Someone made the comment that the “Bible Matrix” is something mystical. While it is certainly typological, it is not mystical. And it is only typological because it is the process of maturity God has built into everything under heaven. Trees and men grow up and bear fruit. That’s typology.
Doug Wilson writes:
“The Levitical administration brought strong curses for disobedience (Heb. 2:2-3); the New Covenant administration brings much greater curses (Heb. 10:29; Heb. 12:25). Christians commonly assume that the really terrifying curses for disobedience were given in the Old Testament, and that under the New Testament all is grace. But this is precisely the opposite of the New Testament’s teaching on the subject” (To a Thousand Generations, pp. 28-29).
This is certainly a side of the New Covenant that Christians are never taught. The first time I ever heard of it was in David Chilton’s Revelation commentary The Days of Vengeance in 1989. But along with baptism (just had to throw that in), a rediscovery of the Old Covenant hammer makes everything in the New Covenant look like a nail. The Revelation is, after all, a book about the end of the Old Covenant.
There is great advantage in tracking the shape of God’s work in history through the Old Testament. This is because God is consistent. Everything He does has the same shape, even though He does it in new and surprising (and sometimes devastating) ways.
One of the big handles in Scripture is the five-fold Covenant pattern, described by Ray Sutton in his book, “That You May Prosper: Dominion by Covenant.” Continue reading
“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have gazed upon and our hands handled concerning the word of life—and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and announce to you the life, the eternal one, which was toward the Father and was manifested to us—what we have seen and heard, we announce also to you…”
IF I BELIEVE that the first resurrection occurred around AD70 [1], and that the New Covenant administration consists of saints living and reigning with Christ in heaven [2], these “joint-heirs” become co-mediators in some fashion. Does this open the door to the Roman Catholic practice of praying to glorified saints, or to the Eastern Orthodox love for beautiful icons?
Here, Doug Wilson explains why the accusation that he is “mono-covenantal” is false.
It seems to me that if any distinction is to be made, it is not between pre- and postlapsarian history. The dichotomy Paul describes in Galatians is not between God’s Covenant with Adam and His Covenant in Christ, but between the Mosaic Covenant and the Adamic Covenant.
Revelation 20 describes the binding of Satan and his exile to the abyss. He was bound so Christ can spoil his “vessels.” He was sent to the place of legless creeping things. He was put under a lid, and will stay there until the final judgment, when he will be released for a short time, so he can be exposed and destroyed. [1]
So, we have noted that the New Jerusalem, the crystal city with walls and gates, is pictured by the water crossings of Israel.
“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” Matthew 24:21-22
The context of Matthew 23-25 is very clearly first century. Many interpreters are forced to put gaps and parentheses and qualifiers into Jesus’ warnings because they won’t recognise what happened in the last years of the Old Covenant.[1]
“And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.” – Revelation 11:8
Revelation 20 makes it clear that the “second death” is the lake of fire. But an analysis of the literary structure of Revelation brings out an interesting factor.
Revelation 20-21:21 as a new Tabernacle
This passage seems to follow the Tabernacle furniture (and the Feasts, but more subtly). It concerns the inauguration of the new heavens and new land, the gospel age as a new creation, beginning with the closing of the heavy lid of the false ark.
Day 1 Throne The Ark of the Abyss – Satan thrown into the pit (cf Zechariah 5)
Day 2 Firmament The Laver of the Abyss – Satan’s final rebellion ends in the lake of fire
Day 3 Altar (Land & Sea) The Altar of the Abyss – Land and Sea give up their dead to be judged
Day 4 Lampstand The Lampstand of Heaven – the Holy City (Eve lights) is ready for her Adam light
Day 5 Altar (Incense) The Altar of Heaven – True and false Eve armies are separated
Day 6 Firmament The Laver of Heaven – the Old Covenant crystal sea is replaced with a crystal city
Day 7 Throne The Ark of Heaven – the bridal city is described as pure gold, the Shekinah
Greater Eve, the virgin bride, is enthroned over the nations, a human government in heaven.
This pattern reflects the testing of Adam in the garden. Jesus deals here with Adam’s usurper and rescues Eve from the serpent by filling her with the light of the Law. She becomes a “fulfilled Ark” as the pattern is measured out across the world.
The remainder of Revelation begins a new pattern, but it ends halfway through at the same test Adam faced – the Tree of Life.
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The image above is from Elizabeth – the Golden Age, which contains some truly awesome ‘warrior bride’ iconography. TAOTA
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