Part of the process of maturity for the Spirit-led Church is to go where no institution has gone before. The Jews crossed Land and Sea to make proselytes, their Temple a spring in the desert, but Christian mission was the over-tipping of the cleansing Laver, the baptism of the first century world. Of course, this was bound to have political consequences.
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Economist (and Christian) Jerry Bowyer will be interviewing me about the Bible Matrix books on November 16 for his radio show. I’ll keep you posted concerning a broadcast date.
Vance and his girlfriend wondered whether attending Bully’s Bible study was as safe as they’d been led to believe.
When I first read some James Jordan, I found it a little strange. He forced me to think in new ways. Now I wonder why nobody else seems to think this way. I make a glib reference to “knife and fire” and get strange looks. Has no one before Jordan realised the process of barbecue as an illustration of reality?
Preterists have a go at dispensationalists for interpreting the Bible through the lens of current headlines. We recognize that the Bible must be interpreted in its historical context, for its “first audience.” But there’s a brand of “newspaper exegesis” that plagues preterism as well.
Here’s the amazon description of Christian Smith’s recent book, The Bible Made Impossible.
Biblicism, an approach to the Bible common among some American evangelicals, emphasizes together the Bible’s exclusive authority, infallibility, clarity, self-sufficiency, internal consistency, self-evident meaning, and universal applicability. Acclaimed sociologist Christian Smith argues that this approach is misguided and unable to live up to its own claims. If evangelical biblicism worked as its proponents say it should, there would not be the vast variety of interpretive differences that biblicists themselves reach when they actually read and interpret the Bible.
Smith describes the assumptions, beliefs, and practices of evangelical biblicism and sets it in historical, sociological, and philosophical context. He explains why it is an impossible approach to the Bible as an authority and provides constructive alternative approaches to help evangelicals be more honest and faithful in reading the Bible. Far from challenging the inspiration and authority of Scripture, Smith critiques a particular rendering of it, encouraging evangelicals to seek a more responsible, coherent, and defensible approach to biblical authority.
“What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.” Galatians 3:19
Was the Law just a stop-gap measure to hold things together until Jesus was born? Was the Mosaic Covenant just a “parenthesis” between the “graceful” Covenant with Abram and the “graceful” New Covenant?
Rick Capezza has written the first amazon.com review of The Covenant Key…
I have to admit that when I first heard that a graphic designer had written a book on how to read the Bible, I giggled a bit. I thought of a computer nerd who sees the Bible as ideology, not as literature.
“He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found…”
And [Moses] said, (T) (Creation)
…..“If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God (H) (Division)
……….and do what is right in His sight, (Ascension)
……………give ear to His commandments (E) (Testing)
……….and keep all His statutes, (Maturity)
…..I will put none of the diseases on you (O) (Conquest – Blessing)
…..which I have brought on the Egyptians. (Conquest – Cursing)
For I [am] the LORD who heals you.” (S) (Glorification)
— Exodus 15:26
“QuantumGreg” posted a comment on Sam Frost’s review of my book. He objects to the idea that, under the New Covenant, obedience to the Law will bring a decrease in disease. It’s a very reasonable objection.
“…does this not sound like Law to you? In fact, it is the Law (Deuteronomy 28). It sounds so much like the Old Covenant that it has no resemblance to the New Covenant, don’t you think?
When Sam Frost reviewed Bible Matrix, he was a full preterist. What changed his mind was the Bible’s inescapable trajectory, its relentless reach towards maturity and glory.
From Sam’s blog:
Mike Bull has recently sent me his new book, Bible Matrix II: The Covenant Key (Westbow Press, 2011). Like his Bible Matrix, this one is full of “patterns”. Did you ever think that Esther, probably one of the most neglected books in the Bible, was covenantal in structure and outline? That it speaks directly to us? Get ahold of Bull’s “key” and you will.
Bible Matrix blog
