” The Sabbath, along with the Torah administration as a whole, belonged to the stoicheia, the “elements of the world,” the things that constituted the first creation.

But for us, there is something more than that. We gather into the Day of Yahweh, and find not merely physical rest, but an eschatological event that is busy setting the kosmos to rights, even as Yahweh incarnate did throughout His earthly ministry.

“To have a God-given internal moral compass is to have God Himself.”

Maturation is the process of making God’s “external law” into our internal law, our operating, animating principle. This has huge implications for sanctification, but it also explains a lot of what is going on in the Bible’s symbolism and architecture.

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

You must be logged in to see the rest of this post.

Join now for a year for $15!

A guest post by Luke Welch.

I’ve been reading The Hobbit again, out loud, to our children, and this time through, one phrase in the first chapter caught my attention.

When Bilbo first encounters Gandalf as an adult, he exhales a list of memories of the greatness and fearful unpredictability of the old wizard:

Not the wandering wizard that gave Old Took a pair of magic diamond studs that fastened themselves and never came undone till ordered? Not the fellow who used to tell such wonderful tales at parties, about dragons and goblins and giants and the rescue of princesses and the unexpected luck of widows’ sons?  (The Hobbit, Chapter 1).

In the Bible, there are two widows who received their sons from the dead: the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17), and the widow of Nain (Luke 7). In both cases, a visit by a prophet results in the resurrection of the widow’s only son. In both cases, the miracle vindicates the prophet, resulting in a confession, a testimony, that the prophet is God’s man indeed.

A prophet
…..visits
……….the “displaced” widow
……….whose son dies or is dead;
……………The prophet performs a miracle
……….and raises the son to life;
……….which brings a testimony
…..of the vindication
of the prophet. [1]

The importance of the vindication of the prophet is often overlooked. Here are the announcements from both stories:

And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” (1 Kings 17:24)

And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” (Luke 7:15-16)

Resurrection is extraordinary, and therefore entirely unexpected. It is incredible except for those who have witnessed it first-hand. And when it does occur, it reveals that the prophet is under the power of the Spirit of God and confirms his God-given authority to speak for God to the people of God.

Of course, there is another historical resurrection which follows the same pattern.

Jesus was the “only Son” of a widow, Mary. It is likely that Joseph died before Jesus’ baptism. From the beginning of His ministry, at His first miracle (turning water into wine in John 4), Mary treats Jesus as the “man of the house.” While on the cross, Jesus delegates His Covenant responsibility to shelter Mary. He passes it to the next believing man of the family, His younger cousin John, son of Zebedee (John 19.26-27).

Then, her son, her only son, is killed by God (cf. 1 Kings 17:20, Isaiah 53:10).

And so Jesus is resurrected, and Mary receives back her dead.

That leaves us with a question. What does this say about the prophet? Elijah was known to be the Spirit’s mouth because of the resurrection he received through prayer. Jesus was known to be the Great Prophet rising up among the people, because he gave resurrection. But who resurrected Jesus?

It was the Holy Spirit himself (Romans 1:4). Of course, we hear from Paul later on that the resurrection of Jesus was a Trinitarian act (cf. Romans 8:11ff). But even there, the Power of the Holy Spirit is what is emphasized in this life-giving to dead sons.

So, in Mary’s receiving back her dead, we are justified in looking for a testimony, a vindication, of that Prophet. The next great prophetic voice was that of the Spirit in the testimony of Jesus. He was in the apostles, as eyewitnesses to the resurrection. They vindicated Jesus, and history continues to vindicate them. The Spirit is the jar of holy oil that never runs out.

_______________________________
[1] Mike Bull: I’ve expanded a little on Luke’s original outline here, to bring out the echo of the Ten Commandments: Word from God, alienation from the Land, mother and father, knife and fire, theft/gift and true witness, and finally, shelter and sheltered. Concerning the alienation from the Land, “The location of the miracle in Nain is also possibly an allusion to the raising of the Shunamite woman’s son by Elisha because Nain is only a couple of miles north of Shunem (cf. 2Ki 4:). So the event and location are both allusions to Elijah and Elisha.” [bible.org] The prophets ministered to those outside of Israel to provoke Israel to jealousy.

or What’s the Problem with Matthew 27:51-53?

Then, behold,
(Day 1 – Imperative / Light)
…..the veil of the temple
…..was torn in two
…..from top to bottom;
…..(Day 2 – Delegation / Waters)
……….and the Land quaked,
……….and the rocks were split,
……….(Day 3 – Law-Promise given)
……………and the graves were opened;
……………(Day 4 – Law-Promise opened)
……….and many bodies of the saints
……….who had fallen asleep were raised;
……….(Day 5 – Swarms / Witnesses)
…..and coming out of the graves
…..after His resurrection,
…..(Day 6 – Mediators)
they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
(Day 7 – Bridal Entry)

I’ve just read a few blog posts and comments concerning this text, and although it seems to us moderns to be

a) off-the-cuff,

b) strange, and to some academics

c), utterly incredible,

this is because the academics I was reading

a) are unfamiliar with literary structure and typology,

b) imagine a some discontinuity between the strange Old Testament prophets and Jesus, and

c) won’t believe the bizarre bits of the Bible unless they find them

i) corroborated elsewhere in the Bible,

ii) corroborated in Josephus, etc., or

iii) can discredit them by classifying them as a genre (such as apocalyptic, which is not a biblical genre) that renders them non-historical and thus non-embarrassing.

This

is

disgusting.

I’m not sure what the problem is with this event. Resurrection is always corporate, always plural. [1] Christ, the first “grain of wheat,” handed the baton on to His disciples and they did the same — as grains of Pentecostal wheat. The Garden “died” for the Land and the Land “died” for the World.

Their deaths resulted in what Revelation calls the “first” resurrection — all the Old Covenant saints entering into their rest, seated on thrones and judging (taking vengeance) on the leaders of Israel. That’s what Revelation’s about.

So the stuff that happens at the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ-as-Israel was a microcosm of the events that would happen to Israel herself over the following generation — “this generation.”

Judas was expelled, so Judah was expelled. The rocks were split and the veil was torn, so the Land was divided by the Gospel and the Temple was destroyed. And the small-scale resurrection in Matthew 27 prefigured the ascension of the “saints under the altar,” who had to wait until the final legal (i.e. “two”) witnesses testified against the Herodian Sodom/Egypt/Jericho/Babylon.

What do the preceding verses say? Which prophet prefigured the Ascension? [2] Which prophet prefigured the Resurrection? Jesus’ murderers, though they misheard Him, and though they themselves were “whited tombs,” knew the Scriptures.

The rest said, (Initiation)
…..“Let Him alone; (Delegation)
……….let us see if Elijah (Ascension)
………..will come to save Him.” (Offering)
……………And Jesus (Purification)
……….cried out again (Deut. Transformation)
…..with a loud voice, (Vindication / Oath)
and yielded up His spirit. (Ingathering)
(Matthew 27:49-50)

Then Elisha died, (De-Creation / Sabbath)
…..and they buried him. (Prostration / Passover)
……….And the [raiding] bands
……….from Moab invaded the land
……….in the spring of the year. (Firstfruits)
……………So it was, as they were burying a man,
……………that suddenly they spied a band [of raiders;]
……………(Testing – Pentecost)
……….and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha;
……….(Trumpets / Prophets)
…..and when the man was let down
…..and touched the bones of Elisha, (Atonement / Coverings)
he revived and stood on his feet. (Tabernacles / Succession)
(2 Kings 13:20-21)

____________________________________
[1] See Greater Eve.
[2] See The Lost Ark.

or Sinai Unspoken

On Mount Carmel, Elijah had built an altar of 12 rough-hewn stones. They substituted for the tribes of Israel. They were built and then consumed. The priests of Baal were slain and “washed” in the brook as atonement. The Land was clean. But we know Jezebel trampled this sacrifice underfoot. [1]

Elijah headed for the wilderness. He was a man with a mission. He went to the same cave in which Moses stood, a cleft in the rock. Once again, the Lord “passed over.” He was making a new Covenant, a new Creation, a new Heavens and a new Land.

1 Kings 19 follows the heptamerous Feasts pattern. Jezebel’s threat is the false “word,” a black Sabbath that sets things going. The Passover/Exodus is Elijah’s journey and sleep under the tree. The Firstfruits “ascension” is the command to eat. It is Day 3. In the Tabernacle it corresponds to the Bronze Altar, so the bread has been baked on “coals of fire.” It is the wilderness, so there is water instead of wine. This is also the step where dreams usually occur in pairs (as two witnesses), so the angel comes to Elijah twice with the message.

Pentecost: Elijah’s “Numbers” follows, forty days and nights. The Lord speaks to him in the cave (read, symbolically, grave). Following the pattern of Sinai (and Revelation) the Lord opens the seven seals of the Covenant document. In the Tabernacle, this is the seven lights of the Lampstand. It is a new government: sun, moon and five moving stars (the planets visible to the naked eye). But here, the stars are falling.

Day 1 – Light/Word/Sabbath Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.”

Day 2 – Firmament/Holy Space/Passover: And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind;

Day 3 – Land/Mediatorial Head/Firstfruits: and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake;

Day 4 – Lights/Holy Fire/Pentecost: and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire;

The Creation pattern often appears also as “de-Creation.” We see this in the de-construction of the visionary Temple in the early chapters of Ezekiel. Here, the Lord was de-Creating the old Covenant. Day 5 is about resurrection, clouds of smoke, multitudes flying and swimming in the spaces created. It about a triumphant rise from the grave to witness as Trumpets. What do we have instead?

No Day 5 – and after the fire the sound of silence. [3]

What does this mean? Michael Comins writes:

Qol dmamah daqah, the “still, small voice.” To my mind, this translation from the King James Bible is still among the better, English versions. Modern translations, however, render qol as a physical sound rather than a metaphorical voice, such as “a tiny whispering sound,” “the sound of a light whisper”  or the JPS’ profoundly unpoetic “a soft murmuring sound.” Simon and Garfunkel notwithstanding, critical scholarship does not entertain the “sound of silence.”

Nevertheless, I prefer to follow Rashi and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s literal rendering of qol dmamah, “a voice of silence.” Precedent for such a reading can be found in the book of Genesis, where God says to Cain, “the voice of your brother’s blood calls out to me” (Gen. 4:10). Here qol is a silent voice rather than an audible sound. And that, I believe, is precisely what Elijah hears: a voice without sound. [2]

Based on the structure of events, I want to challenge the common interpretation. It was not the voice of the Spirit, speaking to the prophet in some poetic Victorian hush. It was the silence of the grave. The decayed Covenant had been un-spoken. This was un-Sinai. Standing in the gap between the Lord and Ahab, Elijah was both Moses and un-Moses. [3]

Israel’s hypocrisy silenced her witness. Hers were the words of a silent witness, a corpse. The Spirit fire consumed the Adam-flesh/house instead of filling it with Eve-lights. Liturgically, Ahab’s kingdom was already no more.

The larger pattern resumes with an actual voice questioning Elijah. The witness of step 5 is Elijah’s testimony as martyr, wrapped in the robe of office, a new firmament, rising from the cave/grave. The multitudes are those who seek his life. It is an ironic and substitutionary Trumpets. [4]

“So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave.”

He pictures Moses returning from Sinai, the High Priest returning from the Most Holy, and of course Christ rising from the grave as the head of a New Covenant, ready to seal, gather and avenge the saints. Atonement. The ascension goat is the 7000 who have not bowed to Baal. [5] The rest would be exiled to Azal.

Booths: God gives Elijah instructions that will bring about the Day of the Lord, speaking these de-Creating words into history as prophet. It would not be rivers of Eden flowing from this mountain but rivers of blood. The judgment proceeds from here in the desolate “Garden”, to the Land and then to the Gentile World. And then this final point, as usual, concerns Covenant succession. The Lord directs Elijah to appoint his successor, Elisha. [6]

God is surprisingly predictable. And predictably surprising.

________________________________________________________________________________
[1] See No More Sacrifice for Sins.
[2] Michael Comins, Elijah and the “Still Small Voice,” A Desert Reading.
[3] According to Jordan, God was disowning the kings and making a kind of interim Covenant with the prophets, which is why we see Elijah parting waters and establishing a school for prophets. The kings were still “covered” but indirectly through the prophets.
[4] Note that in Adam’s testing, this is exactly the point at which he failed to witness to Eve “Deuteronomically,” repeating the Law he had heard “from the mountain.” It is also the point at which Abel’s blood speaks in Genesis 4. In Ezekiel’s big stucture, this is the step where God promises to reassemble both Israel and Judah as one new body from dry bones. See Haman Hamstrung.
[5] See Seven Thousand Who Have Not Bowed to Baal 1, 2 and 3. Note that I have above modified the chart in 1 slightly.
[6] Note that the sword of Jehu corresponds to the sword of the cherubim at the garden gate. In the big picture of the Restoration, the swords wouldn’t be sheathed until they were basically beaten into plowshares in Zechariah. See comments on Zechariah in Fragrance of Christ.

________________________________________________________
[1] See No More Sacrifice for Sins.

[Link to parts 1 and 2.]

In Revelation 4-5, Jesus ascends and opens the New Covenant scroll (Firstfruits). As Moses, He then opens the Law to Israel (Pentecost). These open seals lead into the partial judgments of the Trumpets. They summon a new generation of Israel and warn the old. The last trumpet, as in Joshua, is itself “seven thunders” (John’s “Little Book”) that bring total destruction to the defiant city, in this case, Herod’s Babylon (Atonement). This is the last trumpet Paul referred to.[1]

The event just before this, the sixth trumpet, is the last witness of the Apostolic church. The final epistles are all addressed to Jews. The writer of Hebrews alludes to the terrors of Sinai:

See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more [shall we not escape] if we turn away from Him who [speaks] from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the [Land], but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. (Hebrews 12:25-27)

As Moses and Elijah, two legal witnesses, they sat on thrones and judged Israel with plagues.[2]

And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake…

The Lord shook the Land as He had promised and the walls of “Egypt/Sodom/Jericho” began to collapse. Peter Leithart writes:

“The conquest of Jerusalem corresponds to the initial battle of the conquest of Canaan, the destruction of Jericho. This comparison is true not only in the generic sense that both cities came under God’s condemnation, but in the more specific sense that both marked the first battle of a war of conquest. By Jesus’ day, many Jews had become Egyptians and Canaanites (Rev. 11:8). During the first generation, the church was like Israel in the wilderness, awaiting permission to enter on their full inheritance and letting the sins of the Canaanites become full. Conquest there was in the first generation, as there was before Jericho; but it was the second generation, those who lived through and beyond the destruction of Jerusalem, who first entered fully into the land of the new creation. The wilderness imagery of Hebrews 4 is, on this reading, applicable specifically to the generation living between 30 and 70. When that generation had passed, Jericho was destroyed and the conquest of the whole Abrahamic inheritance began in earnest.”[3]

Only Jewish saints are measured (numbered) in Revelation, so these 7000 were not the wicked, but those who had not bowed the knee to “Baal” (Romans 11:4). These Christians “surrounding” the city were its “wall of fire”. By “tithing” them out of Jerusalem, the Lord removed the stars, the firmament “glories”, and they ascended to become the walls of a New Jerusalem. Now there was no more barrier between the old city and the throne of God. The seventh trumpet brings the inhabitants of the city face-to-face with the Ark.

Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail. (Revelation 11:19)

James Jordan writes:

“Not every Israelite was a true Israelite, for being a member of true Israel was never a matter of race but of calling and election (Rom. 9:6-13). The Remnant is to the ungodly nation as Jacob to Esau, and as Israel to Egypt. The refusal of Israel to enter the New Covenant is analogous to Pharaoh’s refusal to hear God. Just as God raised up Pharaoh, so He raised up Israel. God dealt with Pharaoh by showing Him mercy between each plague, with the result that Pharaoh got harder and harder against God. Similarly, Israel became harder and harder under the judgments God visited upon her throughout Old Covenant history. Each time God withdrew His judgments, Israel became worse than she had been before (9:14-18).

The Remnant had readily confessed that God was the Potter and they were the clay (Is. 64:8). They were ready to change under God’s reshaping hands, and enter the New Covenant. Apostate Israel, however, resisted God and became a broken pot, henceforth good for nothing but unclean uses (9:19-22). God was mixing the soft Remnant clay with the Gentiles and making a new, more glorious pot (9:23-26)…

During this Interim, however, the Remnant still existed and had a function. They had not yet become completely blended with the Gentiles into the Church. The Remnant within Israel protected her from wrath. God was willing to spare Sodom if only ten righteous people were found in it. Jerusalem is called Sodom (and Egypt) in Revelation 11:8, and Paul says that it is Remnant in Sodom that preserves her (Rom. 9:27-29). When the Remnant flees, and the rest of it slain, then Sodom will have no more protection…

[Paul] says that at the present time, there is still a Remnant of Israel. He is one such, he says. He points back to Elijah. The nation might have been destroyed in Elijah’s day, except for the Remnant 7000.”[4]

Peter Leithart sees the same pattern in the books of the Kings. He writes:

“Why the delay of judgment throughout 1-2 Kings? Two reasons: First, judgment is passed, but Yahweh waits for the sin of the Amorites to come to completion, for sin to ripen to be utterly sinful. Second, Yahweh gives time for the declaration of judgment to work repentance among a remnant. Hence: Elijah pronounces the end of the Omride dynasty; there is a long delay, during which Yahweh forms a remnant. This remnant forms no doubt partly because some want to escape the wrath to come. A generation passes, and then judgment falls. Hence also: Jesus declares the temple and Jerusalem doomed; but there is a generation delay during which the Lord forms a remnant within Israel that seeks to escape from the wrath to come.”[5]

____________________________________________
[1] See The First Resurrection.
[2] See The Two Witnesses.
[3] Peter J. Leithart, Covenant Recapitulation in New Testament History, www.biblicalhorizons.com
[4] James B. Jordan, The Future of Israel Re-examined.
[5] Peter J. Leithart, Delayed Parousia, www.leithart.com

Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, ”and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” —Matthew 3:5-9

Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying: ” ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” —Luke 19:37-40

The Bible is consistent with its symbols, so what is it with stones crying out? Uri Brito commented about the stones referring possibly to the stones of the Temple.

For the stone will cry out from the wall, And the beam from the timbers will answer it. “Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity! —Habakkuk 2:11-12

A pile of stones is always a witness. Stones are hard earth, and the ground first cried out as a witness against Cain‘s murder of Abel. Moses had an altar and twelve stone pillars built at the bottom of Sinai to symbolise the twelve tribes (Exodus 24:4). Elijah built an altar of twelve stones and it was destroyed as a substitute for Israel’s harlotries, burned to dust as an unfaithful daughter of a priest.

The key ideas here are substitution and witness, or death and resurrection. The Habukkuk reference has to do with a witness against the shedding of innocent blood — the wrong kind of substitutionary death. It is like the murder of the unborn and exploitation and murder of foreign civilians in our own day to prop up a civilisation that has failed to witness of Christ to the nations and thus lost the blessing of God.[1] In Luke, Jesus then weeps over Jerusalem, so I believe that is His context. The Land itself would vomit out the Jewish leaders, crying from beneath the spilled blood of one better than Abel (Hebrews 12:24). The unfaithful pile of stones would be torn down and burned with fire RIGHT AFTER the firstfruits church ascended at the last trumpet. Jesus speaks of both death and resurrection in terms of stones.

The words of John the Baptist, however, speak only of resurrection. Toby Sumpter hits the nail on the head:

John the Forerunner famously says that his listeners cannot claim their Abrahamic lineage as protection against judgment. John says, “… and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” (Lk. 3:8)

What are “these stones” that Jesus is referring to? 

Frequently I believe it is assumed that “these stones” is just a generic reference to the power of God. He can make sons of Abraham out of trees, rocks, geese, whatever. Don’t be so arrogant, O Israel. 

But remember where John is. John is at the Jordan. And all the indicators are that John is inviting his listeners to join him in a new conquest, to cross the Jordan in baptism and join the new Joshua (Jesus) in His conquest of the land. 

That being so, is it possible that “these stones” are the very stones that Joshua had the people set up on the shore of the Jordan River centuries before? Or even if John isn’t pointing at a literal pile of stones, could he be referring to “those stones”? 

If that is the case, John’s point could still be partially concerned with the arrogance of Israel and God’s power, but it makes it more pointed referring to the previous Jordan crossing and conquest. 

First, it’s a reference to the fact that God has performed this sort of thing before. Refusal to follow the example of that second generation of Israel across the Jordan means that they are really more like the first generation in the wilderness, whose bodies were scattered in the desert. 

Second, “those stones” clearly represented Israel. There were twelve of them for the twelve tribes, and therefore, perhaps the “power of God” is not so much that God can turn anything into sons but rather specifically resurrection power. God is able to raise the dead; He is able to even raise that ancient and faithful generation of Israel from the dead. If God needs an Israel with enough faith to take this Canaan, He can raise “these stones” from dead.

The memorial pillars that Joshua set up were not covered in blood, but washed with white. In the Egypt to Canaan pattern, they are the two goats of Atonement. In this first century context, one pillar is the saints in white robes ascending to God (just like the angel in white sitting on the stone at Jesus’ open tomb). The other, like Lot’s wife, is a memorial to permanent barrenness,[2] a Land that can only ever produce thorns like Cain. This was Herod’s house of shiny white stone, the one Jesus wept over, a whitewashed sepulchre.[3]

So Jesus speaks of “false witness” Herod’s stones being torn down, and John speaks of the new Temple, a resurrected Israel with Jews and Gentiles in one body, being raised up. The Herods slaughtered the saints — shedding innocent blood — and unwittingly gave them resurrection. This crime filled up the sins of Herodian worship and brought about the end of the old altar.[4]

These pillars are two witnesses, hence the references to Moses and Elijah in Revelation 11. They are witnesses to both the goodness and severity of God. The stones as martyroi cry out as a witness of the goodness of God, and then as a witness against their murderers.

Will your church be an everlasting witness to God’s goodness or to His severity?

____________________________________________
[1] See Building Cages Out of Freedom.
[2] See Don’t Look Back.
[3] See A White Stone – 6.
[4] This might be why Paul calls the Circumcision “the mutilation.” They were the prophets of Baal.

Elijah’s twelve stone altar “died” in the place of Israel, paying the debt for her idolatries, burned to nothing as a priest’s daughter who had committed harlotries. That passage follows the Bible matrix, with the prophets of Baal slaughtered as the scapegoat (washed from the Land in the “Laver” of Kidron, no less).

Did Ahab and Jezebel repent? No, they filled up their sins.[1] So Elijah made an exodus to Sinai. This, too, follows the pattern. Elijah is a new Moses, and he makes a new Covenant for the remnant which will bring about the destruction of Ahab’s dynasty. His “new creation” will be built on the corpse of the old.

This chart from Totus Christus: [2]

Genesis/Light – Ahab brings the word to Jezebel of Elijah’s execution of her prophets, and she threatens Elijah’s life

Exodus/Veil [Passover] - Elijah heads for the wilderness and prays that he might die. He falls asleep under a broom tree

Leviticus/Altar & Table [Firstfruits] - The Lord miraculously feeds him with bread and water. He walks forty days and nights and like Moses, ascends Sinai. Unlike Moses, he pleads with God to judge Israel

Numbers/Lampstand [Pentecost] - As a new Moses, he stands in exactly the same cave Moses did as the Lord’s glory passes by

Deuteronomy/Incense [Trumpets] – Elijah is told to build a new house by anointing Hazael king of Syria, Jehu king of Israel, and his very own “Joshua”—Elisha

Joshua/High Priest [Atonement] – The Lord tells Elijah that He has “separated” for Himself seven thousand faithful prophets

Judges/Shekinah [Tabernacles] – Elijah’s “dynasty” is extended as he throws his robe over Elisha

Notice:
Jezebel’s word is “light” only in irony.
Elijah, as is usual for the prophets at Step 2, falls on his face, humbled so he can be exalted and given a new task.
Moses begged the Lord to spare Israel. Elijah begs Him to destroy them!
The “tomb” at the centre of the pattern. [3]
Step 5 is Moses’ last book. He hands the leadership to Joshua.
The “seven thousand” faithful men are the seven sprinklings of the Day of Covering.
Step 7 involves Covenant succession [4]. Elisha later called Elijah his “father”.

Here is a comment I posted on another blog. The blog accuses God (and the Bible) of cruelty as a basis to reject the Scriptures:

And he [Elisha] went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them. 2 Kings 2:23-24

Hello Steve

Interesting site. Though with all due respect, you unbelievers are like 2D creatures trying to make sense of a 3D object as it passes through your world. The Bible, like Jesus’ parables, was written to be wrestled with. If you believe, the Spirit will guide you to make sense of it. If you don’t, it will confuse you. It is a sword that divides the sheep from the goats.

There is a lot more going in this passage than is immediately apparent. Those who are offended by the events it records seem to ignore the context. This is not a game of totem tennis. It’s part of a cricket test match.

Firstly, it takes place within the Covenant. Israel was a nation of priests mediating before God for the rest of humanity. Depending on their obedience, this would bring great blessings or great curses (read Deut 28 and Lev 26). Judgment begins at the house of God. God’s people are MORE accountable to Him, and when they rebel, their sin is high-handed because they have more to rebel against.

Secondly, after the showdown between Ahab and Jezebel’s Baalism, and Elijah, Ahab still did not repent. Elijah became a new Moses. He did not run away as many suppose, but walked straight to the same mountain, the same cave, where Moses saw the glory of God. Elijah became the Moses of a new interim covenant with a remnant of believers (Paul and Revelation refer to this 7000 remnant as the pattern repeats itself in the first century). That is why, in the passage in question, there are two ‘water crossings’. Covenant makings always follow a seven point pattern, which not only corresponds to the seven days of the Creation week, but also the annual feasts as recorded in Leviticus 23. You also see the ‘head and body’ of the sacrifice ritual from Leviticus 1:

EXODUS FROM THE NORTHERN KINGDOM

Sabbath - God’s word comes as initiator
The prophets are told that Elijah will ascend

Passover - Elisha follows Elijah into the wilderness. Elijah parts the Jordan with his cloak, and the two parts of the “sacrifice” are washed (Leviticus 1)

Firstfruits - Elijah, who is the flaming chariot, ascends to heaven as the head of the “sacrifice”

Pentecost - Elisha receives Elijah’s robe (the skin of the sacrifice given to the priest), and a “double mouthful” of the Spirit

Trumpets - Elisha’s house is established when Elijah cannot be found

Atonement - Elisha tips a bowl of salt water into the bitter spring of Jericho and lifts the curse of barrenness from the Land. False prophet interns (or children) threaten Elisha and are eaten by beasts (bears) as the ‘scapegoat’ sent to destruction

Booths - Elisha returns ‘home’ as a new Joshua (Booths)

So, you can see the entire Exodus, wilderness, Jordan, promised Land pattern here. The pattern is also the deep structure of the entire New Testament, where Jesus as Moses and Elijah ascends to God (as head of the church – the Adam captain) and sends the Spirit upon the church (Elisha – the body – the Eve army). In this case, Jericho was the corrupted religion of Herod’s temple, and Jesus came in judgment in AD70, vindicating His predictions. This explains a lot of the symbols used in Revelation, which predicted these events.

Regarding the insult, perhaps this had to do with the ascension of Elijah as the ‘head.’

Regarding the bears, being torn in two by scavenging birds and wild beasts was a curse of the Covenant that is often repeated throughout the Bible, beginning with the raven sent out by Noah, that fed on the floating bodies until the waters went down. Tearing one’s robes symbolised this also. If you remember, Jezebel was eaten by dogs, Saul’s sons were hung high but one of their mothers chased the birds away. Abraham chased the birds away from the divided animals that purified the Land, etc. There are many more examples.

The Lord’s throne is often described as coming from the north (Ezek. 1). In the stars, His throne is polar north, and there are two bears guarding it (I would also mention that the woman and the dragon of Rev 12 are also in the stars, and that the order of the tribes around the Tabernacle followed the 12 constellations, the ones that bowed to Joseph). Elisha is simply extending the dominion of God’s throne over the Covenant breakers. In AD70, 6000 women and children died when cloisters collapsed at the end of the Roman seige. Like the Amorites in Canaan, Jezebel’s time was up. The curses of the Old Covenant fell for the last time.

There is a spiritual war going on. One thing you must understand is that committing one sin brings the death penalty. God is within His rights to destroy us instantly – and He does this a few times in the Bible to remind us. The miracle is that He doesn’t. Our problem is that we use His mercy and patience to compound our sin.

So these children or youths are the “children of Jezebel”, and the point is that the idolatrous/adulterous woman will have no children (read Numbers 5), but the faithful woman will have many. God applied this test to Israel when they worshipped the golden calf. The generations of the wicked will be cut off. Israel’s time had run out, and the attack by the bears simply prefigured God’s use of the Assyrian and later the Babylonian invaders to ‘flood in’ and wipe out the unfaithful ‘sons of God’ (Gen 6) who should have been faithful priests.

I hope that helps. If we use peace-time morality to judge war-time measures (ie. sticking a knife in someone is bad unless you are cutting out cancer) we will misinterpret the Scriptures.

We are free to reject the Scriptures, but I think we ought to do our homework first.

[Previous to this post, there was discussion about the merit for the argument that the 'little children' were actually young men, interns in the worship of Baal. It is possible, but cannot be proven. The argument above makes this irrelevant anyway.]