4 - The Glory of God

A narrative biblical theology necessarily features the glory of God. From the outset of Israel’s history, without any direct appearance of God (Deut. 5:4, 5; Exod. 33:18-23), his glory proceeded from him to appear in various expressions (Heb. 1:1). As an example, Moses stood in the presence of God’s glory when he saw the burning bush and spoke with God (Exod. 3:1-19). At the end, God’s glory most vividly and dramatically appeared in the First Advent (Heb. 1:2) and will appear in the Second Advent of the Son of God. Ryrie identified the revelation as a sine qua non of Dispensationalism yet called it “a rather technical matter.” This is the case because all biblical theologies feature God and his glory. But Ryrie’s viewpoint more specifically related to “the ultimate purpose of God” in biblical history. “The Bible itself clearly teaches that salvation, important and wonderful as it is, is not an end in itself, but is rather a means to the end of glorifying God (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14).” John F. Walvoord shared the same conviction: “The larger purpose of God is the manifestation of His own glory. To this end, each dispensation, each successive revelation of God’s plan for the ages, His dealing with the non-elect as well as the elect . . . combine to manifest divine glory.” Thus Dispensationalism is a narrative biblical theology in which God determines to ultimately reveal his glory for the good of those he chooses, for those who love him. Thus the title we’ve chosen for this overall narrative theology is “Drawn by God’s Glory.”