Bully's Blog

There was a discussion of purgatory on the BH list. Someone summarised it as follows: [1]

“Or, perhaps, with Peter Kreeft, one might interpret purgatorial cleansing as a form of heightened and perfected awareness, effected by the light of God’s presence as an illuminating and purifying fire. Thus, in death, in coming face-to-face with God, we finally see ourselves as we truly are, the depths of our own sin and brokenness, and all the consequences and ruin wrought by our own sin and unfaithfulness in our own lives, the lives of others, and the ongoing life of our family, church, and world.

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A quote pilfered from Michael Hyatt’s blog:

“Usually, writers will do anything to avoid writing. For instance, the previous sentence was written at one o’clock this afternoon. It is now a quarter to four. Continue reading

Under the title Baptism working against you…, my Presbyterian friend Uri Brito wrote:

“Reprobation is a real theological and biblical idea. It is directly related to the idea of apostasy. Apostasy is a real theological and biblical idea. It is directly related to baptism. In baptism, apostates find their worst nightmare. It is better to be baptized by a cult (which is an invalid baptism to begin with) than to be baptized by an orthodox Trinitarian church. The problem for the apostate with the latter baptism, is that they incur the full wrath of the waters. As Leithart writes: ‘Their baptisms are effective in being witnesses against them.’ Baptized apostates will receive what the Egyptian army received.”

How can an involuntary baptism be a witness against anyone? If I am in a coma for some reason on my wedding day and the best man has to make the vows for me, what sort of case are the witnesses going to have if I break those vows because I feel like I have woken up with Leah instead of Rachel?

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Related both to The Significance of Tubal-Cain and Schism or Resurrection?

With Tubal-Cain as an artisan of the false Tabernacle, Jubal becomes the music director. This Tabernacle is at Firstfruits in the Adam-to-Noah pattern, which means that to be true it should have been a tent of silence. The Tabernacle of Moses is silent because it sits and listens to God. It is the submission of the “head.”

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“There is a very important connection between the Church’s worldview and the Church’s hymns. If your heart and mouth are filled with songs of victory, you will tend to have an eschatology of dominion; if, instead, your songs are fearful, expressing a longing for escape—or if they are weak, childish ditties—your worldview and expectations will be escapist and childish.

Historically, the basic hymnbook for the Church has been the Book of Psalms. The largest book of the Bible is the Book of Psalms, and God providentially placed it right in the middle of the Bible, so that we couldn’t miss it! Yet how many churches use the Psalms in musical worship? It is noteworthy that the Church’s abandonment of dominion eschatology coincided with the Church’s abandonment of the Psalms.”

—David Chilton, Paradise Restored.

“The time when you least feel like obeying God
is the time when it is most important to do so.”
–Keith Piper

God calls a man (Ark/Light/Sabbath)

…..He is set apart and slain (Veil/Light-filled Cloud/Passover)

……….He is “resurrected” as food for others before God
……….(Altar & Table/Land/Firstfruits)

……………His witness to the Law fills others (Lampstand/Lights/Pentecost)

……….They grow into an army (Incense/Light-filled Clouds/Trumpets)

…..They are “resurrected” to inherit the Gentile lands
…..(High Priest/Mediators/Atonement)

God fills the new united kingdom (Shekinah/Global Light/Tabernacles)

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See Big Government for how the whole Bible follows this pattern as God’s mission.

Interesting stuff from James Jordan’s Trees and Thorns: A Commentary on Genesis 2-4

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“…swarmers-creepers are described as creatures that break the boundaries of human life and invade the human house, defiling the house.”

The first two of the four curses upon the serpent are found in Genesis 3:14. Only the serpent is directly cursed, and the word You is emphatic in Hebrew. The man and the woman are not cursed directly, but mediately through the soil, an important distinction that we shall address in due course.

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Fool’s Gold

An Atheist’s Praise of Evangelism in Africa

The Holy Headbutt

Die the Death of 100 Foreskins

The Three Shepherds – 1

The Three Shepherds – 2.

With Biblical Horizons, nothing is sacred. Or everything is.

Peter Leithart, Creation: Purity

Athanasius’ letter to Amun (354) is a meditation on purity. Defilement, he argues, occurs “when we commit sin, that foulest of things.”That is what Jesus meant when He said that we are defiled by what comes out – out of the heart.

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