Satan is currently bound from gathering the nations in kingly rebellion so that Jesus might gather them in priestly unity.

Everything which Scripture records for us, no matter how mundane or mysterious, exists as part of a process of growth to maturity. This transformation is achieved through relationships established by a Father who delights in His Son and rewards His faithfulness as “seed” with abundant fruit.

History is thus written in “harvest cycles,” and each of these ends with blessings and curses. As in Eden, after a period of silence which allows the righteous and the wicked to fulfill their potential, the Lord comes suddenly (Revelation 22:10-11). As in Eden, He inspects and collects the fruit and gives His trees a pruning. In history, each cycle lasts approximately 400 to 500 years, since that is the time it takes for a new Word to finish its work in a culture. From our beginning in Adam, these cycles also appear to come in pairs, a Forming and a Filling, resulting in “themed” millennia.

Continue reading at Theopolis Institute.

Jesus would be gathered first to the true fathers, then, once enthroned, He would gather the true sons.

In English, the word manger is archaic, preserved for us by the Christmas tradition. In French, the word is still in use, being the infinitive “to eat.” As with every detail in the Scriptures, the fact that the One who would give Himself to us in the elements of a meal was placed in a food trough invites contemplation.

This post has been slain and resurrected for inclusion in my 2015 book of essays, Inquietude.

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or Where Kenneth Gentry Is Wrong on the Revelation

Part 1 here.

I’ve been meaning to write this post since I wrote Part 1 (over two years ago). A friend’s recent question concerning Kenneth Gentry’s lectures on the Revelation encouraged me to bite the bullet and bust a gut and get it done. The question is this: Is the Revelation to be interpreted in the light of Josephus’ Jewish War, or in the light of the Bible itself?

Just as the Tabernacle rebuilt by David included Gentile worshipers, the reinstitution of worship in Israel after the exile likewise required the inclusion of Gentile sponsors. We saw in Esther in Ezekiel’s Temple that the oikoumene was a Jew-Gentile social architecture, with the city of Jerusalem itself serving as a kind of holy altar within a larger temple. [1] Just as the four-horned altar served as an image of the (symbolically) four-cornered Land (not earth; see The Earth Is Flat), so now the entire city was referred to as “holy,” and the genealogy of every Jew was considered “priestly.” This upgrade in holiness of what was once common was the result of Israel’s exile, a death-and-resurrection which purged her of idol worship. So, what could go wrong?

Of course, these new blessings could and would be twisted into curses. The holy city itself and the genealogy of every Jew would become Israel’s new gods.

This is the situation into which the Messiah was born. The outcome of this idolatry was the requirement for a new death-and-resurrection. In Israel’s place, Christ initiated it, and Israel followed Him through the process over the next generation. Like the bronze altar outside the Tabernacle, the entire city itself would be considered “outside the camp,” and even its sides would be splashed with the blood of the atoning sacrifices. As the law decreed, the crimes of the murderers would be atoned for with their own blood.

Consequently, it would be no surprise that the deep structure of the Revelation recapitulates the order of sacrifice. The Revelation is not a description of the Jewish war, though it is part of the outcome. It is a liturgy describing the sacrifice of the priesthood of Israel for the sake of the nations. Herod’s Jerusalem would be offered up in a spectacle of blood, fire and smoke. Any other reading of the final book of the Bible, using, for instance, uninspired second Temple literature, the works of Josephus, or the latest news headlines, to interpret it, is a gross misunderstanding of the purpose of the text.

Ordo Sacrificii sub Apocalypsis

In the book of Leviticus, the simple process of the whole burnt offering (“the ascension” [3]) blooms like a flower, revealing myriad parts with different purposes. Yet each of these remains a process of transformation, one whose pattern can be traced back to Genesis 1.

Creation – Day 1 – Called (Sabbath – “on the Lord’s Day”)

What is the correspondence between the choosing of the blameless animal and Day 1? The baptism of Jesus is a great help. The dove hovers over the water and identifies the Lamb from hundreds of His repentant brothers. We see a similar process at the anointing of David, the shepherd. In the Revelation, it is the vision of the glorified Jesus, the one who has already ascended.

Division – Day 2 – Sanctified (Passover)

In biblical terms, sanctification is not a growth in holiness but a setting apart. In sacrificial terms, it is the delegation of a purpose, much as one might set apart food for a special event. Thus, sanctification has more to do with election than the kind of practical holiness which the word brings to mind today. In Genesis 1, this is the parting of the waters. In Exodus, it is the parting of the Red Sea to set Israel apart from Egypt. In Galatians, Paul combines these two images in his use of Hagar and Sarah as symbols of Egypt’s river and Canaan’s rain, the waters below and the waters above (see The Shape of Galatians, pp. 155-165). In the Revelation, it is the Division of the New Israel, represented by the seven churches, from the Old Israel, the city of Jerusalem who now embodies the worst traits of Egypt, Sodom and Babylon, and worse, flaunts these in God’s face through her continued sacrifices, following the murder of Christ and most of His apostles. Jesus calls these new “sons of God” out of Egypt and “passes over” them, “trimming the wick” on each lampstand. He cuts off the leaven of the Pharisees in each church before He cuts off “Egypt” altogether (see The Eighth Letter and Living Menora).

Ascension – Day 3 – Presented (Firstfruits)

The Passover sacrifice could be a lamb or a kid, but the Firstfruits animal offering was a lamb. Revelation 4-5 reveal the Lamb, ascended to heaven as the firstfruits from the dead, representing all who believe. Since the work of Day 3 was twofold, Land and fruits, Altar and Table, Christ is the connection between the earth (His grave in Israel) and the heavens. Instead of grain and fruit plants, Christ is flesh and blood, bread and wine, offered upon the Table.

Christ opens the scroll, which ends His ministry in the Garden, and sends the four Gospel witnesses into the Land (or, in Tabernacle terms, moves the action from the Most Holy into the Holy Place). The seven seals follow the same sevenfold pattern in microcosm.

Testing – Day 4 – Purified (Pentecost)

Just as Christ is the Head of the sacrifice (offered without being washed), chapter 7 reveals the firstfruits Body: 144,000 believing Jews. Note that the Body is washed (v. 14). These are the sheep which Peter was to feed for the slaughter. The process of “counting” alludes to the book of Numbers. Only the men were counted, because men are sacrificial “heads,” hence circumcision for Israelite males. But there are Gentiles as well, yet these are not counted. They are numberless. Peter’s haul of fish was counted, an offering from the sea presented upon the “altar” on the beach (a fire of burning coals). The fact that these Gentile “human sacrifices” are not counted means the Covenant is moving from earth to heaven, from the Cainite ground to the “Abel” (hebel) clouds of heaven. This is a new heavens and earth, a new creation, and the description of the end of their suffering aptly follows the order of the Creation week (see Saved From The Green Horse). The centre of this promise concerns the striking and scorching heat of the sun, which leads into chapter 8. This is a description of the holy fire from heaven, the Spirit of God descending upon both Jews and Gentiles from the Day of Pentecost onward. From heaven’s point of view, salvation was a call to become a human sacrifice, since Christ has made us “acceptable” to God (in sacrificial terms). We no longer need animal substitutes.

Maturity – Day 5 – Transformed (Trumpets)

This is where our concept of “sanctification” comes in. It is spiritual maturity, so in biblical terms a better word for it might be transformation. The flesh has been consumed and is now fragrant clouds, able to pass through locked doors (as we see in John and Acts), following the High Priest who entered through the torn veil in clouds of incense on the Day of Atonement.

New Israel – Good Trumpets

Maturity corresponds to the Feast of Trumpets (see above), describing in “Mosaic” terminology the witness of the Apostles leading up to the destruction of the  Temple and its now obsolete – and corrupted – worship. The seven trumpets follow the same sevenfold “creation-through-sacrifice” pattern. As the Feast of Trumpets, they muster the troops of Israel. However, as is described by Paul in Romans, there were now two Israels. The Judiastic Israelites are described as Egyptian/Babylonian locusts, and the saints are described as human Tabernacles, temples of the Spirit.

In chapter 10, a part of the New Covenant authority is delegated to John, a son of thunder, who, as the Last Apostle, will speak the final words of judgment upon the rulers of the Land (“kings of the earth”). For a description of the angel, see The Church As Colossus and The Last Trumpet.

The two witnesses are the Law of Moses and the Testimony of the Prophets embodied in the Apostolic Witness as the testimony of Jesus, hence Moses and Elijah deferring to Christ at His transfiguration, and the Father vindicating Christ as He did at His baptism. Just as that act ended Christ’s personal testimony to Israel, so these two witnesses end the Apostolic testimony to Israel. Both Head and Body have now spoken and been slain.

What is interesting here is that the Word began in the Garden, worked its way out through the Land to the World. Here we have three pictures of the testimony of the Firstfruits Church, which reverse the order: A great army crossing the Euphrates into the Land (World), the witness of John as seven “Sinaitic” thunders (Land), and the Law and Prophets as two cherubim (Garden). These symbols follow the High Priest as He makes His way from the court, through the Holy Place and into the Most Holy, just as He does in Leviticus. So the final verse of this section referring to the Ark of God in His temple should be no surprise if we have a handle on sacred architecture. The blood of the human sacrifices is being offered by Christ as the “washed Body” (Leviticus 1:9 – supporting baptism by full immersion of the body). However, this brings a new fire from heaven, one which will be administered by the Roman armies.

Old Israel – Bad Trumpets

Following the pattern of Psalm 1, Maturity has both blessings (the Apostolic witness) and curses (the response of the rulers of the Land). This dual witness is the “Deuteronomy” of the book of Revelation (read Deuteronomy 28). In their warnings, the Firstfruits Church not only “filled up” (multiplied into an abundance, as Brides do) the sufferings of Christ, but also provoked unbelieving Israelites to harden their hearts like Pharaoh did, and to “fill up” their sins. Paul describes this Jew-Gentile ministry and the imminent judgement of Jerusalem:

For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God’s wrath has come upon them at last! (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16)

I hope it is becoming plain how erroneous is most exposition of the Revelation, including that by many preterists. Throwing proof texts at each other is like arguing about jigsaw pieces without reference to the picture on the box, which is found in the Torah.

Anyhow, from Revelation 12, the pattern of the Trumpets (Maturity) is repeated. It begins with a negative Pentecost. Just as David received the Spirit and Saul received an evil spirit from the Lord, so false Israel became demonic after the “enlightening” of Pentecost (Hebrews 6:4). Satan was kicked out of his “legal” role in heaven and took up residence on the earth, or more specifically, on the Land, in the Temple of the Herods (the source of the Edenic “springs” described in the final chapters of Ezekiel). So, that’s the Herodian Garden corrupted. Notice it begins with the Woman and the Herodian Dragon, a clear reference to Genesis as the beginning of this legal pattern.

Next, he spewed this corrupted (“bitter” Wormwood) river into the Land, and the false Church sucked it right up. This was the false doctrine which the apostles had to battle against, referred to over and over again in the epistles (so much for the attempts over the centuries to identify this false doctrine as anything but anti-Christian Judaism).

Satan’s final attempt to kill the Bride was to turn to the World for aid, so he called upon the Sea Beast, Rome (see Three Strikes, Binding and Loosing, and Serpents and Dragons). AD64 saw not only the completion of Herod’s Temple (proving Jesus to be a false prophet) but also the burning of Rome, the first time Roman authorities recognised Christianity as separate from Judaism. Satan’s ploy was to attack this strange new Jew-Gentile Body with a Jew-Gentile counterfeit, just as Herod and Pilate became “friends” after the trial of Christ.

After a description of this false worship and its false kingdom (presented as an Aaronic golden calf, the image of a beast), the “transformed” sacrifices are seen as “holy smoke” on the mountain with Christ, Head and Body now united. Their flesh and blood was “harvested” as bread and wine. Like the blood of Abel, it cried from the ground and calls upon God for vindication and vengeance. However, unlike the first murder, this vengeance would not be delayed. The blood of all the prophets from Abel onwards would be avenged upon that generation. The Land is described as an altar overflowing with blood “as high as a horse’s bridle.”

Conquest – Day 6 – Vindicated (Atonement)

Jerusalem had been surrounded by saints with Gospel “Trumpets”, but the final day had come. As it was with Jericho, the firstfruits of the Land, “all flesh” would be cut off in Jerusalem, as the firstfruits of the World. The entire city would be cut around, or circumcised. This brings us to the seven bowls of wrath, which correspond to the seven sprinklings of blood from the hand of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement. However, on this day, the Roman general Titus would step over the Body of the apostate High Priest (see End of the Abrahamic Rift and Jesus’ Caesars).

What is the source of the seven bowls? Only the structure of the text reveals this (which means exegetes with little or no poetic sense will write this observation off as speculation). Interestingly, it is the Lampstand, the light of the Law now available by the Spirit (see Seven Bowls of Wrath). The Spirit would no longer strive with old Israel. For a sample of the beauty of the “de-Creation” described under the image of these Temple bowls, see #41 in 50 Failed Predictions part 9. For a complete rundown, see James B. Jordan’s The Vindication of Jesus Christ.

Chapters 17-19 describe the separation of the harlot and the bride, corresponding to Hagar and Sarah (Israel as Egypt versus Abraham’s “heavenly Canaan”), and also the two prostitutes whose hearts were discerned by Solomon. Since this entire pattern recapitulates the Testing of Adam in the Garden, the Father is discerning the heart of the Bride (Numbers 5) whom Christ has presented to Him as a chaste virgin. Not only are her eyes open (Luke 24:31; Acts 9:8,18), but she is liberated by the obedience of her Adam.

Glorification – Day 7 – Sent (Booths)

The final section of the Revelation is also sevenfold. It describes the ministry of the now-enthroned Firstfruits Church in heaven during this current period (see For A Thousand Years and Altar of the Abyss – 7). The sacrificial process enacted in the Garden and re-enacted in the Land would now be recapitulated throughout the World through the testimony of saints from every nation.

I hope to write a complete “Shape of the Revelation” some time soon, but will wait for Peter Leithart’s 2015 commentary because he will no doubt present many insights I can rip off include! In the mean time, get a hold of James B. Jordan’s Revelation lecture series.

But I hope you can see that the Revelation is not a symbolic account of the Jewish War, as important as understanding that history might be. Of course, I do recommend Kenneth Gentry’s Before Jerusalem Fell, which is extremely helpful when it comes to dating the book and establishing its purpose in the biblical canon.

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[1] For an introduction to this subject, see Peter J. Leithart’s The Four: A Survey of the Gospels. For a more in-depth study, see James B. Jordan’s The Handwriting on the Wall: A Commentary on the Book of Daniel. And you can search for “oikoumene” here on the blog.
[2] See Peter J. Leithart, Skinned and Cut, Biblical Horizons No. 35 (March 1992)

ART: A souped up version of the original cover artwork for David Chilton’s The Days of Vengeance. Chilton makes a similar error to Gentry, but is still well worth a read for his many insights.

“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!

Bible commentators will tell you that Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians contains great riches. Unfortunately, without any reference to its Mosaic literary structure, it comes across as a jumble of jewels in a treasure chest. However, analysis of the structure allows us to appreciate the fine networks and chains of thought in the literary architecture — and also the clever allusions contrasting old Israel with the New. It also demonstrates Jesus’ fulfillment of the Mosaic Law.

Creation – Call to Worship (Genesis – Abraham)

Division – The Veil Removed (Exodus – Moses)

The prefigurings of the Revelation continue. The first line itself is a five-fold (Covenant) description: God (T), Lord of us (H), Jesus (E), Father (O), glory (S). Being the second stanza, the theme is Passover and the veil. Here, the veil of Abrahamic darkness is removed. It may seem strange that “revelation” corresponds to the altar, but the word is “apocalypse.” It is a revealing, like circumcision. See Steven Opp’s very helpful observations in Circumcision and Apocalypse.) And then Christ Himself is the firstfruits lamb (Revelation 5). The Lampstand gets its own five-fold Covenant shape, just as the Lord did in line 1. How beautiful is that? Incense corresponds to the Bronze Altar, but as resurrection instead of revealing. The word “immeasurable” seems to conceal the typological correspondence at Conquest. Hyperballon literally means to over throw. Revelation speaks a great deal of “overcoming,” and from memory they seem to appear around step 6 in the pattern: Joshua/Atonement.

Ascension – First Holy Fruit from the Land (Leviticus – Aaron)

Again, the first line is the entire stanza in “Covenantal” microcosm. The “mighty men” are at the centre. The allusions to Genesis 1 are beautiful, and similar to those found in Psalm 1 concerning the Blessed Man, who is Jesus. As Firstfruits, He fulfilled the Levitical Law. Now, just as Day 3 gets two lines above (Land and Fruits) for its “preliminary filling,” so Paul adds an extra cycle to express this promise (like the grape haul from the Land).

Well, that one leaves me breathless. I challenge anybody who has pooh-poohed this approach to tell me he says this is simply an imposition upon the text. I throw down the gauntlet!

Testing – Kings in the Wilderness (Numbers – Balaam)

This cycle is the centre of the second cycle. It concerns a false Pentecost, the evil spirit from the Lord that filled the rulers of the Land after they rejected the son of David. It is Israel being deceived by the Balaamites, the mutilation. The prince of the power of the air is the accuser in heaven, who would soon be thrown down, crushed under foot and bound with a chain. So this stanza follows the festal pattern, but at every step, Israel according to the flesh is a feast for the birds and beasts, adulterers under the sword of Greater Phinehas. Their eyes of darkness are a different kind of Lampstand, the Oral Law, “an angel of light.” But it was actually a veil. Israel was blinded until the bridal “fullness” of the Gentiles came in. Then the Lampstand was taken away by Rome, and old Israel was no more.

Maturity – A New Israel from the Bones (Deuteronomy – The Bride)

This time it is the last line which gets its own cycle. It’s really nice that this, being line 7, gets the future as its first line, the eighth day, at Sabbath. Our being dead in trespasses is sacrificial, yet we are alive in the holy Firstfruits presented in heaven. Grace in this second cycle appears at step 4 rather than step 5. It is in place of the Mosaic Law, the Ethics of the Covenant. Another interesting point is that, if we align this stanza with the entire book of Revelation, the enthronement of the Firstfruits Church appears at the same point as the enthronement in this cycle.

Conquest – Israel Prepared for Ministry (Joshua – The Inheritance)

For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing;
it is the gift of God,
not a result of works,
so that no one may boast.

Glorification – Israel Commissioned for Ministry (Judges – The Champions)

For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus
for good works,
which God prepared beforehand,
that we should walk in them.

These stanzas correspond to the Day of Atonement and Booths. They work separately, but also as a head (Israel purified) and a body (Israel ministering to the nations). Here, the “Israel” is Jesus, by His Spirit, in the multinational Church. So although each has a Covenant shape, there is a symmetry found in the bolded words. The works on the altar of man are rejected (boasting being a form of self-exaltation, in this stanza, appearing at Ascension). The purification at the centre, in the holy of holies, is God’s work. And the good works of Jesus complete the threefold expansion of the Covenant Ethics: Man’s works, God’s Work, Jesus’ works. Beautiful.

This brings us to the end of the second cycle, but not to the end of chapter two, so it would appear that Ephesians has seven major cycles — which should not be a surprise. The literary artistry is amazing. I do keep wondering whether Paul and his scribes were aware of this (as a literary convention) or it was simply the Spirit blowing through them as His instrument. I must remember to ask him.

The picture at top is, I think, intended to contrast Israel the warrior-priest with Paul the peacemaker. But we know that Paul’s sword was more terrifying than anything wielded by old Israel’s priesthood ever. AD70 is testimony to that.

One interesting facet of biblical symbols is their identification by “use” and “motion.” Objects that have no link in the natural order of things can be tied together through their use in a similar purpose in the work of the house of God. This is not entirely strange. Diverse things which have no relationship in the natural order are brought together by man for use in “housework.” For the Author of the Bible, nature is “plastic.” This factor is one reason why the Bible is strange to modern ears and minds.

[This post has been refined and included in Sweet Counsel: Essays to Brighten the Eyes.]

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“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]

_____________________________
[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.

Remy Wilkins recently proposed a thesis about serpents and dragons in the Bible. Is there a difference? Are the words interchangeable? And even if they aren’t, how are these animals–and the spiritual truths they were created to represent–related?

This post has been slain and resurrected for inclusion in my 2015 book of essays, Inquietude.

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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.

Few passages have caused as much discussion as the one concerning “the spirits in prison” in 1 Peter 3. It’s also one of the few texts where I found that not a single one of the explanations offered was satisfactory. Well, I’ve run the matrix over it, and I reckon I’ve solved it.

To understand the context of “the prison spirits,” we have to identify the structure which contains it within Peter’s letter. Or, to put it another way, to get his structural point, we have to see the entire structure.

SABBATH – PEACE
Unity among the brethren

Finally, all [of you be] of one mind, (Sabbath unity)
…..having compassion for one another; (Passover)
……….love as brothers, (at the Altar, Matthew 5:23-24)
……….[be] tenderhearted, courteous; (Law of Covenant love)
……………not returning evil for evil (Eye for eye)
……….or [insult] for [insult], (“Bridal response”)
…..but on the contrary blessing, (Sanctions)
…..knowing that you were called to this, (Mediators)
that you may inherit a blessing. (Succession)

DIVISION – A NEW HIERARCHY

For “He who would love life and see good days, (Transcendence) [1]
…..Let him refrain his tongue from evil, (Hierarchy – teachers)
……….And his lips from speaking deceit. (Ethics – serpent)
…..Let him turn away from evil and do good; (Sanctions – mercy)
Let him seek peace and pursue it. (Succession – Future Rest)

ASCENSION – THE BREAD-AND-WINE MAN

For the eyes of the LORD
…..[are] on the righteous, (The facebread man)
……….And His ears [are open] to their prayers;
…..But the face of the LORD [is] (Face to face)
against those who do evil.” (No Succession)

TESTING – LIVING THE ETHICS OF THE LAW

And who [is] he who will harm you
…..if you become followers of what is good?
……….But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake,
…..[you are] blessed. (Positive Sanction)
“And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.”

MATURITY – TRUE AND FALSE WITNESS

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, (Transcendence)
…..and always [be] ready to [give] a defense (Hierarchy)
……….to everyone who asks you a reason (Altar)
……….for the hope that is in you, (Table – Firstfruits)
……………with meekness and fear; (Trembling – Ethics)
……….having a good conscience, (Trumpets – Witness)
……….that when they defame you as evildoers,
…..those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.
…..(Miscarried Sanctions)
For [it is] better, if it is the will of God,
to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. (Judges – elohim)

ATONEMENT – COVERING

For Christ also suffered once for sins, (Sabbath – Ark)
…..the just for the unjust, (Passover – Veil)
……….that He might bring us to God, (Nearbringing – Altar)
……….being put to death in the flesh (Firstfruits – Table)
……………but made alive in the Spirit, in which also (Pentecost – Lampstand)
……….to the prison spirits having gone, He preached (Trumpets – Incense)
…..who formerly did not comply, (Atonement – Sanctions)
when once was waiting the longsuffering of God (Rest/Inheritance)

Now, here is where the tracks of the Bible Matrix stanza panzer draw a line in the sand. The longsuffering of God has nothing to do with the days of Noah. The Greek has no punctuation, but the literary structure often tells us where to make a break.

This means that the “spirits in prison” are not angels. Angels cannot be atoned for. The word “prison” here apparently also carries a connotation of refuge, which fits the Day of Coverings. Although the use of “spirits” for dead men is unusual, the structure demands it. We have “spirit” and “spirits,” the one and the many. It follows the process of sacrifice, and the order of the Dominion pattern. The prison spirits are the slain saints, under the Incense Altar. They, too, were put to death in the flesh, but when Peter wrote, they still awaited their High Priest, and their entrance through the Veil with Him as the fragrant “clouds” to inherit the kingdom and sit on thrones (Rev. 20).

They are at Step 5 here, and relate to the fifth seal in the Revelation — the Old Covenant martyrs. They obviously witnessed – or were witnessed to — of Jesus’ ascension. They ask Him “how long” will it be before they are avenged. They are told to wait a little longer, until the New Covenant martyrs, the apostolic Church, is sealed, has time to witness as Trumpets, and is slain. These two witnesses — Old and New — then called down vengeance upon the Old Creation together, as a united witness. Their stories corroborated, so the Cainite/Herodian whore could be executed under the Law. The patience of God waited until these saints could enter into the rest, the heavenly country, for which they had waited. They could only inherit these promises once Christ opened the heavenly veil for them and covered their sin.

But it has nothing to do with Noah. Peter actually changes his subject here for his final stanza, and the theme of that entire stanza is rest.

GLORIFICATION – REST

In the days of Noah,  (Sabbath – “Noah” means “Rest”)
…..the ark was prepared, (“cut according to plan” – Veil)
……….in which a few, that is, eight souls, (Firstfruits)
……………were saved through water. (Ethics – Pentecost)
……….There is also an antitype which now saves us — (Atonement – Clean Garments)
…..(Atonement – Clean Garments:)
…..baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh,
…..but the answer of a good conscience toward God),

Peter expands the final line into its own pattern. It is the rest of Jesus, who now sits on the great white (ivory) throne as the true Solomon (the real king of peace) and the true Noah (the first man to qualify as a judge and executioner).

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, (Light)
……….who has gone into heaven (through the Veil)
……………and is at the right hand (Ascension)
………………..of God, (Ruler)
……….angels and authorities and powers (Elders)
…..having been made subject (Conquest)
to Him. (Rest)

Now, of course this is not the entire epistle. This structure appears within an even larger one. I suspect that the letter follows the five-fold Covenant document. As far as I can tell, the basic theme of this passage above is the Covenant Ethics.

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[1]  I think this is an allusion to the Ten Words, the “second tier” of which concerns Adam’s work and Eve’s children (Hierarchy). You can see my layout of this in The Covenant Key, p. 63).