theo #4 - September-October 2021

#4 | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2021

THE RIOT AND THE DANCE Biology as you’ve never seen it before

SEEING STARS Bible symbols in the wild

BARREN WORLDS Is there life on other planets?

A MISSION FROM GOD Every covenant is a tour of duty

Big ideas without the big words.

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HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT The Bible’s formula has been staring us right in the face

SEEING STARS Bible symbols in the wild

THE RIOT AND THE DANCE Biology as you’ve never seen it before

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BARREN WORLDS Aliens and sojourners

COVENANT AND CREATION Theology Accelerator

WHERE FEASTS BELONG All true stories must have light

OMG Christendom reloaded

BIBLE TOOLS

HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT There are no “hidden codes” in the Bible, but it does have a key.

And the whole time we’ve been looking for it, it was staring us right in the face.

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aving read through the Bible many times over many years in many different ways, I’ve always tried to improve my understanding of how, if at all, the whole story fits together. And not just in a systematic or logical way, but in the sense of how it teaches me about who God is, why He acts the way He does, and what I’m meant to do in response to that.

Can you see the hidden 3D image in this Magic Eye puzzle?

ALBERT GARLANDO

Some dismiss the Bible as if it were simply a random deposit of religious documents, like layers in sedimentary rock. In this perspective, the only “unifying” feature in the Bible is the fact that all of these documents were written to manipulate people—to pacify the minorities and control the masses.

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There’s a recurring formula in the way God shows who He is.

But that doesn’t explain the impact this book has had across diverse (and often opposed) cultures and social groups throughout history.

So if, as the Bible itself claims, this big book is indeed a single work with an editor-in-chief who oversaw its entire construction, then what holds it all together?

Does it require the identification of a hidden code?

And if such a code exists, is it visible only to select initiates?

Many have claimed to have such secret knowledge.

The Author describes Himself as the revealer of secrets, and His prophets are supposed to be the

ones who make things clearer, not more obscure. Why would the book that offers to uncover what is going on behind the scenes be so difficult that many end up avoiding it altogether?

The reason is that we looked for a complicated answer when a simple one was staring us in the face all along. The “secret” was actually hidden in plain sight.

Right from the start of the Bible, there is a recurring formula that governs the way God shows and tells who He is, how He works, and what He wants us to do.

Indeed, this “matrix” is a pattern that governs all of creation— from the way you go about your day-to-day life; how you set the table and serve guests a meal; how a romantic relationship develops and is consummated; the plot of your favourite movie or novel—always hidden, but hidden in plain sight.

And once you’ve seen the matrix, you can’t un-see it. The things in the Bible that seemed random and obscure suddenly make

perfect sense because God is always doing the same thing, in the same way, just with different people, in different places, and at different times.

Since this is how God always works, it not only demonstrates that the Bible is a single work, it also shows us how God is working today. If we know the pattern, then we know—at least in a general sense—what to expect now and in the future.

God reveals Himself in a deeper way to those willing to take the time to let the rhythm of the Word sink in. We find ourselves thinking and working in the same way, which transforms our lives and the world around us.

When you see that the “shape” of Genesis 1 repeats itself throughout the entire Bible, the key is in your hand, all the doors can be opened, and the Word is suddenly “user friendly.”

Even better, you respond with delight as you see this exact shape built into every facet of a life that seeks to imitate God. n

CONTRIBUTORS Albert Garlando, Michael Bull, Gordon Wilson, Dillon Hamiton, Aaron Ventura EDITORS Michael Bull, Jared Leonard | DESIGN Michael Bull ART 6 Edward Hicks, Noah’s Ark | 10 Michelangelo, The Sistine Chapel: The Creation of Adam (detail) | 22-23 Anton Otto Fischer, Fleet of Columbus | 30 Ian Good, Medieval Tavern CONTACT editorial@theo-magazine.com All material is copyright of its respective authors and cannot be reproduced in any form without written permission. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.

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“THE RENEWAL OF CREATION HAS BEEN THE WORK OF THE SELFSAME WORD WHO MADE IT AT THE BEGINNING.” — ATHANASIUS

BIBLE TOOLS

SEEING STARS BIBLE SYMBOLS IN THE WILD

The reason that so much of the Bible goes right over our heads is our inability to read the characters of its wonderful “language of light.”

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n Steven Spielberg’s 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, after a run-in with a UFO on the road, electric lineman Roy Neary cannot get the image of the Devil’s Tower out of his mind.

Maddened by his new obsession with the striking, solitary, rock formation that looms above the surrounding countryside in

north-east Wyoming, he distractedly uses a fork to recreate it out of mashed potatoes at the family dinner table.

Finally, he notices the distress that his behavior is causing to his wife and children, so he says, through some tears, “Well I guess you’ve noticed something’s a little strange with Dad. It’s OK. I’m still Dad. I can’t describe it,

what I’m feeling, and what I’m thinking. This means something.

This is important.” Roy has been “spoken to” about something that cannot be contained or explained in words, so his hands have to do the “talking.” He goes on to construct a much larger scale model that dominates the living room. Eventually, his feet get involved as well, and, along with many others who have been “called,” he makes the trip to the ominous granite “tower.”

Man makes symbols because Man was made in the image of God, and God makes symbols.

God and Man both use symbols as a means of communication.

This is why the Bible was not only written in the figures of human languages, but also conveys information in a visual or “cinematic” way that transcends the limits of speech.

Words for your eyes Man is an artist because God is an artist. But Man is also God’s art, or perhaps more specifically, His sculpture.

The Word of God is a literary work of art, but its text is also a tool in the hand of its Author.

The characters of God’s “engraved Words” invade, cut, reshape, refine, and sculpt our thinking so that we might come to resemble the character of our Creator.

While many things we read in

the Bible are simple, many more things in there are deliberately obscure, like the placement of objects in a painting, or the lyrics of a song or a poem. This is done in order to engage our minds.

Having to consider and interpret these things is part of the process of training us to think like God; but, as with a poem, a painting, or a song, this is also part of the pleasure of reading, seeing, or hearing the artist’s work.

The good thing is that the

In order to understand the Bible, we must learn God’s language. symbolism in the Bible is very consistent. Once you “see” something, as you keep reading you will notice that it appears again and again. It is like learning a new word in a foreign language.

Biblical symbolism is God’s language. In order to advance our comprehension of the Bible we must learn to “speak it.”

As with any language, this takes time to master. And just like spoken languages, simply studying a dictionary and learning a few phrases is not

enough. These images impact us as we learn by “immersion” through repeated readings.

If we engage a visual mindset when we read, we also enjoy the text a lot more because, as with good art, we discover something new every time we revisit it.

The language of light Just because God’s words “become flesh” does not mean that they stop being words.

Symbols are natural things that were created to teach us about supernatural things.

Throughout the Bible, especially in the books of Moses, God confers meaning upon things in the natural world. Painters, sculptors, poets, and musicians do this all the time.

This means we must read the Bible cumulatively (keeping in mind what we have read as we continue to read) not simply to keep up with “the story so far,” but also because a repertoire of symbols is slowly being compiled for later use as a kind of literary shorthand. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.

But God’s intention is more than mere poetic sentiment. He is actually clothing the natural with supernatural meaning, giving all things—animate or inanimate— a role or an office within the created order.

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The first instance that stands out is the way in which the lights in the sky are “commissioned” as “rulers” of the day and the night.

While we modern readers might think this is just a romantic turn of phrase, it is in fact a necessary piece of information for understanding many things that are said and done later on.

Having “interpreted” something that He made, God then goes on to use that thing as a symbol to describe other things.

We are told that the lights in the sky are rulers, so human rulers are referred to symbolically as “sun, moon, and stars.” Not only would the royal sons promised to Abraham be as glorious and numerous as the stars, but a star would herald the birth of the messianic King of Israel.

This process of “clothing” things with symbolic meaning also explains why different kinds of clothing communicate different things. Having been disqualified from ruling the earth, instead of receiving glorious robes as a sign of office, Adam and Eve were given tunics of skin. The ordeal in the Garden was intended to complete their preparation as images of God. But they fell.

So when we are told later on, in various prophetic texts, that “the stars will fall,” it simply means that the clock would stop for some “Adam,” another arrogant 8

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human king whose “world” would come to an end. In Matthew 24:29, Jesus quotes Isaiah’s oracle about the fall of physical Babylon to warn of the judgment of Jerusalem, a city that had become a spiritual Babel under the Herods.

Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.

(Isaiah 13:9-11)

Bible bandwidth Symbolism is perhaps the most stimulating part of theology because it engages us by requiring us to use our imaginations. By doing so, it is able to bypass the intellectual “gatekeepers” in the brain and speak directly to the soul. This is exactly how advertising, music, and cinema capture our imaginations and hearts.

But not all of the symbols in the Bible come with handy labels.

Many are presented to us without any explanation at all, and their meaning only becomes apparent

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over time. Like an unknown word, we must figure out the meaning from the context.

In most cases, this is a visual context, and the written text must be converted into images in the way that transmitted data is converted into video. Unless we use our “mind’s eye” as we read, the signal will simply be a lot of noise, and the symbol will remain a meaningless artifact.

So a modern theologian, faced with Roy Neary’s work, and no explanation, would look at the Devil’s Tower, and then at Roy’s mound of mash, and see no correspondence whatsoever.

“I don’t understand, Roy. These things are not related in any way.

That’s granite, and that’s potato.”

In his book, Through New Eyes: Developing a Biblical View of the World, James B. Jordan tells us that modern literature, whether fiction or non-fiction, is almost always written in a straight line and only needs to be read once to be comprehended. In contrast, ancient and medieval literature is full of things that require repeated reading and contemplation to be understood.

Besides the general use of symbolism, the authors also arranged their texts and gave them wonderful depths through the use of such devices as numerical symbolism, large parallel sequences, intricate

symmetrical patterning, and references to the constellations.

Their careful use of structure means that the context of any given symbol involves not only the what but also the where—the placement of a particular item in a sequence that gets repeated in different ways over time. For instance, when a Bible author uses the Creation Week as a literary device (which is very common), the role or appearance of the sun, moon, and stars will be represented in some way at the center of the sequence. Lining up the steps helps us to identify and verify the correspondences.

We are not used to having to go back and forth in our study to unpack the meaning of the text, and we are not even aware of these extra channels of communication as we read. That is why so much of the Bible sounds like random “noise.”

Part of the problem is the limitations of the “sound system” of modern theology itself, which does not come with the capacity to cope with the “bandwidth” of the Bible. God has given us a multimedia experience and we are tuned in for Morse code.

Symbols as signposts A symbol only exists to point to something else, which means that it cannot be understood in isolation. The very nature of a

symbol is to describe the relationship between one thing and another, such as the resemblance between a star that governs the seasons in the heavens and a king whose dynasty reigns on earth.

If we see a child, we know that there is a father and a mother.

The child is the image of its parents and points to them by its very existence. Likewise, the Son of God points to the Father. Jesus Himself cannot be understood

Biblical symbols live and grow in literary ecosystems. in isolation. And neither can a human being, having been made in the image of God. This explains the struggles that many modern people have with identity. Not only have we disengaged ourselves from our families through radical individualism, but our rejection of the symbolic nature of all human beings means that each of us becomes a signpost that doesn’t point anywhere. We are strange question marks at the center of reality.

This is also the reason why we fail to understand most of the Bible. Without learning to “read” biblical imagery, the Word of God is just a big book of unanswered questions instead of a wondrous world of answers.

Symbols on safari Even these symbolic “pairs” do not exist in isolation, but among other “pairs,” so a “dictionary” of Bible symbols will only be of limited help. Bible symbolism is not a game of Snap. It is a safari, so the “game” is alive and kicking.

Taking note of the context of a person or object to determine its symbolic meaning includes observing how it interacts with other people or objects. This is like the difference between analyzing a preserved specimen in a lab and watching the habits of the live animal in the wild.

Biblical symbols live, grow, and coexist within environments that function like literary ecosystems.

They also tend to appear, and travel, in “family groups.”

This network of relationships is one reason why the Bible uses the elements of the created order as illustrations of truth. Wisdom understands the big picture because it sees how different truths relate to and complement each other without canceling each other out, just like members of an ecosystem or a family.

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Like people, individual truths have rights but they also have God-given responsibilities to each other that can be honored or abused. So when we notice a symbol, we must ask how the characteristics of that particular image describe its relationship with the things around it.

A striking example is the use of two very different reptiles to describe Satan in Revelation 12.

He is a serpent to the Woman because he comes to deceive. But he is a dragon to her children because he comes to devour.

Each symbol describes how the one symbolized relates to the other ones symbolized.

Not only does a symbol work in relation to other symbols, but sometimes this is the only way its meaning can be understood. So if we fail to study the symbols as members of a “household,” we miss much of what the author intended to communicate.

Symbols as furniture The Bible communicates in ways that are not only visual but also spatial. In other words, God makes promises through His sacred architecture.

The sacred buildings—and the rites carried out within them— were all signs of things to come.

That means we need to pay attention to all of those strange details in the Old Testament.

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Because the world is a temple, and so is the human body, the Bible also employs household items and activities as symbols.

Just as the world was formed and filled, and so was Man, bowls and jars are mediators that carry things, both clean and unclean.

A table and a chair were both made for use by people but they are used in different ways. These two items can also be used in isolation or together.

Once again, both the what and the where must be noted. The table in a man’s house is not the Table of the Lord. Furniture also relates to posture, and posture in

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the Bible is a symbol of office (see Genesis 37:7-8). The priests were not guests but servants who stood as butlers and guards, so the only “chair” in the Tabernacle was God’s throne.

How does this affect our reading of the Last Supper, where Jesus turns a man’s table into the Lord’s Table, and His disciples do not stand in God’s presence as servants but sit “enthroned” with Him as guests? There are no wasted words in the Bible. Every detail is loaded with meaning.

Combining the symbolic nature of furniture and posture with location, we can make sense of the fact that a priest stands to

serve in the Sanctuary, a king sits enthroned to judge in the Land, and a prophet walks (or even runs) to testify among the nations of the World.

The use of symbols to describe office also puts a legal spin on symbolism. An animal sacrifice represented the worshipers on whose behalf it would die by serving as a legal representative.

In the same way, Adam and Jesus symbolize all of humanity in the way that an ambassador represents his entire nation. Jesus saves us because He represents us.

Without symbolism, there is no substitution, and without substitution, there is no salvation.

But to be saved by Him we must also be in Him, which is why He is also a temple and an open door.

Symbols and signs A symbol is an image that represents a greater reality. In many cases, the symbols that are seen testify of realities that are as yet unseen, in the way that our visible human fathers (including Father Abraham) were given to point us to the Heavenly Father.

The meaning of a symbol can vary somewhat according to its context, but a sign is a symbol with a specific meaning.

For instance, an icon of a man crossing a road is a general symbol that everyone can understand, but a road sign with

that image near an actual zebra crossing has a singular meaning.

The symbol describes a general concept but the sign points to a person or event that is specific and imminent.

Likewise, the laws concerning marks on human skin (Leviticus 13:1-46) were a general, ongoing visible reminder that Israelites were to be sacrifices “without blemish” in spiritual terms.

However, when Jesus healed Jews of things that made them unfit

Some signs were promises, and some were warnings. for worship in symbolic terms, this was a sign that He was soon going to make true worshipers whole in spiritual terms. The miracles were symbols in that they represented something else, but unlike the original laws these signs pointed to a specific event.

When He told the Jews that it would be better to cut off a limb or pluck out an eye to be “whole” in the eyes of God, this was a sign that those Levitical object lessons concerning physical perfection were becoming

obsolete and would be abolished.

After Christ was cut off as a perfect sacrifice, even a Gentile eunuch could be acceptable in God’s eyes (Acts 8:26-40).

Those who ask why Jesus did not heal everyone must understand that the miracles were a sign.

When you reach your destination you don’t need signs any more.

The laws of Moses and the miracles of the prophets seem arbitrary or eccentric to us only because we don’t recognize them as symbols of general spiritual realities or as signs of specific greater things to come.

It is not only things that are signs in the Bible. The people are also signs. Human beings are all images, or symbols, of God in a general way, like a logo on a building or an emblem on a car, but certain people were “road signs” of specific events to come.

Some of these signs were promises, and some of them were warnings. The deaths of Sisera and Goliath were signs that the head of the serpent would finally be crushed. But the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira for theft and false witness—as a more accountable “Adam and Eve”— were a warning to the saints as well as a sign of what was coming upon the Temple where they died (see Zechariah 5:1-4).

Likewise, Hebrews refers to God’s judgments upon Israel in

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the wilderness and in Canaan not only to warn its first-century Jewish hearers, but also to signify what was “coming soon” upon all of Jerusalem, and why.

and serve at a feast for his guest.

As the king, David judged this man according to the Law of Moses. But then Nathan said, “You are the man.”

Failure to recognize the purpose of symbols used as signs often leads to mistaken interpretations.

We read about specific things that happened in people’s lives in the Bible and think we can apply them generally to all saints at all times without qualification.

Likewise, when God killed an animal to clothe Adam and Eve and to cover their sin, the unspoken “word” to them in the cut flesh and spilled blood was “This is you.”

If somebody commits adultery and murder like King David did, will God take the life of their infant son? No. God took David’s son because instead of being a shepherd king with a soft heart, David had hardened his heart like Pharaoh. But David softened his heart and repented, and God promised that the second son to Bathsheba would be his heir.

This judgment and promise was a sign to David and also to all Israel that God is not only just but also merciful. Just as it was in the wilderness, Israel would be judged for sin, but Israel would not be completely cut off.

This brings us to another reason why God uses visual imagery as well as the spoken word, and it is very cunning. The image helps us to see our own sin objectively, that is, through another’s eyes.

Nathan told David the story of a rich man with great flocks who took a poor man’s pet lamb to kill 12

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The two witnesses Any work of art—whether it be a painting, a symphony, a poem, or even a building, will tell you a lot about the character and intentions of its creator. That is why Paul tells us in Romans 1 that the characteristics of God can be clearly seen in what He has made. In God’s creation, since everything is “word,” all things continually testify to His glory and His purposes.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. (Psalm 19:1-4)

This means that even those who have not heard the Gospel are without excuse (Romans 1:20).

Although they have not rebelled against words, they have heard

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the “voice” of creation and rebelled against deeds they have witnessed with their own eyes.

God gave us two eyes and two ears to teach us that He requires at least “two witnesses” to the truth, and their testimonies must agree (Deuteronomy 17:6).

Criminals refer to this as “getting their story straight,” which is why detectives like to interview suspects in isolation.

The witnesses at Jesus’ trial contradicted each other. They broke the Law of Moses by committing perjury, but He was unjustly condemned anyway.

Eyewitnesses are spies, and spies are eyes. God sent two angels to be legal eyewitnesses against the city of Sodom (Genesis 18), and Joshua sent two spies to infiltrate the city of Jericho (Joshua 2).

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matthew 18:20)

When it comes to eyes and ears, having two of each helps us to perceive the world in three dimensions. It is not a flat, static domain but one in which we can move around. In the same way, a sensitivity to symbolism opens the world of the Bible to us as a living place that we can inhabit, understand, and experience.

Sight and hearing together are also two witnesses. The visible

miracles peformed by Jesus and the apostles were done to confirm the spoken word. What the witnesses saw was in agreement with what they heard.

Likewise, the Bible and the Creation are two legal witnesses that testify to human beings.

Each tells us the same story but in a different way.

Since we cannot understand the Creation without the help of the Bible, and neither can we understand the Bible without the help of the created world, we need them both. And if we want to understand either of them, we need the “open eyes” of faith.

Science can tell us what physical things are made of but only the Bible can tell us what they are for. And if we don’t know what things mean, then our judgment will be impaired.

A judge who decides the fate of a man or woman must not only know what the person has done, but also what a person means as an image of God. How do we deal with sombody who aborts an infant or euthanizes an adult?

The necessity of sound judgment in such matters is why Noah, the first man to qualify as a righteous and merciful judge, was given the power of capital punishment.

A scientist can tell us that the sun is a ball of burning gas, but only the Bible can tell us what the sun actually means. This is why those

who reject the Bible always end up serving, distorting, abusing, or neglecting the physical world, whether as pagan worshipers or atheistic materialists.

Spiritual cripples Romans 1 tells us that sin darkens our minds. We become unable to discern the truth from the lies, which is another reason why God uses visual imagery to bypass the intellect and speak directly to the heart. Truth rarely

If we don’t know what things mean, our judgment is impaired. changes us until it affects us in a physical way, and symbolism resonates with us at a much deeper level.

God prohibited the making of idols, a practice also mentioned

by Paul in Romans 1, because these symbols were a means of silencing God altogether. Unlike God’s symbols, graven images replace the graven words. Even though they are silent, they also bypass the intellect but in order to serve as false witnesses.

Psalm 115 says that idols of gold

and silver have mouths but do not speak, ears but do not hear, eyes but do not see, hands but do not feel, and feet but do not walk.

It then says that all those who trust in them become like them.

In other words, false worship incapacitates us even more.

Believing lies results in spiritual disabilities. It turns otherwise healthy people into spiritual cripples who cannot interact with other people or with God’s world in the way He intended.

Our failure to interpret the Bible is thus related to our failure to “read” the world around us. It is not a physical or mental problem but a spiritual one. We are spiritually “deaf, dumb, blind, and lame.”

Jesus healed people of physical impairments as a sign of His power over the spiritual ones.

Therefore, learning to “read” the language of biblical imagery to understand God is part of the process of spiritual healing.

This is why, instead of simply telling Job the reason he had suffered, God answered more deeply, and more effectively, by describing the wonders of creation. Like Adam, Job’s spiritual eyes were opened. He saw what he had already seen but in a new way. He had heard that God was good, and now he saw it with his own eyes (Job 19:23-29; 42:5-6). n

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CREATION

THE RIOT AND THE DANCE BIOLOGY AS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE

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If you thought teaching biology was the domain of worldly scientists, think again!

Dr. Gordon Wilson’s THE RIOT AND THE DANCE stirs up curiosity about life on earth, along with a greater desire to praise the Creator of it all.

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y fascination for all living things is almost as old as I am. I grew up in the sixties in Annapolis, Maryland, and from as early as I can remember, any contact with animals enthralled me.

As a toddler, during a trip to the mountains of Colorado, I was fascinated at the trout I saw in the mountain ponds.

When I was 5 or 6, my older brothers found a couple of box turtles in the woods across the street and brought them home.

I was totally mesmerized.

No one in my family shared this inclination, nor did they even

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GORDON WILSON suggest it. It was simply built-in, God-given.

Even though I didn’t yet know the word biology, I sensed that it was my calling. I went through a dinosaur phase, a shark phase, and then a reptile phase, which I’m not sure I’ve ever really left.

Once I discovered that biology was a thing, I devoured every biology course my high school offered, from the required to the advanced, so majoring in it in college was the natural next step.

However, in my sophomore year I made a course correction from a major in biology to a major in

Whenever I learned something I had an urge to teach it.

After a year of teaching at the high school level, I decided to go back for a Master of Science degree in Entomology. After that, I worked for two and a half years as a scientific aide in bacteriology/molecular biology.

My desire to return to the classroom led me to Liberty University in Virginia where I joined the biology faculty.

While teaching there I was able to earn my PhD at George Mason University from 1999 to 2003. My research was on the reproductive ecology of the eastern box turtle.

I taught a wide range of courses at Liberty for 12 years, and then at New Saint Andrews College in Idaho for the next 18 years.

secondary education/biological sciences. This switch was due to the discovery that whenever I learned something interesting I was overcome with an irresistible

urge to teach it. Instead of boring my family with incessant talk about biology, I could get paid to do it. So the course change was the right decision.

As a teacher, I became aware of the great need to reform science education and I was motivated to fix it within my sphere of influence. This was my reason for writing the textbook, The Riot and the Dance, which preceded the film projects.

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privileged—to teach biology should do so in a way that causes students to be awestruck, and to respond to God with reverence, praise, and thanksgiving. The unity, diversity, and complexity of the living world not only benefits us as worshipers, but also inspires us as its stewards.

The commitment to naturalism— the belief that all life originated and developed by accident from dead materials—in our institutions leeches out of the subject an awareness and appreciation of the wonder and beauty of living things.

If any attempt is made to highlight the magnificence of nature, all of the glory, honor, praise, and thanksgiving is offered up to the “gods” of time, matter, energy, chemistry, mutation, and natural selection.

This is like teaching a survey of art history but not being allowed to acknowledge the genius of the masters, or even mention their names. Imagine being forced to proclaim that any apparent design in Michelangelo’s David was really the result of wind and water erosion on marble.

As with every other subject, the life sciences should be taught in a way that brings glory to God, and this means teaching them as a subset of theology. In fact, this aspect is even more important when it comes to biology because it is the study of God’s natural revelation. The way you get to know God is to study everything that He wrote and made.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known

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about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

(Romans 1:18-21)

Observing God’s handiwork gives us spectacular insights into His character and His wisdom.

As we study the brilliance of the design in molecules, cells, organs, organisms, and ecosystems, we are humbled by the elegance of His artistry and the quality of His engineering. These reveal the infinite genius and fearsome beauty of the one with whom we will one day come face to face.

The one who is called—and

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I wrote the textbook in the hope that students would not see biology as just one more hoop to jump through in the curriculum.

But my other intention was the rescue of Christian biology teachers. Most have been trained by godless biology professors, so they teach the subject in the materialistic way that they were taught. As Christians, they resort to merely “salting” the tasteless gruel served to them by crediting “all this living stuff ” to God at the end. In contrast, a biology textbook that begins with God, and rejects naturalism, allows the subject to be wholly redeemed.

Naturalism not only insults our Creator and robs Him of His due credit, it also affects the way in which biology is taught. High school and undergraduate biology students are deluged with disconnected facts about the living world, This deadens their minds and hearts and makes studying biology a chore instead of a joy.

I suspect that many students wonder if biology teachers

themselves maintain any personal interest in the subject, since most of them dole it out with the enthusiasm of kitchen staff in a prison cafeteria.

To be fair, this has something to do with the “spiritless” way in which our science textbooks themselves are written and presented. Most of them are guilty of “data dumping,” that is, they present the content in a sterile, inorganic, and inaccessible manner that lacks personality and appeal.

The writers don’t actually teach the material; they merely present it. It feels like they are writing for people who already understand the subject—like their own colleagues, or geeky, walkingencyclopedia students like I was.

This approach severely limits the benefit for the students for whom the books were published.

God designed most aspects of life on earth as a dance.

I myself had a love-hate relationship with biology textbooks. I found the presentation frustrating, but as a geek starving for knowledge I was willing to slog through dull technical journals to get it.

Another issue is the way the material is actually formatted on the pages in biology textbooks.

The reader’s attention is attacked from every angle and the brain has no idea where to start. It is poorly conceived and needlessly daunting for the novice student.

Since I could teach the material in a way that my students seemed to enjoy and comprehend, I figured that I could write in the same way. So, with the deliberate intention of breaking all the accepted rules, I started writing.

I wanted my textbook to be a soothing read, not one that gives you a headache. The text is filled with analogies, illustrations, and anecdotes that act as handles so readers can more easily get a grip on difficult concepts. They also make biology a lot more fun.

The layout is much more inviting and relaxed, and the illustrations are not just accurate but also made more visually appealing with an artist’s touch.

So much for the text itself. Why the strange name, The Riot and the Dance?

The dance referes to the fact that God choreographed most aspects

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of life on earth like a dance. At the ecosystem level the cycles of nature, courtship behaviors, and mutualistic relationships, are all “dances.” Even at the cellular level, whether describing mitosis or DNA replication, the molecules were all designed and programmed with the purpose of “dancing” toward a goal.

The riot refers to the fact that these beautiful dances were “subjected to futility” because of Adam’s rebellion (Romans 8:20).

The enemy, “death,” invaded, and the curse of God was ushered in through predators, parasites, pathogens, and other pernicious distortions like cancer.

But apart from this negative sense, “the riot” can also refer positively to the untamed beauty of nature—the randomness of plants in a jungle, the movement of animals in the wild, or even Brownian motion at the molecular level.

Our God is actually speaking to people through biology. inaccessible textbooks. Unlike the textbooks, they were not only easier to understand, but also pleasing to the eye and ear. The brilliant cinematography in David Attenborough’s presentations, along with his jaunty British accent and demeanor, was engaging. But because he and other narrators attribute all the wonders of life to the mindless, merciless, and mechanistic theory of evolution, it made these films all the more effective at misleading people.

Most of it doesn’t conform to our tidy sense of organization. The trees and plants in the wilderness aren’t in rows, and migrating animals don’t march in ranks like soldiers. This part of the riot is good. It reminds us that God Himself is good, but not tame.

Because of this, when I was asked to narrate an unashamedly Christian nature documentary I immediately said “yes.” The opportunity was beyond a dream come true. I could take the strategy I had honed through teaching and writing a textbook and use it to benefit a much wider audience.

So, what about the films? Being a biology geek I’ve always enjoyed documentaries about nature.

But I found these even more problematic than the stuffy,

The production team does not presume to be the BBC and I’m no Attenborough. But we do have one essential quality that they are sadly missing. We

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proclaim the glory of God in all the cinematic excellence we can muster with the resources He has given to us.

We released The Riot and the Dance: Earth in 2018, and the The Riot and the Dance: Water in 2020. We are now working on The Riot and the Dance: Africa and other titles in a shorter episodic format. Lord willing, we will make many more.

After many decades of nature documentaries bereft of any honor for our Maker, we hope these first efforts will spur us, and many others, on to greater excellence as we glorify God in the faithful study of His works.

The tremendous reception to the films from school students, parents, teachers, and even PhD professors, from around the world carries a common theme: our God is actually speaking to people through biology.

One father thanked us for the scene of a giant water bug feeding on a frog in The Riot and the Dance: Water. His five-year-old son found it very disturbing but forced himself to watch it to the end while holding back tears.

He said to his dad afterwards, “I know why that happens. It happens because of our sin.”

To find out how you can watch the movies, and also keep up with our future projects, visit riotandthedance.com. n

“ATHEISM IS A CRUTCH FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT BEAR THE REALITY OF GOD.” — TOM STOPPARD

When the question “Is there life on other planets?” is asked, even the best theologians can only reply, “The Bible doesn’t tell us.”

Well, in truth, the Bible does tell us, but only if we are paying attention.

…and there was not a man to till the ground. (Genesis 2:6)

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he Bible does not simply record events.

It presents them in sequences, as acts that have consequences, and in doing so it shows us how God works.

Every part of Scripture uses the same step-by-step “covenant”

pattern. Unfortunately, most Christians are not taught to read the Scriptures with an eye on the processes going on in each narrative, let alone in the big picture.

Identifying this structure not only enables us to interpret the Bible and history correctly, but also helps us to predict the shape of the future.

FUTURISM

BARREN WORLDS ALIENS AND SOJOURNERS

God creates or calls a man, gives him a job to do, shows him the method for success, then leaves him alone until the time is right and the land is ripe. This is why Israel’s annual harvest calendar was a picture of all covenant history in miniature.

The Seed Biblical history is all about seed and fruit, barrenness and fruitfulness, gathering and scattering, in every domain— physical, social, and ethical— and this is achieved through the process of covenant.

MICHAEL BULL

The modern mind passes over this often repeated theme of sowing and reaping, limiting it to the historical concerns of subsistence farmers (land) and their tribal life (womb), both cursed by unfaithful Adam in Genesis 3, and promised to faithful Abraham in Genesis 15.

In one sense, through technology and its resulting prosperity, we moderns have indeed moved beyond an existence tied so closely to the ground, but God’s Creation is a fractal. This means that although we move from a day of small things (such as “Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”) to

greater exploits, every advancement carries similar risk and similar promise.

The process of growth in farming and families can also be perceived in investment banking, global demographics, software development, and even in spiritual warfare. “Increase” is always achieved through some kind of delayed gratification, an act of faith in a promise that the sacrifices made now will result in greater rewards down the track.

We pray in secret that God might reward us openly. Paul chose personal suffering that he might win the nations and procure a greater resurrection. We fast privately that we might enjoy a greater feast in company with others. Indeed, Israel’s final annual feast, a party for all nations, followed a time of self-examination through national fasting and purification on the Day of Atonement.

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One world With such an understanding, is it possible to extrapolate an answer from ancient documents written for tribal farmers to the question of whether life exists on other planets? If the Bible is true, surely we must begin with the establishment of life on this planet.

The Spirit hovered only over this world, just as He overshadowed only Mary, and descended only upon Christ at His baptism. It is in our God’s character to choose the one from the many, that the one might become many. Mary had other children, and Christ (her firstborn) gave the Spirit to the saints at Pentecost.

Adam was given Eve that he might be fruitful. Land is always feminine, given seed by Man but made fruitful only by obedience, with the increase coming directly from God (1 Corinthians 3:6).

It seems to me that the womb and the land were only “opened” to Adam following the shedding of sacrificial blood, with limiting curses intended to humble him.

Likewise, all the famines in Israel were judgments according to the curses in the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 28:15-24). Only the Land of Israel was subject to blessing and cursing under the Law. Yet God chose Israel from among the nations not only that Israel might be blessed by the 14 24

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nations but that all nations might eventually be blessed through one nation, Israel.

God is consistent in all His works, since they image Him. Out of all the worlds, God chose to bless only this one, and the process of forming and filling in Genesis 1 is repeated in every covenant that follows.

So it is not entirely speculative to assert that while the other planets are currently barren, only this one has many children.

Life on other planets would be Creational “polygamy,” something outside the character of God. Neither is it much of a stretch to imagine that the separation, sanctification, and fruitfulness of this world is intended to be a blessing to all worlds. Like the nations at Pentecost, they have already been formed and are waiting to be filled. But when might this be?

The sower The heavenly lights are often used as images to describe earthly rulers, including the saints. Deuteronomy 4:19 condemns the worship of the stars, but also suggests that they were, and perhaps also will be, a part of our inheritance.

God could certainly have put life on other planets, but the Bible shows us that He always works

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through mediators. For a start, the fruit of the land and the womb depended on a “harvest” of the fruits of the Spirit in Adam.

Some Christians believe that the world existed long before the creation of Adam (if they believe Adam even existed!) but according to revelation and our own experience, the world is not self-sustaining. Like Israel, as a people set apart in Abraham and trained under the Law of Moses, nature itself requires guidance, or cultivation.

The sun, moon, and stars (which include other worlds) were not created until Day 4, prefiguring a time of priestly training (the land and its grain and fruit bearers) before kingly dominion.

In social terms, circumcision was a kind of pruning, not a cutting off but a cutting intended to bring greater fruitfulness— a sacrifice now for a great blessing in the future. However, Abraham seized a firstborn via Hagar in the way that Adam seized the fruit in the Garden.

But Abraham matured until he was even willing to offer his firstborn to God, as a kind of firstfruits, and he was then given many more children.

The physical Creation by God, and the subsequent social Creation delegated to the charge of Adam, are thus inseparable.

Fruitfulness in land and womb

depends not only on cultivation by the Man, but also on the cultivation of the Man. Where Adam failed, Noah succeeded. In a preliminary sense, Noah was the first “interplanetary” colonist.

Thus, it is not in the nature of God to make a self-sustaining “wilderness.” Nature has its laws but that does not make nature sovereign. Nature itself requires “training.”

Since the world was created to be cultivated, the world cannot be fruitful without Man. He can most certainly damage it through exploitation, but a world without Man would not be the pristine utopia imagined by environmentalists. Gary North writes: The earth was never designed to be self-governing. Neither was the garden. Though the creation was able to function without man’s immediate presence, it could not achieve its full flowering apart from man... Nature was allowed to operate briefly without man for five days. Man was allowed to operate briefly without woman for less than one day. Neither could be fully comfortable without its complement. Nature needed subordination under man. Man needed subordination under God...

Like nature, he had been created good but incomplete. He knew from the very beginning that he was not self-sufficient.1

The care with which God had

planted the Garden was to be observed and replicated— imaged—by Adam in the Land.

Tending and guarding the Garden as God’s representative was training for dominion of the Land and then the entire World.

Although the Creation is still under the curse of death, we see the dominion of Christ working in the social realm, through the Gospel, expanding throughout history. “Covenant faithfulness” is now entirely wrapped up in one glorified Man, but now working through all nations.

If we do indeed colonize other planets, it will not so much be “by covenant” but “in Christ,” with technologies given to us by the Spirit of God, and through the sacrifice of individuals with a desire for the conquest of new frontiers for God’s glory inspired by the Great Commission.

Shining like stars So, there is no life on other planets. Not yet. Based on how God has worked in the past, it is likely there may well be in the future. The Spirit will overshadow other worlds, but not as He did in Genesis 1. Since the Spirit now indwells the Sons of God, making us co-workers with the Son in the maturity, conquest, and redemption of mankind, it seems that the glorified redeemed will be the

The world was not created to be fruitful without Man. “governing lights” in the eventual conquest of the Cosmos.

Perhaps this task will be carried out by the saints in ways we can’t yet imagine, but we have already made a start, have we not?

Despite the trials and tragedies that plague humanity, in many respects this world is a better place now than it has ever been.

One day, the phrase “the new world” could be used quite literally, with exploration motivated by more than mere exploitation, a desire for cultivation rather than plunder, a sustainable harvest established upon just measures.

God’s increase always begins with obedience and wisdom. The universe displays the glory of God, but like the earth, it is a gift that requires tending by godly men and women for it to reach the full potential of that glory. n 1 Gary North, The Dominion Covenant: Genesis – An Economic Commentary on the Bible, Volume 1, 84-85 (adapted).

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One simple formula not only shapes all the speeches of God, but also governs the structure of every story in the Bible.

THEOLOGY ACCELERATOR

COVENANT AND CREATION

E

very one of God’s covenants with Man is a five-fold legal treaty.

God introduces Himself, defines the relationship, the methods, the possible outcomes, and the future.

On a mission from God

But God’s covenants aren’t just legal treaties; they’re also fatherly. Covenants are God’s method of maturing Man, moving him from glory to glory.

The phrase “no pain, no gain” is at the heart of every facet of human life. Nothing good is achieved without effort. Farming leads to food, work leads to rest, exercise leads to health, and diligence leads to promotion.

Every covenant is a grand quest for the bittersweet wine of God’s kingdom. However, that glorious cup is only for faithful servants, men and women who are willing to be broken first, like bread.

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For many Christians, a “covenant” is simply God promising something to His people. But that is only half the story. All of the covenants in the Bible are tours of duty.

Likewise, the two trees in the Garden of Eden represented priesthood (humble dependence upon God for life) and kingdom

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MICHAEL BULL (the resulting power to rule the earth). Sin is the act of ignoring submission to God and seizing from God what He had promised.

But without God’s blessing, the kingdoms of men never last.

So, priestly submission (passivity towards heaven) leads to kingly dominion (activity on the earth).

Like every story, every human task or mission has three basic steps—a beginning, a middle, and an ending. There is some kind of initiating act. Then there is the time for the mission to be

carried out. Finally, the work is assessed and, hopefully, blessed, resulting in a time of rest.

Whether it is a work day, a school project, or even just going shopping, every task is a “there-and-back-again” journey.

So, if we add the “going out” and “coming in,” we end up with five steps that, coincidentally, can be perfectly expressed in the shape of a boomerang.

>

BEGINNING GOING OUT MIDDLE

COMING IN

ENDING

Because God’s covenants follow this pattern, faithfulness to His initiating Word leads to glory, and that glory is not only rest at the end of the day (or the end of the mission) but also some kind of promotion: priesthood brings true kingdom. So the “covenant” formula describes a transfer of authority from God to Man via an ordeal of faith. That which was promised at the beginning is finally received by the faithful.

These five steps have been given “legal” names that describe what they do, and these provide us with an acronym—T H E O S— that just happens to be the Greek word for God, which gives us the first part of the word “theology.”

God faces us to give us the mission then turns to lead us through it.

While Theo is not big on “big words,” we will make an exception for THEOS because these terms actually make the process easier to remember.

• TRANSCENDENCE God, the uncreated one, introduces Himself.

(Authority) • HIERARCHY He then defines the relationship between Himself as the master and His beloved servant/s. (Delegation) • ETHICS He provides laws as guidelines for carrying out the mission.

(Service) • OATH/SANCTIONS He calls for allegiance, then outlines the possible outcomes, good and bad.

(Vindication) • SUCCESSION He describes a future role with greater authority for those who obey in faith and succeed in the mission.

(Representation)

If you wrote these five letters on the fingers of one hand, beginning with the T on your thumb, you would notice that the T stands apart from the other letters. As human beings, we have “opposable thumbs,” which means our thumbs can be turned to “face” the other fingers.

Likewise, the T step stands apart from the others because it describes the authority of God. He faces us to give us the mission then turns to lead us through it.

These five steps correspond to the basic themes in the first “unit” of the Bible, the five books of Moses. This shows us that these steps are not a static legal list but a cumulative sequence of events, steps in a process of transformation over time.

Genesis | Transcendence: God is above His creation as its lawmaker. As the originator, He is also the initiator and judge of every covenant era in history.

Exodus | Hierarchy: Just like a household, a business, or an army, every covenant has a tiered authority structure. At this point, God sets apart those whom he has called and prepares them for the mission.

Leviticus | Ethics: The laws of God, when obeyed in faith, bring fruitfulness and prosperity.

Those who submit to heaven will eventually inherit the earth.

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Numbers | Oath/Sanctions: This step calls for a response, a word that promises to carry out the deed. After swearing their allegiance to God, the people are subject to the blessings for those who keep their oath and the curses for those who do not.

Deuteronomy | Succession: This is the promise regarding the inheritance of the faithful. In the case of Adam, and of Israel, the promises concerned the fruit of the land and the womb. But those who have humbled themselves as servants are also awarded authority as God’s legal representatives—“Sons of God.” You can easily remember this “five finger” formula if you know by heart what is arguably the most famous verse in the New Testament, John 3:16.

TRANSCENDENCE For God so loved the world, (Genesis: Creation & the nations) HIERARCHY that he gave his only Son, (Exodus: The Passover sacrifice) ETHICS that whoever believes in him (Leviticus: Living sacrifices) OATH/SANCTIONS should not perish (Numbers: Judgment upon Israel) SUCCESSION but have eternal life.

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Jesus said this to Nicodemus, a teacher in Israel, and it is very likely that this faithful Pharisee understood the reference. What would Jesus’ use of this pattern communicate to him? Firstly, that Jesus would fulfill the Law of Moses, and secondly, that Jesus’ work was the mission of God. With this pattern in our Bible tool belt, we can see that the first five chapters of Genesis describe a mission—a failed mission.

TRANSCENDENCE Genesis 1: God creates the heavens and the earth, and forms and fills the world HIERARCHY Genesis 2: Adam is given a law, a bride, and promises ETHICS Genesis 3: Adam steals what was promised to him as a gift OATH/SANCTIONS Genesis 4: God’s mercy is abandoned for vengeance SUCCESSION Genesis 5: A genealogy of Adamic deaths summarizes the history of the primeval world

ears, our eyes, and our mouths.

First, we must listen to God. Then we must judge rightly and act upon what He said. Finally, we are qualified to speak for God. This pattern switches the first two points of a common saying.

The biblical order is “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil,” because in God’s world faith comes before sight, and word comes before image.

These three steps also relate to the three holy offices. The priest hears God and, as a servant, obeys without question. The king who follows God’s law is given divine wisdom to see into the hearts of men and women. The priest and the king both hear from God via the prophet who holds court directly with God. These three offices also relate to the process of growth to maturity that every person goes through in life: childhood obedience, adult responsibilities, and the insight of eldership in old age.

Creation and conquest

This process played out at a national level in the history of Israel—the priestly era of Moses, the kingly Davidic era, and then the ministry of the prophets.

The legal document of the covenant is fivefold, but the way in which it plays out in history is sevenfold. This is because the central point of the pattern—the method for success—gets split into three parts that relate to our

If we apply this to Adam’s failure, he did not “hear” in the sense of obeying God, then he failed to judge the situation rightly based upon what he had heard, and finally he failed to testify on God’s behalf against the serpent.

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LIGHT & DARKNESS Genesis 2:4-7 Adam was to be a light to all men…

TRANSCENDENCE

GARDEN The testing and failure of Adam

HIERARCHY

LAND The conflict between Abel (“mist”) and Cain (“spear”)

WATERS DIVIDED Genesis 2:8-9 as a mediator between heaven and earth

ETHICS PRIEST

DRY LAND & FIRST FRUITS Genesis 2:10-14 The fruitful mountain with its four rivers of life GOVERNING LIGHTS Genesis 2:15-17 Adam is given the law as the world’s first ruler HOSTS IN SKY AND SEA Genesis 2:18-19 The wild and domestic animals are mustered into the Garden LAND ANIMALS & MAN Genesis 2:20-22 The Man names the animals, is cut by God, and the Woman is constructed REST & RULE Genesis 2:23-25 The Man judges the Woman to be good and rejoices over her

This sevenfold “history” pattern is a human “replay” of the Creation Week in Genesis 1. This explains the unusual ordering of information in Genesis 2. The purpose was to show how the elements of the physical order were symbols of the social order.

The same pattern governed the history from Adam to Noah.

These events also show us how the covenant mission has a “there-and-back-again” symmetry. It begins in the

ETHICS KING

WORLD The initial success of the Sethites and the taking of “firstfruits” Enoch Natural man reaches his apex but intermarriage corrupts the ministry of sacrifice and bloodshed defiles the world

ETHICS PROPHET OATH/SANCTIONS

SUCCESSION

WORLD The prophetic ministry of Noah to whom God gathers the animals LAND The Great Flood ends the bloodshed begun by Cain and brings rest to the Land GARDEN Noah (“rest”) is given authority over the world and he plants a vineyard

Garden of Eden with the priestly and kingly trees and ends in Noah’s vineyard with priestly bread and mature, kingly wine.

In contrast, Noah was given power as a judge over men. He had submitted to heaven and now he had literally inherited the earth.

Noah’s success (and Succession, through his sons) also explains why the actual word “covenant” is not used until God speaks to Noah in Genesis 6:18.

Take some time to meditate upon the “butterfly” mirroring between Genesis 1, Genesis 2, and the pattern of conquest in the history of the primeval world.

Adam failed to qualify as God’s legal representative. Instead of leaving the Garden bearing the sword of God, he was still under the sword.

And, if you’d like a greater challenge, add the first seven books of the Bible to the pattern in preparation for next issue’s Theology Accelerator. n

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DILLON HAMILTON

FICTION

WHERE FEASTS BELONG Always in verity and always in warmth, the Logans immersed their listeners in story after story.

B

ut in a particularly silent stretch of road where in village after village they were met with drawn shutters and smokeless chimneys, Thomas was able to ask his father why they went where they went and why they told the stories they told.

Thomas thought it a natural urge for any apprentice to ask about the mystery of the trade he plied.

He also thought it natural that

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the apprentice would lack the courage to ask these questions until the urge overtook them.

After dark, in another shut-in village, the urge overtook him.

“Father?”

“Yes,” the elder Logan replied.

“Why do we tell our stories around a fire, even in the warmer months?” Thomas asked.

“It helps.”

“What does it help?”

Father Logan walked with the vitality of a man who has met rejection enough times to wink at it and thought before he answered, “It helps them. It helps me. They are comfortable and

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have my face to focus upon. I cannot imagine they would listen well in the cold, or in the dark.”

“And how does it help you?”

“It helps me to know that they are comfortable and have the story lighted for them. I can see their faces and know how to tell the story. It also helps me because I know that all true stories must have light,” Father Logan said.

They came to a place in the road where it bent round an oak grove; their shoes crushed and popped acorns as they walked. Something bounced alongside them in the underbrush. Thomas took a few angled strides toward the middle of the road. “Most bards have no

family to speak of. Why do you, Father?”

“Most bards know that their stories are not worth passing along. Those that believe they do have worthy stories give them to their children.”

“I know that all true stories must have light.”

“Yours are worth passing along?”

“I hope so,” Father Logan said forlornly. “Otherwise, you won’t have much to inherit.” Father Logan laughed.

Thomas was mildly amused. “We might have a greater inheritance if you told your stories in the cities. There is much money to be made in the cities.”

“Ach! Those cities are not suited for my stories. I would earn a pittance at the cost of my reputation.”

Thomas wanted to contest that his father had no such reputation to lose, but being on the road with him for a few months had proven otherwise. It did not fail, when they approached a village, that the first body they came across would race ahead of them to the village and spread the news. A bustle could be heard as they drew near, but once they were very close the only sounds in the village would come from the livestock. Father Logan would walk up to the exact barn where a fire and feast were already prepared in his honor.

They treated Thomas likewise,

good way and let Thomas enjoy it alone, as he did at every pond. It grew too dark to see the flora and fauna so Thomas caught up with his father who was lying upon a two ton stone at the roadside.

“What are you doing?” Thomas asked.

“Still warm,” Father Logan said and patted the stone. “Come. Sit.”

making him realize that the strongest reputations extended beyond one’s own person. “You are lavished upon for my sake,” Father Logan would say when they came to a welcoming village.

“Cities cannot take a man’s reputation,” Thomas said.

“Don’t be so sure. The city nearest to here knows very little about me and even less about my stories, but they have said enough to shut every shutter in the borough. They would not even listen to my pleas, if I cared to give any. Ha! Pleas. Do not plea before men for your needs, Thomas.”

“Yes, Father.”

A pond appeared on their left, across from the grove, as they eased down a gentle slope in the road. A few fowl floated near the reeds, barely discernible in the twilight but easily heard. Thomas, normally the fleetest of foot between them, stopped, as he did at every pond they came across.

Father Logan walked ahead a

Thomas sighed and did as he was told.

“Now, close them.”

“It’s already dark!”

“Close ’em! Listen.”

They sat silently, Thomas with his eyes closed and Father Logan bemusedly watching the fireflies bounce from the surface of the water and up the gentle slope from where they had just come.

“Describe it,” Father Logan said.

“Father—” “Now, Thomas. Before it’s gone.”

Thomas snorted pridefully. “It’s never gone. I remember them all.”

“Yes, but you never remember how you described it for the first time. Now, describe it, son.”

Thomas tapped his fingers against the stone. Father Logan gripped the fidgeting fingers.

Thomas breathed deeply through his nose and ceased tapping.

Thomas began, “Forgive me if it’s special to someone, but there wasn’t a body of water that it did

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not resemble in this borough.

And yet, there wasn’t a one that could match its quality. Much like a style of building, one could be built in another’s likeness, but only to the point where it made you desire the better built of the two. The banks of this pond had its pebbles and its stones, but all in the right places. The reeds in this pond shrouded the proper places in the proper amounts— a proper modest pond. Even the fowl, who rarely strike a tolerable tone, were pleasant in the morning and playful in the evening. Serpents could have lain peacefully in the tall grass near the shoreline, but the deer that panted over the water were none the wiser for it. They knew this was not the place for striking or stomping…”

Thomas paused. “I…I’m not sure.

I don’t have much else for it.”

“No, it’s right. The next part is for man to enter.” Father Logan was noticeably still and contemplative, even in the darkness.

“Where would you place it? In the middle? At the end?”

“Oh no, that’s a beginning.”

“I’d have gripped them?”

Father Logan shrugged. “Well, that and you don’t want such peaceful endings.”

Thomas frowned. “Why not?”

“Because that’s where the feasts belong.”

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Thomas opened his eyes. “At the end?”

“Why do you think I only drink water until the end of my stories?”

“Clarity of speech and thought?”

Thomas said.

“It just wouldn’t be proper to take wine and food so young. It’d be like picking up one of the stones from your pond and casting it into the pool at the beginning of the story. No, no, no. That’s all for the end. All for the end.”

The fireflies had climbed the slope and disappeared into tall summer grains. The pond was there, just in front of them.

Though they could not see or hear it, they could feel it.

“This stone is quite warm,” Thomas said.

“Abnormally. Be good for building, it would,” Father Logan said.

“Should we rest here?” Thomas asked.

“No. It’s not far to a welcome village.”

“We can rest and eat there?”

“Yes, feast and rest,” Father Logan said.

It was as Father Logan had said, not far. After a turn, a descent, and an ascent, the village shone its light down the terraced hill through lacy décor that stretched from one side of a brick street to

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the other. The stained-glass lanterns were filled with enough oil to make it through any night.

There was nobody on the high street or the two side streets. One side street extended to a small market and the other held a hay barn with a few stables.

Father Logan stopped between the side streets. He looked toward the market first and then to the hay barn. He pointed to the hay barn and said, “There.”

The entire front of the barn was lit by one lantern to the right of its door. It was eerily quiet on the side street. Father Logan strode toward it and Thomas followed.

“How do you know?” Thomas asked.

Father Logan sniffed. “That’s it.

Homes with life in them have a different aroma than those that are dead.”

Thomas sniffed and could be reminded of nothing but buckwheat honey mead and manure.

“There’s life in there?” Thomas’ questioned went unanswered, which was just as well, since laughing, singing, and arguing were coming from the barn as they approached. Up to this point, Thomas assumed this barn would be much like all the others that had come before. Father Logan turned to face him before they entered. “Are you ready?”

“Sure. Doesn’t seem like a bad place.”

Father Logan patted Thomas’ shoulder. “No, son. Are you ready to tell the story before the feast? I believe its time.”

“I’m not sure.”

“Cowards do not inherit feasting and song.”

“Just tell your story and we’ll feast. From there it gets easier.”

“Tell my story? The one I started by the pond?” Thomas asked.

“No, no, no. That’s not your story, yet. You only know the opening.

If you tried that, they’d laugh you from the stool you stand on and bring me up to finish the job.

That’s not something we want, is it? No, just tell the story you know the best. The story you know the best—the one you have practiced and beat all the dross from—that is your story.”

Thomas knew which of his father’s stories he would have to tell but said nothing. He stood there and let his father reconsider. Thomas offered him the most unassured expression that he could muster. Father Logan chuckled and said, “Thomas, a coward is not a man who is uncertain about his abilities to accomplish his task. A coward is a man who is sure of his task and refuses it regardless of his abilities. I have made the task quite sure for you. Cowards do not inherit feasting and song.”

Father Logan pushed the barn

door open to the sound of welcomes and cheers. Thomas followed, breathless. Father Logan quieted the crowd with a gesture and announced, “Tonight, you will have the privilege of hearing a story from my son and apprentice.”

A natural path appeared for Thomas through the crowd to a stack of hay. He left his father’s side and took the seat they had prepared for him. He climbed the stack and plopped on its peak. The villagers quieted, settling near tables covered in bread, cheese, and mugs.

Thomas grabbed a fistful of hay and rubbed it between his hands until it all fell to the base of the stack. He watched as his father sifted through the villagers to a table with old friends. Thomas did not wait until his breath or wits were gathered. He acted.

“You’ve heard it said that in your country the serpents have been driven out and there is no place for a dragon to make its lair—”

“We’ve heard it before, lad,” a smartly dressed man said from the middle of the barn. The villagers hummed their agreement. Thomas looked to his father, who merely watched like any other villager. He gave no hint on how to proceed, but Thomas knew his father enjoyed watching him act without help.

Thomas stood and said, “Yes, you’ve heard it before and liked it then. You’ve never heard it told like this and you’ll like it much more.”

“Hear! Hear!” said one.

“Hear! Hear!” said another.

“Hear! Hear!” said the smartly dressed man.

Thomas carried on as he was encouraged to and finished his story in a way that the villagers had never heard before. They received it as he had prophesied, liking it much better than they had before. He was thanked, congratulated, and celebrated as he made his way to the feast table where his father sat. Song broke out among the villagers. The scents of buckwheat, cheese, ale, and general feasting grew as he drew near to the table. His father’s glistening eyes and proud favor were upon him and him alone. In a gesture that he did not expect, his father stood and offered Thomas his seat, where a full cup and platter awaited him. n

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DOMINION

CHRISTENDOM RELOADED As Western culture self-destructs, it is time to reconsider its roots. Jesus founded a new social order within the old one before it passed away, and the result was “Christendom,” a Christian society.

AARON VENTURA

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n 1820, the fertility rate in the United States was 6.59.

In 2016, that number was down to 1.92, well below the replacement rate of 2.1.

From 1973 to 2011, the sperm count for men in western nations declined by more than 50% (90 million sperm per milliliter down to 47 million).

The leading cause of death in the US is heart disease, followed by cancer, and a young man is more likely to kill himself today than die by COVID. Depending on which study you look at, about half of the US population is on prescription drugs, and at least 1

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in 10 Americans is on antidepressants. According to the CDC, 1 in 59 children has autism and this number keeps rising. By just about every metric, we are becoming a more sterile, infertile, and sick population. What accounts for this nationwide decline?

In The Confessional County: Realizing The Kingdom Through Local Christendom, Raymond Simmons argues that the USA is under a land curse (Leviticus 26, Numbers 35, Deuteronomy 28), and the only way to break this curse is to cleanse the land through “social confessionalism.”

What is social confessionalism?

Simmons summarizes our situation when he says, “societal curses are caused by societal sins and are only removed by societal confession.” Just as individuals are required by God to confess their individual sins and be cleansed, God also requires various groups to repent as groups.

Joshua and Caleb suffered the judgment of wandering in the wilderness for forty years despite their own personal faithfulness (Numbers 14). In a similar manner, many Christians are suffering the judgment of living in a cursed land despite their personal faithfulness.

Social confessionalism is “the model presented in the Bible where all-of-society comes together and representative heads of family, church, and state, confess their societal sins and covenant with God and commit to following all of His commands.”

Although the Church and righteous individuals can, and should, pray for anti-Christian governments, it is only when the members of the government itself join in this shared repentance that God actually heals the land (2 Chronicles 7:14). Until that happens, there can be no society-wide renewal.

County before country While this practice of social covenanting/confessionalism is nothing new, Simmons makes two unique suggestions.

The first is the application of national covenanting to our smallest unit of civil government —the county, or shire. He proposes that Christians strategically relocate to counties that could be Christianized within about ten years.

Societal curses are only removed by societal confession.

OMG REDEEMING THE CULTURE

Christendom as a means by which other nations are made jealous and turn to Christ. This was the Apostle Paul’s strategy with the Jews (Romans 11:11).

Simmons argues that if local counties confess Christ and get out from under the land curse, these new Goshen-like pockets of Christendom have the potential to become cities on a hill that others will want to imitate.

The real question then becomes, is building local Christendom achievable within our lifetime?

Simmons’ answer is an emphatic “Yes!”

An oasis in the wilderness Since God differentiates between towns (Genesis 18:20, Isaiah 17:1, Matthew 10:14-15) and land curses are associated with particular locations, it is possible to establish new towns of “Goshen” that are protected from plagues (Exodus 8:22).

A second contribution comes in how Simmons makes the public confession of Christ’s Lordship a means rather than an end of kingdom conquest. Most Christians think of Christendom as the end result of widespread evangelism, rather than seeing

The New Dunedin Project, with which Simmons is involved, is an attempt to build a deliberately Christian settlement in the upper Midwest.

As a retired nuclear military strategist and international relations advisor, Simmons is no stranger to measuring risk and reward. In The Confessional County, he lists 26 criteria for assessing a location for such a project. This list includes things such as homeschool laws, the death penalty, and resistance to federal encroachment.

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At the local level, Simmons suggests looking for a place that has less than 10,000 residents, with inexpensive land (less than $4,000 per acre), property taxes that are less than $2,000 a year for a $250,000 house, no state or federal agencies that employ more than a few people, no major colleges or universities, a county seat with less than 3,000 people, and no Godhating families of extreme wealth that could influence people negatively. The area should also be beautiful and abundant in natural resources (clean water, trees, fertile soil), such that people would generally want to move there.

These are just a few of the criteria that people should consider if they plan to strategically relocate.

Of course, the most important resource for establishing local Christendom is genuine, likeminded Christians.

Without a faithful church at the center of society, God will not bless our attempts to build something new amidst the ruins. As the Apostle Paul reminds us, without love, we are nothing.

Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option. Whereas the Benedict Option calls for a strategic withdrawal from society into monastic communities, Simmons’ proposal is far more radical. It is not just a reboot of the existing social machine; it is a total reversion to the original operating system.

Simmons calls this an “offset” strategy (to borrow a military term). An offset is when we purposely ignore the enemy and put our effort and resources towards building instead of reacting.

The First Offset was in the 1950s when the US was fighting a cold war with the Soviet Union. Instead of building a better tank, Eisenhower “offset” and went nuclear. Likewise, during The Second Offset (1975-1989), a portion of the US military ignored the world for a time and developed stealth, GPS, precision-guided weapons, and datalinks. According to Simmons, “offsets are one of the primary ways the US has maintained the advantage. Our enemies have been reacting to us, trying to catch up for seventy years now.”

If covenantal problems require covenantal solutions, then a portion of the Church militant should offset and build a new Christendom from the ground up. The Confessional County is a unique strategy whose merits all Christians should at least discuss and consider. n

contributors this issue Albert Garlando has been a Christian since high school. He and his wife Rachel have a teenage daughter, and he enjoys teaching high school English and History in North Queensland, Australia.

Michael Bull is a graphic designer and author who lives in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, Australia. His passion is understanding and teaching the Bible.

Dr Gordon Wilson is Senior Fellow of Natural History at New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho, USA. He and his wife Meredith have four children and three grandchildren.

Dillon Hamilton is an author who lives in Norman, Oklahoma, USA, with his wife and children.

Aaron Ventura is a preacher and pastoral assistant at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, USA, where he also hosts the Bible Reading Challenge podcast. He is married to Elin and they have two children.

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