Bully’s Blog

or Behold, I Make All Things Bloody

A critic wrote that Mel Gibson, with The Passion of the Christ, invented a new cinematic genre: the religious splatter film. This was intentionally disrespectful, but of course there is some truth to it. Perhaps more truth than we realise. God desired a world covered by blood.

The content of this post has been revised and included in Bible Matrix II: The Covenant Key.

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[1] A summary of James B. Jordan, Re-Creation in the Ascension Offering. Notice that the Tabernacle furniture itself, of course, also aligns with this structure of events, being a microcosmos.
[2] See Half the Blood.
[3] See also The Whole Bloody Bible.

Ending the False Dichotomy of Blood and Spirit

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.

The Land is always bought with blood. Sitting around John Piper’s eschatology round table recently, the premillennialist (Jim Hamilton) and the amillennialist (Sam Storms) had problems understanding that postmillennialism is not about a sudden Utopia on earth. It is about buying the world with blood—this world. Yes, there is martyrdom, but then there is Christian culture. Following the example of Christ, it is being willing to die because you have one eye on the glory that can be bought for God. Like Wycliffe’s prayer from the stake that God would open the King of England’s eyes, it is Visionary Suffering. (See also Postmillennial Suffering.)

But blood is only ever a foundation. Spirit follows. The Law kills but the Spirit gives life. The slaughter of saints actually disarms the old worship, and Christianity fills the void. The atrocities of communism in China and Mongolia cast the ancient demons out of the house and the Holy Spirit finds it swept and garnished. He fills the vacuum like a mighty, rushing wind.

So, the Reformers didn’t need to keep dying. The firstfruits church didn’t keep dying. The “last days” are only ever the last days of the old order. A New Jerusalem is formed on the blood of the apostles and prophets—but then it is also filled! My friend Matthew recently posted:

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One major difference between Jordan and other preterists is his identification of Paul’s “man of sin.” Jordan is correct in naming the Herods rather than Nero because he understands biblical typology better.

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or A Marriage Made in…

The Bible is big on mediators. Adam’s role as faithful Showbread would link heaven and earth. He would be a god-man. Fulfilled by Christ, this is the liturgical role of a minister. He faces God as representative of the Bride, and faces the church as the representative of the Bridegroom. He is Solomon at the completion of the Temple dedication.

The ‘hell’ hybrids are the Land-beasts of the Bible. This is what Adam became, conspiring with Satan. It was an unholy alliance between God’s mediator and the Creation, in which the Creation called the agenda. The resulting peoples are hunters like Nimrod and Esau, wolves instead of shepherds, bloodthirsty children of the daughters of men.

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“There were hangings of fine white and violet linen held by cords of fine purple linen on silver rings and marble columns, and couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl and precious stones.” Esther 1:6 [NASB]

In his Esther lectures, James Jordan observes that Ahasuerus is pictured as being enthroned over his very own crystal sea.

Nero was the first ruler in history to be buried in porphyry. For this ‘bad Ahasuerus’ who exercised false judgment, the crystal sea became a laver of fire. We know from Revelation 14:10 that the lake was before the heavenly throne.

“Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.” Revelation 19:20

Herod’s Temple was covered in marble. Revelation shows it replaced with a crystal city. The church is now the Laver. Baptism symbolises the gospel as walls to the wicked and gates to the righteous: fire and ice. Jesus’ kingdom is the fifth empire and His judgment is righteous and uncompromising.

“So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” Revelation 3:16

It might look like I’m colouring outside the lines, but it’s in line with a very consistent Biblical symbolism.

“It is most remarkable that not only in Revelation do we find large patterns of evidences befitting the AD 60s era, but also even many smaller details. It it surely no accidental similarity that allows us to find not only particular personages (Nero), cultural structures (the Jewish Temple), and historical events (the Neronic persecution and the Jewish War) that harmonise well with the Neronic era, but even time-frames for these that fill out the picture of the era of which John wrote. It can be no other than in the mid- to late AD 60s.”

Kenneth Gentry, Before Jerusalem Fell, p. 255-256

“…since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us…” (Hebrews 12:1)

To defeat Satan is to expose his lies to the truth - to unmask him. We see lots of unmaskings in the Bible. Many of these use the saints as bait. The true natures of Pharaoh, of Job’s accusers, and of Haman and the enemies of God in Esther were all exposed when God’s people became weak. A corpse always brings out the dirty birds (Matthew 24:28), the ‘Edomite’ false brothers waiting to loot a razed Jerusalem.

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