Bully's Blog

or Collision II

In the movie Collision, Christopher Hitchens relies a lot on the idea of a moral consensus, the idea that humanity has an innate sense of what’s right and what’s wrong and that we all agree on the basics. Is there any merit in this assumption? Or is Hitchens assuming that the benefits of Christianity are the result of human reason? Peter Leithart argues that Calvin, as an heir of 1200 years of Christendom, made exactly this mistake.

(I present below just the head and tail of Dr Leithart’s argument. I highly recommend getting a hold of the essay and reading his full argument and evidences.)

Excerpts from Did Plato Read Moses?

Peter Leithart on Middle Grace and Moral Consensus

The Bible presents a bleak view of the moral potential of the natural man. In this respect it seems to fly in the face of the facts. What are we to make of the empirical phenomenon of the “good pagan”?

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A Lesson for Modern Evangelicals

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Not being from an oral communication/event-oriented culture, my recollection of the details of the following account might be a bit fluffy. But the story is true nonetheless.

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All the events of the Bible take place within a cosmic theatrical “stage,” one based on the structure of heaven. Like the Globe Theatre in Shakespeare’s era, an understanding of the symbolic significance of the physical elements in the literal, historical creation account in Genesis gives us incredible insights into the structure of many prophetic Bible passages and the order of many historical events. When we get to the Revelation, familiarity with this theatrical “set” is crucial to understanding its fulfilment in history.

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Luke 4:30 “But he passing through the midst of them went his way…”

Why did Abraham not cut up the birds?

The structure of the passage has a “Passover“. Abraham acts as a human firmament by chasing away the “Covenant curse” birds of prey, then falls into a deep, dark sleep.

Matching this chiastically at step 6, the smoking firepot and blazing torch pass through the divided pieces at Atonement. But not through the birds, obviously.

Did the clean birds represent the Covenant people, just as the scavenging vultures represented the Covenant curses? What sins did the sacrifice atone for?

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or A World of Magnets and Miracles

Just saw Avatar with the kids and thought I’d post some thoughts.
[WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS.]

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Just watched The Nativity Story with our seven-year-old son (the girls have seen it). Bawled my eyes out at many points, particularly now that I have a better understanding of the typological significance of many of the events since I last saw it.

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When Ahaziah, king of Judah died, his mother Athaliah wanted to be queen. She ordered all her grandsons to be slaughtered. Only one escaped. The nanny Jehosheba hid baby Joash in the Temple of God for six years.

When he was seven, Jehosheba’s brother, the High Priest, called the royal bodyguards and escorts and showed them the king’s son. Athaliah was executed and the temple of Baal was torn down (2 Kings 11).

The Bible gives us a family tree, with a single “royal” bloodline from Adam to Jesus (see Matthew 1). If Joash had died with his brothers, that bloodline would have been severed, making impossible the fulfilment of God’s promise in Genesis 3: the offspring of Eve would crush the serpent’s head.

King Herod also slaughtered innocent children. One escaped: Jesus. He too would be anointed King and tear down all false worship by dying as payment for the sins of mankind. This task continued with the destruction of Herod’s Jerusalem in AD70 and will continue until all His enemies are under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death (1 Corinthians 15:25-26).

“And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight — if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven…”  (Colossians 1:21-23)

Merry Christmas from the Bulls. Thanks for reading! Catch you in 2010…

or The Crash of AD70

Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.  (Genesis 2:10-14)

After the Herod and Shylock post, I had one complaint that the Worship as Commerce tag didn’t really do what it said on the tin, so I hope to capture it (briefly?) here. Now, where to start? As James Jordan explains, the idea begins in Eden.
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Other than the reviews link at right, and some comments here, I did start a blog for those reading Totus Christus to leave feedback (there is also a link at right under Links tab). If your comments are helpful I will repost them here. So far, people either shake their head in disgust or tell me one chapter was worth the cost of the book (thanks Kelby and Theron!)

If you haven’t ordered one but are thinking about it, don’t delay too long. Once this review edition is gone it might be a while before a final is available.

In the mean time, the simpler Bible Matrix should be available in the U.S. and on Amazon some time during the next 6 months, whether I self-publish (with someone like Thomas Nelson’s Westbow Press) or I manage to convince a real one. Here’s the working cover and blurb…

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