Glossary

Biblical Theology: The study of the organic and periodic progression of special revelation in Scripture. Biblical theology and systematic theology are complementary, but they have different methods. Systematic theology studies the finished product of revelation and is organized topically and logically, asking “What does the whole Bible teach about God, man, salvation, etc.?” Biblical theology traces the historical progress of revelation in linear fashion, seeking to show both the organic unity and historic progression and development of the organism of revelation. Sometimes it is referred to as the study of redemptive history, or as having a redemptive-historical focus. That is not wrong, but it eliminates Genesis 1-2 (creation) from consideration, since redemption presupposes the Fall. Biblical theology studies the history of God’s kingdom activity from creation to consummation.

Canon: Kline uses this word in a technical sense that differs from common theological usage. In common theological usage, the canon is the list of inspired writings that make up the Old and New Testaments. In Kline’s usage, “canon” is the collection of documents serving as the covenant constitution of the people of God in a given period of redemptive history. The Old Testament is the canon (or constitution) of people of God in the pre-Messianic age. The New Testament is the canon (or constitution) of the people of God in the time of the Messianic fulfillment. Thus, using this technical definition of canon, he can say, “The Old Testament, though possessing the general authority of all the Scriptures, does not possess for the church the more specific authority of canonicity. Under the new covenant the Old Testament is not the current canon” (SBA, 102). In other words, it is the New Testament canon, not the Old Testament canon, which functions as the legislative constitution of the new covenant church. Of course, the Old Testament as Scripture is still inspired and authoritative. All that it teaches us about God remains. It continues to teach us about creation, sin, and the coming Messiah. The moral law of God continues and is repeated and assumed in the New Testament. But the Mosaic Law taken as a unit as the constitution of Israel is not the constitution (canon) that governs the church as a community today. ** **

Common Grace: In contrast with special or saving grace, common grace refers to God’s general kindness to fallen humanity. God allows life to continue in spite of the fact that men deserve no earthly existence, much less a generally good one. God restrains his judgment (2 Pet 2:9) and sends his rain and sunshine on the just and the unjust (Mat 5:45). Common grace did not exist before the Fall (since it can only be given to sinners), and it will be terminated at the day of judgment. Although common grace existed from the very moment sin entered the world, yet it was not formally granted as a unilateral covenant until after the flood (Gen 8:20-9:17). The covenant of common grace provides the backdrop upon which the covenant of special grace unfolds with the seed of the woman.

Covenant: Oath-bound commitment. All biblical covenants involve commitments on God’s part toward man and on man’s part toward God. For commitments to be covenantal they must be inaugurated or ratified by means of an oath. The biblical terminology for making a covenant includes such language as, “to cut a covenant” (referring to the ritual slaughter of a suitable animal) and “to enter into an oath” (thus showing that the slaughter of the animal is equivalent to swearing an oath). If the oath is taken by God, then it is a covenant of grace in which God commits himself to do something for man, and the oath makes the blessings promised in that covenant guaranteed to those who receive them by faith alone. The Abrahamic, the Davidic, and the new covenants are covenants sworn by God alone, and hence covenants of pure grace. By contrast, if the oath by which a covenant is ratified is taken by man, then it is a covenant of works in which man commits himself to perform certain prescribed works as the legal ground for receiving the blessings offered as a reward. In these cases, the oath makes the covenant conditional, with blessings promised upon obedience and curses threatened for disobedience. The three primary instances of this type of covenant are the Adamic covenant of works, the Mosaic covenant, and the covenant of redemption between the Father and the Son.

Cult and Culture: Cult is the aspect of life pertaining directly to worship (vertical). Cult in this context does not refer to fringe or heretical religious groups but to man’s priestly duties of offering tribute (sacrifice) to God. Although we must do all things to God’s glory throughout the week, the Sabbath is set apart as a special day for meeting with God in his holy temple. Culture is the aspect of life pertaining to all of life (horizontal). Culture is larger than literature and the fine arts. It refers to all areas of life other than cult: man’s kingly duties as summarized in the dominion mandate (Gen 1:26, 28). Family, society, technology, civic life, politics, architecture, medicine, etc., are part of culture. What we do during the other six days of the week is primarily cultural activity (except for prayer, etc.).

Divine Council: The heavenly throne room scene found throughout Scripture: God on his throne, surrounded by the angels functioning as a divine council. This explains the use of the plural, “Let us” in Gen 1:26 and Isa 6:8 (“Who will go for us?”). Micaiah the prophet said, “I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left” (1 Kings 22:19). In the psalms we read that “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods [elohim] he holds judgment” (Ps 82:1; the elohim are supernatural beings called angels or demons). For a prophet to receive an authentic call he must stand in the divine council (Jer 23:18-22).

Eschatology: Eschatology has both a narrow and a broad meaning. The narrow meaning of eschatology is the study of the last things, e.g., the events at the end of history, the Antichrist, the second coming of Christ, the resurrection, the day of judgment, and the renewal of all things. The broad meaning of eschatology is that eschatology is not only at the end but is present at the very beginning, in the original offer of eschatological glory to Adam on condition that he passed the probation of the covenant of creation. Eschatology in the broad sense has to do with the ultimate purpose and intentions of God concerning man and the physical creation. Additionally, there are numerous intrusions of the eschatological judgment in the midst of history prior to the actual end (e.g., the flood, the exodus, the conquest of the land, the exile), eschatology in the broad sense is sprinkled throughout the biblical narrative in type and shadow.

Glory, Glory-Cloud: Just as the second person of the Trinity became incarnate as a man, so the third person of the Trinity (the Holy Spirit) manifested himself in theophanic form as the bright luminous glory of God. This is the Spirit of God that was hovering over the deep and the darkness at the beginning of creation (Gen 1:2). This is the Glory-Cloud that accompanied Israel in the wilderness and settled on top of Mount Sinai. It is the Shekinah glory that filled the tabernacle and Solomon’s temple. It is the same glory that visibly transformed Jesus on the mount of transfiguration as a foreshadow of his resurrection body, as well as that of all believers in the future. The Glory-Cloud is also closely associated with angels. If one enters the Glory-Cloud one enters the divine council where the angels surround the throne of God.

Gog and Magog: The first mention of “Magog” is in the table of nations (Gen 10:2). It seems connected in biblical theology with the nations that are arrayed against God and his people. In Ezekiel 38-39, we have a vision of a future eschatological struggle when the nations will come out of the northern regions in a final attempt to surround Israel and destroy it. But God will thwart the attempts of the enemies of his people. The book of Revelation picks up on this and mentions it in Rev 20:8 as the final gathering of the nations—of Gog and Magog—to the battle of the great day of God.

Har Magedon: This Hebrew phrase is found transliterated in Greek in Rev 16:16, where it is misleadingly rendered “Armageddon” in the English versions, causing readers to miss the Hebrew word “Har,” or mountain. Kline argues that the “Magedon” part is a modified version of a Hebrew word meaning “assembly.” Thus, the phrase in Kline’s view means, “the mount of the assembly,” that is the mountain where God is assembled with his divine council. It has both a heavenly and an earthly counterpart. The heavenly counterpart is heaven itself, the place where God dwells in the midst of the angels. The earthly counterpart is Mount Zion, which is a lower-register projection of the upper-register heavenly Zion (Heb 12:22; Gal 4:26). The battle of Armageddon, therefore, is the last battle where God’s enemies assemble against Mount Zion, seeking to destroy it (Rev 20:8).** **

Holy and Common: In the OT God called his people to be holy (separated unto himself) by requiring them to observe the distinction between the holy and the common. Their food, their land, their customs, their marriages—all had to be separate from the unclean nations around them. Holiness in this context is not equivalent to personal sanctification or obedience but refers to a state of ritual or cultic purity that allows one access to the holy presence of God in the tabernacle or the temple. To say that something is common is not necessarily to say that it is evil, sinful or impure. It simply means “not holy,” that is, not ritually acceptable for temple worship - either because it is unclean or because it has not been properly consecrated. In a theocratic situation, both cult and culture are holy. In a pilgrim situation (e.g., patriarchal age, church age), only cult is holy and culture is common.

Image of God: Kline sees man’s identity as the image of God as having three aspects: judicial authority, moral or ethical likeness to God, and luminosity. The last one, luminosity, refers to the hope that Adam had, if he had passed the probation, of eschatological advancement from life (Gen 2:7) to eternal life (Gen 3:22), from a body that was capable of experiencing pain and death, to a body that is immortal. The manifestation of the Spirit in the form of physical luminosity and glory is tied up with the image of God in man, for by means of his physical transformation he would be the ultimate image of God, specifically imaging the glory of the Glory-Spirit.** **

Indicative and Imperative: The statement of the facts of our identity in union with Christ (the indicative) and the exhortation to live in a way that is in keeping with those facts (the imperative). The New Testament writers, especially Paul, use the indicative-imperative dynamic to exhort Christians to godly living. They begin with reminding us who we are in Christ. In union with Christ, we have died to sin and have been raised to newness of life. We are God’s temple. We are sons of God and heirs of the eternal inheritance. They call us to believe these things, not by looking at ourselves but by looking at Christ, for it is only in Christ that these things are absolutely true. But we are in Christ, and so these things are true of us as well, in him. Therefore, since we have died, put to death your sinful deeds and desires. Since we have been raised, walk in newness of life. Since we are sons, live as sons.** **

Intrusion: Into the midst of the common grace field, God sometimes intrudes the principle of final judgment ahead of time (e.g., the flood; the conquest of Canaan). Normally, intrusions are associated with the setting up of a theocracy (e.g., Noah’s ark; the Israelite theocracy). When heaven comes to earth, judgment ensues. The cross and resurrection of Christ was also an intrusion, and it was the prelude to the setting up of the spiritual, heavenly theocracy of the reign of Christ in the church. Intrusions are not normative and can only be instituted by divine special command (i.e., the Lord’s commanding Joshua, Saul, David to exterminate the Canaanites). Under normal, common grace conditions, we must love our enemies just like God does (Matt 5:44-45). Only at the final day, when heaven comes to earth permanently, will we be asked to hate our enemies.

Kingdom of God: There are three elements to the kingdom of God: the people, the realm, and the king. Scholars tend to focus on one element to the exclusion or downplaying of the other two, but all three are necessary. God’s kingdom isn’t just God’s reign or rule. God is sovereign at all times and all places, but God’s kingdom “comes” at certain points, and not everyone is in the kingdom but must “enter” it. The kingdom is God’s reign through his vassal-king (whether Adam or David or Christ), over his holy people (whether pre-fall humanity, Israel, or all the elect), in his holy realm (the garden, the land of Canaan, or the new creation). The kingdom is a dynamic reality that is offered (pre-fall), withdrawn (post-fall), intruded in type and shadow (the Israelite theocracy), withdrawn again (the exile), and then brought near in principle at the first coming of Christ, and eschatologically consummated in global, physical reality and glory at his return.

Megapolis and Metapolis: These are two creative terms that Kline invented to describe how the kingdom of God would have come about in fulness had Adam not sinned and had he completed the cultural mandate of Gen 1:28. The two terms are based on the word polis or city, because the kingdom of God is presented in Scripture as not only a cosmic temple but as a cosmic city. The cultural mandate given to Adam before the Fall envisioned a long-term historical process of culture making, ultimately of building the city of God. The primary substance of the city is mankind itself. Thus the cultural mandate’s prime directive is to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with people. The secondary element that goes with the people is the various forms of clothing and clothing-extensions (houses, buildings, and cities) to protect mankind from the elements and to create a non-eschatological, temporary version of the glorified body. After many generations, the city of God in both its human and non-human dimensions would have been completed under the leadership of Adam, the vassal-king. This would be Megapolis, that is, the big city. The cultivated garden of Eden would have been expanded to its fullest global extent, populated by the Adamic race. At this point, Adam would have offered Megapolis to God (just as Christ in the redemptive version will deliver the kingdom to God the Father, 1 Cor 15:24), and God would then come in eschatological fullness to dwell in it and cause it to become Metapolis, that is, the transformed city. In the redemptive version, Metapolis is called the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:2).

Pilgrim Politics: The politics of the pilgrim people of God. God’s people live in relation to the political, cultural and social structures of the city of man around them as pilgrims, not as conquerors. Pilgrim politics was first exemplified in the time of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and is once again the mode of the people of God in the time after Christ’s ascension and before his return. Pilgrim polity involves peaceful coexistence with unbelievers. It does not attempt to gain control of the political power and turn its military and civil power to favor the covenant community. Believers and unbelievers can cooperate in the realm of culture and politics as they seek temporal goods and non-eschatological justice in this world. It assumes the operation of common grace. Pilgrim politics is radically distinct from the politics of the eschatological intrusion, whether in the time of the conquest under Joshua or in the time of the second coming of Christ, the greater Joshua. Then the wicked shall be judged by God and the righteous shall possess the earth. But before then, the wicked are not judged but rather given an opportunity to repent as the covenant community proclaims the free offer of the gospel to all mankind. In pilgrim politics, the righteous live as pilgrims, knowing like Abraham that every place where they walk, the land belongs to them de jure, yet not using force to claim it, but rather waiting for the day when God shall give it to them de facto.

Republication: Republication is short-hand for the idea that the Sinai Covenant is a republication of the Adamic covenant of works. Technically that is a misleading way of putting it, since the word “republication” sounds like the Adamic covenant of works is simply repeated without change in the Mosaic law. But Kline argues that it was not a straightforward repetition but a recapitulation with changes adapted to the post-fall redemptive situation. It would be more accurate to say that the works principle contained in the Adamic covenant is republished within a redemptive setting in order to shut up Israel under sin and prepare the way for Christ to be born under it and fulfill it.

Sanctions: Blessings offered for obedience, and curses threatened for disobedience. Sanctions are in place any time there is a covenant based on the works principle. The sanctions of the covenant are conditional upon obedience or disobedience, and are meted out in response to and on the legal ground of obedience or disobedience. The sanctions can also be referred to as life and death. For example, the sanction of death in the covenant of creation: “In the day that you eat of it, you will surely die” (Gen 2:17). The dual sanctions are also repeated in the Mosaic Covenant in the blessings and the curses (Deut 27-28). Later, Moses repeats the sanctions in terms of life and death: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil …. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live” (Deut 30:15, 19).

Self-Malediction: A self-malediction is an oath that brings a potential curse (malediction) on oneself. The self-maledictory oath of God in Genesis 15 is the prime example of this. God swore an oath to Abraham, in effect saying, “May I become accursed and cut in half like these animals if I fail to keep my promise to you to give your seed the land.” God himself cannot die, but he did end up taking the curse on himself in actual fact when he became man and died an accursed death on the cross. Christ became a curse for us (Gal 3:13) so that we might inherit the blessing.

Temple: A temple is a residence or palace for a god to dwell in. It is a sacred space that is set apart from the common or non-holy realm. Only the ritually pure may enter there. Sacrifice must be made in order to have access to the holy realm. God is very interested in temples. The cosmos itself, the garden of Eden, the tabernacle, Solomon’s temple, and finally Christ and the new creation are all temples—holy places where God dwells with his people. The temple is associated with glory as well. “There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory” (Exod 29:43).

Theocracy: The sovereign reign and realm of God (both aspects are essential). A theocracy exists when God claims a specific location as the place where He chooses to put His Name, thus constituting that locale as a holy realm, that is, a sanctuary or temple. Theocracies have existed in the past at three major points: in the garden before the Fall, in the ark of Noah, and in the land of Canaan from the conquest until Christ. In a theocracy, the dominion of God is external, visible, and “glory”-ous (i.e., the physical creation is engulfed in the transforming radiance of the divine Glory). Theocracy involves a separation of a particular chosen people from the world around them to be a holy nation. The kingdom has two dimensions: priestly (cultic) and kingly (culture). These two dimensions are integrally related, but culture is subordinated to the cult, since the temple is the central focal point of the theocracy. Theocratic principles have been radically transformed with the coming of Christ, the final Priest and King. He reigns in heaven (the semi-eschatological theocratic realm) over his people (the church), but the external, visible dimension of His reign will not be realized until His second coming. Then, all creation, together with the redeemed, will be physically “glory”-fied so as to become God’s eschatological theocracy, the New Jerusalem.

Theonomy: The view that the Mosaic Law continues to be binding today, in exhaustive detail, except for the portions that have been explicitly revised in the New Testament (e.g., the ceremonial or restorative laws pertaining to sacrifice, etc.). Not only the Decalogue but also the civil legislation of the Mosaic Law remains binding today and provides a divinely revealed blueprint for the ordering of civil society today. The penal code of the Mosaic Law (punishments for idolatry, murder, adultery and other sexual sins, etc.) continue today and ought to be enforced by all civil governments on the earth. Kline was a vocal critic of theonomy. His main critique was that it failed to understand that the Israelite theocracy was not a model for all civil governments but an intrusion of the eschatological kingdom of God.

Two-Level Fulfillment: This is really the heart of Kline’s biblical theology and is the glue that holds the entire Bible (Old Testament and New Testament) together. Kline argues that the promise of God concerning the seed inheriting the land gets fulfilled in two levels: the first-level fulfillment is the typal kingdom of Israel in the land of Canaan; the second-level fulfillment is the anti-typal kingdom of Christ and the glorified elect in the new creation. The first-level fulfillment is not the real fulfillment but a prototype or foreshadow of the second-level fulfillment in Christ. The land is a type of the new creation or heaven. The seed is Christ and all those who belong to Christ (Gal 3:16, 29). Two-level fulfillment could also be called two-stage fulfillment, but Kline speaks of two levels in order to show the escalation from the lower to the higher, from the provision to the consummate, from the shadow to the substance. The second-level fulfillment is not simply a repetition of the first-level kingdom, as dispensationalism teaches (where the millennium is simply the same Israelite theocracy repeated for a 1000 years in a world still characterized by sin and death). Rather, the second-level fulfillment has to do with the consummate, eschatological reality. The second-level fulfillment itself unfolds in two stages: the inaugurated kingdom in which sin and death are vanquished in principle and by the accomplishment of Christ’s work as the law-fulfilling second Adam his people are granted a right and title to the eternal inheritance; and the consummated kingdom when Christ the victorious King returns to utterly vanquish sin and death and bring the entire created order by a mighty divine act of glorification to its eternal and imperishable state of perfection, Sabbath rest, and eternal union and communion with the Triune God.

Typal Kingdom: See “Two-level fulfillment” above. Typal kingdom is Kline’s term for the kingdom of God in its OT Israelite form. We can break it down by analyzing the noun “kingdom” and then the adjectival modifier “typal.” As the kingdom of God, Israel was a theocratic nation dwelling in God’s holy realm, the land of promise, under the authority of the Davidic king, obedient to God’s law, and focused on the cultic epicenter, the temple, sanctified by God’s presence in the Glory-Cloud. But it was not the kingdom of God; rather, it was a “typal” kingdom, that is, Israel was a type that foreshadowed the eschatological kingdom of glory, inaugurated in Christ’s death and resurrection (the spiritual reign of Christ from heaven over all creation but focused particularly on his spiritual reign over his body, the church) and consummated at his second coming (the new creation). The Israelite typal kingdom was a geographically limited, scaled-down replica or prototype of the global kingdom of glory to come. It was an imperfect oasis of realized eschatology within the fallen, pre-consummated world of common grace.

Typology: A type is an OT figure, law, or event which foreshadows the person and work of Christ. The concept is referred to frequently in the NT (Rom 5:14; 1 Cor 10:6; Gal 4:24; Col 2:17; Heb 9:24; 11:19; 1 Pet 3:21). Examples: the OT sacrifices pointed ahead to the final sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God; the land Israel inherited was a prefigurement of heaven; David symbolized Christ our King. The NT makes such connections many times (e.g., Matt 12:40; John 3:14-15; 1 Cor 5:7; Hebrews). Typology is the entire system of OT types and their fulfillment in Christ. The fundamental principle of typology is that of replacement: when the types are fulfilled, the types are discontinued (Col 2:16-17). When the sun rises, the shadows fly away!

Vassal-King: In the Ancient Near East, it was common for a great king to conquer a nation and enter into a treaty or covenant with the subordinate king of the conquered nation. This subordinate king is the vassal of the great king or suzerain, e.g., Hoshea, one of the kings of the northern kingdom, became the vassal of the king of Assyria (2 Kings 17:3). Treaties administering this type of relationship are also called suzerain-vassal treaties. In a similar way, the kingdom of God is administered through a human king who is the vassal of God the Great King. Adam was a vassal-king under a covenant of works with God. David and line of kings after him were vassal-kings under God: “As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill” (Ps 2:6). A vassal-king must be a man, an Adam figure. The vassal-king stands in the relation of a federal head in relation to the people over whom he reigns. His obedience or disobedience to the Great King brings either blessing or curse on the people. Jesus Christ is the ultimate vassal-king and federal head, the only one who truly obeyed God fully and merited the inheritance of the kingdom for his people.

Works Principle: The works principle is a legal or covenantal principle governing the method of obtaining the eschatological inheritance (heaven or its typal equivalent). Whenever the inheritance is obtained by means of and on the legal ground of meritorious obedience, the works principle is in effect. The works principle is rooted in God’s unchanging character as a God of perfect justice. Whenever the works principle is in effect, merit is involved. The works principle is enshrined in three distinct covenants: the pre-fall covenant of works with Adam, the post-fall typological covenant of works with Israel (the Mosaic covenant), and the eternal covenant of works with Christ as the second Adam (aka the pactum salutis). The inheritance in the first and the third covenants is the same—the eschatological consummation. The inheritance in the second covenant (the Mosaic covenant) is retention of the typal kingdom in the land of Israel, and is only a type of the eternal inheritance.