“…falling headlong, he burst open in the middle…”
Todd Robinson commented:
“I’ve enjoyed your particular brand of orthodox preterism. Working through Acts recently, I began to wonder what Michael Bull’s take on Acts 1:11 and 3:19-21 would be… Thanks for any insight.”
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Wordmp3 has a new lecture by James Jordan available free for download:
Pentecost: Lighting the World on Fire.
“And the times of this ignorance God winked at;
but now commandeth all men every where to repent…” Acts 17:30
Reading the Bible without an understanding of Creational and Covenant structures is like watching test cricket without knowing the rules. It’s not unusual for even the best commentators to be distracted by something as inconsequential as a lost seagull. But every moment is part of a bigger picture. Isaiah can seem tedious at times, but it’s a long game. Let’s look at Isaiah 4:2-6, which relates the purging of exiled Israel to the jealous inspection in Numbers 5. In this case, she comes up trumps.
The three density ratios (Ω omega) and the corresponding cosmological morphology. (Goddard Space Flight Center WMAP Cosmology)
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19-22)
The “firmament” is the most troublesome element of the Creation week. Even when we understand its symbolic counterpart in the Tabernacle (the veil), how do we account for its description as a physical part of the world?
On Day 4, God created the governing lights and put them in the firmament. If this refers to some sort of “water canopy” that later came crashing down in the Great Flood, the language referring to it as a home for stars is then visual. The Adam-to-Noah pattern puts the floodgates of heaven at “Atonement,” which means the opening of this original “proto-veil” brought men face-to-face with the Ark/throne of God and washed away the sin of the world, quite literally. All flesh was cut off. All sin was covered. And it was the end of that Covenant. The sky was rolled up like a scroll. In Noah, God founded a new heavens and a new (mediatory) Altar-Land. Symbolically, the old sun, moon and stars came crashing down. They were the “mighty men” of Genesis 6. Symbolically, God put new rulers in the firmament: a body of men and animals in a covered vessel.
But, of course, the actual governing lights remained. So, there remains something beyond this original watery “sea.” The word translated “firmament” means something flat, beaten out like metal. It is architectural. Cosmologists now tell us that the universe may well be both spherical, hyperbolic and/or “flat,” a bit like the surface of the earth, I guess. [1] God speaks of the mediatory Land as flat because it is an Altar. [2] Space is a veil between men and the throne of God. Filled with lights, it pictures for us the Holy Place before God’s throne, which is populated with angels and the redeemed. This cosmic hall of government resembled a crystal sea.
But there is something strange about the account of the creation of this veil, this dark garment stretched out on Day 2. Like the “waters above” of the original Covenant, space itself has a built-in obsolescence.
I said, “You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.” Psalm 82:6
As discussed elsewhere here, the five-point Covenant model as it gets played out in history becomes seven-point. The central “Ethics” gets split into three: Law-Testing-Law.
Moses, the Covenant head, ascends and receives the Law. He opens it for Israel as Mediator. Israel, as body, is tested under the Law. The Law is given again to a “resurrected” Israel, the next generation.
In microcosm, we see this in the incident with the golden calf. Moses is given the Tablets, Israel is tested, and the Tablets are broken. Moses brings the Law a second time.
In macrocosm, the Law is given from Sinai, Israel is tested for forty years, and Moses brings the Law again in Deuteronomy to a “resurrected” Israel, the next generation.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
The chapter follows the Creation pattern. Here are the governors of Day 4, the people of God filled with the Law of God at Pentecost. They become the eyes of God. (See Eye Spy – 1: The Insiders).
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
“Do not forgive them, Father. They know exactly what they are doing.”
THIS POST HAS BEEN REMIXED AND INCLUDED IN GOD’S KITCHEN: THEOLOGY YOU CAN EAT AND DRINK
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Throughout the Bible there are two doors, or more correctly, a door and a window.
Both of them involve blood. The first takes us out of the world. The second puts us in government. The first is the Passover door, the second is a window in Jericho. One mirrors the other chiastically in the journey from slavery to Sabbath.
“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Matthew 3:11
I remember a scene from X Files where they printed out a binary code and laid the pages out on the floor. When viewed from a distance the ones and zeros made the image of a face. There was a similar scene in one of the Indiana Jones movies, where there was a search for a secret passage and it turned out to be a large X on the floor when viewed from above. This is just my view, but it seems a lot of theologians spend a great deal of time walking in circles in the jungle, lost in the details of prooftexts when we have Old Testament “Google maps” at our fingertips.
Revelation can’t be fully appreciated without attention to its literary structure. I’m no expert, but have a gander at this…
Bible Matrix blog
