Bully's Blog

A second Bible Matrix review on amazon.com, by Andre Rook:

The church today is plagued with implicit Marcionism. Marcion, a heretic in the 2nd century, believed that Christianity did not need the foundation of the Old Testament, among other things. Today, many churches agree with Marcion in practice. And practice inevitably affects principle. The Old Testament today is seen as an irrelevant and over-lengthy text, relegated to the deepest dungeons of seminaries. The Old Testament is merely a prologue to the New Testament, and who reads prologues anymore?

Michael Bull is no Marcionite, and he believes the best weapon against this ancient heresy, as well as apathy toward Scripture in general, is to unveil the artistry and beauty of God’s designed Word. That’s right, God designed the Scriptures, as an architect designs a skyscraper, but unlike man’s attempt to build himself up to reach God, the Scripture is God’s building, a reverse Babel, reaching down to us. And it is masterfully constructed. Reading the Bible as doctrine manual or moral textbook can only bring a limited amount of satisfaction, but Bull teaches us to read the Bible as art, God’s art.

As Bull instructs, the Bible uses an ancient literary device called chiasm, and in the case of Scripture, hundreds of these sevenfold patterns emerge. This is the pattern of growth and maturity that God utilizes to reiterate, time and time again, his sovereignty over all things, history included. Creation, division, ascension, testing, maturity, conquest, and glorification: the Bible is full of this pattern, divine comedy after divine comedy. Allow Bull to walk you through this, and you will be thankful for the journey. The Bible is gloriously patterned, indeed.

As for the delivery itself, the book is very pithy, refraining from theo-jargon, and includes many helpful charts and illustrations. These help to reinforce Bull’s effort of giving his readers a big handle on the Bible. I have not yet read Jordan’s book, “Through New Eyes”, but this appears to be less dense and more of an introductory work on the topic. At times it even gives the impression of a workbook of sorts, Bull inviting his readers to think of other applications and connections that he does not explicitly mention. Overall, “Bible Matrix” is a very satisfying introduction to the typology and chiasm of Sacred Scripture.

The Bible Matrix is a literary version of the Mandelbrot Set. There is a brilliant documentary on the Mandelbrot Set and its implications (both scientific and theological) with Arthur C. Clarke (split into 6 parts – You really must watch them all!) here.

And here’s an example of the simple formula in action:

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