Bully’s Blog

or Understanding Apostolic Wine Science

Scholars talk about identifying the “apostolic hermeneutic,” which sounds intimidating. The reason for this phrase is that according to the commonsense rules of interpretation, the apostles are merrily delinquent. They quote many Old Testament texts, rip them out of their historical contexts and claim they are fulfilled in Christ.

Our problem is that the apostles are neither hacks nor mystics. They are authoritative. Some rightly explain that the apostles are just seeing Christ prefigured in the Old Testament Scriptures, which they are, but this explanation is too vague. God’s Word is meticulous.

Continue reading

or Show Me the Tropes

Literary agent Peter Rubie would undoubtedly have read many story synopses, both fiction and non-fiction. His colleague Janet Reid advises that anyone wishing to write a bestseller should read at least two thousand novels before attempting to write their own. Peter gives some helpful advice:

Continue reading

36. Acording to Preterists, all those left in Jerusalem were reckoned unholy. But see Isaiah 4:3-4.

Simple answer: Isaiah 4 refers to the “new Jerusalem” of Ezra and Nehemiah. But I’m going to use this as an opportunity to analyse Isaiah 4 and its context. This stuff blows me away.

Continue reading

or James Jordan’s Big Hammer

“My God, it’s full of stars!” 

One of the reasons I appreciate James Jordan is his ability to identify the “universals” in Scripture. Understanding these recurring themes answers many questions and solves many mysteries. These universal “roles” and events all point forward to the events of the first century. For instance, we cannot understand what the apostles meant by the phrase “the sons of God” without checking its history in the Old Testament. [1]

The danger with dealing in all the “big picture” stuff is that it can become self-serving. The heart is deceitfully wicked, and theology can become a kind of escapism, an ideology. Like the worst of the 20th century’s political ideologies, it can be divorced from reality so that in practice it rides roughshod over people to achieve its goals. Any big theology must maintain a big pastoral heart.

Continue reading

31. The remnant of Israel still practices iniquity (Zeph. 3: 13).

Drew was right. Some of these really are weak. Zephaniah denounces Judah for her indulgence in idolatry and luxury while she presumed the Lord would protect her. He predicts a new Jerusalem without these sins. All fulfilled. Ripping the prophets out of context and applying them to modern “Jews” is not only infantile exegesis, it removes most of the Bible from the real world so it can apply to some future Jews. God doesn’t work that way. He warns, waits a generation, then judges. Always. Same thing goes for the Revelation.

Continue reading

Revelation can’t be fully appreciated without attention to its literary structure. I’m no expert, but have a gander at this…

Continue reading

or The First Shall Be Last

Yesterday’s post concerning Jesus’ message to John had some discussion about lepers becoming New Covenant priests. Those who were condemned to live outside were made clean and invited in. Of course, there is Jesus’ own condemnation of those who watched harlots and tax collectors enter the kingdom but defiantly stood outside themselves.

Right up until the end of the Jewish war, the Jewish leadership got their clean and unclean, their inside and outside, more and more wrong. The gospel turned their world upside down–or, in fact, rightside up. 

John Barach observes how Mark applies this to Jesus’ own family using literary structure: Continue reading

Open Ark - Light - Sabbath
Behold, I tell you a mystery:

Open Veil - Firmament - Passover (Midnight)
We shall not all sleep,

Continue reading