Feb 9 2010

Wandering Stars

The astral bodies signified those who are glorified and exalted. While this is true of all the saints, it is also true of all human rulers as well. Revelation 1:20 says that the rulers of the church are like stars, and Jude 13 says that apostate teachers are “wandering stars.” —James B. Jordan, Through New Eyes, p. 55.

fireworks

Jude’s epistle follows the themes of the Bible matrix. In Adam’s pattern, the first half (forming) was good, but he forfeited the glories of the last half (filling). Like God, he was to create with a faithful Covenant word. His failure made him a false prophet, one who cries “peace, peace” when Leviathan is at the gate.

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Jan 14 2010

50 Failed Predictions? – #1

mingwantsyou

Here’s the first of my replies to Brian’s contentions. I’ve put a 50 Failed Predictions? link under featured articles so all posts in this series are easy to find.

 

1. The bodies and souls of the wicked were not thrown into Gehenna (Matt. 10: 28).

Gehenna was the Valley of Hinnom. It was the site of the child sacrifices before the exile. The Lord atoned for this shedding of innocent blood to false gods by filling it with the bodies of the idolaters—a mass grave. Then the Land was ceremonially clean. Fittingly, Ge-Hinnom was the site of Jeremiah’s terrifying threats in Jeremiah 18, which Paul draws upon in Romans 9:21.

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Jan 12 2010

Baptism of Fire

pentecost-duccio

“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.

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Jan 2 2010

Jesus in the Theatre of God

globetheatre

All the events of the Bible take place within a cosmic theatrical “stage,” one based on the structure of heaven. Like the Globe Theatre in Shakespeare’s era, an understanding of the symbolic significance of the physical elements in the literal, historical creation account in Genesis gives us incredible insights into the structure of many prophetic Bible passages and the order of many historical events. When we get to the Revelation, familiarity with this theatrical “set” is crucial to understanding its fulfilment in history.

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Dec 9 2009

Sevenfold Witness to John

Jesus built a new Tabernacle before He tore down the old one that was ready to pass away. This is the basis of His message to John in prison:

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Nov 30 2009

Victor on the Visitation

maryvisitselizabeth.
Victor left some comments on Mother of Invention which I think deserve a new post:

Hello Mike!

I’m a student of typology – endlessly fascinating endeavor! – and am not and never have been Catholic myself. I would like to comment on your point about the Ark of the Covenant. (I just noticed that MS Word wants to capitalize “ark of the covenant”!)

I understand that you recognize the many parallels between the “Visitation” account in Luke 1 and the Ark’s journey narrated in 2 Samuel 6. The cumulative effect of the many commonalities between them makes the typological connection impossible to be denied. I can’t help but recognize its validity.

OTOH, I understand that you’re trying to say that in the specific context of Luke 1 the Ark should be interpreted as an image of Christ, not of Mary.

I can see a link between the person of Christ and the Ark, but, in the precise context of Luke 1, it seems inescapable to me that the comparison is made between the Ark and the person of Mary the mother of Jesus. That’s the whole gist of the correlation between the stories of 2 Samuel and Luke.

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Nov 27 2009

Jesus with Long Hair

stuntdouble

or New Covenant Stunt Double

Doug Wilson wrote something recently to correct our misunderstanding of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness:

When our Lord was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, He answered with Scripture, as we all know. Three times He was tested, and each time He replied in the words of Deuteronomy. But this is sometimes misunderstood. We tend to think that Jesus was quoting Scripture at the devil, as though the devil ought to start obeying it. But this was not His intent. When the Lord cited the words of Moses, each time it was because He would have been disobeying the text of Scripture if He had followed the suggestion of the tempter.

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Nov 20 2009

Mission as Tabernacle

God calls a man (Ark/Light/Sabbath)

…..He is set apart and slain (Veil/Light-filled Cloud/Passover)

……….He is “resurrected” as food for others before God
……….(Altar & Table/Land/Firstfruits)

……………His witness to the Law fills others (Lampstand/Lights/Pentecost)

……….They grow into an army (Incense/Light-filled Clouds/Trumpets)

…..They are “resurrected” to inherit the Gentile lands
…..(High Priest/Mediators/Atonement)

God fills the new united kingdom (Shekinah/Global Light/Tabernacles)

_______________________________
See Big Government for how the whole Bible follows this pattern as God’s mission.

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Nov 14 2009

The Rock that Followed Them – 2

moses-and-amalekAnother quick thought on this difficult passage (previous post). Continue reading

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Nov 1 2009

The Significance of Tubal-Cain

and the Usefulness of the Blood of Abel

tubalcainstatue“…you have come… to the blood of sprinkling that speaks [more useful, more serviceable, more advantageous] things than [that of] Abel.”  Hebrews 12:22-24

In Biblical Horizons newsletter 203, James Jordan argues that since Cain’s “exodus” to build a city occurred around 130 years after the Fall, he was publicly humiliated before thousands. He would have been accompanied by at least 1000 people, so he didn’t build the city on his own.

This means that Adam, like Solomon, was father to a divided kingdom. 1 Kings presents Solomon as a new Adam, even down to his naming of animals in his biological studies. Cain was like Jeroboam, shown mercy, given a chance, but who then caused Israel to sin.

What does Genesis give us after this? Continue reading

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