The Church as Colossus
For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. (Ephesians 2:14-18)
So, the New Jerusalem—at least the way it is described in Revelation 21—is the culmination of all the “Day 6s” since the original in the Garden of Eden. And, like the walls of water at the Red Sea and Jordan crossings, this entire, miraculous arrangement is held together by the Mediator-Man, the Lamb standing at the centre.
What’s interesting is that Old Covenant Israel’s Day 6 was seen by Daniel as a giant metal man. As Jordan brilliantly describes, this man was a Tabernacle made of the Gentile empires within which Ezra and Nehemiah’s New Jerusalem would act as a priestly advisor. When this structure got down to earth, however, this Old Covenant man got cold feet, feet of clay. The red dust of the Esau/Edomite Herods would not “intermarry” with the Roman metal however hard they tried. Revelation gives us the next episode in the story of this man. [1]
In Revelation 10-11, Christ stood with one foot on the Land (Israel) and one on the Sea (the Gentile oikoumene) until Jew and Gentile were a complete body. [2] What the Herods failed to do by might and power, Jesus did by His Spirit. Jesus commanded John to measure (test) the Temple and gave him a little book containing seven verbal thunders that would bring this decayed old worship construct tumbling down—DE-Creation. [3] The single man of Israel’s Day 6 (Atonement) was replaced with a married man at her Day 7 (Booths). Totus Christus, the complete Jew-Gentile man, replaced the Gentile kingdoms’ metal man in AD70. [4]
But Israel’s Day 7 was only the beginning of the World’s Day 6, as we have described. The Totus Christus is a Great High Priest of Whom we are a part. Now, from head to foot, He reaches—we reach—from the highest heaven to the lowest pit. [5]
“If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.” (Psalm 139:8)
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[1] See The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men 1 and 2.
[2] I won a bottle of plonk at trivia for guessing what the Mercedes Benz logo means. Thanks to JBJ, I guessed right. The three-pointed star symbolises dominion over air, land and sea.
[3] It’s interesting that in Revelation 11 we have the Christ who has begun to reign, and in 12 we have the Woman and the dragon. As in the Creation Week, the rulers are at the centre. As in Genesis 3, the rulers at the centre are Adam, Eve and the serpent. See also Seven Bowls of Wrath.
[4] VERY interestingly, the 666 passage in Revelation is the sixth stanza in a “Creation Week” pattern. This occurs many times in Revelation, only with this passage, THE SEVENTH STANZA IS MISSING. As far as I can tell, this is the only place in the Bible where this occurs. This signals the end of the Herods’ attempt at rebuilding Solomon’s kingdom with borrowed Roman power. See my book Totus Christus for more detail on this structure. 666 denotes the beginning of Solomon’s corruption through his amassing of gold. The same sin in the Herods brought down the metal man of the oikoumene. When tested—threshed/sifted—the failed Adam returned to the dust (Daniel 2).
[5] On the church’s new relationship to the Abyss, see Touch Not, Taste Not, Handle Not and The Greatest Consumer.
