Jul
16
2010
or The Spirit Bids Geldings Be Fruitful
It’s cat-among-the pigeons time again.
Identifying the Bible Matrix in Acts reveals in quite a number of places that the author, Luke, has a sense of humour. Or the Holy Spirit does. In Acts 8, at Ascension (Firstruits), the Ethiopian eunuch asks Philip to hop up into his chariot. [1]
Philip opens the Law for him at Pentecost, the man is “resurrected” at Trumpets, baptized at Atonement (the Laver), and at Tabernacles we have both a Jew and Gentile whose witness flows out into the nations.
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4 comments | tags: Acts, Baptism, Covenant curse, Covenant Theology, Gnosticism, Mordecai, Noah, Postmillennialism, Ruth | posted in Bible Matrix, Biblical Theology
Jan
6
2010
or Zedekiah and the Dragon
“…if the Lord creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord.” (Numbers 16:29-30)
Daughter Jerusalem kept up an outward show of respectability, but under her Temple veils and military skirts her legs were open for anyone. [1] In a vision, Ezekiel dug a hole through this wall of “whitewash” as a legal witness to her crimes against the Covenant.
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Comments Off | tags: Compromise, Covenant curse, Ezekiel, Flood, Haman, Herod, Jeremiah, Revelation, Zedekiah | posted in Biblical Theology, The Last Days
Dec
1
2009
Elijah’s twelve stone altar “died” in the place of Israel, paying the debt for her idolatries, burned to nothing as a priest’s daughter who had committed harlotries. That passage follows the Bible matrix, with the prophets of Baal slaughtered as the scapegoat (washed from the Land in the “Laver” of Kidron, no less).
Did Ahab and Jezebel repent? No, they filled up their sins.[1] So Elijah made an exodus to Sinai. This, too, follows the pattern. Elijah is a new Moses, and he makes a new Covenant for the remnant which will bring about the destruction of Ahab’s dynasty. His “new creation” will be built on the corpse of the old.
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Comments Off | tags: Ahab, Bible Matrix, Covenant curse, Elijah, Jezebel, Moses | posted in Biblical Theology, Totus Christus
Sep
4
2009
The Insiders
“For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.” 1 Chron. 16:9
The Bible was written to be understood by word-search software, or by believers who think that way. There are many expressions and phrases that are used repeatedly—very deliberately—so that the reader makes connections.
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Comments Off | tags: Abraham, Ascension, Canaanites, cherubim, Covenant curse, Esther, Ezekiel, Joshua, Moses, Satan, Typology | posted in Biblical Theology, Christian Life
Apr
12
2009
The movie Superman Returns ends with some powerful iconography. Lex Luther has used a crystal stolen from Superman to create his own ‘new earth.’ Unlike Superman’s white-as-snow fortress of solitude, this is made of dark stone, Adamic earth. It rises up out of the sea and its growth threatens mankind.
Superman carries the weight of the entire sinful rock, and its growing kryptonite ‘spears’ pierce him. He ‘dies’ in the air and his fall to earth creates a ‘tomb.’ It’s worth a watch.
My point is, the idea of Christ being ‘lifted up’ is more than the bronze serpent, more than us ‘lifting Him up’ in our witness. [1]
Lifted up between heaven and earth, He was an open scroll. The bloodied lid of the Ark, the Word engraved (opened) on tablets of flesh. [2] In the sky, He was a new kapporet [3], a firmament covering to replace the old one that was ready to vanish away. He was a veil that was open, still protecting yet providing full access.
The Old Testament is full of mediators who are ‘lifted up.’ Revelation shows the Satanic new earth (Herod and Rome) thrown down from her mediatory position ‘in the air’, and the saints ascending to meet their Lord ‘in the air’ as a new mediatorial city.
a) Christ was lifted up.
b) Satan was thrown down.
a1) The saints of the New Jerusalem ascended.
b1) The compromised mediators were thrown down.
Satan is no longer the prince of the powers of the air.
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[1] A Herod also fulfilled the bronze serpent image, eaten alive by maggots on his throne ‘in the air’ after speaking ‘like a god.’ He prefigured the dirty scavenging birds feasting on the harlot in Revelation.
[2] The Tabernacle layout is a symbolic cruciform man. Notice that Christ on the cross was beneath ‘the Name’, an open scroll containing the disputed truth of His identity. The Lord’s Name was said to dwell above the lid of the Ark.
[3] See Peter Leithart, The Footstool of His Feet.
Comments Off | tags: Add new tag, Ark of the Covenant, Covenant curse, Crucifixion, Film, Herod, Peter Leithart, Preterism, Tabernacle, Typology | posted in Biblical Theology, The Last Days
Apr
10
2009
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12
NOTE: THIS POST HAS BEEN REMIXED AND INCLUDED IN GOD’S KITCHEN.
I thought for many years that the phrase “joints and marrow” in this verse was very strange. I guess this is a testimony to the artificial division of the Old Testament from the New by Bible teachers. It refers to the sword of the priest cutting up the sacrifice.
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Apr
10
2009
Did God replace Judaism or merely put it on hold?
Being a Jew was never a matter of bloodline, but of Covenant. Think of Abraham’s servants circumcised in Genesis 17, the Egyptians at the Exodus, Caleb the Kenizzite, Rahab, Ruth, Uriah, etc. It seems the Old Testament keeps throwing us examples of people “grafted in.” The only actual bloodline of any importance is the one we are given, the family tree from Abraham to Christ.
Israel’s captivity and Restoration gave us a perfect picture of the New Covenant events. The Temple and walls of the old Israel were ‘de-created’ and God Himself (the ark) died in Babylon for the sake of a new Jerusalem with impregnable walls.
Christ was the human ark. Judaism, intermarried with Roman political power, became Babylon.
My point is, the captivity was a death-and-resurrection of first century Israel (the resurrection as predicted in Ezekiel 37) in type. The first century was the antitype. Thus, whatever remains of Judaism today is like exhumed idols from the eras of Jeroboam, Ahab*, Omri and Manasseh.
It is not about blood. It never was. It is about Covenant, and there is only one of those. Despite its various death-and-resurrection renewals, there has only ever really been one covenant. There is no replacement of God’s people, only transfiguration from glory to glory.
*Remember it was Jezebel’s daughter Athaliah that almost DID destroy this single bloodline that mattered. Jehoash was the single son who escaped, an echo of Moses and a type of Christ.
6 comments | tags: Abraham, Ahab, Ark of the Covenant, Athaliah, Babylon, Covenant curse, Dispensationalism, Genesis, Jezebel, Joash, Replacement Theology, Resurrection, Ruth | posted in Biblical Theology
Apr
9
2009
And the LORD said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the LORD tormented him. And Saul’s servants said to him, “Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well.” (1 Sam. 16:12-16)
Does God send evil spirits? …
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Comments Off | tags: Babylon, Covenant curse, David, Herod, Jeff Meyers, Pharaoh, Satan, Saul, Temple | posted in Biblical Theology
Apr
8
2009
“…though Jews returned to the land after the decree of Cyrus, they did not enjoy the fruits of it (Haggai 1:1-11). They were still alienated from the land. They did not really occupy it until they rebuilt the Temple, which was completed in the sixth year of Darius, 20 years later.”1
Darius listened to those who opposed the Jews and ordered the Temple reconstruction to officially cease, so the Lord raised up two witnesses, Haggai and Zechariah. Haggai would chastise the people for neglecting the house of God, and stir up their hearts to finish it. Zechariah would deal with the spiritual war going on behind the scenes.
Zechariah’s visions perform the same function as Abram’s animal sacrifice. (In Abram’s time, there was a famine in the Land, and later it did not support Abram and Lot’s flocks). In Zechariah, the mediator who is “passed over” is not Abram but Joshua the High Priest. The sins are atoned for again, but not with animal sacrifices. In Zechariah it is the Angel of the Lord who steps in, chases away the accusations of Satan (as the ravens), and provides clean robes as a New Covenant.
Then the Temple could be completed, and the abundant fruits of a recreated Land were enjoyed by a new Israel.
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1 James B. Jordan, Jubilee,
Biblical Chronology Vol. 5, No. 4, www.biblicalhorizons.com
Comments Off | tags: Abraham, Atonement, Covenant curse, Cyrus, Darius, Famine, Haggai, High Priest, James Jordan, Lot, Temple, Two witnesses, Zechariah | posted in The Restoration Era