Page 310 - Through New Eyes

312 NOTES TO PAGES 270-278

10. Satan had access to heaven in the Old Covenant, as Job 1-2 show. On the tim-
ing of Satan’s removal from heaven, and all the many prooftexts for it, see Greg
L. Bahnsen, “The Person, Work, and Present Status of Satan,” in Gary North,
ed., The Journal of Christian Reconstruction I: 2, Symposium on Satanism (Winter
1984):11-43, esp. 33-37.
11. The Gentiles are consistently pictured as the Sea in Revelation, and the Jews as
the Land. See James B. Jordan, Revelation Made Practical.
12. Thus, while the lampstand in the Tabernacle and Temple had one central shaft
with seven branches, in the New Covenant each church is its own lampstand
(Revelation 1:12, 20). The kingdom is decentralized on earth, and centralized
in heaven.
13. For a full discussion of these degrees of access, see James B. Jordan, The
Sociology of the Church (Tyler, TX: Geneva Ministries, 1986), pp. 83-124.
14. The New Jerusalem “is the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Church that
daily descends from heaven in our dispensation after the Pentecost festival.
Prof. S. Greydanus writes: ‘Two things are true of this Jerusalem: it already
descends from heaven to earth, and it will not descend from heaven until the
time of the end. This Jerusalem, after all, is the Church of the Lord.’” M. B.
Van>t Veer, My God i~ Y&weh, trans. Theodore Plantinga (Ontario: Paideia
Press, [?] 1980), p. 26. The statement from Greydanus is from his De Openbaring
&s Heren aan Johannes (Amsterdam: H. A. van Bottenburg, n.d.), p. 422.
15. On the “last days ,“ see David Chilton, Paradise Restored: An Eschatolo~ of Domini-
on (Fort Worth: Dominion Press, 1985), pp. 115-124. $
16. This emerges from a careful study of the chronology of Exodus. See my dis-
cussion in Jordan, The Law of the Covenant: An Exposition of Exodus 21-23 (Tyler,
TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1984), pp. 55-58; and also Umberto
Cassuto, A CommentaT on the Book of Exodw, trans. Israel Abrahams ( Jeru-
salem: Magnes Press, [1951] 1967), p. 229.
17. On the gift of tongues (xenolalia) as a sign of judgment upon Israel, and the
modern practice of glossohdia (which is something different, but not necessarily
wrong or unspiritual), see James B. Jordan, The Sociolo~ of the Church (Tyler,
TX: Geneva Ministries, 1986), pp. 169-174; and also Richard B. Gaffin, Jr.,
Perspectives on Pentecost: New Testament Teaching on the G#s of the Ho~ Spirit (Phil-
lipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co., 1979), esp. Chapter 5.
18. Because the “Sardis” period of the Old Covenant history has less to do with the
specific worldview concerns of this particular book, I have not discussed it in
depth. The Sardis period is generally considered simply the later phase of the
monarchy, and we have considered it that way in this book. On the other hand,
Elijah is a clear Moses figure, challenging the Pharaonic kings of Northern
Israel, and finally being taken to heaven in the very place Moses died (2 Kings
2:1-11, 16-18). After this, Elisha, a new Joshua, crosses the Jordan and recon-
quers Jericho (2 Kings 2:13-22). A series of miracle stories follow this, in which
Elisha sets up the kingdom in a new form: the Remnant Church (2 Kings 4-6).
Note the Exodus themes of borrowing, and of deliverance from slavery, in
2 Kings 4:1-7, the restoration of a firstborn son in 2 Kings 4:8-37, healing of
food in 2 Kings 4:38-41, manna in 2 Kings 4:42-44, and especially the building
of the new house for God’s new people in 2 Kings 6:1-7. This new period of
history, following Elijah and Elisha, is the period of the Writing Prophets
(Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, Joel, etc.). Thus, it is entirely possible to see
the Sardis or Remnant period as a “new covenant” with new conditions, condi-
tions related to being a faithful Remnant Church in an apostate land.