“But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11:16)

The narrative of the Bible is fairly linear until we get to the kings. But once we hit the prophets the Scriptures turn into a box of puzzle pieces. The literature of the kings used Mosaic symbols to a certain degree but the prophets took all the concrete things we learned from the priests and kings and used them to make amazing promises that never quite materialized. Or did they?

One of the mysteries is the idea of the mountain of God. For everyone living before AD70, the promises were expected to be fulfilled upon the physical real estate of Mount Zion. God had appeared upon various mountains throughout history (which made Him unlike all other gods because He was not stuck to a particular territory) but for over a millennium His house had been in Jerusalem. When the Temple was destroyed by Roman armies and the entire landscape so defaced that we are still studying the “dental records,” the promises concerning the mountain seemed to evaporate. Did these promises become mere ideology? If they were not physical in nature, how are we to understand them?

As always, the many details given through the Bible appear to be random dots. But in hindsight, we are able to join them. The “seven mountains” in Bible history follow a pattern that is well-known around here. The seven points form a process of maturity which is Creational, Covenantal and also sacrificial. And once we trace the pattern, which happens to be a chiasm, some very interesting points begin to rise out of the clouds. The internal logic of the “mountain theme” becomes plain and we get the prophets as clearly as the writer of Hebrews did.

While there are seven in the complete pattern, the central three (as a three-cubed grid) illustrate Israel’s role in the ethical transformation of the world. On Israel’s first mountain the father offered the son —- the Most Holy. On her second mountain, the cloud appeared with blood, fire, smoke and trumpets — the Holy Place. Israel’s third mountain of God was Zion, into whose Temple the nations willingly brought their treasures.

What is interesting is that Moriah and Zion correspond chiastically, as the bloody Bronze Altar (Adam) and the fragrant Incense Altar (Eve). Zion was actually a different mountain in Judah until David’s purchase of the threshing floor for the site of a Temple. Moriah received “a new name.” Moriah (death) and Zion (resurrection) became one and the same. This also explains the strange reference to “1000 years” in Revelation 20. God mediated through “tent worship” for 1000 years, beginning with the offering of Isaac. Then He mediated through “house worship” for 1000 years, ending in AD70. The current administration from the heavenly mountain is thus for “1000 years.”

At Christ’s ascension, the role of Adam as the representative of the Physical world before God was finally fulfilled. He is the first five mountains, the Torah, combined into a single “fivefold” Old Covenant inheritance. Zion was the last “earthly” mountain and it ascended as sacrificial smoke. Jesus now advocates for the world until heaven (God owns…) and earth (…a thousand hills) are one (Psalm 50:10), just as Adam should have done.

ADDENDUM:

After some comments from friends (including Chris W. below) it needs to be stated that Jesus’ focus on the Mount of Olives pictured the true mountain of God in heaven. Christ ascended from it, yet the earthly version would be “torn in two” on the final “Day of Atonement,” divided between the blessed and the cursed, as predicted by Zechariah. The earthly mountain was opened like the veil to allow the Old Covenant saints to pass through into their heavenly country, just as Israel passed between Ebal and Gerizim into Canaan.

Also, Mount Carmel, which seems to be left out of the pattern, was a prophetic reminder of Sinai, a legal witness to the prophets of Baal.

If anyone has anything else to add, please feel free to comment!

“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]

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[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.

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.

Someone made the comment that the “Bible Matrix” is something mystical. While it is certainly typological, it is not mystical. And it is only typological because it is the process of maturity God has built into everything under heaven. Trees and men grow up and bear fruit. That’s typology.

The next step is to understand each cycle as a stage of greater maturity that leaves a legacy. Adam’s faithfulness in the Garden would have won him dominion in the Promised Land, and so on…

Jesus was tested three times in the wilderness. The wilderness is the place where God’s people are sifted like wheat under the Ethics of the Law. This is where the 5 point Covenant pattern expands to the 7 point New Creation. The test is, “Will I be a living sacrifice?” There are three tests within the Ethics, and they relate to the process of sacrifice: Flesh, eyes and life. [1] To combat the lust of the flesh, we put the flesh on the Altar. To combat the lust of the eyes, we submit to the eyes of heaven, the seven Spirits before the throne. To combat the pride of life, we trust God for resurrection. In the ascension rite, this is meat, fire and smoke. In the Tabernacle this is Bronze Altar, Lampstand and Incense Altar. The process of transformation has three stages.

Jesus’ victory over Satan qualified him to come out of the wilderness and cast demons out of others. He had beaten Goliath, one-on-one, so He could now chase the rest of the Philistines away. What most commentators fail to see is this process repeated in the church after Pentecost. James Jordan notices three strikes against the church: Jewish persecution (the flesh on the Altar), false doctrine (strange Fire, seven demons), and then Jewish-Roman persecution (the final legal witness of a “resurrected” Israel, leaving the house “filled with smoke”). This explains the various bindings and loosings of Satan recorded in the Revelation before chapter 20. The church dealt with each temptation, but the Lord allowed another one that required greater maturity. The church was being sifted like wheat and purified. Just as the persecution took on a temporary Jew-Gentile body against the Church, the Church was a Spirit-filled Jew-Gentile body that would actually last.

But the final binding, the one in Revelation 20, is not a recapitulation of this period. (Jim Hamilton thinks this is the case, and so do hyperpreterists). Not only does the Covenant structure of Revelation make this impossible, [2] but it means the baby church learned nothing during this foundational time.

The righteousness or unrighteousness of an individual always leaves a corporate legacy (this is the Covenant Head and Body). Jesus’ “Garden” victory left the legacy of the Spirit for those in the Land. It was the inverse of the legacy which Adam left for Cain. Just so, the “Land” victory of the Apostolic church left a legacy of kingdom wisdom for the conquest of the World. As Jordan observes, the chain in the right hand of the Angel in Revelation 20 is the Church. It is an application of the seven stars of the New Covenant Lampstand in Jesus’ right hand. Satan’s fall was due to Jesus’ “gravity.” [3] But is is the gravity of the Apostolic church’s legacy that keeps him bound from “deceiving the nations” until Jesus has finished His own work of gathering the nations. [4] Hyperpreterism, premillennialism and amillennialism, the inept recapitulators, leave no hope for the nations. Only postmillennialism gives Jesus what He came for as an inheritance, as a Covenant legacy: a corporate holiness of, not one (AD30-AD70), but a thousand generations.

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[1] See Satan’s Synagogue.
[2] See Moses vs. Hyperpreterism.
[3] Notice that Satan’s anti-Covenant “mission” was Garden-Heaven-Garden (his last stand being in Herod’s Temple, poisoning the “springs” of Edenic waters), but Jesus’ mission was Heaven-Garden-Heaven.
[4] On the “thousand years”, see For A Thousand Years, and the comments following.

“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have gazed upon and our hands handled concerning the word of life—and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and announce to you the life, the eternal one, which was toward the Father and was manifested to us—what we have seen and heard, we announce also to you…”

IF I BELIEVE that the first resurrection occurred around AD70 [1], and that the New Covenant administration consists of saints living and reigning with Christ in heaven [2], these “joint-heirs” become co-mediators in some fashion. Does this open the door to the Roman Catholic practice of praying to glorified saints, or to the Eastern Orthodox love for beautiful icons?

Working my way through Peter Leithart’s commentary on the epistles of John, I found the answer, and it is thoroughly iconoclastic.

From John’s emphasis on the visibility and tangibility of the Word, Eastern Orthodox Christians have concluded that we are no longer forbidden, as Israel was, to communicate with God through images… This is not, however, the direction John goes…

Life is available to us in the Word of Life, now manifested in human flesh, but there is an order to this manifestation. The apostles had direct access to the visible and tangible Word. We do not. Living twenty centuries from the ascension, we have not heard, seen, beheld, or handled Him. Instead, we rely on the testimony of the “we.” Through fellowship or communion with them, we have fellowship with the Father and the Son (I John 1:3), and we have fellowship with them by believing their written testimony concerning the Word of Life (v. 4) and by abiding in the community of which they are the foundation stones (c. Eph. 2:20).

John moves from telling us that he and the apostles have seen and touched life to telling us that he announces this discovery to us. If we want to have life, we have to receive the announcement, the gospel proclamation. What they have seen and touched, we access by hearing. John emphasizes as strongly as possible the visibility of the Word, but then falls back to the old Hebraic emphasis on the ear. The movement is from their eyes and hands to our ears. We have not seen the Word, and we do not need to. We have the law, the prophets, and now the apostles. That is more than enough…

Despite appearances, we are even more intimate with Jesus than the disciples were prior to His ascension and Pentecost. They heard Him speak, but often misunderstood what He said. Though we also get things wrong, we have the Spirit to lead us into truth…

This intimacy is what John is getting at when he talks about the communion of the church with apostles, the Father, and Jesus. There is a necessary order here. We have no communion with the Father without communion with the Son; no communion with the Son without communion with the apostles; and no communion with the apostles without receiving their written testimony in the communion of the church. [3]

What this means is that those saints living in heaven are tablets of flesh that still speak. We hear their voices from heaven as we read their eyewitness testimony. This is how they govern, and of course it is exactly how God governs. He speaks through the testimony of the saints to us, cutting our hearts, and we speak to the world. But what about fellowship in the other direction? Icons don’t speak to us, but should we pray to the saints? [4]

There is no exhortation to do any such thing in the New Testament, and no record of the practice in the early church. To do so would be to contravene the very witness of the apostles through which we have communion. Any church that sets itself up as an authority over the Scriptures (as Rome does) is thus limiting the communion possible with the Son and the Father. Conformity with the apostolic testimony gives us direct communion not with the apostles, but with the Son and the Father. We have direct access to His table, to His body and His blood, as they did. In the New Covenant church, there are no fences around the sanctuary.

Leithart goes on to show that this communion, this unity and intimacy of life, is not common ideas but a person. Why then does the written Word often seem the opposite of what we desire? What the apostles left us, of all things, is a book! We desire the “tangibility” of Spirit-filled life, but instead the Word feels like bitter death.

So much of our Christian life seems to be mere words; dead words. The Christian book industry must have devoured many virgin forests. But this does not mean words are to be disparaged to make way for power. The Word is living, and it brings Life, but via death. The apostles who testify and the Christ to whom they testify are all living. But their hard Words are to be obeyed.

Conformity to the written Word—which is common ideas—is a living sword that cuts the sacrifice. Obeying feels like death. Becoming united very often feels like death (especially for opinionated men). It is costly to us. But the resurrection Life—the access that follows—is direct. It is a consuming Pentecostal fire on the Altar. As always, simple obedience to God is the key to unimaginable power. The church which will not submit to this death-by-eyewitness-testimony is denied The Life.

John writes to a divided church, a church in crisis. How is such a church to be unified?… The church is unified by a radically divisive adherence to the witness of the apostles, committed to writing in the New Testament. [5]

So, if we can’t pray to the saints, why a first resurrection? Why not just leave us the apostolic words (as most Christians believe God did) and leave the apostles (and Old Covenant saints) in their graves? Why bother preparing a place for the disciples and then taking them there so soon?

This was the necessary climax of the Old Covenant, the “heavenly country” for which Abraham looked. The Old Covenant martyrs and the New Covenant apostles are all JEWS. [6] The first resurrection was the end of Judaism. The goal of God was never merely the salvation of the faithful, but their inclusion in His government. We see this signified many times throughout the Old Testament, most notably when Moses and the elders feasted with the Lord on the mountain and, somehow, He didn’t lay a finger on them.

The apostolic witness was completed before the destruction of Temple worship. They spoke like trumpets, and all the old walls came down. No more fences. No more darts and spears. Full access to the mountain of God for all. The Holy Place on earth was destroyed by the testimony of those who now governed as redeemed men (Adams) in the Holy Place in heaven. The Temple finally became a reality.

“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.” Ephesians 2:14

The firstfruits church founded a new building which is a body. Yes, there is mediation, as there is in any body. But the Old Covenant was a dead body, a dead sacrifice. The New is a living body, a resurrected sacrifice, and as with the members of any living body, all access to the life is direct. The blood flows to every corner of the Altar. Our communion is not with a fence of Jesus’ minders in heaven. We don’t have to make an appointment. As we obey their testimony, the testimony of Jesus, their communion with Him is our communion with Him. He is an open door.

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 or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4-6)

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[1] See The First Resurrection and The End is Not Yet.
[2] See Jesus’ New Broom and Big Government.
[3] Peter J. Leithart, From Behind the Veil, pp. 39-42.
[4] On the danger of icons, see People Are Good.
[5] [3] Peter J. Leithart, From Behind the Veil, p. 44.
[6] By Jews, here, I mean the “sons of God,” the various forms of priesthood as it developed throughout the Old Testament beginning with Abel. But referring to them as Jews makes my point sharper to your ears.

In Zechariah 5, the wicked woman (Israel’s old idolatry) is put under a lid in a counterfeit Ark of the Covenant. Instead of a lid of solid gold (light), it is a lid of solid lead (darkness). She was exiled throughout the Restoration era until we see her riding the beast in the Revelation. She was released for a short time, exposed and destroyed.

The Bible begins with Adam, Eve and the serpent and ends with the false prophet (Herods), the harlot (Herodian worship construct) and the Sea beast (a corrupted Roman guardian).

My question is, Revelation 20 shows the (real) Beast put under a lid so that a resurrected Israel (the church) is free to minister to the nations. Zechariah shows the Harlot put under a lid so that a resurrected Israel (Ezra’s people) is free to minister to the nations.

Tracking back in time, when did we see the original False Prophet put under a lid? I can’t believe there isn’t an instance in Israel’s earlier history that qualifies.

There are distinct requirements:

1. He is not a literal man but a counterfeit system of thought
2. He is symbolically incarcerated (in a vision?)
3. His incarceration allows a new Tabernacle/Temple to be built
4. His incarceration frees Israel to minister in a new, more mature, way
5. His release is only so he can be exposed and destroyed

Due to the repeated structures in the Bible, I can think of a number of contenders, but this false Adam-symbol really needs to be a an Adam, ie. a Hebrew/Jew, a corrupt “man” standing before God as mediator.

The beast was exiled to the abyss, where he belonged. The woman was exiled to Shinar, where she belonged. I guess a corrupt Adam would be exiled to the dust.

Any thoughts? It’s probably staring me in the face.

(Aaron’s golden calf is the best contender I can think of so far. Ticks a lot of the boxes.)

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[1] See For A Thousand Years.

When it was pointed out to a Southern Baptist pastor at one of those (now quaint) prophecy conferences they still insist on holding, that there were more than ten European nations in the EEC, he replied that however many there may be now, there will be exactly ten when the Antichrist comes to power.

The only reason this gospel age is possible is because Satan is prevented from deceiving the nations, prevented from uniting them for all-out war against the church. [1] This doesn’t mean that the church isn’t suffering or shouldn’t suffer. Serving and/or suffering is part of the church’s ministry. We fill up the sufferings of Christ before the watching world. [2] What it does mean is that the church cannot be wiped off the face of the earth. The church might be dwindling down to nothing in countries like Turkey, but it is booming in countries of the global south. [3]

This “Babel factor”  has been described by James Jordan. See Confused Lip.

“There is hardly a dime’s worth of difference between Molech and Chemosh, but the Moabites and Ammonites did not think they were the same at all. There is hardly a dime’s worth of difference between Leninism and Maoism, but the Russians and Chinese did not think so. Until the nations turn to the true faith, God keeps them at war with one another in terms of their idolatries, and thus keeps them weak.”

Europe will not be united (however temporarily) by any future Antichrist. Europe will only ever be united by the Spirit of Christ—and it will happen.[4] The economic “unity” brought about under the Euro (manmade mortar) is breaking up as we watch. Nations that are righteous get exalted by God. Nations that turn their backs on God are scattered.

The economic crisis is global, and that is scary, even in cushy Australia. But as western culture dies, we know from the Scriptures that when God is breaking, dividing something, He is making something new. He only scatters to reap later. [5]

The ten toes of iron and clay are ancient history. The prophecy refers to the Herods’ attempt to mix–intermarry–their rule (they were Edomites, and edom means “red”) with Roman iron. What is interesting is that while they attempted this “state marriage” of Jew and Gentile, Paul was doing exactly the same thing by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Ingathering. [6]

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[1] See the article series Amalek Debunks Hyperpreterism (scroll down till you see article 1).
[2] See Postmillennial Suffering.
[3] See The Coming of Global Christianity [PDF]. Related to this, see Dispensationalism is Racist.
[4] See Blood and Soil.
[5] I highly recommend James Jordan’s Crisis, Opportunity and the Chistian Future.
[6] See Heaven and Hell Hybrids, The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men and Counter-FEET.

or Legs of Burning Bronze

So, we have noted that the New Jerusalem, the crystal city with walls and gates, is pictured by the water crossings of Israel.

It is interesting to note that the failure of the first generation to enter the Land due to cowardice messed up the pattern. In the greater chiasm, from Abraham in Canaan (Genesis) to Israel in Canaan (Judges), Egypt is the “testing” under beastly rulers at the centre. The Red Sea was to be the final Laver. So God began a new pattern, one with “testing” under more beastly rulers in the wilderness. And Israel finally crossed when the Jordan was flooding, a new Laver for the next generation.

Anyhow, the point of this post is to understand the final, short release of Satan. As we saw, the Totus Christus (Christ and the church as one body) stands spiritually upon the neck of the beast. The beast is under His heel. This corresponds to the pillar of fire which held Pharaoh back from attacking the Hebrews while they crossed the Sea. This is where we stand now. Satan is not entirely bound because God always uses him to test and purify his people, to bring them to a maturity of judgment between good and evil. But Satan is bound from doing some very specific things: from deceiving the nations (which is why the gospel has spread all over the world) and as the consequence of this withheld deception, his gathering of the nations against the church. [1] As with Job, a definite line was drawn that he cannot cross—until history gets to verse 7.

As in Eden, there is currently “flaming sword” at the gate. It is the stream of fire coming down from the throne in Daniel 7 that allows the firstfruits saints, and the rest of us, to approach the throne. But at the end of the millennium [2], the pillar of fire moves on. The burning bronze legs of Jesus (symbolised by the two pillars at the entry to Solomon’s Temple [3] and harking back to not only the two cherubim at the Garden gate but also the two trees at the centre of the Garden) will be lifted.

But only because they get in the way of DECAPITATING him. [4]

Satan will finally be able to stop the nations fighting amongst themselves and unite them as a “Totus Diabolus” against the church, symbolically known as the camp of the saints, the holy city, the New Jerusalem. As with Pharaoh, it will simply be a trap. Eve will deceive the serpent. For the lawless one, it will be an eye for an eye.

The last days of the firstfruits church (Armageddon [5]) were cut short for the sake of the saints. The first resurrection followed. The last days of the church age, this final battle, will also be cut short—”a little season.” The second resurrection will follow. And Jesus tells us that there would be no suffering ever again as great as that of the firstfruits saints. The last battle will be like the one in Esther.

“For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth.” Romans 9:28

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[1] See Greater Amalek.
[2] See For A Thousand Years.
[3] See Landing Gear.
[4] See There Can Be Only One.
[5] “In Hebrew, “Har” means “Mountain”, and “Maged” means “Festival Assembly”. The Battle of the Mountain of Festival Assembly is a battle at Mount Sinai, at Mount Zion, at the Church.” See James B. Jordan, The Vindication of Jesus Christ p. 69-71.

All the names and the numbers in Revelation are symbols based on historical facts. The names are easy. Jezebel, Antipas, Balaam… But we mathematical moderns have trouble taking numbers as symbols. We are only interested in descriptions, not relationships. In the Bible, symbols describe relationships. As David Chilton observes in The Days of Vengeance [PDF], the symbolic value of someone or something is not a description of its nature, but a description of its relationship to someone or something else. Hence, as Jordan observes, Satan is both a dragon and a serpent in Revelation 12. He is a serpent to the Woman and a dragon to her children.

The debate over certain numbers in Revelation is amazing. For the meaning of 666, see here.

The thousand years of Revelation 20 is to be understood in the same way. It’s no more tricksy than any allusion to the number 42 being the answer to life, the universe, and everything in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. You have to have read the book to “get it.” [1] As Peter Leithart illustrates in Deep Exegesis, the text, among other things, is a joke.

It was a thousand years from the offering of Isaac to the day David purchased the threshing floor of Aruanah. These events occurred on the same site. It was the end of mobile worship. James Jordan’s Bible chronology shows that from the completion of the construction of Solomon’s Temple to the destruction of Herod’s Temple, it was, again, a thousand years. It was the end of Temple worship.

So, based on these beginnings and endings, what does this number mean for the gospel age, governed from heaven by the Son of God and His ascended saints? Once all this has been pointed out, it ain’t rocket science.

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[1] The answer “42″ was so funny because it was totally bereft of any meaning other than a scientific description.

Isaiah’s visions of Israel’s restoration have nothing to do with a future millennial golden age for the Jews, or even directly with the first century, except by the events of  the Restoration era prefiguring later history. His words were for his hearers, for both their condemnation and their hope in the near future. Why do we get him wrong?

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