The Jump Program
“No one makes it in the jump program on their first try, not even Neo.” Jacob Gucker’s review of Moses and the Revelation.
As a librarian at a theological seminary, I see books on Revelation and “End-times prophecy” frequently. Every time a pastor downsizes his personal library we get at least a few books in this vein and most of them are ephemeral and embarrassing. Michael Bull’s “Moses and the Revelation” is the sort of book I might overlook. It is self published. It lacks the marks of “scholarly” work, and it is filled with structural outlines that seem to make little sense as I peruse the book. Nevertheless, this book is both enriching and accessible for those who read in order to think.
The book is more accessible to certain people. Anyone who has read and enjoyed James B. Jordan and Peter Leithart, among others who view the Bible through a maximalist lens, will gain something from this book. Click “buy” if this is you. People who tend to read the Bible in large chunks at a time over many years will also have a leg up here.
The trick to reading this book successfully is to avoid the temptation to classify it or backwards-engineer Bull’s structural outlines right away. Try to look at the forest first, and then the trees. As an academic with both a Master of Divinity degree and a Master of Library Science degree, this is my tendency, and the book will not blossom for anyone who is looking to stack this book up with the others in this or that school of thought. Was it Søren Kierkegaard or Wayne Campbell who said, “If you label me, you negate me?” At any rate, he says where he’s coming up front. Like the book of Revelation itself, Bull is all about unveiling, not obscuring.
If you have no idea what Bull’s “Bible Matrix” is all about, he tells you. If you still don’t know what it’s all about, keep reading. No one makes it in the jump program on their first try, not even Neo. You don’t even have to believe in it. I’m not sure I do yet and I approve of this book whole-heartedly. I will say that the book of Revelation is a wonderful choice for explaining the Bible Matrix hermeneutic. It was somehow easier to approach the Bible Matrix through this book than Bull’s initial Bible Matrix book, which I also tried to backwards engineer the first time I opened it. If the Bible does have DNA and it can be seen with human eyes, the book of Revelation is certainly a place where it ought to be found. Furthermore, anyone who asks you to consider the book of Revelation in light of the first five books of the Bible is a good shepherd.
Avoid the temptation to read this book without opening the Bible. Don’t even try. In fact, read or skim through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy and then read Revelation in a single sitting. Then, read this book with your Bible open and you will be richly rewarded.
If I have any complaints it is that the information in this book is worthy of being more thoroughly explained, but perhaps that’s just my tendency to revere massive tomes of theology. Nevertheless, may this sort of writing about the Bible increase.
