Bow ties are cool. Fezzes are cool. But systematic typology is very cool. Try this on…

The Bible is a fractal, like … broccoli. Every bit you break off is a miniature of the whole. The entire Bible follows the matrix pattern (see Bible Matrix p. 215), but within that, the history of Israel follows the matrix (see p. 191).

Based on that, here’s an observation: Step 6 concerns the vindication of mediators, God’s representatives. In the Garden, it’s the Land animals and people. In the Tabernacle, it’s the Laver and Priests. In the World, it’s the nations and Israel.

In Israel’s pattern, the “Day 6″ era was the Restoration Covenant. It began with Joshua the High Priest and ended with Jeshua (Jesus) our Great High Priest. It was “man-to-Man” or “Covenant head” to “Covenant head,” type to reality, glory to glory — the complete (robed) Land-Mediator standing in the open Veil.

But then, what do we find in the corresponding places in the “whole Bible” pattern? It’s the New Covenant era, from AD70 to the final judgment. Instead of being bound by Covenant heads, it is bound by corporate “Covenant bodies.” Instead of being Joshua-to-Joshua (Captain) it is first resurrection to second resurrection. It is the army of God (Land then World, Jew then Gentile) crossing the sea, through the Veil, entering into God’s rest.

What’s even cooler is the way that the “Israel-Head” pattern is overlaid onto and interacts with the whole Bible “Nations-Body” pattern — and all without a hitch.

The Bible’s orbit is often “ec-centric” to us because it’s circling a different sun. The mind of God is cool.

If this process of interpretation isn’t clear, check out Cross-eyed Exegesis for an explanation.

“No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.” (Mark 3:27 27)

A lot of commentary on the Revelation seems oblivious to the allusions to the Pentateuch (although there are many that do take it into account and are enlightening at the most obvious points). Even the “binding” of Satan in Revelation has an Old Testament background.

This act by Jesus has a “sacrificial” element, and it is only half the process. The process we observe throughout the Bible is one of binding and loosing. The “head” is bound that the “body” might be loosed. A husband is bound to one wife that she might have freedom to shine in a safe domain. Adam was bound under a single Law that Eve might not be deceived. Abram was “bound” under the Law that Sarai’s womb might be “freed.” The bondwoman and her son were cast out that the son of the freewoman might be the heir. Isaac was quite literally bound that Israel’s tribal future might be freed. Joseph was bound that Israel’s national future might be freed. Animals were sacrificed so Israel could be redeemed. Israel was bound under Moses for the sake of the nations, but they “broke loose” with the golden calf.

Moving to the New Testament, Jesus was bound by soldiers so that the apostles might be freed. Then, the apostles were bound that the Gentiles might be freed. This willing submission of the apostles to being “bound” (for the hope of Israel, etc.) is what resulted in AD70, and the binding of Satan. That is what their faithful witness achieved.

“Most assuredly, I say to you,
…..when you were younger,
……….you girded yourself (Firstfruits)
……………and walked where you wished;
……….but when you are old,
…..you will stretch out your hands,
…..and another will gird you (Atonement)
and carry you where you do not wish.”
(John 21:18)

As followers of Christ, we are bound (in prayer and fasting) that others might be freed. The idea is that Satan is bound with us, we take him to the altar (or grave, or furnace) and leave him there, while we ourselves are freed, “resurrected” along with his captives.

At the Lord’s Table, the past is bound and broken in Jesus, and the future is released, poured out as new wine.

The application in Revelation might be complicated, but the process isn’t. AD70 was the Lord’s Table played out on an imperial scale. Satan was bound in AD70 that the nations might be freed. That was when the process was begun, but it is far from over. [2]

The Revelation, indeed all the New Testament, must be expounded with reference to the processes founded in the Torah. [3]

_____________________________
[1] See also chapter 12, “Cutting Words,” in Bible Matrix II: The Covenant Key and Three Strikes.
[2] The full preterist view that Satan was not only bound but also destroyed in the first century doesn’t fit with Jesus’ analogy at all.
[3] See Newspaper Exegesis.

“But your dad will not
know about that,”
Said the cat.
“He will never find out,”
Laughed the Cat in the Hat.

A popular argument among theistic evolutionists and hyperpreterists (and theistic evolutionary hyperpreterists) is that Adam wasn’t the first actual man, just the first man “in Covenant” with God. [1]

This is a means of keeping Genesis 1 as some sort of history (not a physical Creation, but a Delegation of “Temple purpose” to the physical Creation already in existence) and also maintaining the long ages asserted by modern naturalists. However, what this boils down to is simply a game of “kick the can.” The problem isn’t resolved. Rather, like the ring around the bath in The Cat-in-the-Hat Comes Back, it simply moves the problem elsewhere. In fact, it spreads its mess through the rest of the Bible.

Oh, the things that they did!
And they did them so hard,
It was all one big spot now
All over the yard.

For the separation of Adam from other “now-evolved” humans to occur, it had to be Covenantal. Most theistic evolutionists are too compromised to believe anything before Genesis 12, so they see no Covenants before Abraham (I mean, the actual word Covenant isn’t mentioned until Genesis 6, so the fact that all the preceding history has the same shape at many levels can’t possibly be significant in any way!) At least the hyperpreterists see Genesis 1 as Covenantal, but this poses a few conundrums for their theory.

Firstly, if an “Adamite” Adam (a genealogy divided by Covenant before Abram) was the first man in Covenant, then salvation is only of the Adamites. All the other people supposedly living at the time were not considered “human” by God. They were just part of a Creation that had known suffering and death for millions of years already, and God could somehow call this process “good.” [2] That’s an old Creationist argument, but there is also a Covenantal aspect to it. These non-Adamites died without hope under the Sanctions of a Covenant they were never given.

This assertion doesn’t follow the processes in the Bible at all. God chose Israel and then whittled Israel down to Christ. Each “new Covenant” in the Old Testament was founded within the previous one (Noah within Adam, Abram within Noah, etc.) God cut into Adam until He got to the foundation for the Bride. [3] At each point there was a division, a disinheriting of the unfaithful from the faithful.

For there to have been a Covenantal “disinheriting” of the non-Adamites at the beginning of the Adamic Covenant, then the previous race must have been under some sort of Covenant from their physical Creation that has not been recorded for us. Unless this first era was nothing like any later era, why were they disinherited? Were they “not-quite-human-enough”? If this were the case, they would have been physically close enough to Adam (in evolutionary terms), yet we are not told anything about them. We don’t need to invent non-Adamites to have an intermarriage between Covenant people and people outside the Covenant. The “daughters of men” in Genesis 6 were descendants of Cain, [1] who was cursed, but shown mercy, because he was unfaithful under Covenant.

This is a chicken-and-egg dilemma for the compromisers. An actual, physical, historical “Construction of Creation” Covenant can’t be escaped, any more than the special creation of the first chicken, so they might as well settle for Adam being the first actual man. Any other view violates the universal Covenant process, which originates in the Trinity.

And it removes the need for such highbrow primeval fiction. All of this discussion is merely an accommodation to people who do not respect the actual text of the Bible. Genesis 1 is certainly “Temple-structured,” but it’s not merely an inauguration service, and Adam is not chosen from among his brothers. The text says he was created from the dust in a Creation unmarred by sin. There’s not a non-Adamite to be seen anywhere. We are all Adamites. They ride roughshod over the text to accommodate the biggest flaw in modern science.

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man,
and death through sin,
and so death spread to all men because all sinned…” (Romans 5:12)

“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Cor 15:22)

___________________________
[1] See BioLogos’ Jenga Bible.
[2] See Hugh Ross and a Shotgun.
[3] See my diagram in The Covenant Key, p. 236.

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.

_____________________________________
[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.

One of the hyperpreterist/full preterist [1] gents made a keen observation after reading my article Covenant is the Key: Moses vs. Hyperpreterism. My argument was that since the Revelation follows the Covenant structure laid down in the Torah (and echoed throughout the Bible), we should expect the final section of the book to concern the future, otherwise known as Continuity or Succession.

The counterargument was that this section did concern the future when John wrote the book, but that we are living beyond that future now, and there is no final event or consummation. The only consummation was AD70.

This is a really good argument, but it does two things. Firstly, it makes nonsense of their own argument that Revelation 20 is another viewpoint of the events surrounding the end of Judaism in AD70. Also, it fails to take into account the structure and contents of Revelation 20 itself.

The Rest is the rest of Abraham and all those in “his bosom” (on his breastplate), who are now in the bosom of Christ, our Great High Priest. But Revelation 20 gives us a quick rundown on their actual rule. It has a beginning, and, quite inconveniently, an end. They argue that the 1000 years was somehow a time before the destruction of the Temple (which not only violates any normal person’s poetic sensibilities, it rides roughshod over the actual biblical symbol. See For A Thousand Years and the comments following.) But if that is the case, then this Succession, or rule, of the Old Covenant saints was not the future at all. This goes against the grain of the rest of the Bible. The pattern is forming, filling, future. Some future. Not only have full preterists robbed the New Covenant of its Succession, they have gutted the Succession of the Old. They make it an empty promise.

Not only this, the chapter itself follows the Covenant structure, so these full preterist gents have to deal with another level of the fractal, a dream within the dream. They have attempted to remove the New Covenant Succession by claiming that the New Covenant is simply the Succession of the Old. But the New Covenant itself has a Succession, and Revelation 20 demonstrates it.

The simplest way to look at this is to understand whom the book was written to, and what it promised. In other words, they rightly understand whose Succession chapter 20 is about, but they misunderstand the shape of the actual Succession itself.

As I wrote in The End is Not Yet, I believe the first resurrection occurred at the end of the Old Covenant, and the second resurrection will occur at the end of the New Covenant. So, what I am arguing here is that although the final section of Revelation does concern the Succession, or promised Rest, of the Old Covenant saints, Revelation 20 is itself a microcosm of the New Covenant era.

If you don’t understand this, a diagram will help. The full preterist agreed with me that the Future was the future of the Old Covenant saints:

1 – Transcendence: Vision of Jesus
…..2 – Hierarchy: The Seven Churches
……….3 – Ethics: Opening of the Gospel
…..4 – Sanctions: Adam, Eve and serpent disempowered
5 – Succession: The New Covenant era

But what I argue here is that even this fifth section follows the five-fold Covenant structure. In other words, the New Covenant is the Succession of the Old, but the New Covenant has its own Succession, which means that there is a final consummation yet to come.

1 – Transcendence: Vision of Jesus
…..2 – Hierarchy: The Seven Churches
……….3 – Transcendence: Opening of the Gospel
…..4 – Sanctions: False Prophet, Harlot and Beast
……….(Adam, Eve and serpent) disempowered

5a – Succession: The New Covenant era
…..5b
……….5c
…..5d
5e

If this is actually the case, then hyperpreterism is indeed in error. It is conquered by the fractal Word of God.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE STRUCTURE OF REVELATION 20,
WITH NOTES CONCERNING LITERARY AND COVENANTAL ALLUSIONS

The section begins with the binding of Satan. Just as Jesus, after three tests, tied Satan up through His obedience to the Father, so the Firstfruits Church bound him through three successive tests between AD30 and 70. As Jesus’ death cast him out of the heavenly Garden (into the earthly Herodian one), so the disciples’ deaths cast him out of the Land, out of the Holy Place, the court of God. His power over the nations was broken. So this is not a recapitulation of earlier bindings. It is the result of them. The sentence of bondage lasts not for a mere 40 years, but for an entire Covenant era. Every stanza follows the Covenant/matrix pattern. This passage has the Law of the Covenant flowing out of every orifice.

Just like the rest of the Bible, the pattern moves from binding to loosing. The Son of the Promise is bound by the curse of the Law, offered on the Altar, and loosed by an angel. Here, the Son as the angel binds the Accuser (of the Law) and looses the nations. This was, after all, the promise to Abraham.

Creation – un-Initiation

Then I saw (Light)
…..an angel (Delegate)
……….coming down (as Moses)
……………from heaven, (Day 4)
……….having the key (Maturity)
…..to the bottomless pit (Cave of Atonement)
and a great chain in his hand. (Day of God)

The second step is the authority of God delegated to a man or a people, who are then sent to do God’s will. It often contains Exodus themes, but here, that is reversed. It is not liberation for the Accuser, the true Pharaoh, the true Egyptian god, but bondage. He was made a slave to Christ!

Division – un-Delegation

TRANSCENDENCE
He laid hold (Delegated Light) – Creation

…..HIERARCHY
…..of the dragon, (False delegate) – Division

……….ETHICS
……….that serpent of old, (False Law given) – Ascension
……………who is [the] Devil (False Law opened) – Testing
……….and Satan, (False Lawyer!) – Maturity

…..SANCTIONS
…..and bound him (Day of Atonement) – Conquest

SUCCESSION
for a thousand years; (Limited Succession) – Glorification

As is often the case with God’s enemies, the literary structure adds an element of irony by speaking of their downfall at Ascension. Satan exalted himself to the right hand of God, but not as an Advocate. So he would be cast down. This required not only the Ascension of a righteous Adam, but that of a righteous Eve, the Firstfruits church.

This section begins the Three-fold Ethics of the passage (Flesh, Eyes and Life, or Bronze Altar, Lampstand, Incense Altar — flesh, fire and smoke).

Ascension – un-Enthronement

and he cast him (darkness)
…..into the bottomless pit,
……….and shut him up,
……….and set a seal on him,
……………so that he should deceive
……….the nations no more
…..till were finished
the thousand years.

Shutting Satan up corresponds to the Bronze Altar, and setting a seal on him corresponds to the Golden Table. In the structure of the Revelation, it is the Lamb who ascends from the Altar of the Land, opens the seals of the New Covenant and sets a seal upon the Firstfruits saints, the martyrs.

Notice the Gentile swarms on Day 5, and the word “finished” on the Day of Atonement.

Testing – the false Law re-opened

But after these things (Transcendence)
…..he (Hierarchy)
……….must be (Ethics – according to Law)
…..released (Sanctions)
for a little while. (Succession)

The word “must” in Revelation means according to the Law of Moses. When the entire “social” Creation of Christ is complete, and the earth reaches its ultimate Jubilee, even Satan himself will be released. But in this freedom, he will once again condemn himself through his Testing, his deception, of Man. If this is the case, his release is the “release” of the Azal goat.

“The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land;
and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.” Leviticus 16:22

Maturity – Death (Old Covenant Bread)

And I saw thrones, and they sat on them,
…..and judgment was committed to them.
……….Then [I saw] the souls of those who had been beheaded
……………for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God,
……….who had not worshiped the beast or his image,
…..and had not received [his] mark on their foreheads
…..(Adam – High Priest – Head)
…..or on their hands.
…..(Eve – People – Body)
And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

Besides swarms (birds, fish, locusts), smoke (incense and sulphur), armies, Gentiles, brothers and money, Maturity is the legal witness of the saints to the Law because they are filled with it. But it is the point at which Adam failed to intercede for Eve, repeating the Law (Deuteronomically!) to defeat the serpent. Adam, in a sense, made a peace pact, a false Covenant, with the beast. So the false Adam, the High Priest, was the first century False Prophet, who cried “peace, peace” instead of slaying the dragon using the Law of Christ.

Notice the head and body breakdown on the Day of Atonement. It corresponds to the Sanctions, the Covenant Oath applied no longer to bulls (Adams) and goats (Eves) but to the actual people. In AD70, animal substitutes were no longer accepted for Israel. Israel herself would be sacrificed, and she was. Her holocaust was the result of her rejection of Pentecost.

Notice that, although witness, a profession of the Covenant, is the theme (Step 5), here, the actual witness is in the centre, as a witness to the Light of the Law. Analysis of the literary structure really does open for us the full intent of the author’s words.

An example would be the use of the word “beheaded” at Ascension. Ascension concerns the Covenant Head, the bread of the face. Just as Jesus was the Firstfruits Lamb in Revelation 5, here, the saints are the Firstfruits offered to God — which was a witness against the faithless offerings of the Cainite Herods and brought about the final vengeance for the blood of Abel.

Maturity – Resurrection (New Covenant Wine and Oil)

It seems that this “Maturity” section has two parts, just as it does in Psalm 1. Usually, such an expansion means this is the main point of the passage.

But the rest of the dead did not live again (Darkness)
…..until the thousand years were finished. (Bondage)
……….This [is] the first resurrection. (Firstfruits)
……………Blessed and holy [is] he who has part in the first resurrection.
……………(Ethics fulfilled)
……….Over such the second death has no power, (Eldership)
…..but they shall be priests of God and of Christ,
…..(Body and Head, Smoke and Torch, Mediators – Day 6)
and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
(Shekinah – House filled with Glorious OC Church)

Conquest – The Laver of Fire

Transcendence
Now when the thousand years have expired,

Hierarchy
…..Satan will be released from his prison (Genesis)
……….and will go out to deceive the nations (Exodus)
……………which are in the four corners of the [Land],
……………Gog and Magog, (sons of Japheth, head and body)
……………(Leviticus – false nearbringing)
………………..to gather them (deception) (Numbers – Balaam)
……………together to battle, (Deuteronomy – false Trumpets)
……….whose number [is] as the sand of the sea. (Joshua – false Laver)

Notice there is no rest at the end of the stanza.

Ethics 1 – False Ascension
They went up
…..on the breadth
……….of the Land
……………and surrounded
……….the camp
…..of the saints
and the beloved city.

…..Ethics 2 – Final Pentecost
…..And fire (Ark – Genesis – Uncreated Light)
…..…..came down (Veil – Exodus – Hierarchy)
….…..……from God out of heaven (Altar – Levitical sword)
…..…..…..and devoured them. (Table – Sacrificial beasts)

…….…..……..(False Lampstand removed)
……..…………The devil, who deceived them, (un-Shekinah)
……..……………..was cast into the lake of fire (un-Laver)
…..…..………………..and brimstone (un-Incense)
…….…..…………………..where the beast (un-Lampstand)
…….…..………………and the false prophet [are.] (un-Table)
………..…………..And they will be tormented (un-Veil)
….…..………..day and night forever and ever. (un-Ark [un-Creation])

This Conquest section is a three-and-a half. The devil will not make it through the final refining fire. He won’t even qualify — as the saints did — to be smoke.

Did you notice that the four stanzas follow the Tabernacle pattern, yet the destruction of the Devil is actually the full pattern played backwards? This is why I get so tired of theologians throwing verses back and forth at each other without any reference to structure. I don’t blame them at all. But I wish they could see that the solutions to our squabbles are hidden in the shape of the text.

Glorification – The Ivory Throne of Solomon

DAY 1 – TRANSCENDENT LIGHT
Then I saw a great white throne
…..and Him who sat on it,
……….from whose face the [Land]
……………and the heaven fled away.
……….And there was found
…..no place for them.
(No Sabbath, no Canaan)

This refers to the end of the New Covenant, so the “Covenantal heavens and earth” are the physical ones. (See A New Heavens and a New Earth for the chiastic nature of this, and see Bible Matrix II: The Covenant Key for why.)

DAY 2 – THE FIRMAMENT REMOVED (HIERARCHY OF MANKIND)
And I saw the dead,
…..small and great,
……….standing before God,
……….and books were opened. (Seals broken: Law given)
……………And another book was opened, (Law opened)
……….which is [the Book] of Life. (Law received)
…..And the dead were judged according to their works,
by the things which were written in the books.

DAY 3 – SEA AND LAND EMPTIED
The sea gave up the dead who were in it,
…..and Death and Hades (Veil)
……….delivered up the dead (Altar)
……….who were in them. (Table/Fruits)
……………And they were judged, (Ethics)
……….each one (un-Swarms)
…..according to his works. (Sanctions)
(No Sabbath)

DAY 4 – ETHICS APPLIED
Then Death and Hades
…..were cast into the lake of fire.
……….This is the second death.
……………And anyone not found
……….written in the Book of Life
…..was cast into the lake of fire.

(No Sabbath)

Again, a three-and-a-half for the unfaithful Adams who squandered their inheritance and wouldn’t come home, in the Son, to their accepting Father.

So, to repeat, the point is that this chapter shows us that the Succession for the Old Covenant saints was to rule in heaven during the New Covenant era, but that the New Covenant era itself is a complete Covenant, that is, it has a beginning and an end, the Tour of Duty of the Warrior and the Warrior Bride.

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[1] A full preterist is the subjective term. A hyperpreterist is the objective term.

There is great advantage in tracking the shape of God’s work in history through the Old Testament. This is because God is consistent. Everything He does has the same shape, even though He does it in new and surprising (and sometimes devastating) ways.

One of the big handles in Scripture is the five-fold Covenant pattern, described by Ray Sutton in his book, “That You May Prosper: Dominion by Covenant.”

Transcendence – God is distinct

Hierarchy – God delegates a representative

Ethics – He outlines the rules, the laws that, if kept, will bring success

Sanctions – He lists the blessings for obedience/curses for disobedience

Succession – Finally, he outlines the arrangements for the next Covenant “mission,” the next generation

Sutton uses Deuteronomy as his prime example of this structure. But it is found right throughout the Bible, including the five books of Moses, the Ten Commandments, the Psalms, Hosea, and Hebrews. It is even the foundation for the seven-fold Creation week and Feasts pattern, but that is beyond the scope of this post (the Ethics step gets split – “opened” – into three).

As a Covenant lawsuit, the book of Revelation also follows this structure:

Transcendence: Jesus is distinct from other men, as the divine, and first-glorified, man.

Hierarchy: Jesus assesses the sins beginning to sprout in His new goverment, the seven pastors.

Ethics: The New Covenant scroll is opened, and the Spirit is poured out upon the Land. It puts Judah on the Altar and sets her alight. (This is Firstfruits, Pentecost and Trumpets)

Sanctions: The seven bowls of Spirit-oil on the Law-Lampstand are carried out by the angels and tipped onto the Land one last time. It is an anti-Pentecost, for Israel’s blasphemy of the Spirit. The harlot drinks the cup and the bride is married to her Bridegroom. This takes us to the end of Revelation 19.

Succession: Here is the point of this post. Throughout the Old Testament, this final point details the future of the Covenant once this one is carried out. It concerns the next administration, the next generation, the “godly (or ungodly) offspring” of this first arrangement. It is the legacy in history of the obedience or disobedience of God’s people. Those who disobeyed are cut off by the Sanctions. Those who obeyed remain and prosper.

The final chapters of Revelation were not fulfilled in AD70. They are the outcome of the Sanctions poured out upon the Old Covenant, the judgment which brought it to an end. It was not a destruction of God’s people but a pruning.

So it is not inconsistent to claim that these chapters stand distinct in some way from the rest of the book. It is nothing new. It is the way God always presents His Covenant. He deals in securities and futures, and His lawyers include these in all their documents.

The Revelation, as the final warning in a Covenant lawsuit, is no different. Every Covenant has an element of futurism because the Covenant process is how God directs history and moves it forward. Moses helps us to identify which part of Revelation is yet future. To claim otherwise is to ignore the structure of the entire Bible. We can quibble about words and phrases forever. But structure is where the real answers lie, and they are damning for hyperpreterism.

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Available in June/July, Bible Matrix II: The Covenant Key explores the shape and use of this structure in the Scriptures, and shows how it is also the foundation of the Creation week/Feasts which were outlined in Bible Matrix.

or The Rapture is History

“And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God.” Job 19:26

Full preterism leads logically to gnosticism. If death is already defeated, salvation has come to the world, and all is now perfect, then of necessity all three — death, salvation and perfection — have to be redefined. They are only Covenantal, “spiritual.” You can probably understand why doctrines like these don’t originate from the persecuted church. Some hope.

However, that said, I agree with 97.3963798475% of full preterism. Their take on the parousia texts is logical and contextual. Jesus actually did come back soon, as He promised, to rescue the persecuted firstfruits church. The textual ping-pong of the well-meaning partial preterists (who can’t agree between themselves on which parousia texts refer to the end of history) is a confusion of which our God could not possibly be the author. So what’s the answer?

The answer is structural, and it relates to the nature of God’s Covenants, and to the world as God’s Tabernacle. The final part of every Covenant concerns succession, or Continuity. It dictates the inheritance for the Covenant faithful. At the end of the Old Covenant in AD70, the faithful dead (the saints under the Altar) received a “heavenly country,” a heavenly Land. The earthly Land — the Bronze Altar — was broken in two. There is now a human government in heaven, a golden Altar of Incense. (For those new around here, this is what is going on in the Revelation. The Old Covenant angels retire in Rev. 4. Jesus takes over in Revelation 5. The firstfruits church is converted, then martyred by the corrupt Old Covenant vassals, the Herods, and finally all the martyrs follow Christ into heaven, calling down the Levitical and Deuteronomic Covenant curses upon the Temple. [Lev. 26; Deut. 28])

The 40 year overlap between the Old and New Covenants is what causes the confusion between preterists. Think of it this way. A Covenant is an administation by God’s vassal for a limited period of time. When a vassal violates the terms of the Covenant, for the good of those under the vassal’s authority, God organises “bridging finance.” He founds a new house for the faithful before He demolishes the Old. For the safety of the kingdom, many princes were anointed king before their fathers died. They were anointed when their fathers were no longer fit to rule. The Lord established Ezekiel as Israel’s High-Priest-in-exile, and Daniel as Israel’s king/vassal in exile, before He wiped out the old order. They represented man as a temporary Israel until the re-establishment of Temple worship under Ezra.

Just as the anointing of David spelled the end of Saul’s reign, the ascension of Christ as the mediator of a New Covenant spelled the doom of the Old. As with the reigns of Saul and David, there was an overlap. The parousia was indeed AD70. The Old Covenant ended with a physical resurrection. We know it was physical because it is described as a marriage. Jesus fulfilled Leviticus 1 in the first century. He ascended in the flesh as the Covenant Head. The firstfruits church was martyred and ascended in the flesh as Covenant Body. The marriage supper in heaven required both Head and Body to be flesh and blood, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh – and Spirit of His Spirit as well. That’s marriage. All the promises to Israel were fulfilled.

But that wasn’t the end of the New Covenant, and this is where the full preterists go wrong. [1] It was only the coronation of Greater Solomon. There is another resurrection, and it is also physical, despite their desperate claims. This end is described in Revelation 20, and the New Covenant, like the Old, ends with a physical resurrection when all the New Covenant promises are fulfilled.

Just as the Old Covenant saints and the Firstfruits martyrs entered into heaven as a new administration – in the flesh (flesh finally justified before God), so the New Covenant saints will also be resurrected physically, in the flesh at the final judgment.

So the full preterists get it all right, except for Revelation 20. The so-called “partial” preterists get Revelation 20 right. But both sides tend to spiritualize one of the resurrections, which is an error. Except in type and prefigurement, resurrections by definition involve flesh and blood. [2] Both sides are guilty of gnostic interpretations when it comes to the promises, the blessings of the Covenant.

Also, as described in Bible Matrix, beginning with Jesus’ resurrection (and Matthew’s testimony that saints physically came out of their graves to testify), God reclaims the territory corrupted by Adam (Garden/Priest – AD30), Cain (Land/Kings – AD70) and the Sons of God (World – yet future). This triune pattern runs right throughout the Scriptures, architecturally, historically, and also in the literary structures. It is also the  pattern laid out in 1 Corinthians 15.

Finally, if Revelation 20 is basically the only text that remains to the partial (or orthodox) preterists to prove a final judgment and resurrection, is there much of a case? Yes, much in every way! The answers are structural, and built of extremely sturdy girders founded in the solid concrete of the Torah.

Revelation is a Covenant lawsuit, as Ray Sutton describes (although I disagree slightly with his breakdown of it. He puts the Trumpets and Bowls in the wrong place. The Trumpets are part of the Ethics, and the Bowls are the sanctions.) Revelation 1-19 also follow the Feast pattern, ending with Tabernacles, the marriage supper, Jew and Gentile in one new bridal body. But chapters 20-21 can’t be forced into this final feast. This section is a unit. It has its own chiastic “Tabernacle” structure. [3] There is a good reason for this.

Full preterists sometimes accuse partial preterists of being “futurists.” Well, the final chapters of the Revelation concern, briefly, the Continuity of the New Covenant, the succession arrangement made for the heirs of the Old contract. It is of necessity “futurist.” This is the only part of the Bible that is, for us, future. It is being fulfilled as the gospel spreads throughout the world during this new administration of “1000 years.” [4] The final section of every Covenant concerns the future. A Covenant is God’s means of bringing history to fulfilment, to maturity. At the end of every Covenant age there is  a combine harvester. The New Covenant is the same. [5]

So the rapture described by Paul is first century history. [6] It was imminent. It was the end of the old administration. But the second resurrection, the reckoning of the New Covenant, is still in our future. Like Job, Abraham and Paul in the first century, we shall also see Jesus in our flesh, flesh justified in His sight (!) through transfiguration in the fiery Spirit. We shall see Him because we shall be like Him: holy flesh, His body.

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[1] See A Chronic Hysteresis
[2] See Ten Days of Awe.
[3] See The Altar of the Abyss – 7
[4] See For a Thousand Years.
[5] One thing that amazes me about the Bible is God doing the same thing over and over and over, and yet in new and surprising ways every time. The Gospel really shouldn’t have been a surprise at all, but it was. It was just like everything that had gone before, and yet nothing like it. In any trade we ply, our best work is done at the end. The best wine is still to come.
[6] See That Which Is Perfect.

Nothing could save the circumcision.
How do you save death itself?

To recap, the basic structure we have been contemplating is this:

F A T H E R  > < S O N  +  B R I D E
and
F A T H E R  > B R I D E <  S O N

The Tabernacle was a three storey building laid out upon the ground. Upright, it was the true Babel (I guess Christ was the first truly upright Tabernacle then, in His resurrection. The Old Covenant was a new body made from the dust, but still prostrate, awaiting the breathing in of the Spirit.) If we put this structure upright, we see the picture given to us in human relationships as holy architecture.

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[1] See Worship as Commerce and Unashamed Artisans.
[2] So the Trinity debunks hyperpreterism.

Infinite Room series links here.
INFROOM

“Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the Land.” (Matthew 5:5)

Some more thoughts related to Walking on Water. Please read Joshua 3 before proceeding.

If the New Jerusalem is the fulfilment of the “wall of water” at the Jordan crossing, the Lamb at the centre of the city is the Ark in the middle of the riverbed, surrounded by a human government. [1] If you know your James Jordan, the Ark of the Covenant was an image of the Light that shone on Day 1. The Lamb remains at the centre of the city, surrounded by the firstfruits saints, until the last saint is redeemed and Christ hands the kingdom to the Father.

There are many historical events in the Joshua narrative that relate to this church age typologically. Besides the saints carving up the world as Promised Land, probably the most striking for me is the defeat of the Amorites in Joshua 10. King of Jerusalem, Adoni-Zedek (Melchi-Zedek’s evil twin, later in history), gathered local kings against the people of God. [2] James Jordan relates the sun and moon standing still in Joshua to the extension of the day of battle in the book of Esther. [3] Once again, the Promised Land was being conquered, and once again, they needed more time to finish off the enemies of God! Both events fall on their respective “Day 6s,” the time of Conquest, the Day of Atonement. The sun and moon have been replaced by the Bridegroom Who shines and the Bride who reflects His glory.

“The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.” Revelation 21:23 [4]

Adam and Eve, new sun and new moon, stand before God, exalted over the kingdom of beasts. The firstfruits church martyrs stood—liturgically—upon the beastly necks of the kings of another corrupted Jerusalem. In this age, as the body of Christ, we stand—liturgically—on the neck of the beast in the abyss. He will stay there as long as there are yet saints to cross over. In our worship, every week, we place our “corporate” foot on his neck once again in Communion. The church’s government under Christ is a big chain of heavy metal.

Day 6 is the Laver, resurrection, and the Day of Atonement. The church age began in earnest at the first resurrection and will not end until the second. [5] As the first century extended the power of Christ’s resurrection from Garden to Land, so this age extends it from Land to World, until all His enemies are under His feet. AD70 brought the Day of the Lord to Israel. The age of the church will end in the Day of the Lord for the whole world.

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[1] For more on this “architecture,” see Bloody Throne, Bloody Frontiers.
[2] Jabin gathered the nations against Israel in Joshua 11. On gathering the nations, for good and evil, see A Conspiracy of Nations, Counterfeit Kingdom Come and Greater Amalek.
[3] I would probably also relate it to the sign God gave to Hezekiah that his “mediatorial” life would be extended in Isaiah 38.
[4] For how this New Jerusalem “architecture” was  symbolised by every Israelite, see Healing in His…Tassels?
[5] See The First Resurrection, The Second Death, The Rest of the Dead, For A Thousand Years and Jesus’ New Broom.

or The New Jerusalem is Temporary

He will set up a banner for the nations, And will assemble the outcasts of Israel, And gather together the dispersed of Judah From the four corners of the Land. Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart, And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, And Judah shall not harass Ephraim. But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west; Together they shall plunder the people of the East; They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab; And the people of Ammon shall obey them. The LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt; With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River, And strike it in the seven streams, And make men cross over dry-shod. There will be a highway for the remnant of His people Who will be left from Assyria, As it was for Israel In the day that he came up from the land of Egypt. (Isaiah 11:12-16)

Everyone knows what “walking on water” means. You can do the impossible. Often it has a negative spin, as when it is applied to politicians with a Messiah-complex.

But what does it actually mean in the Bible? And why did Jesus do it?

The answer is a subtle thread that runs throughout the Bible, beginning in Genesis 1. God divided the waters and raised the Land to make a new “Holy Place” from which His mediator-Man would govern. As the Holy Place in heaven is the space between the throne and the crystal sea, so the Holy Place on earth is the space between the crystal sea and the waters below (the Abyss).

When God’s governors failed, the Holy Place below closed in on itself. The waters above and below were “un-divided,” just as they were at the flood, and again at the Red Sea when it closed in upon the Egyptian army. Later on in Biblical history, when Israel was the mediator-nation, it was the Gentile armies from a symbolic Abyss that flooded up over the Land, and the firmament above symbolically fell as hailstones. The Holy Place was submerged, washed clean, and resurfaced as a New Jerusalem.

The act of walking on water has less to do with “floating” than it does with “passing through.” Only those with “clean feet,” washed in the Laver, could minister in the Tabernacle. The priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant across the Jordan actually had to step into the overflowing water before it parted. Once they did this, and stood in the gap, the tribes crossing into the Land could “walk on water” as though it were dry land. We see this same symbol used in Isaiah 11, concerning a chastised Israel’s return to Canaan.

All this goes back to Genesis, where the dominion of Land beasts and Man is “filled” on Day 6, which corresponds to the Laver, where mediators, animal and human, were washed. The Garden was watered by a spring which came up from below and watered the Land (not a “mist,” as it is incorrectly translated). Like the ark of Noah, the Tabernacle (and the baskets on the baker’s head in Genesis 40!), God’s house has three levels [1] In the centre, as “sacrament,” Adam was quite literally “walking on water” (government) as if it were dry Land. He had clean feet until he sinned. He broke the link between Word and Government. He could no longer walk on the waters. This imagery is used in Revelation, where the Temple is pictured as “springs of waters” that have become bitter through the sin of the Herodian High Priesthood.

The list of clean animals includes those which are careful about where they put their feet. The phrase “hinds’ feet on high places” also symbolises this. Israel’s history from Abraham to AD70 follows the pattern of the Creation Week, and her “Day 6″ was the time of the Gentiles, the four empires pictured in Daniel 7 as Land beasts walking on the waters of the other nations. They are four guardians, cherubim followed by the enthroned Ancient of Days, the Man who took dominion over this animal kingdom in AD70, when the final kingdom, Rome, was decommissioned as a protective minister of God. (Peter’s step from the protection of the boat pictured this. [2]).

Jesus washed His disciples feet. He removed His robe — opening the veil. Like those priests in the Jordan, He stood in the gap while the disciples passed through. Then He replaced His robe again, all of which pictured His work as High Priest.

In the big Bible picture, this entire “1000 year” church age is the Day of Atonement, the Day of Covering. It is the Totus Christus, head and body, as High Priest, standing in the gap with clean feet (and one foot on the neck of the beast) while the whole world passes through the waters of baptism. It is Day 6. [3]

The transformation of this world into a Tabernacle is being completed, slowly but surely. Just as the first resurrection put the Old Covenant saints and the New Covenant martyrs into heavenly government, the second will see Man’s complete government over the earth. The knowledge of the Lord will cover it as the waters cover the Sea. Mankind will once again perfectly bridge the gap as Sacrament between Word (knowledge) and Government (Sea); holy bread upon the waters.

What’s really interesting is that the Laver, picturing the crystal sea, was round. Most everything else in God’s Temple is square or rectangular. But the New Jerusalem is a crystal city that is square. The Laver in heaven was made square in AD70. [4] As this pattern comes down from heaven — just as the pattern for the Tabernacle came down from the mountain — the saints are to make this “round” world symbolically “square,” like the Holy Place. Nature must be cut down and rebuilt, slain and resurrected as culture. The kingdoms of this world become glorious as the saints pass through and inherit them. [5]

Which means that the New Jerusalem is not future at all. In one sense, it is merely a temporary construct through which the nations must pass. Its walls of water will one day, finally, close on those who reject Christ. The saints walk on water but the rebels and their armies are always drowned. [6]

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[1] See Trinitarian Judgments.
[2] See James B. Jordan, Exile or Ark?
[3] See Under Your Feet.
[4] See Crystal Walls 1 and 2.
[5] See Pass-over and Pass-through.
[6] Their maggot-eaten leaven is cut off. See Is Jesus Leavened or Unleavened?

Image: Isac Goulart, 2002.