“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot.
Would that you were either cold or hot!” (Revelation 3:15)

The world is a cosmic Tabernacle. The first domain of Mediatory Man was between the waters. The waters below (springs) were necessary for life but they were not “a place to live.” The waters above did likewise. However, these were temporary veils, boundaries to be crossed in an increasing advance-by-faith.

The crystal Sea was the Laver before the throne of God. In AD70 it was raised up by the breath of God as “watery walls”, a crystal city for the government of the saints of the old administration. This Sea was a blessing to the saints but a curse to sinners. It was a boundary they could not cross without a ministry of death. In Revelation 19, as final judgment upon the Old Covenant approached, this crystal Sea also became a Laver of bronze, a lake of fire, so the water above must be temporarily divided in some way. The New Jerusalem has a moat. This fiery aspect of the Sea remains until the final judgment, the destruction of the devil.

Genesis 1-10 follow the same “Tabernacle” structure as Genesis 1. The Edenic “mediatorial springs” on Day 6 become the flood waters in the greater pattern. The waters are a Day of Atonement, the sixth feast, a festival of death-and-resurrection.

Interestingly, Creation scientist Barry Setterfield believes that Noah’s flood (or its initial release) was scalding hot. There was most certainly volcanic activity involved in the event. Imagine magma-heated boiling water bursting from the deep.

We also read that it rained. Most people seem to ignore the fact that the springs burst forth and concentrate on the rain, presuming a vapor canopy which collapsed as being the major source of the waters. There may have been some kind of a vapor canopy over the early earth, but it would have been much higher than the clouds we see today if life on earth was to have survived. The majority of the rain which fell was from the waters which had burst forth, carrying with them massive amounts of pulverized debris from under the crust. They would have burst forth to a height greater than even our volcanoes of today. This would have produced a hot rain full of rocks and mud as well as remains of any vegetation and biological life which were in the vicinity of where the waters burst out. In other words, this was a rain that was like no other before, and there has been none other like it since. [1]

I disagree with his idea that the deluge was due to a natural process simmering away since the Creation and waiting to burst. That’s not how God ever works. The earth was blessed. The soil was blessed. The dust was not cursed until after Adam’s Fall. Now, the sea was cursed. Now, the entire globe was “out to get him.” The flood was a miraculous judgment, a transformation of blessed springs into a cursed flood upon Man. Even the mouth of God cannot be a spring of blessing and cursing upon the same Man. The bitter river of the generations of Adam had “filled up” the world. The rivers of blood–and the tyranny that was their source–had to be washed away.

In the Great Flood, both the Sea above and the Sea below became a firmament of burning bronze, closing in and closing forever as great doors on the primeval world, a scalding, hissing mist that brought death to “all flesh.”

Of course, it’s only speculation, based on “cross-eyed exegesis,” but God’s symbols are consistent.

ADDENDUM: Of course we see the same elements of fire and water in the Red Sea crossing. Plus, Psalm 77 tells us there was water above and below in the ministry of Moses and Aaron.

___________________________________
[1] The Bible  and the Geologic Column.

The three density ratios (Ω omega) and the corresponding cosmological morphology. (Goddard Space Flight Center WMAP Cosmology)

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19-22)

The “firmament” is the most troublesome element of the Creation week. Even when we understand its symbolic counterpart in the Tabernacle (the veil), how do we account for its description as a physical part of the world?

On Day 4, God created the governing lights and put them in the firmament. If this refers to some sort of “water canopy” that later came crashing down in the Great Flood, the language referring to it as a home for stars is then visual. The Adam-to-Noah pattern puts the floodgates of heaven at “Atonement,” which means the opening of this original “proto-veil” brought men face-to-face with the Ark/throne of God and washed away the sin of the world, quite literally. All flesh was cut off. All sin was covered. And it was the end of that Covenant. The sky was rolled up like a scroll. In Noah, God founded a new heavens and a new (mediatory) Altar-Land. Symbolically, the old sun, moon and stars came crashing down. They were the “mighty men” of Genesis 6. Symbolically, God put new rulers in the firmament: a body of men and animals in a covered vessel.

But, of course, the actual governing lights remained. So, there remains something beyond this original watery “sea.” The word translated “firmament” means something flat, beaten out like metal. It is architectural. Cosmologists now tell us that the universe may well be both spherical, hyperbolic and/or “flat,” a bit like the surface of the earth, I guess. [1] God speaks of the mediatory Land as flat because it is an Altar. [2] Space is a veil between men and the throne of God. Filled with lights, it pictures for us the Holy Place before God’s throne, which is populated with angels and the redeemed. This cosmic hall of government resembled a crystal sea.

But there is something strange about the account of the creation of this veil, this dark garment stretched out on Day 2. Like the “waters above” of the original Covenant, space itself has a built-in obsolescence.

We looked at Day 1 a while ago (see The Face of the Deep) and it followed the seven-point Covenant pattern. Day 2, however, only seems to break into the five-fold Covenant pattern, which means it is a “proto-history,” something spoken into being by God that is made to be broken, something yet to be revealed. This explains why the “firmament” is not judged as “good.”

God’s five-fold Covenants (on “stone”) become seven-fold history as they are written in flesh. The central point, the Covenant “rules,” gets split into three: Law given (Firstfruits), Law opened (Pentecost), Law received (Trumpets). In this process, the obedient Covenant head fills the submissive Covenant body with light.

We see this in the Creation week, with the “Light” of Day 1 as “head” and the “Lights” of Day 4 as “body.”

We see this at Sinai, when Moses receives the Covenant Tablets, breaks them because of Israel’s disobedience (ie. the tablets died in Israel’s place), and brings a New Covenant in new Tablets. Law-Testing-Law.

We see this in the Babylonian exile. The Ark (light) ascended to govern heaven, and the Lampstand (lights) rose from the grave to govern the New Land (Daniel 5:5).

The act of sex follows the same pattern: Ascension of the Covenant Head, Pentecost is the euphemistic threshingfloor. and the Covenant body receives the creative Word with gladness. Sex is an act of Covenant Creation, of Dominion, of forming a new body and filling the earth. [3]

As proto-history, the firmament is a temporary barrier. It is the wrapping on a present, it is a bridal veil; it is a (deep weird here) cosmic hymen awaiting the marriage of heaven and earth. [4] Paul tells us that the body of Christ was what the veil pictured. He became human flesh torn open as a door.

Surely these typological correspondences reveal the hand of God in every form of Covenant we find in human existence. This also explains the structural correspondences of the relationships of Abraham and the Egyptian baker to their respective scavenging birds (see Bible Matrix). Both men were a “veil of flesh” at Division (Passover/Veil). [5]

Day 2 could be divided into seven parts except that the central point, Testing, the tearing of the Covenant veil, is missing.

Transcendance – Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,

…..Hierarchy – and let it divide the waters from the waters.”

…..…..Ethics -
……….Thus God made the firmament,
…..…..and divided the waters which were under the firmament

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
……….
……….from the waters which were above the firmament;
……….and it was so.

…..Sanction (singular!) – And God called the firmament Heaven.

Succession – So the evening and the morning were the second day.

You can also see that what is required to fill the gap in this literary structure is the governing lights. In the Tabernacle pattern, we have the waters below awaiting the Bronze Altar-Land, and the waters above awaiting the Golden Incense Clouds, but it is the Lampstand missing from the centre. The firmament was the Old Covenant house awaiting its Pentecost.

The heavenly sea was a “sapphire pavement” (Exodus 24:10). This too had a built-in obsolescence. In AD70, just like the overflowing Jordan, the crystal sea was made to stand up as walls and gates: the New Jerusalem. The heavenly court was filled with the Old Covenant saints (the twelve tribal names) and the New Covenant apostles. [6] The breaking up of the crystal sea brought an end to the Old Covenant.

So, the waters ended the Adamic era. The crystal city ended the Abrahamic era. All that remains is the final “cosmic” Pentecost: the second resurrection and final judgment, when God will be all in all, and men will finally judge the angels. [7] Even the New Jerusalem is but a temporary structure waiting for the day when it is completely filled with the glory of the nations. [8]

[1] See Wikipedia’s Shape of the Universe.
[2] See The Earth is Flat.
[3] see Ish and Isha.
[4] See The Context of Drawing Near.
[5] See Joseph Gets Passed Over.
[6] See Crystal Walls – 1.
[7] See Trinitarian Judgments.
[8] See Walking On Water.

Ben Witherington comments on the unearthing of a huge temple complex and its relevance to Genesis:

This temple lies west of the Biblical plain called Haran and is only 20 miles from the Syrian border. This places it right in the fertile crescent which begins below modern day Iraq, includings the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and winds its way north through Syria and into eastern Turkey.  This is the world not only of Genesis, but of the great Anatolian civilization of the Hittites (yes those Hittites as in Uriah the Hittite—husband of Bathsheba)… Klaus Schmidt and his team of Kurdish diggers have uncovered an enormous temple complex that pre-dates the Great Pyramids by some 7,000 years and Stonehenge by at least 6,000 years!… After 12 years of hard work, Schmidt has found at least four temple complexes. The radar scans of the area indicate there is a huge amount more to uncover here. And Schmidt has a thesis about this temple complex—here is a short excerpt from the Newsweek article on this:

“Schmidt’s thesis is simple and bold: it was the urge to worship that brought mankind together in the very first urban conglomerations. The need to build and maintain this temple, he says, drove the builders to seek stable food sources, like grains and animals that could be domesticated, and then to settle down to guard their new way of life. The temple begat the city.”

The importance of this find for Biblical thinking is this—the Bible says that from the outset, human beings were created in God’s image. Human beings were religious creatures from Day One. Archaeologists and sociologists have long dismissed this theory saying organized religion comes much later in the game than the beginning of civilization and city building. As Ian Holder director of Stanford’s prestigous archaeology program says— this is a game changer. Indeed, it changes everything experts in the Neolithic era have been thinking. Schmidt is saying that religion is the cause of civilization, not the result of it. Towns were built to be near the Temple complex. Agriculture was undertaken to feed those living there and supply the temple complex, and so on. The first instincts of humans were to put religion first. Maybe there is more to that Genesis story than some have been willing to think or admit. Maybe human beings are inherently homo religiosis.

Schmidt says that about half of the 50 stones thus far unearthed have carvings on them—half. This makes this site very different from Stonehenge. While we have lots of animal carvings on these stones, and a few abstract symbols what you also find is human hands and arms—the T shape stones seem in some cases to be representations of humans praying, “In the Bible it talks about how God created man in his image,” says Johns Hopkins archeologist Glenn Schwartz. Göbekli Tepe “is the first time you can see humans with that idea, that they resemble gods.” This site pre-dates the earliest Biblical ruins, of Jericho, by 1,000 years or more.

Why have we not heard of this before now?Several reasons. First, because it is so huge and so significant that it will change all the textbooks on such matters, and archaeologists have been wanting to be sure of the dating and significance and nature of the site.  The site was actually found by an American in the 1960s, but it was so huge he didn’t know what to make of it. Schmidt also almost walked away when he realized the enormity of what lay under the ground. He knew he would have to spend the rest of his life digging if he stayed. And he has done so. Only 5% of this site has thus far been dug. This will make the dig at Pompeii look tiny. Whatever civilization was founded here, it ended abruptly about 8,000 B.C. and in fact the site was deliberately buried then. Many of the massive stones have been found in place, still standing upright where they had been originally placed. The site was not destroyed, it was buried.  There is much more to be done here, but suffice it to say, that religion and art are at the very heart of this temple complex. And that tell us a lot about the nature of primitive humans—a lot like what Genesis tells us as well.

A commenter asked if it was possible that these temples were buried during the flood. Witherington replied: “Yes indeed. It is way, way underground, and this is one of those regions in which geologists have found evidence of a huge regional flood. The very fact that this whole thing is found in situ, with the stones standing shows it was not destroyed by human beings.”

I guess we will just have to disagree on the size of the “region.”

Adam, as Covenant head, also took on a “body.” A Divine Handful of flesh and bone, dead or dying by any human measure, organised into a being more palatial and lavish than any male eye is worthy to behold.

You must be logged in to see the rest of this post.

Join now for a year for $15!

“Peter came to Him and said, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’” (Matthew 18:21-22)

Genesis 4 seems to contain two “feast” cycles. Near the end of the first, at “Atonement”, the Lord set a mark upon Cain to protect him from vengeance. As on the Day of Covering after Adam’s sin in Eden, the full weight of the law was withheld. Cain complained that his “liability” was greater than he could bear. Cain was covered but he still went from the presence of the Lord, as the goat which carried the sins into the wilderness. It seems Cain despised mercy.

Just as the Lord and the Land were two witnesses against his crime, he now fled from the face of the Lord and the face of the Land. Only the High Priest could face God, standing in the Veil, the firmament between heaven and earth. Abel was the true facebread, the authorised priest. [1]

You must be logged in to see the rest of this post.

Join now for a year for $15!

“There are two main ‘checks and balances’ that restrain us from misusing the Bible’s symbols. The first is the Bible’s consistent use of the same symbols. There is a verse in John Newton’s hymn Amazing Grace which makes me cringe because it describes God’s mercy as a flood and the end of the world as being like dissolving snow. I love that hymn, but I know the Bible only uses a flood symbol to describe the destruction of unfaithful Covenant people, and snow is always, somehow, related to righteousness.

Secondly, the symbols are most often contained in the repeated event-patterns which structure the Bible. In other words, the symbols know their place. To annoy those who refuse to venture beyond Lego brick systematic theology,[1] I like to call this systematic typology. It is symbols contained in a repeated structure, and the structure is what allows us to make and verify the connections between the events described.

To illustrate this, imagine a dinner set where every patterned dinner plate has a piece missing. If we stack all of the plates, carefully lining up the corresponding bits of the pattern we do have, it is very likely we will be able to see the complete pattern using all the incomplete plates. This is exactly how the Bible is constructed. Although the first ‘plate’, Genesis 1-3, is extremely brief, it contains the seeds of the rest of the Bible in breathtaking potency.

Often, the only way to fully comprehend certain elements of Genesis is by reading the “missing” or implied elements back into it from more complete “plates” as the same structure is repeated in greater detail later on.

The most basic event-structure is the Creation narrative in Genesis 1, and it is the chord from which the entire Bible ‘symphony’ flows. When you see a passage that follows the Creation Week, there are some very valid things you can draw from the text that aren’t actually written in it. This is a subtle element of Scripture that many of the brightest scholars refuse to see.

Genesis 1 is the Bible Matrix. As it matures throughout the Scriptures, the identification of this pattern not only unlocks the books of Moses, Israel’s history, the structure of Jesus’ ministry and the book of Revelation, it has staggering implications concerning the identity, purpose and future of Christianity.

If the Bible is truly God’s Word, should we expect anything less?”

_________________________________
[1] Systematic theology disassembles the Bible like Lego bricks and puts all the same coloured bricks together in little plastic boxes (like many of those Christian books you have read). It is a necessary process, but if that is all we do, we underestimate the powerful, carefully-crafted literature these “bricks” were removed from. Like coals separated from a mesmerising fire, they soon become lifeless. Very often, a Bible brick only has meaning when observed in relationship to surrounding bricks. Or the relationship gives it a greater level of meaning.

or Common Grace, Uncommon Grace

“…love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:44-45

Most “Bible contradictions” display our ignorance of literary forms, history, or customs. Further study always vindicates the Bible. Sometimes, however, the “contradiction” is just a misunderstanding of the way God works; a question of timing.

The supposed contradiction I want to discuss is this: if God punishes the wicked, how can He also send rain on the just and the unjust?

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

__________________________________
[1] Do you think I can find this when I need it?
[2] On the apostolic church as “two witnesses”, see: Slavery to Sabbath in Revelation 5-11

or Why Are We Baptizing the Dead?

Peter Leithart writes concerning baptism:

“In Genesis 9:11, Yahweh promises not to “cut off flesh” by water.  That is the covenant with Noah.

A few chapters later, Yahweh tells Abram that he must cut off the flesh of all male children of Israel, not by water but by a knife.

That means that Abram’s children receive the “cutting off” that all flesh deserves, and got, in the flood. Or, it means that Abram’s children are the people who live beyond flesh, the people who have passed under the knife and through the flood that removes flesh.

It also means that the Noachic covenant is over. The world that then was was destroyed by a flood, and a new world came into being. But now God does again cut off flesh through water, the water, the water of baptism.”

If you have read my articles on baptism (See, Weapons of War, articles 3, 4 and 5), you will know I think that not only is there no Scriptural evidence for paedobaptism, but the typological freight train of all Scripture is against it as well. So, how would I deal with this excellent observation on Noah and Abraham?

Once again, all depends on the crucial distinction between Passover and Atonement, between the head and the body.

Sabbath – initiating Word
……..Passover – blood and water (Red Sea – death)
…………….Firstfruits – presentation of head
……………………Pentecost – head rules body
…………….Trumpets – presentation of body
……..Atonement –  water and blood (Jordan – resurrection)
Booths – head and body united in God

Concerning Adam, the flood was Atonement. It was judgment at the corporate level.

Sabbath - Creation of Adam
……..Passover - Animal substitute slain to cover Adam’s sin as head (singular death)
…………….Firstfruits - Enoch preaches (Lev.) and men
…………….draw near to God. Enoch ascends
……………………Pentecost - head fails to rule body.
…………….          “Adultery” in the “wilderness” (Gen. 6)
…………….Trumpets - Noah preaches (Deut). Substitute body
…………….as animals submit instead
……..Atonement -  the flood divides body (corporate resurrection)
Booths - head and body united in God (Noah and animals in a new world)

However, concerning Noah, the floodwaters were a “Red Sea” baptism, a setting apart of the head, not the body (as with Adam’s and Abraham’s personal “covering”). For Noah as High Priest, it was Atonement, inside the Most Holy, behind the veil. For Noah personally, it was Passover, inside the ark, behind the closed door.

Sabbath - Call of Noah
……..Passover - Noah’s exodus through the flood (singular death)
…………….Firstfruits - God’s blessing. Noah makes a sacrifice. Law given (Lev.)
……………………Pentecost - head fails to rule body.
……………………Ham seizes the robe and uncovers nakedness
…………….Trumpets - Law repeated (Deut.) Noah judges Ham. Children multiply
……..Atonement -  Joktanites DO NOT separate from Nimrod (corporate death)
Booths - The Lord destroys the “Tabernacle” and scatters their children

Now, because this entire process of planting (grain of wheat) and harvest is chiastic, it does allow the Bible to use them interchangeably. For instance, in Ezekiel 1-8, the prophet’s own fall-down-as-dead “death” is Passover, and the slaughtering Levites appear as Atonement. But in the structure of the whole book of Ezekiel, the Levites appear as Passover, with the destruction of Gog and Magog as Atonement (and the description of Ezekiel’s temple follows as Tabernacles/Booths).

Jesus’ baptism was a “Red Sea” baptism. Typologically, Passover (Red Sea) is circumcision and Atonement (Jordan) is baptism. One deals with the male head, and the other with the whole body (puns intended).

But for the saints, Scripture consistently aligns Christian baptism with the Jordan, conquest and government. I posted yesterday on the structure of 1 Cor. 1-3, which also puts Paul’s baptisms in this spot.

So circumcision cuts off the flesh of the head, the sole mediator. It rescues slaves. Baptism cuts off the flesh of the body. It concerns resurrection – the resurrection of the resulting corporate mediator. It enthrones tried and vindicated governors.

Sabbath - the Word of God calls a sinner from the old city
……..Passover - he is cut to the heart by the Word (to the joints and marrow)
……..and covered by a circumcision made “without hands”
…………….Firstfruits - the Covenant “scroll” is opened to him
……………………Pentecost - now legally perfect, he is filled with the Spirit and
 …………….          enthroned with Christ outside the city 
…………….Trumpets - the saint presents himself to God as a
…………….member of the army (enrobed)
……..Atonement -  he is symbolically resurrected to the
communion of saints, into the new city (washed)
Booths - and invited to dine with Christ (seated)[1]

The debate over paedocommunion evaporates if we only baptize believers, including believing children. We have grandchildren, but Jesus doesn’t. He is the Covenant head, not parents. We will still have a problem with baptized unbelievers, but at least we’re not playing on the highway.

Baptizing children is fine, as long as they believe. Let the little children come , for baptism and for communion, but on their own legs.[2] The New Covenant is not about redeeming a “birth” of sin but about a redeemed living body approaching God in response to Jesus’ call to arms. It is the elders following Moses and dining with the Lord on the crystal sea (Exodus 24:10). It is about resurrection to govern over a new world.

Humbly submitted for comment.

___________________________________________
[1]  Notice that when Peter saw Christ on the beach, he too was “enrobed, washed and seated”.

[2]  Jesus laid hands on babies. He didn’t circumcise them or baptize them. If anything is to be drawn from this besides trusting childlike faith, it is that baby dedication is a good thing. But it should not be confused with baptism. We don’t confuse this passage with circumcision, do we?

P.S. Yes, that is the ugliest, most unsettling paedobaptism picture I could find.

P.P.S. I came across this quote the other day, which is a logical conclusion but based on the same confounding of head with body:

“Not to warn parents of the dangers of not baptizing must be seen in light of Genesis 17. Not to have the sign is to be rejected by God; to be his self declared enemy. God told Abraham not that he would only love him but that he would also love his children.”

Surely they which are of faith are the children of Abraham?

And this one from Dr. R. Scott Clark:

“The complementary messages of the the NPP and FV are corrupting. They are corrupting of the peace of the churches. They are corrupting of the assurance of believers. They are corrupting of the gospel itself. In the case of the NPP, the radical re-definition of “justification” from “forensic declaration by God that a sinner is accepted by God on the sole basis of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness and received the faith resting and receiving alone” to a socio-religious boundary marker is nothing if not a corruption.”

What I find most amazing is that I agree with everything the Federal Vision theologians say about baptism, but only if it is limited to credo-baptism. If they refrained from baptizing infants, their “boundary-marking” theology would make total sense to me. And to John Piper!

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?

You must be logged in to see the rest of this post.

Join now for a year for $15!

“Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”  (1 Cor. 3:12-17)

Are the gold, silver and precious stones our heavenly bling? From the structure of this passage, I think what Paul is referring to is the church. If we are building disciples who remain despite trials and testing from God, we will be rewarded. The immediate context of this is the false doctrine of Judaisers, and their house of gold, silver and precious stones (Herod’s Temple and his puppet High Priest’s robes). While Paul was building a Temple out of people, Herod was busy polishing the brass on the Titanic that he knew Jesus had said would be submerged under a Gentile flood (Daniel 9:26). Herod’s precious stones didn’t make it through God’s judgment. The Day declared what it was in truth.

The question is, are our disciples a robe/house for Jesus, or are they kindling in His nostrils? When He comes to judge, what will our ministry be revealed as?