Joe Rigney has a great piece on the Trinity House website. With apologies to Joe, I’ll give it to you in a nutshell, then make some brief observations. But make sure you read the entire article.
Turning Babel Into A Beast

Rigney asks what might be the church’s best strategy in the near future. Ignoring the same sex marriage debate would allow more time, energy and resources for the fight against abortion. It is better to work for the protection of those who are truly innocent.
But then he takes a step back, and notes that abortion and same sex marriage are symptoms of the same sickness. How did the prophets, Jesus and the apostles get to the heart of the matter in the Scriptures?

In his slaughter of the innocents, Herod the Great became a devouring dragon. But how did John deal with the Herod of his day (Herod Antipas)? He provoked him by publicly pointing out his adultery and calling him to repent. Herod was afraid to have him killed, but the wrath of Herodias forced his hand. This prefigured the events that would follow a generation later, when an army of Spirit-filled prophets would challenge the authority of the entire Herodian line. The false prophet, the harlot and the beast are the Herods, their post-Pentecost demonic Temple worship, and the authority of Rome with which they conspired. These were corporate, “fullgrown” versions of Adam, Eve and the serpent. But serpents only deceive. When they have “seed,” they multiply, take on a body, and become a devouring dragon.

Rigney calls on some helpful observations from Peter Leithart’s recent book, Between Babel and Beast: America and Empires in Biblical Perspective. Leithart rightly says that a Babel is an empire with a cultic heart. Rigney tells us that the way to deal with abortion and sodomy is to provoke Babel, the harlot and turn her into a beast. He writes:

“…it may be that the best way to hasten the demonstration of God’s righteousness and topple the abortion-regime is to awaken the ire of the unbelieving world by getting under their skin with respect to their sexual-otry, homosexual and otherwise. To put it in biblical terms, if we want God to judge the Herods for their baby-killing, idolatry, and greed, we should never tire of pointing out how offensive it is that he has his brother’s wife (or his wife’s brother, as the case may be). In short, we should endeavor to so speak and act that we soberly but gladly accept that putting an end to the massacre of unborn innocents may require us to get in between the Babel and the innocents, however we can.”

Rigney is calling us to become human shields, to allow our own blood to be spilled so that the blood of the innocents might be avenged. When Christians preach boldly, and some are martyred, this allows the powers to fill up their sins. Rigney asks the question we all ask: “Why has God not yet judged our nations for the slaughter of millions of unborn children?” The answer is that Jesus, by His Spirit, has legal representatives all across the earth. He is waiting for us to be provoked into action, to incarnate His own indignation against the wicked, to be His eyes and then to be His mouth. When the state begins to persecute and slaughter Christians, it is the “last days,” that is, the last days of that state. It was so with the power of Rome and with the power of Holy Rome, and it will be so with the secular monstrosity which Western Culture has become. The best way to hasten the destruction of the dragon, as it was with Pharaoh and with Haman, is to provoke it. When the dragon begins to devour the sons of God, God will avenge both them and the innocent sons of men.

“The Bible seems to suggest that the blood of martyrs fills up the cup of God’s wrath more quickly than the blood of innocents alone. It is this shift—-from the blood of innocents to the blood of martyrs—-that rouses God’s long-sleeping wrath which throws down the Beast, either through cataclysmic judgment or in massive Spirit-wrought awakening (or perhaps both).”

In the Garden of Eden, Babel was Eve, the mother of all living, who, with Adam’s approval, surrendered her offspring to the serpent. In the first century, it was Jerusalem, who through a Covenant with Rome, surrendered her truest sons, “Jews indeed,” to be devoured, and was filled with their blood. How would we identify Leithart’s definition of a “Babelic” empire today?

Based upon what I wrote yesterday, the beast of today is secularism, a counterfeit church, a religion masquerading as neutrality, as mere pragmatism. But this modern beast, as with all the previous ones, is a direct result of the Church’s failure to remain spotless and to witness boldly.

So I disagree with the idea of “turning Babel into a beast.” They are distinct entities, although united by adultery. Eve and the serpent were not one and the same. Herodias and Herod were not one and the same. Herod and Pilate were not one and the same: they were united in friendship over the murder of Christ. Herodian worship and the Rome which finally turned against Christians under Nero were not one and the same, though they too were briefly united over the murder of the firstfruits church. So who is the harlot today, corporately speaking? The harlot today–the murderess of modernity–is the only one that ever was. It is the unfaithful Church, hiding her identity. It those Christians who keep silent, who compromise with unrighteousness, who believe the godless when they tell them their protests are offensive and uncaring and intolerant, who ridicule those who believe in the Creation and the Bible’s chronology, who teach their own doctrines from the pulpit instead of the entire Word of God. Babel cannot be transformed into the beast. She is us. Babel can only ever be cut in two, placed on the altar and set alight as the daughter of a priest, passing through the fire to be divided once again into ashes (serpentine dust) and smoke (a resurrected bride) as she was in the Revelation and the Reformation. This means that all the current proceedings are allowed for the purification of the Church. God will let the innocents die, again and again, in Egypt, in Jerusalem, in America, for the sake of His true sons and daughters, those of the Spirit, His co-regents.

Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14)

This is actually where Rigney finally takes us: a call to purity and boldness for the Church. It is an altar call with real flames.

“For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.”
Matthew 23:4

One of the great benefits of understanding the “preteristic” nature of the New Testament is the way the many supposedly “generic” apostolic warnings in the epistles are suddenly grounded in their Jewish context. The destruction of the Temple barely gets a mention in any church today, yet when the letters of Paul, Peter, James and John are understood to be aimed at Jews outside the Church and Judaizers inside it, the New Testament doesn’t become less relevant to us, but more relevant.

To modern Christians, the Herods and the Pharisees are clearly the bad guys when mentioned by name, yet there is a strange reluctance to recognize their presence or influence when they are not. Many scholars rail against first century Greek rhetors and Roman cultists as the target of the apostles’ ire, but nothing could be further from the truth. Those issues are out in the shadows, but judgment begins at the house of God.

James Jordan has done a great job in explaining the presence of the Herodian line as it was predicted, not by name but by nature, in the book of Daniel. [1] Peter Leithart has also made some interesting observations in his commentary on the epistles of John. [2] One reviewer, however, doesn’t think he goes far enough:

Leithart identifies the enemies against whom John is writing as a variant of Judaism. He then gives a thorough discussion of the various nuances of post-apostolic Judaism(s) and Gnosticism(s). He explains that scholars are divided on whether the enemies are Gnostics or Judaizers. The problem is that the enemies display characteristics of both groups, but are not reducible to either. John is writing before Gnosticism really became a problem, and the Judaizers seem to display anti-Jewish presuppositions.

Leithart is baffled by the Judaizers’ anti-material worldview. Is this not fundamentally at odds with the rich, creation-oriented worldview of the Old Testament? Leithart cannot really answer this question except to say the Jews were influenced by some Eastern proto-gnostic cults. That’s a half-truth, though. Leithart does not factor in the influence of the Talmud at all. This remains a fatal weakness in the Federal Vision movement. They note certain qualities of the Old Testament and read that into the worldview of “all Jews and all times.” When this happens, as we see here, they cannot account for the anti-Christian character of the Jews in John’s time.

Nevertheless, Leithart is onto something. His discussion points the reader to the interplay of Gnosticism and Judaism. Leithart’s weakness, though, is that he keeps wanting to see Judaism as something good and Old Testament-ish. After the Jews killed Christ, though, and in the book of Acts began defining themselves as violently anti-Christian, they became a different creature.

Perhaps Dr. Leithart is simply being polite in his assessment of post-Pentecostal Judaism. Or perhaps there was a marked difference between the “Old Testament” religion of the people and the “Talmudic” religion of the Jewish leaders, who oppressed the people and led them astray. Michael Hoffman writes:

Recall the scene in the Book of Luke when the Pharisees, using their sly ability to twist words, which has remained with their spiritual heirs to this day, tried to ensnare Jesus, when they asked Him, “By whose authority do you teach?” Jesus countered by asking of them a question in turn, “By whose authority did John baptize?”

This passage in Luke illuminates the extent to which the peasantry among the Jewish people, the am ha’aretz, were on Jesus’ side at that time. The Pharisees murmered among themselves, “If we answer that God sent John, He will say why were you not then baptized? But if we say John’s authority did not come from God, the people will stone us because they believe that John was a prophet.”

The “people” of Israel, the am ha’aretz, for a time believed John the Baptist and did not hold with the Pharisees or their anthropomorphic traditions. What is the status of Judaics in our time who do not believe in the Talmud? How do the rabbis judge Judaics who have not learned and may even have rejected the Talmud?

Hoffman goes on to quote some rabbinic definitions of the am ha’aretz in the Talmud, showing how Jews who did not highly regard or acquaint themselves with the oral tradition were viewed by the Pharisees. The quotations are astounding and disgusting, and they give modern Christians a glimpse of the perfect hatred of which Jesus and the first martyrs were victims. I will repeat only one quotation here:

“Rabbi Eleazaer said: An am ha’aretz — it is permitted to stab him (even) on the Day of Atonement which falls on the Sabbath.

“Said his disciples to him, Master, may we slaughter him (ritually)?

“The rabbi replied: This (ritual slaughter) requires a benediction, whereas that (stabbing of the am ha’aretz) does not require a benediction.

“Rabbi Samuel ben Nachmani said in Rabbi Yochanan’s name: One may tear an am ha’aretz like a fish!

“Said Rabbi Samuel ben Isaac: And (this means) stab him along his back.” [3]

Rabbinic Judaism was not and is not in any way “Old Testament-ish.” When Jesus warned His disciples about the “leaven” of the Pharisees, it had more to do with elitist hatred than “works salvation.” Familiarizing ourselves with the Talmud’s perversions would not only help us to interpret the New Testament more clearly (including the “ritual slaughter” of Christ and His Firstfruits), it would free many modern Christians of the erroneous idea that modern Jews worship the God of the Bible.

Critics of Islam are the toast of western society… It is not that we are opposed to honest Christian or scholarly analysis of Islam, however critical. We can’t help noting, however, the deafening silence of all these “courageous” crusading Christian authors and “politically incorrect” Conservatives when it comes to the “dark side” of what the Talmud “really teaches.” They have apparently forgotten that the first mission of Jesus Christ was to the “lost sheep of the House of Israel” (Matt. 15:24). Today we are content to let them remain lost, while we thump our chests in glorious crusades against the hated Muslim. The modern Roman Catholic Church forbids speaking to the gentiles the truth about Judaism just as the rabbis tried to forbid Christians from doing so (1 Thessalonians 2:16). [4]

The sin of the Jewish people in Jesus’ day was not high-handed. They had been led astray by their teachers. The sin of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, however, was “high-handed,” that is, conscious sin. They knew the Scriptures, but they were a den of snakes in the Garden of God. They twisted and replaced the words of God. Consequently, Jesus told them that their spiritual father was the devil.

But this was before Pentecost. The coming of the Spirit of God enlightened the eyes of the Jews who believed and darkened the eyes of those who would not. The cult of the Talmud ceased to be merely “high-handed” concerning its opposition to Christ and His people. [5] It became outright demonic, which explains not only the apostolic hatred of the Judaistic false teachers, but the description of the “sorcerous” Covenant crimes of the great whore in the Revelation. Jesus condemns not “the kings of the earth” but “the rulers of the Land.”

Hoffman has a great deal to say about the manipulation of the modern West by “Talmudists.” Much of it will be seen as inflammatory, but on this I agree with him: Since World War II, the rabbinical “archetypal persecutors, haters, killers and racists” have used the victimization of Jews to render their religion immune from criticism by the Church. The accusation of “antisemite,” like “racist,” is a devilish use of historical, ethic truth to mask and protect a continued doctrinal lie. [6]

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[1] See his Daniel commentary, The Handwriting on the Wall.
[2] See John’s Real Enemies.
[3] Michael Hoffman, Judaism’s Strange Gods, pp. 13-14.
[4] Hoffman, pp. 17-18.
[5] See Strong Delusion.
[6] Jesus taught us not to confuse ethnic origins with spiritual character, which is why credobaptism is crucial to the mission of His Church.

Related posts:
Parallel Theologies
The Future of Israel Re-examined

Jump the shark definition.

“That very day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other.” (Luke 23:12)

“Secular humanism and Islam are merely the bipolar moods of Christless Christianity. They can be united only in suicide.”

Getting a grip on the Tabernacle layout helps us understand the architecture of Creation, the history of mankind and the structure of the entire Bible. After reading Mark Steyn on the Islamic/secular conflict in Europe, I was thinking that the same “Tabernacle” categories can be found in the world today. Whatever we do, however much we distort the truth, we are still bound by the walls and furnitures set up in Genesis 1. And, in my humble opinion, the light this sheds on the current conflict is not only revealing concerning its true nature, but it also helps us to predict its future.

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[1] See Priest, King and Prophet and Great Prophets.
[2] See Half Man, Half Beast.

Blood on the doorpost of the al-Qiddissin Coptic Church in Alexandria, Egypt.

“This, like many things in the Torah, sounds pretty barbaric. But, like many of the weirdest things in the Torah, we see these laws, which are personal types, played out in corporate antitypes right to the end of the Bible.”

“But if the thing is true, and evidences of virginity are not found for the young woman, then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel, to play the harlot in her father’s house. So you shall put away the evil from among you.” (Deuteronomy 22:20-21)

In a recent debate about Greg Bahsen’s woeful review of Chilton’s The Days of Vengeance, an online friend took interpretive maximalism to task.

For instance, because doorposts could be likened to legs, Jordan claims that the passover blood smeared on doorposts corresponds to the blood of circumcision—which in turn is equivalent to the tokens of virginity from the wedding night (I am not kidding; cf. The Law of the Covenant, pp. 82-83, 252-258). [PDF]

Yes, this sounds weird, but it isn’t at all. Bahnsen didn’t have an imagination fully informed by the Bible.

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Van Gogh’s work has been regarded by some as “hallucinatory,” however his letters show that few artists were as intelligent and rational. His work was not the product of his dark times but of his struggle against them.

“I am feeling well just now… I am not strictly speaking mad, for my mind is absolutely normal in the intervals, and even more so than before. But during the attacks it is terrible—and then I lose consciousness of everything. But that spurs me on to work and to seriousness, as a miner who is always in danger and makes haste in what he does.” [1]

William Cowper, who battled debilitating and often life-threatening depression throughout his life, and yet was the author of many famous Christian hymns and poems, was the same. John Piper writes:

“I live with an almost constant awareness of the breach between the low intensity of my own passion and the staggering realities of the universe around me, heaven, hell, creation, eternity, life, God. Everybody (whether they know it or not) tries to close this breach—between the weakness of our emotions and the wonder of the World. Some of us do it with poetry.

William Cowper did it with poetry. I think I know what he means, for example, when he writes a poem about his mother’s portrait long after her death and says,

And, while that face renews my filial grief,
Fancy shall weave a charm for my relief.

There is a deep release and a relief that comes when we find a way of seeing and saying some precious or stunning reality that comes a little closer to closing the breach between what we’ve glimpsed with our mind and what we’ve grasped with our heart.

It shouldn’t be surprising that probably over 300 pages of the Bible was written as poetry. Because the aim of the Bible is to build a bridge between the deadness of the human heart and the living reality of God.” [2]

I want to relate this to every Christian life. This fruitfulness from the darkness is a process that belongs to every child of God. At the very heart of it is the tension caused by challenges to unseen truth by an unbelieving world, and the desire for vindication and rest. This is one of the processes inherent in Covenant history, and an understanding of it helps us to persevere in the truth, even in the darkest times. The New Covenant is no exception. [3]

God calls a man
…..Separates him for duty
……….Gives him the rules
…..Tells him the consequences of his performance
Arranges for the next tour of duty

Of course, this is Ray Sutton’s 5 point Covenant pattern, and I maintain that it becomes 7 point when “played out” on the stage of history:

Creation: God’s call and anointing
…..Division: The man is sent to work

and this is where the distress of the Covenant comes in. The central point is split into three—LAW/LAW/LAW:

……….Ascension: He receives the Covenant Law (as above)
……………Testing: He is challenged by a false Law

This is where the rubber meets the road. It is the Starry Night of Day 4, the saints in the wilderness. Will we be rulers, or will we be ruled? Will we be filled with the law as burning bushes (Lampstands) like Daniel and his friends, or will we be incinerated like the sons of Aaron?

The test is that the world suddenly doesn’t seem to correspond to what God said. We can only see so far, and Satan and those who follow him maintain that what is beyond our sight is not what God said (which is also why evolution is not science but philosophy). How many Christians feel that God has abandoned them, or betrayed them, or failed to reward them for their faithfulness so far? The challenge is to understand that God is qualifying you for more responsibility, more servant-kingship, and of course, more glory.

God’s Word often seems to contradict reality. Imagine being instructed to build a very large boat on dry land, and to put up with the jeers and taunts of the scientists and philosophers of the day. Imagine being instructed to tell the rulers of Judah to submit to the king of Babylon. Imagine being a Pharisee instructed to eat with Gentiles, and form new Jew-Gentile synagogues across the empire. Imagine being instructed to tell the King of the Jews that it is, in fact, You Who are the true King of the Jews. Both Jesus and Paul were thought to be mad. Do you know that feeling? [4]

Of course, vindication came, in torrents, in every one of these situations. The Book of Hebrews is a plea to Christian Jews to hold out, to persevere with this “new Covenant,” despite the fact that the Herods were still building monuments of white stone and gold all over the Land (including the Temple) and Christians were being persecuted and slaughtered across the empire. The words of Jesus certainly didn’t correspond with reality, did they? But the elect, as Daniel predicted, shined like stars. They believed the Word spoken, saw the fulfilment of the promises by faith, although they were far off and not yet seen. Faith is not blind. It is long-sighted.

Faith is also attractive, especially when it rides against the zeitgeist. It is very striking for people today to come across Christians who not only know what they believe, but are also not idiots. I teach the Bible to high school students, and the testimony of someone who believes it from cover to cover stays with them forever. I know, because the Bible was taught to me by people just like that. Brave testimony, under distress, is the heart of the New Covenant.

……….Maturity: He repeats the Law, warns the Bride,
……….and there is great plunder

After obedience at Testing, there are always plagues and plunder. That’s what we see in Exodus. That’s what we see in the ministry of the Apostles and the Reformers and the great missionaries (and not-so-great).

How about you? Are you willing to submit to God for the sake of the plunder? For the New Covenant missionary, the plunder is people, even if he doesn’t live to see the result (like Jim Elliot). I read about a missionary who spent seven long years evangelising some remote tribes and died without seeing a single convert. But those who followed after him reaped the harvest. Unlike discipling your own children, teaching the Bible to other people’s kids seems fruitless at times, because the seed takes a while to germinate. We have faith that it will sprout and that God will give the increase. Many Australians trace their conversion back to Sunday School or SRE (Bible teaching in public schools).

Faith is like time travel. In the midst of suffering, abandonment or persecution, we travel back in time to remember God’s faithfulness in the past, in our life, in the biographies of saints, and in the Bible. And we jump ahead in our head and hearts to the Conquest and Glorification that God has promised for the elect. The Psalmists did this (in both directions), and so did Christ and the Apostles. God is consistently faithful, regardless of how things might feel right now. How can we be trained to judge if there is no tension, no true and false witnesses presenting evidence? The question is, will you turn to other, short-term gods to ease the pain? [5] Or will you persevere and produce the abundant fruitfulness possible only through this process of pruning? Jesus said that if we judge ourselves, we will not be judged.

He shall see the labour of His soul, and be satisfied. Isaiah 53:11

Van Gogh sold only one painting, and died by suicide in poverty. William Cowper had the loving ministry of John Newton, and His God, watching over him. Imagine if Van Gogh and Cowper could see how their labours, the fruits of lives spent suffering in the dark, have been a blessing for hundreds of years to millions of people.

Faith, the substance of things not seen, is like time travel. By your obedience to the Word, and your fearless witness, you are a memorial to something that hasn’t even happened yet, and something that happened long ago. Like Noah, like Jesus, you are the incarnation of the past and a window on the future. Faith is the domain of the prophet, and in the New Covenant, all God’s people are prophets who know the end from the beginning.

So stick with it. Stand. Perseverance is just about everything. And vindication will come.
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[1] Quoted in Robert Hughes, Nothing If Not Critical.
[2] Listen to or read the transcript of Piper’s wonderful biographical sermon here. See also Seeing In The Dark.
[3] See A Lamentable Life.
[4] See Mercury Rising.
[5] See What Comes Out.

Must be wizards week!

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (NKJV) Hebrews 4:12

But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. (NKJV) James 2:18

The firmament was a veil to hide God’s throne from Man until he was ready to see God face to face. Of course, we see types of this throughout the Bible, Job, Jacob and Moses being notable examples. But no man had seen God until after Christ ascended and was presented as Facebread.

Your face is a veil of flesh that hides your brain, the source of your intentions. Your head is a microcosm of the Tabernacle at one level, and your entire body at another. You are a Garden and a Land.

Deceivers mask their true intentions with facial expressions and body language. Good spies can even pass a lie detector test. Between their true intentions and the flesh that is supposed to be communicating it, there is a deliberate disconnect. As in the Garden, it is the mind of a beast speaking with the eyes and mouth of a man.

Made in God’s image, our words create or destroy. Christians understand this. Christian writings are a testimony to this. Christian publishing is crucial. The cultures that grew up around Israel and grow up around the church are cultures of words and books, crosswords and blogs. But in God’s economy, in the way He has made things, mere words are not enough. Words are swords. They are made to cut something, even when they are intended to build up and edify.

Politicians can stand and speak about HopeTM and ChangeTM, but, as Doug Wilson says, smooth words create hard hearts, both in church and outside of it. [1]

But God’s words never return to Him empty. Why is this?

It is the difference between incantation and incarnation. Muslim calls to prayer are very often not read “live” but broadcast recordings. Yet these recorded words do change reality. People obey. Creation. They obey because there is also a sword. Bodies move to mosques. Division. The word becomes incarnate. Hearts are cut because if they are not, flesh will be.

Christianity is the same, but entirely opposite. As mentioned in some recent posts, it is God’s messenger who is the cut one. The sword-Word passes through him first. He is displayed as a living sacrifice on the Altar. It is not coercion. It is a bridal invitation. This is where theonomy over-reaches its God-given intent. God’s Law is for God’s people. We can fill the world with books, but if we are not a people “cut” we might as well be an army of teleprompters. The veil has to be opened.

The religion of Mohammed is power religion. It is the religion of Jannes and Jambres. It is the religion of Saruman. It moves flesh by coercion. Anyone with experience in Satanism will tell you their life becomes filled and controlled by fear. Flesh must be moved, but Saruman hides in his prayer tower, with his words and his books. Pharaoh will feed divine meals to his gods, and then flays the Hebrews. Caesar will cut goats’ gizzards, and then torch Christians. This is power religion. The faces of these gods are permanently hidden. It is the manipulating faith of Cain, and many of us Christians are guilty of this hiding and manipulating and coercing, at home, in church, in business, in politics. I certainly am. Power religion, like Saruman, like Satan, doesn’t get out much. Too risky. Easier to pull strings, name-drop, work the room. The veil stays closed.

Dominion religion is the fearless offering of our bodies as living sacrifices. Jesus offers Himself to us, and then we offer ourselves to the world. When any tribe or city starts killing God’s people, it is almost a sure omen that conversions will follow. The Words of the martyrs (witnesses) never return void. They are carried on a firmament of flesh whose division ends the emptiness of the world and its words.

Books and words are crucial, but they are no good hidden away. God needs them written on flesh as well as stone. “Spells and smells” can be wonderful in worship, but those words and clouds must leave the building as the Warrior Bride. We must be preaching, singing and chanting the Scriptures. [2] If the worship stays indoors, our faith is only “sentimental,” as Oswald Chambers would put it. Sentiment must lead to action. It’s crucial that we get our worship right, but it doesn’t bring the powers crashing down unless the singing soldiers are marching into a (possibly) bloody battle. Then God does His magic.

Now when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. (2 Chronicles 20:22-23)

Yet the originating words are crucial. Good works without the accompanying truth also fall flat. Instead of returned mail, they are an envelope that is addressed and stamped but empty. Ahasuerus always sends out his fastest horses with a bill that can’t be repealed. Notice that the first section of Zechariah begins with warhorses doing a recce and ends with warhorses charging out of the Temple. It begins with the church in the (literally) “deep” and ends with a new message, a spring of hope rushing down from the mountain of God as four rivers. [3]

The Word becomes incarnate in us. We are called to worship. We are cut to the heart. We leave with an invitation but also an ultimatum. Unbelievers hearts will be cut because if they are not, their flesh will be. AD70 is testimony to that.

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[1] Smooth Words, Hard Hearts.
[2] See Liturgy as Prophecy.
[3] This is the background for the New Covenant blessings and curses, ie. the gospel, being presented as four horsemen in Revelation.

Ending the False Dichotomy of Blood and Spirit

NOTE: THIS POST HAS BEEN REMIXED AND INCLUDED IN GOD’S KITCHEN.

The Old Testament is a bloody book. Beginning with Adam’s “dissection” to build Eve and the animals the Lord made into tunics, it culminates in Revelation with the massacre of saints under Herod/Nero (Revelation 14) and then the massacre of Jews under Vespasian and Titus.

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[1] I highly recommend James Jordan’s Crisis, Opportunity and the Christian Future.

“We are witnessing the end of Western Civilization. The present crisis in our culture is the greatest since the first century. Many commentators on the present scene believe that the entire world is moving into a period of “neo-tribalism.”

In this striking book, theologian James B. Jordan argues that this cultural change is part of God’s ongoing plan for humanity, the plan by which the Holy Spirit grows God’s daughter, humanity, into a fit bride for His Son.

The present crisis provides a tremendous opportunity for the Christian Church to challenge and transform the world as never before. Here, Jordan points to how this can be done.

While many view the present crisis with dismay, and are looking backwards to older traditions, Jordan argues that God is calling us forward, and that the Bible points the way.”

“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.”  Matthew 24:21-22

The context of Matthew 23-25 is very clearly first century. Many interpreters are forced to put gaps and parentheses and qualifiers into Jesus’ warnings because they won’t recognise what happened in the last years of the Old Covenant.[1] 

Surely there have been greater tribulations since the Jewish war? World Wars I and II trump it easily when measured for human suffering and body count.

The key is the elect. It was the greatest tribulation of all time — for the people of God. The warnings were spoken to disciples. Jesus was only concerned with the faithful. The Jews who had hardened their hearts like Pharaoh for a full generation were not the issue. They were the “vessels for destruction.” It was the saints who were the issue, and their suffering was precious.

After the “tribulation of those days” means after the massacres of Christians. That is when the Old Covenant curses fell for the last time. Lot had left Sodom. That is when the tribes of the Land would mourn, and they did. This was not the great tribulation. It was Day of the Lord.[2]

After AD70, Satan was bound from gathering the nations against the church. There are battles here and there, but nothing on a worldwide scale. Until, of course, he is released and tries it again. In that future day, the saints won’t be massacred as firstfruits. Satan and his followers will be destroyed immediately, and the second resurrection will follow.

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[1] This includes many moderate preterists, who spiritualise or generalise the first resurrection. It was a one-time, imminent, physical event that all the apostles looked forward to. Then the hyperpreterists, who get the first resurrection right, spiritualise the second resurrection! Go figure.
[2] I guess this answers the pre-wrath/post-wrath rapture question. It was pre-wrath. The saints were harvested as grain and grapes (Rev. 14) before the seven Atonement bowls were poured out. The saints from both Old and New Covenants entered to govern in heaven. See Jesus’ New Broom.

There can be few people who know anything about missions in the 20th Century who have not heard the story of the five young men who died, January 8th, 1956, in their attempt to reach the Woarani [1] Indians of Ecuador. Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Roger Youderian were cut down in the prime of their lives as they waited on a sand bar in the Ecuadorian jungle; waited for further contact with a people unreached with the Gospel and hostile to anyone from the outside world. The Christian world, particularly in the West reeled as it tried to make sense of this incredible tragedy. “Why would God allow such potential to be destroyed?” Even the secular press couldn’t ignore this tale. LIFE magazine ran a 10 page article featuring journal entries from the men themselves. Their headline? … “‘Go Ye and Preach the Gospel’ – Five Do and Die.”

Thanks to the writing skills of Elisabeth Elliot, Jim Elliot’s widow, the world has heard of and been amazed at the commitment and dedication of these young men. In her book Shadow of the Almighty, in a chapter entitled “Mission Accomplished”, she writes of Jim’s last days and poignantly and simply concludes with the words: “…the men for whom Jim Elliot prayed for six years killed him and his four companions.”

At the recent Amsterdam 2000 conference, in front of 10,000 delegates from around the world, nearly fifty years after the incident, Steve Saint, son of Nate Saint, the martyred pilot, shared the platform with two Woarani believers. When delegates were asked to stand to indicate who had been influenced by the death of the five, a reporter wrote, “It was impossible to gauge the extent of the response because everyone around us stood enthusiastically.”

Jim Elliot and his friends will be remembered as committed young people prepared to die for their Lord. An inspiration, and rightly so. 

It was with amazed delight that I recently came across another dimension to the story of Jim Elliot. Older by three years, Jim’s brother, Bert, also followed God’s call to South America, to the mountains of Peru. In a recent article it was revealed that Bert and his wife, Colleen, now in their seventies, had just completed 50 years in missionary service. They went to Peru in 1949, and have been ministering together for the Kingdom of God, planting at least 40 churches. In a world where attention spans are shaped by 30 second TV commercials, and the ever changing landscape of technology, the thought of a 50 year ministry seems unreal. What a picture of commitment and endurance. 

The vastly different ministries of these two brothers highlight some truths about the Christian life. I’m not going to unpack them in detail but throw them out for your consideration and meditation.

1. Fame or reputation is a poor indicator of an individual’s value in God’s economy. While Jim Elliot’s fame and reputation are widespread, Bert Elliot is, for the most part, an unknown. Yet both have contributed significantly to God’s kingdom. 
2. What your life, as a “living sacrifice” to God, looks like will differ dramatically from other believers. Both Jim and Bert gave their lives unconditionally to the Lordship of Christ. For one it meant an early martyrdom, for the other, a long lifetime of service in a foreign land. 
3. Much has been said, both critically and defensively, about today’s generation of young adults who are often unwilling to enter into long-term commitments to organisations or projects. I want to suggest that, whether we believe this represents a lack of commitment, or a changed focus, God’s standard has not changed. He demands absolute commitment to himself, and he’ll make the decisions as to how long, or short, your time in any one place will be. 

I started this article with Jim Elliot’s famous quote, which I’ve always seen as being prophetic and applicable to the sacrifice that he and his friends made. I now see that it applies equally and just as appropriately to his brother, Bert, and the long-term church planting service that he has offered his Lord.

May I be so bold as to add to Jim Elliot’s original words: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, by dying young or living a lengthy life of obedient service, to gain what he cannot lose.” 

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Colin is the missions lecturer at BTC Southern Africa.

[1]  Better known as the Auca. Auca is the derogatory word meaning “savage” which outsiders of the tribe used to describe them. The word “Woarani” is the word the tribe uses to refer to themselves. It means “the people”.

“Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.  
—Genesis 15:5-6

Abraham didn’t sleep in on the day he was to take his beloved son, his only son, to Moriah, kill him and offer him as an ascension. He got up early. By this stage in the narrative, Abraham had been tried and tested many times, but this seems just a little too keen.

Abraham told his servants that both he and the boy would return. He believed, without a shadow of turning, God’s promise concerning an inheritance. Sarai laughed concerning her miraculous conception (Isaac means laughter). It was the scornful chuckle of unbelief, and she was caught out. Perhaps, here, after this crazy command from God, Abraham also laughed. But it was the chuckle of faith. [1]

The chuckle of faith comes from an experience of God’s complete faithfulness in the past that leads to a knowing, twinkle-eyed, obedience. Outwardly, it says, “OK, Lord.” Inwardly, it says, “I can’t wait to see how He gets Himself and us out of this one, and remains faithful.”

It is possibly the response of Moses caught between a rock and a hard place at the seashore. “Moses, you brought us out here to die!” is the cry of the people. By this point, Moses had seen enough to know something pretty cool was about to happen.

It was the response of Daniel’s three friends as they defied Nebuchadnezzar and the local ministers’ association. There is a God in heaven who can save us from the flames if He wills, but even if he doesn’t, we won’t bow down.

The chuckle of faith is prophetic. It knows the future because it has seen the ways of God in the past. Modern Christians are unable to chuckle because gutless men preach HOPE and CHANGE without an understanding of God’s clockwork-Covenant ways. [2] 

Hebrews 11, the chuckle-of-faith chapter, gives us a list of those who stopped the mouths of lions with a chuckle, and those who patiently kept preaching the truth knowing that they were going to be brutally sawn in half. I doubt they were chuckling when this happened, but they delighted in the ways of God and trusted Him for the future. It is grossly, deliciously, irresponsible to the eyes of the world. [3]

When you lose your job, or discover you have cancer, or can’t have children, or find you have been betrayed, or your family despises your Christianity, or have to struggle for years with a compulsive sin… don’t laugh like Sarai. Think of Abraham and his promised son Laughter, and get up early to obey the impossible command.

The Lord honours the chuckle of faith because it comes from a far-sighted trust in His character. This delights Him as it does any good dad.

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[1] A cool phrase stolen from Doug Wilson.
[2] If they do preach the Ethics of the Covenant, it is without the preceding Transcendence (an anchor in God’s character and power) and Hierarchy, (an anchor in the history of the saints) and without the inevitable arrival of blessings for the faithful and curses for the rebellious. See A Jaw-Dropping Book and also Peter Leithart’s Exhortation, May 9, 2004 on a prophet’s understanding of God and His plot devices.
[3] When the Lord’s justice finally arrives to vindicate the martyrs, they chuckle the way James Jordan does in his lectures when the enemies of God are massacred. Then they write a song about it.