Bully's Blog

or Wandering Stars – 2

“Egypt, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all who are in the farthest corners, who dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.” -  Jeremiah 9:26

Reading through the Old Testament as a young Christian, I always felt the Bible got bogged down when the Lord started pronouncing judgments upon nations other than Israel. For starters, I hadn’t paid enough attention earlier to remember who these sovereign states were. And more to the point, wasn’t God losing the plot a bit? I mean, there were plenty of other peoples during these times which aren’t even mentioned in the Bible at all.

Unfortunately, few commentators take the Bible seriously enough to understand what is actually going on. Older books will fill you in on the background, which is certainly helpful. But the big question is Why is God doing this now?, both now in history and now in the prophet I am reading?

As usual, when the structure and context of things is understood, seemingly boring “classic” texts suddenly come to life. In the case of the prophets it is a consuming fire. Continue reading

or Commanded, Not Controlled

“Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem… And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.” 2 King 22: 1-2

As a very young Christian, I remember being disappointed that the Spirit of God didn’t immediately make obedience to God’s Law easier, well actually, totally easy. Getting into Jordan et al opens up to you the biblical theme of maturity, of God’s desire for us to become wise judges, turning neither to the right nor the left. This takes practice (Hebrews 5:14).

The apostles’ use of the words “obedience” and “disobedience” when it comes the gospel is mysterious to many evangelicals. Is this not works?

“Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision…” Acts 26:19

“Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith…” Acts 6:7

“But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’” Romans 10:16

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The Killing Field

“…that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the Land, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.” Matthew 23:35

“from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.” Luke 11:51

The Hebrew word for “land” is feminine. [1] The fruitful Bride is pictured in the fruitful field. Both are to be cultivated and cared for under God by Covenant.

When the priesthood was faithful, God promised to make the people, animals and Land fruitful: the Covenant “to,” the input of the Spirit as Head, as Covenant Word made flesh. Deuteronomy 28 gives a long list of ways in which God would make her abundant. Continue reading

or Yahweh’s Autostereogram

Some readers of Bible Matrix get it straight away. Some get it after a while. Some will never get it. I was thinking it’s a bit like those “autostereograms” that were really popular a few years ago. I was one of the people who stared and stared and stared for years and couldn’t see the 3D images. When I finally did see one, it was a medium-to-large brontosaurus. How did I miss that?

Identifying the Bible Matrix is the same. You have to look at the text cross-eyed. If there is enough of a correspondence, your literary mind will align the two structures. The text of the Bible is architecture. It is a temple built row by row. This is not eisegesis. It is simply a definition of exegesis you hadn’t previously been aware of. It is systematic typology.

Reader Dan Isadore wrote me: Continue reading

Smoke and Mirrors

Instead of being qualified to carry the flaming sword and take dominion over the world,

“You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you.” Leviticus 26:7

he moved outwards into the world, but without access to the mountain of God. Adam was still under the sword. He was outside the fruitful field of Covenant with God, and all other relationships were distorted. His Covenant with his wife, and his delegated Covenant with the Land. Continue reading

“There is a curse on Mankind.
We may as well be resigned.
To let the devil, the devil
take the spirit of man.”

War of the Worldviews

I first heard Jeff Wayne’s musical version of The War of the Worlds when I was 11. My brother and I and some cousins listened to it in a dark room. It was electric and terrifying. Hearing it again years later, the worldview behind the story is much more apparent. One song in particular lays it bare, The Spirit of Man.

[This post has been refined and included in Sweet Counsel: Essays to Brighten the Eyes.]
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“Make two silver trumpets for yourself; you shall make them of hammered work; you shall use them for calling the congregation and for directing the movement of the camps.” Numbers 10:2

The Bible Matrix aligns a lot of apparently unrelated incidents. When certain things appear repeatedly at the same point in the structure, we can confidently conclude, despite the earnest protestations of our learned friends, that these relationships are trustworthy indicators of the symbolic meanings God has given to the corresponding things. Liberal scholars believe that the idea of resurrection was “developed” by Hebrew theologians over the centuries. This is because they fail to see the contant symbols of the coming resurrection beating throughout the Old Testament in types and dark sayings. The drums reach a crescendo in the later New Testament epistles until the trumpets finally blast a terrifying staccato in the Revelation. This is the first resurrection. Continue reading

Just as the Restoration, through death in Babylon, miraculously reunited Ephraim and Judah in a new body, the attacks on the Firstfruits church miraculously reunited Jew and Gentile. The Restoration body (pictured in Ezekiel 37) was a type of the Firstfruits church. In the big picture, this new body appears in the Bible Matrix at Maturity. It was an army from the grave, a multitude of shiny individuals united and animated by the Spirit of God, moving as a single shining entity. The Creation week pictures this as flocks of birds and schools of fish. The Tabernacle images it as clouds of incense. This is the warrior bride, terrible as an army with banners.

Light – Ark-Word (Sabbath) -
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit
through the bond of peace.

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The Fruitful Field

“For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” 2 Cor 11:2

Women are Complex

In Eden, as priest to Eve, Adam’s role was to continually bring her to the Father. She was put “below” Adam in the hierarchy. As the first approach of the High Priest on the Day of Covering — with the blood of a bull — Adam would present himself, standing before God as Mediator (head):

F A T H E R  > <  S O N  +  B R I D E

Adam’s job was to bring Eve “between” as the fruit, the evidence, of Covenant relationship. By being faithful to the law, he would open and maintain a clean, safe, Holy Place — a firmament — a house for the bride. The second approach of the High Priest was to cover the body, the nation. In this, he presented the blood of the first goat as the faithful bride (goat hair, symbolising the Lord’s cloud of “bridal” glory, covered the Tabernacle). Like the glory between the Father and the Son in heaven, a glorious Eve was both the fruit of Adam’s obedience, and her future fruitfulness a gift from Father to Son:

F A T H E R  >  B R I D E  < S O N

We see this imaged in the search for and presentation of godly Covenant brides in Genesis. Eliezar and Jacob seek brides for presentation to the Covenant fathers.

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The Creative Equation

This post might seem irreverent, or stupid, or both, but humour me. It will help illustrate what I want to get into tomorrow.

The documentary on fractals featuring Arthur C. Clarke included some comments that applied the math to theology, which of course got me thinking. [1] The Mandelbrot Set is a simple formula, just like E = MC2. However, unlike Einstein’s equation, the equals sign in the centre is actually a two-way arrow, a to and fro.
Continue reading