Bully's Blog

or Holy Smoke

Doug Wilson writes:

“The debate in the early church was not whether the Jews should stop circumcising their sons; it was whether the Gentiles had to start. The decision of the Jerusalem council was not that individual Gentiles did not have to be circumcised. If circumcision had been required of them, it would have obligated them to live as Jews under the Mosaic law — which included the circumcision of all subsequent generations. Circumcision was not being waived for individual Gentiles; circumcision was being waived for Gentiles and their seed. So the Christian church did not insist that Gentiles circumcise their infants — not because they were infants, but because they were Gentile infants” (To a Thousand Generations, pp. 68-69).

Since there is no ex-plicit proof of infant baptism, Pastor Wilson’s self-stated, continuing goal here is to find im-plicit proof. My goal in the following is to show that not only do circumcision and baptism not correspond, but also that the solution to the dispute in this passage he refers to is given in the passage, leaving no room for an im-plicit reference to infant baptism.

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Nothing could save the circumcision.
How do you save death itself?

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The Killing Field

“…that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the Land, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.” Matthew 23:35

“from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.” Luke 11:51

The Hebrew word for “land” is feminine. [1] The fruitful Bride is pictured in the fruitful field. Both are to be cultivated and cared for under God by Covenant.

When the priesthood was faithful, God promised to make the people, animals and Land fruitful: the Covenant “to,” the input of the Spirit as Head, as Covenant Word made flesh. Deuteronomy 28 gives a long list of ways in which God would make her abundant. Continue reading

Smoke and Mirrors

Instead of being qualified to carry the flaming sword and take dominion over the world,

“You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you.” Leviticus 26:7

he moved outwards into the world, but without access to the mountain of God. Adam was still under the sword. He was outside the fruitful field of Covenant with God, and all other relationships were distorted. His Covenant with his wife, and his delegated Covenant with the Land. Continue reading

Cooking as Eschatology

But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence.

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

Thanks to Doug Wilson’s recommendations of it, one of the books I took to hospital was The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon. It is a mouth-watering fusion of cookbook and theology, pushing the idea of multi-disciplinary insights to the outer limit. But then, we moderns don’t have such biblical horizons, do we? We refuse to see the world as the Bible reveals it to us.

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or Insanity and Spiritual Songs

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]

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or The Spirit Bids Geldings Be Fruitful

It’s cat-among-the pigeons time again.

Identifying the Bible Matrix in Acts reveals in quite a number of places that the author, Luke, has a sense of humour. Or the Holy Spirit does. In Acts 8, at Ascension (Firstruits), the Ethiopian eunuch asks Philip to hop up into his chariot. [1]

Philip opens the Law for him at Pentecost, the man is “resurrected” at Trumpets, baptized at Atonement (the Laver), and at Tabernacles we have both a Jew and Gentile whose witness flows out into the nations.

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“and their faces were backwards so that they did not see their father’s nakedness” (Gen. 9:23)

James Jordan has some fascinating comments on Ham’s sin in Genesis 19:

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or Meat to Eat – 1

“And whanne Moises cam doun fro the hil of Synai, he helde twei tablis of witnessyng, and he wiste not that his face was horned of the felouschipe of Goddis word..” —Exodus 34:29, Wycliffe

Perhaps you’ve seen those bumper stickers that say, “If we’re not meant to eat animals, why are they made of meat?”

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

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From memory, men didn’t eat meat until after the flood. The history from Adam to Noah follows the Feasts pattern, with Adam as the Alpha male (heh) and Noah as the mature and wise Omega male of that initial process. [1] Moving from vegetarianism (literally “seeds”) to meat was not only a sign of judgment, but a sign of greater judgment put into the hands of God’s Man. [2] Noah could eat meat, and he could also sentence murderers to death. Man now had teeth in a way he had never had them before. Even we use the phrase “toothless” to refer to ineffective pieces of legislation. As mentioned elsewhere here, teeth and tusks and ivory and horns are symbols of justice, whether they be on men, animals, or altars. [3] A blood-covered horn means the crime is atoned for. Just as Christ was a Lamb with seven horns, worthy to open the scroll, Moses came down from Sinai with not only a “scroll” (or tablets in that case) but “horns.” This translation has been dismissed as errant, but perhaps the reason for it should not be dismissed so easily. Here’s my attempt at an interpretation.

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“Paul knew his kinsmen. This is a group of people on whom this tactic would work.”

Doug Wilson has been preaching through Romans (subscribe to his podcast now!) and recently commented on his blog about Romans 11, and the relationship between Christians and Jews today.[1] I’ll have to listen to his sermon to figure out whether Doug sees this as interpretation (“all Israel” is yet to be saved), or application.

I made some comments and a gent called Lemuel replied, and I made some more. It brings out the significance of the phrase “the sons of God.”

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