God loves fractals. He (Father) speaks (Spirit) the Word (Son) and everything He creates is made in the image of the Triune, three distinct, yet indivisible, named parts working as one.

The Holy of Holies is triune. The Name (Word) dwells invisibly above the blood (Sacrament) on the kapporet (Government). Then, of course, we have the Most Holy, the Holy, and the Laver (the Laver is a beaten out “firmament” like the kapporet). Moving out again, and we have the Tent as Garden, the Tabernacle enclosure as Land, and outside the enclosure as World. Again, and we have the Tabernacle itself as Garden, Israel as Land, and Gentile “Sea” as World. Out again and we have Heaven (the true mountain of God) as Garden, the physical Land as, well, Land, and the physical sea as the Laver.

The human body is the same. Your head is Word, your body is Sacrament, and what you do with your limbs is Government. Within this, your head has a three-decker structure, with your brain “behind the Veil” flanked by two witnesses, ears as Servanthood and Dominion, nose for Incense, and mouth as Government (a court governed by your angelic teeth!). Apparently, within even this architecture, your brain has a three-decker structure.  Edwin Friedman writes:

In 1990 Dr. Paul McLean, who had studied the human brain for more than thirty years at the National Institutes of Health, published a monumental volume entitled The Triune Brain. His thesis is that the human brain has three distinct parts, each of which developed at a different stage of evolution but evolved in an interconnected fashion, with information flowing reciprocally in both directions between all three parts. The brain, in other words, is itself a history, if not a manifestation, of the evolution of our species.

Other organs such as the kidneys, the lungs, the pancreas, or the bladder seem to have ceased evolving after reaching a form that fit their function. The brain, on the other hand, keeps changing its size and shape as animal life has evolved, so that the brain appears to be a hodgepodge. It is as though the Creator or Evolution had after-thoughts. The human brain has brown in weight from the few ounces found in reptiles to the “enormous” full pound found in early humans to its present “whopping” size of three pounds. But Dr. McLean has shown that the earliest brains have not been replaced by newer models. Rather, they remain as the substructure onto which new forms have been built, and into which new forms have been plugged. In fact, the older brain forms that still reside beneath, or at the base of, the modern human brain are structurally and chemically identical to their forerunners in reptiles and mammals.

At the base of the human brain, says McLean, is a bundle of nerve connections that is totally absent of thought processes. Its bailiwick is instinct. He has dubbed this the “reptilian brain.” Above that is the part of the brain that fills most of the cranium. It allows for thinking on rudimentary levels and evolved with early mammals. he has called this the “mammalian brain.” It is in the mammalian part of the brain that we find the apparatus for creating lasting relationships and therefore families. For it is in the mammalian brain that we first find the seat for nurturing, for playfulness, and for vocal communication.

The third part of the brain is the cortex, the half-inch layer at the top that most people think of as the “real” brain, and its frontal lobe, known as the neo-cortex. It is the cortex that is the center of intellectual activity, and it is the neo-cortex that allows for philosophical speculation, deep problem-solving, intricate strategies, leaders, healers, and, eventually, leadership training programs. But, as mentioned, even the cortex is not really a “central processing unit.” For the most part, the cortex functions interdependently with its reptilian and mammalian precursors. This is as true in gathering data as in making decisions. The information each part processes is to some extent modified by the information simultaneously processed by the other two parts. [1]

Well, of course I don’t go for the assertion that the brain evolved from these lower levels. The brain is no more a hodgepodge than the Tabernacle was, or the world is. The human brain is an ark. It has a place for the mediators in the Garden, the beasts in the Land, and the creeping things down below. And all parts are required to work in harmony for a fully functioning being made in the image of God. Like the Trinity, the brain is an indivisible three in one.

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[1] Edwin H. Friedman, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, pp. 119-120.

All the events of the Bible take place within a cosmic theatrical “stage,” one based on the structure of heaven. Like the Globe Theatre in Shakespeare’s era, an understanding of the symbolic significance of the physical elements in the literal, historical creation account in Genesis gives us incredible insights into the structure of many prophetic Bible passages and the order of many historical events. When we get to the Revelation, familiarity with this theatrical “set” is crucial to understanding its fulfilment in history.

The three-level structure of God’s heavenly court is pictured in the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle is then also the top level of a larger three-level structure: Temple-Israel-Nations, or Garden-Land-World. So we have a three-level heaven, a three-level world, and a three-level “house” mediating between them, a house filled with bread and wine, flesh and blood. [1]

This explains the “soundwaves” pattern found in a great deal of the Bible, particularly the prophets. The Lord speaks His word as liturgy from the Most Holy Place, it is pre-enacted by the prophet in a new “Holy Place” (often from outside the sinning city in some terrifying judgments as object lessons), and then the same judgments are spoken into the “Outer Court,” the Gentile nations. In these three domains, from the top down, we have Word, Sacrament (the prophet as a kind of new “acting” High Priestly mediator), and Government. [2]

Jesus was arrested in a Garden. He was led before the Council and condemned by His own brothers (Land). He was then brought before Pilate, the Roman governor (World). In all cases, He was pretty much silent as a lamb.

Paul’s final journey follows the same pattern but with one crucial difference. He brought a sermon from the Temple steps to the Jews (Garden). Unlike Christ, he defended himself before the council (Land). Finally, he gave testimony before the Roman governor, Felix (World). The difference relates to the process that takes the Tabernacle from silence to song, the bloody silence of the tent of Moses (Jew-only heady-only Circumcision) to the victory song of the tent of David which included Gentile worshippers (Jew-Gentile whole-body baptism). [3] Paul’s journey through Garden, Land and World was after the resurrection of Christ.

Paul’s testimony made Felix tremble. ”He reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.” Or Word, Sacrament and Government. Paul was building the Tabernacle of David. [4]

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[1] See A New Heavens and a New Earth.
[2] See How to Read the Prophets.
[3] See The Sacrifice of Praise. This also supports my position on credo-baptism. Infants can’t testify. Paedobaptism ruins the picture. An appeal to verses like Psalm 8:2 is as relevant to baptism, and circumcision for that matter, as trees clapping their hands. Baptism (Atonement/Laver) comes after the Spirit of Pentecost/Lampstand in every case. It is a robe of office. On baptism’s prefiguring in the four-cornered Israelite robe, see Healing in His… Tassels?
[4] The reference to the Tabernacle of David in Amos was fulfilled in the Restoration era. See Resurrected to Witness.

Reflections on a class discussion earlier today about place, our connection to the ground, and gnosticism.

1. Blood and soil are “powers” that can and have dominated human life, and caused lots of human misery.
2. Jesus overcomes those powers.  We are identified by water and feast, not by blood or color or place.
3. YET (here’s where my thought is undeveloped): Jesus doesn’t just overcome and send the powers packing.  He pacifies and reconciles powers; He turns them to the purposes of His kingdom (Col 1-2).

The dilemma: How to express the reconciliation of blood and soil without falling back into the old creation, and without going fascist? How to express Jesus’ pacification of “blood” without letting it usurp the place of the water, and how to express Jesus’ pacification of “soil” without letting it usurp the place of the feast?

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