Unfinished Business

6    For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

The first mention of a cornerstone is in Job 38. The Lord sees the Land as the foundation of His Temple. The entire structure reflects the Covenantal nature of the act of Creation.

Then the LORD (Transcendence)
…..answered Job (Hierarchy)
……….out of the whirlwind,
……….and said: (Ethics 1 – Law given)
……………“Who is this who darkens counsel
……………(Ethics 2 – Law opened)
……….By words without [wisdom]?
……….(Ethics 3 – Law received)
…..Now [gird] yourself like a man; (Sanctions – Adam)
I will question [, and instruct]. (Day of God)

Where were you (Creation – Genesis)
…..when I laid the foundations (Division – Exodus)
……….of the [Land]? (Ascension – Leviticus)
……………[Divulge] (Testing – Numbers)
……….if you have understanding. (Maturity – Deuteronomy)
…..Who determined its measurements? (Conquest/Joshua)
Surely you know! (Glorification – Wise Judges)

Or who stretched the line upon it? (Day 1 – Ark)
…..To what were its foundations fastened? (Day 2 – Veil)
……….Or who laid its cornerstone?” (Day 3 – Altar)
……………When the morning stars (Day 4 – Lamps)
……….sang together, (Day 5 – Incense)
…..And all the sons of God (Day 6 – Mediators)
shouted for joy? (Day 7 – Rest)

Notice the cornerstone is the third line of the third stanza. Jesus is the true Land upon which everything rests.

This cornerstone is not only precious but the “choice” stone of the quarry. The permanent house of God is made of cut stones, like Solomon’s Temple. This means it is not an Adamic house (like a bloody altar) but an Evian house, where the sacrifice is praise. It is not a house of Knife but of Fire. It is a house of music. The sound of the chisel will not be heard in it.

“And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel [or] any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.” 1 Kings 6:7

7    Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”

Peter now quotes the second use of “cornerstone” in Scripture. We discussed that this stone was given to the Jews, who assessed it, and misclassified it. He was a precious stone, who required no cutting. But “men” has been replaced with “builders.” The reference is to the craftsmen of the Bible, like Aholiab and Bezalel, who could only successfully build the house of God according to the heavenly pattern if they were filled with the Spirit of God. It takes the Spirit to open our eyes to the quality of Jesus. He restores our sight, our judgment, and we recognise that He is righteous and we are sinners. Only by the Spirit can we be workmen who are not ashamed. [1]

8    and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”

The reference here is from Isaiah, and it is two-fold. There is a stone of stumbling and a rock that causes a fall.

Firstly, an altar is “raised up.” It has to do with the raising up of the Land, the Firstfruits and the Ascension Offering. These rites bring Man close to God. But instead of providing sanctuary, a covering for sin, an altar stone that raises the humble Man, it would bring proud Man down. The humble are exalted, but the proud are thrown down.

According to Isaiah 8, the source of Peter’s quote, this fall is due to a misplaced fear, a fear of men and their conspiracies instead of the fear of a holy God.

The LORD Almighty
is the one you are to regard as holy,
he is the one you are to fear,
he is the one you are to dread.

The passage refers to the Temple sanctuary, but makes a distinction between the man-made Temple and the true Temple, which is God Himself.

He will be a holy place;
for both Israel and Judah he will be
a stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem he will be
a trap and a snare.
Many of them will stumble;
they will fall and be broken,
they will be snared and captured.”

Secondly, a stone that causes people to stumble is a stone on the ground. Adam is unable to stand. His heel is bruised and he limps like Jacob. But what is a rock that makes him fall? It may just be a bigger stone on the ground, but rocks were thrown by the ministers of God’s justice to atone for murder or adultery. The sound of a stoning was the sound of God’s chisel cutting an individual or family out of history. And the blood of the slain was atoned for by the blood of the slayer.

Perhaps the thought here is that the ground cursed by the unatoned sins of God’s people would bring about their fall, even if men failed to pick up stones and administer justice. God Himself can raise up stones to bring us down.

Israel often failed to administer such justice against the serpent and his offspring. When the Day of the Lord arrived, the “Day of Coverings,” God Himself turned up to administer the justice miscarried by unfaithful Adams. Men were suddenly face to face with the Lawgiver, and they actually called on the rocks and hills to cover them.

Those who stumble at God’s holy Law will fall under its curses, even when God’s ministers fail to carry out the Law. Of course, this Law has been slain and resurrected in Christ as the gospel, as Spirit-Law, yet curses remain, and they are eternal. But for those who believe, there is no further business, no further “trade” required. It is finished. There is still justice, but there is also justification.

Cut stones are holy. They are silent witnesses to the Law of God, whether they are the tablets of Moses or the Temple of Solomon, a reason for praise. But unfinished stones demand blood. They are the ground crying out as a witness against Cain.

Christ, as a stone cut out by God, was thrown at the feet of the edifice of the Gentile kingdoms and He brought them crashing down. He founded a fifth empire. His kingdom is growing into a great mountain, not a burning mountain like Sinai, but a bridal mountain like Zion. There are two mountains in Revelation: the burning mountain was thrown into the Sea. Jesus commanded His disciples to dismantle Moses by fulfilling Moses. God raised up children to Abraham from barren stones, [2] and the ministry of the apostles was both more life-giving, and more damning, to Israel than any stones raised up under Moses.

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

Peter here refers to Paul’s words in Romans 6 concerning Herodian worship as a new Egypt, the Herods as Pharaohs. It was the unfaithful Jews who were destined to disobey the Law and be cursed–as high-handed sinners–that the blessing might come to the Gentiles. Israel’s destiny was always to sacrifice, to die as a nearbringing, for the life of the world. Since Abraham, as a substitute for the world, the altar of Israel was always the object of God’s wrath, that the nations might be the objects of His mercy. [3]

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden… What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

9    But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

This verse follows the Feasts of Israel. There is much talk about “replacement theology.” But did the Church replace Israel? No more than the Temple replaced the Tabernacle, or the butterfly replaces the caterpillar — or Christ crucified was replaced by the resurrected Saviour. The Church is one new man, a body called not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles.

10    Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Peter now quotes Hosea, where God promises to restore Israel after the captivity. The condemned harlot would be redeemed and shown mercy. This supports the idea of transformation rather than replacement. Israel was slain under the Law and resurrected from Babylon, and the same process was happening in the first century.

John says that we are now the sons of God. Being a Jew was an office before God, in His holy court. That job has been transferred to the Church, the body of Christ. Anyone who thinks Jews are still God’s chosen people do not understand the Bible and how God works.

Israel was an unfaithful bride stoned to death — finished — under the perfect Law of the stony tablets of Moses. But she was also the daughter of a priest, whose remains, once stoned, were to be burnt with fire. This burning sounds hateful but it actually pictured a blessing, not a curse. It is Pentecostal. It pictured Spirit-filling and resurrection and ascension to God. The Herodian Temple became the altar of Baal. God slew the sorcerous, murderous Jezebel of Judaism and resurrected her in a new body — of Jews and Gentiles — as a holy Temple, a covering of fiery Pentecostal gemstones from the Land and shining pearls from the Sea.

Atonement by blood means justice is satisfied. Concerning the Law, the shedding of blood means business is finished. But with God, there is always a greater work to do. Business is not actually finished until the resurrection.

The final post will be an analysis of the structure of this passage.

________________________________
[1] See Unashamed Artisans.
[2] Yes, testicles are symbols of life-giving stones, hence the emphasis on their protection and rejection of eunuchs from the Old Covenant priesthood (Lev. 21:20; Deut. 23:1; 25:11-12). Priests had to be perfect offerings. Not only are there two stones in the Ark of the Covenant, there were “binary” stones in the ephod, the urim and thummim, black and white, X and Y, overshadowing Eve and deciding the future of the Land. See God’s G amble.
[3] Separating Israel from the nations as the focus of blessing and cursing avoided another “Creational” judgment like the flood. See World Stuff.

“And all Israel stoned [Achan and his family] with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.”

Questions from blogger Blue Ollie:

Many still claim to get their morals from the Bible. Well, what does the Bible actually say?

The following is a very incomplete list but is nevertheless a valid list.

1. How do you determine if someone is guilty? Answer: gamble.

We read from the Book of Joshua, Chapter 7 [Achan's family is eventually singled out by lot.]

“…Finally he had that family come forward one by one, and Achan, son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, was designated.”

“Designated”? This sounds a bit like The Lottery to me. Read from Exodus 28:

“In this breastpiece of decision you shall put the Urim and Thummim, that they may be over Aaron’s heart whenever he enters the presence of the LORD. Thus he shall always bear the decisions for the Israelites over his heart in the LORD’S presence.”

Wow! CSI would have been a boring show. But just think: we could do away with all of that DNA evidence and just throw “sacred dice”! So what happened?

2. You kill the whole family for the transgression of one.

“…Then Joshua and all Israel took Achan, son of Zerah, with the silver, the mantle, and the bar of gold, and with his sons and daughters, his ox, his ass and his sheep, his tent, and all his possessions, and led them off to the Valley of Achor. Joshua said, “The LORD bring upon you today the misery with which you have afflicted us!” And all Israel stoned him to death.”

“Him”? The KJV says “them”. A Jewish version has it:

And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the mantle, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them up unto the valley of Achor. And Joshua said: ‘Why hast thou troubled us? The LORD shall trouble thee this day.’ And all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire, and stoned them with stones.

In short, the whole family was killed. We have better justice now-a-days. What happened next?

3. Murder a whole town if they are on land that you want.

Read on [Joshua, Chapter 8]

“…Joshua kept the javelin in his hand stretched out until he had fulfilled the doom on all the inhabitants of Ai.”

You can read about the routine ethnic cleansings in later chapters [such as] Chapter 11…

“They struck them all down, leaving no survivors. Joshua did to them as the LORD had commanded: he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots. At that time Joshua, turning back, captured Hazor and slew its king with the sword; for Hazor formerly was the chief of all those kingdoms. ;He also fulfilled the doom by putting every person there to the sword, till none was left alive. Hazor itself he burned. Joshua thus captured all those kings with their cities and put them to the sword, fulfilling the doom on them, as Moses, the servant of the LORD, had commanded. However, Israel did not destroy by fire any of the cities built on raised sites, except Hazor, which Joshua burned. The Israelites took all the spoil and livestock of these cities as their booty; but the people they put to the sword, until they had exterminated the last of them, leaving none alive.”

So there you have it: guilt by dice throwing, execution of an entire family, and mass murder. But wait, there is more.

4. It is acceptable to offer your daughters up to be gang raped.

What happens when men come to your door and want to rape your male house guest? See Genesis 19:

“Before they went to bed, all the townsmen of Sodom, both young and old–all the people to the last man–closed in on the house. They called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to your house tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have intimacies with them.” Lot went out to meet them at the entrance. When he had shut the door behind him, he said, “I beg you, my brothers, not to do this wicked thing. I have two daughters who have never had intercourse with men. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you please. But don’t do anything to these men, for you know they have come under the shelter of my roof.”

Offer to let the men rape your daughters! But wait, there is more: What happens when you make a bet that you can’t cover? Let’s see what the Biblical hero Samson does (chapter 14).

5. Murder and stealing are an acceptable way to settle up gambling debts.

I agree; those who were stumped threatened the wife. But what happened when Samson had to pay up? How did he do it?

“On the seventh day, before the sun set, the men of the city said to him, “What is sweeter than honey, and what is stronger than a lion?” He replied to them, “If you had not plowed with my heifer, ;you would not have solved my riddle.” The spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, where he killed thirty of their men and despoiled them; he gave their garments to those who had answered the riddle. Then he went off to his own family in anger…”

So murder some people, steal their stuff, and pay off your debts!

Finally, what do you do with people who have “wrong” conceptions of God?

6. Kill people who worship other gods.

Let’s let Elijah answer… [Kings 18]

“… Then Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Let none of them escape!” They were seized, and Elijah had them brought down to the brook Kishon and there he slit their throats.”

Note: in this account, “God” was causing a drought because Israel was worshiping this other God.

Now what do you do with indolent kids who make fun of older people? You send bears to tear them limb from limb!

7. Death is appropriate for someone who makes fun of a religious figure.

See 2 Kings, Chapter 2:

“And he 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.”

Update: So, is it a surprise when this happens:

I’ve been hiding from the horrible news in the Middle East, but this story induced me to poke my head out of my tortoise shell…so I can puke. A rabbi consulted his holy books to see what God had to say about the vicious violence going on right now, and you can guess what God’s word might be:

Eliyahu ruled that there was absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings.

My comment:

These are good questions, and most Christians can’t give you good answers. Very briefly, we need to do more study. A little look further would show that these killings were judicial, ie. a judgment that would stop a spreading evil in its tracks.

If we’re going to criticise a religion, the least we can do is understand it. According to the Bible, we are made in God’s image, and we are all mediators for those under our authority, particularly as parents. The consequences for judgments upon our families – our children – can be laid squarely at our own feet.

But God is merciful. These people were given, in most cases, hundreds of years of warnings. Read the account of God’s promise of the land of Canaan to Abraham. The Canaanites were given more time.

We also overlook the Covenant context of these passages. See my comments on 2 Kings 2 for instance, here.

I do understand where you are coming from, having had many of these questions myself. But it stems from the victim mentality that misunderstands the gravity of sin.

Interestingly, many of these judgments were typological prequels of the destruction of Judaism in AD70. Revelation presents the destruction of Jerusalem as a victory over Jericho (and Babylon) for the fledgling Christian church. Like Ezekiel, it alludes to previous scriptures as symbols for near events. Jesus came in judgment as He said He would, and was vindicated. God has a long fuse, but it is a fuse nonetheless.

The slaughter of the innocent is always dealt with eventually. And God’s law is perfectly just: eye-for-eye. The Canaanites who sacrificed their children forconvenience (good crops, etc.) were cut off as a nation. When Israel began committing the same sins, God brought in the Babylonians to bring her death and resurrection – a new Israel. When first century Judah slaughtered Christians, God brought in the Romans – and again there was a new Israel, the Christian church.

We are prone to thinking of justice as individuals, but the Bible also deals with nations, corporately.

I find this fascinating and would be pleased to answer any sincere questions (to the best of my ability). But this short-sighted questioning above is not only ignorant of the Bible, but usually based on a worldview that has no objective basis for moral standards whatsoever. If you believe in natural selection, these events are merely a religious interpretation of the survival of the fittest. Historically, athiests who are consistent with their view on origins and get to ‘operate’ on their assumptions are often mass murderers – a law unto themselves. So any charge against the Bible and Christianity cuts both ways. You are obviously a thinker and should not find this challenge offensive.

Finally, two points: Regarding ‘gambling’, the idea was that God acted through the lot (or the Urim and Thummim), which were a ‘miniature Ark’ worn by the High Priest). The best example would be the goat chosen by lot on the Day of Covering. The last supper follows the same pattern, only it is Jesus who “chooses” Judas (Judah) and send him to destruction. Judas’s replacement was also chosen by lot. The practice was ‘internalised’ after Pentecost with the arrival of the Spirit. The law was written on “tablets of flesh” with all God’s people as priests.

Lot’s failure to protect his daughters is not commended in the Bible. He also failed to protect them from the ‘thinking’ of Sodom, which was demonstrated in their later actions. The structure of the passage (and we are also ignorant of Hebrew literary structure – including most Christians) aligns them with the ‘daughters of men’ in Genesis 6.

I have found that nothing is in the Bible for no reason, whether or not we agree with it. It is the most highly integrated literature ever written, and every passage must be read in the context of what has gone before. Sadly, this also results in some misinterpretation of the New Testament by Christians.

Kind regards, Mike Bull

Things can look a bit different in hindsight, especially a presidential term or two.

To start with, Mr. Bush was right about Iraq. The world is safer without Saddam Hussein in power. And the former president was right to change strategy and surge more U.S. troops.

A legion of critics (including President Barack Obama) claimed it couldn’t work. They were wrong. Iraq is now on the mend, the war is on the path to victory, al Qaeda has been dealt a humiliating defeat, and a democracy in the heart of the Arab world is emerging. The success of Mr. Bush’s surge made it possible for President Obama to warn terrorists on Tuesday “you cannot outlast us.”

Mr. Bush was right to establish a doctrine that holds those who harbor, train and support terrorists as responsible as the terrorists themselves. He was right to take the war on terror abroad instead of waiting until dangers fully materialize here at home. He was right to strengthen the military and intelligence and to create the new tools to monitor the communications of terrorists, freeze their assets, foil their plots, and kill and capture their operators.

These tough decisions — which became unpopular in certain quarters only when memories of 9/11 began to fade — kept America safe for seven years and made it possible for Mr. Obama to tell the terrorists on Tuesday “we will defeat you.”

Full article by Karl Rove,
Bush Was Right When It Mattered Most

I hope the same can be said for his successor.

Moses’ execution of the Egyptian was “good death.” It was judicial. Moses had the authority to pass judgment and execute the sentence, and later became the judge of his people. “And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds” (Acts 7:22). However, he rightly feared Pharaoh’s unjust reaction.

The Hebrews’ rejection of Moses as their judge condemned them to 40 years’ more slavery. They were at fault, not Moses.

Okay, so Moses did look this way and that, and buried the body in the sand. Yes, but the point was he feared Pharaoh’s reaction.

The Hebrews’ rejection of him as their judge condemned them to 40 years’ more slavery. Just as in the wilderness when Moses was their judge, it was the next generation that would be delivered. Moses was not condemned:

“The Bible never criticises Moses for this, but presents his action as righteous and faithful (Acts 7:24ff.; Heb. 11:24ff.). The execution of criminals is never said to defile the land, or to require atonement; such execution is itself the atonement required.” James B. Jordan, The Law of the Covenant, p. 254-5.

Moses’ judgment pictured the greater one to come upon the Egyptian taskmasters at his return—prefiguring Christ’s ministry in the first century.

Solomon continued David’s role as redeemer/blood avenger. Like Ham’s attack on Noah, and Absalom’s sin on the roof, Adonijah’s request for one of David’s concubines was recognised as a grasp for the throne. Joab was judged for his shedding of innocent blood, and although he grasped the horns of the altar, refuge was lawfully denied (Numbers 35:15-19).1

The last priest of the house of Eli, Abiathar, was exiled before the Ark was given a permanent house. Like Gideon’s bull, the guilty “died” on the old altar before a new one could be established.

Solomon’s judicial execution of his father’s enemies was not paranoid. It was “good death.” The Lord always builds His house out of the corpses and plunder of His enemies. As death precedes resurrection, so discipline must come before joy (Hebrews 12:11) and Solomon’s actions here demonstrated his great wisdom as a judge.

______

1 “Why grasp the horns of the altar when you’re a fugitive in the temple? How is it legitimate to touch the horns, when the altar as a whole is forbidden to all but the priests? The answer to the first is found in the premise of the second: The altar is holy, and communicates holiness to anyone who touches it (if they aren’t holy already). When a fugitive grasps the horns of the altar, he becomes sanctified and hence inviolable. If found guilty, he will be killed (like Joab) because of a sacrilege; but if he is innocent, he protects himself with a taboo of holiness.” Peter J. Leithart, Horns of the Altar, www.leithart.com

“Anytime a judgment is passed on a situation, it means that situation or state of affairs, will be so radically altered as to virtually bring it to an end. It will be (in varying degrees and sizes) the end of one world and the beginning of another. One must be mature to deal in death, because passing a judgment always brings a death. And it is to this situation that Paul speaks when he says, “The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.”

If we refuse to judge when the necessary time comes, then we forestall the called for death and the cost increases. It never decreases. To live in appeasement of what should be judged is to make the final price of death far higher.”

From Rich Bledsoe, On Becoming A True Judge
http://biblicalhorizons.wordpress.com/2008/01/22/on-becoming-a-true-judge/

Christ’s glory followed His victory in Gethsemane’s “Eden”.

When the Lord gave Adam the Law, He handed him a “scroll”—Adam’s mission. With clean hands and a pure heart, Adam could unseal and “look into it.” When the Lord returned, full of eyes, the scroll was open for blessing or cursing depending on Adam’s obedience. It was not the Lord who judged Adam, but the Lord’s words,unsealed at his “ascension” to headship over Eve, that judged him at the last day (of the week).

“If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.” (John 12:47-48)

An open scroll brings testing. Adam’s disobedience opened his two eyes to his nakedness (Genesis 3:7), and the death of Passover (substitutionary animals). It opened his works to seven eyes of judgment—a cup of curses. Jesus’ obedience under testing brought Him glorification, the seven open eyes of the covered High Priest – the slain Lamb. Either we judge, or we are judged.

As Solomon, we put our “enemies” (sins) to judicial death (good death) as we mortify them (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5).

See also: Three Resurrections – 3: The Mission

[Solomon illustration from Barry Moser's illustrated King James Bible. Notice the round "firmament" over his head. Solomon sat enthroned between heaven and earth.]

Water, fire, salt and wine are symbols of judgment. In small quantities they bring life and keep death at bay (defilement). In large quantities, God uses them to destroy an irredeemable culture:

Syncretised sons of God (Gen 6) – water
Sodom – fire and salt (Gen 18-19)
The old Canaanite world, then Babylon – wine (Jer 25)

For the church to be “salty” means it brings sound judgment to society. To lose its saltiness is the same as fire not being hot, or water not being cold. If we are not salty, we are lukewarm, and things that should be mortified in the church are not dealt with. Judgment begins at the house of God and flows to the nations.

In this context, the following words of James Jordan are not so shocking as they might otherwise appear:

The coming of the kingdom always involves the violent destruction of the wicked. When God announced the birth of Isaac, He immediately went out and destroyed Sodom (Genesis 18-19). These events are linked. The rescue of Israel from Egypt entailed the destruction of Egypt. The coming of the Spirit at Pentecost is followed by the slaying of Ananias and Sapphira. The New Covenant brought with it the horrors of AD70.1 Jesus is Kinsman Redeemer/Avenger. In Hebrew, redeem and avenge are the same word: ga’al.

Christians should rejoice at the privilege of bringing holy violence against the wicked and violating their plans and their wicked integrity. In union with Christ, who is both Redeemer and Avenger, Christians have both privileges. Serving in the Church, Christians extend redemption. Serving in the State, Christians extend Vengeance where necessary. The Christian serving as President of the USA should have Osama bin Laden captured and brought to Washington. Then, in front of television cameras from all nations of the world, the Christian President should smilingly blow bin Laden’s brains out, and publicly praise the Triune God for the privilege of doing so. Anyone who disagrees with this has no notion of what his baptism into union with Christ means.

A theology of indiscriminate “non-violence” is pure Satanism. It gives the world to the devil. In Christ we are now adults, and as adults we have grown-up responsibilities. One of those is the joyous privilege of exercising violence against the wicked.2

I have to say, I gulped hard when I first read this. But such a reaction shows how far out of step with Christ we are in our thinking. And such a judgment assumes we are already judging ourselves rightly with sacramental doses of water, fire, salt and wine and not hypocrites. The problem with the world begins with me.

_____________

1 Read Frederick Farrar’s summary here.

2 James B. Jordan, Evil Empire?, Biblical Horizons Newsletter No. 199, September 2008. Subscribe at www.biblicalhorizons.com

Jesus’ words against the Temple hung over Jerusalem for a generation, and would be vindicated despite Herod’s obsessive glorification of his graven image. Its completion in AD64 was taken as proof that Jesus was indeed a false prophet.

Christ came in judgment as He promised and the Temple was destroyed. Vindication and redemption came in one event, and new worship would be born through the death of the old.

“The pagan view of law is that justice is a balancing of the scales. The biblical view of law is that justice is transformational.”1

The death and resurrection of Israel in Christ as the head would be measured out in the people of God as the body. God’s Word brings division that leads totransfiguration. His justice always has one eye on the future.

1  James B. Jordan, Preterism vs. Gnosticism [lecture]. Available from www.wordmp3.com