Preface
When I was a student at Westminster Seminary California, professor Meredith G. Kline’s lectures impacted me in a significant way. His hand-drawn diagrams left him covered in a glory-cloud of chalk-dust and captured my imagination. He taught two main classes, Pentateuch and Prophetical Books. Prophetical Books was an exegesis class, in which Professor Kline took us through several key texts in the prophetic literature of the Old Testament, but Pentateuch was really a misnomer. It could also have been titled Introduction to Old Testament Biblical Theology. He used several textbooks, but the main one was his magnum opus, Kingdom Prologue, which at the time was a syllabus that grew over the years until it was published in its final form by Wipf and Stock in 2006, the year before his death.1 Dr. Kline’s lectures and writings on OT biblical theology brilliantly showed the unity of the Scriptures within a covenantal and eschatological framework centered on Christ.
For a long time I have wanted to write a book making the biblical theology of Meredith Kline more accessible. Kline can be intimidating for those who don’t already have some familiarity with his thought. He makes up his own terminology. He uses traditional terminology with unique and highly technical meanings. His sentence structure is sometimes complex, compressing multiple thoughts and arguments into a single sentence. Kingdom Prologue is the best place to go to grasp his overall biblical-theological vision of Scripture, but it is structured around the first half of the book of Genesis and often goes in-depth on points that are tangential to the central biblical narrative. His last book, God, Heaven and Har Magedon, was intended to be more of a lay person’s introduction to his biblical theology, but even that book can be challenging to someone new to Kline.
This book is my attempt to provide a simplified (without being simplistic) introduction to Kline’s biblical theology. This book traces the history of God’s kingdom as progressively revealed from Genesis to Revelation. It begins with the initial creation, the Fall, the first promise of the gospel, moves to the absolutely crucial Abrahamic covenant, then to the subsequent history of Israel, the exile, the arrival of Israel’s Messiah, and concludes with the eschatological consummation. As an OT professor he focused most of his attention in his classroom lectures and writings on the Old Testament portion of the story, and less on the New Testament—although he did speak about the book of Revelation, which was of particular interest to him. Aside from one article on the “OT Origins of the Gospel Genre,” he did not expend as much energy on the ministry of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels. This means that I have to fill in the gaps to some extent. One could put it this way: this book attempts to tell the story of the Bible the way Kline would tell it. In doing so, I am deliberately subordinating my own thoughts on various points and attempting to stick as closely as possible to Kline’s thought.
The book is divided into twelve chapters, with the thought that the book could be used in small groups, adult Sunday School classes, or Bible studies in local churches. Each chapter begins by listing the main biblical texts that are addressed in that chapter. Readers are encouraged to read those biblical passages before reading that chapter. The chapter then addresses a particular covenant or epoch or segment of the biblical story line. At the end of each chapter I have added two bibliographies: “Kline References” points the reader to the key passages where Kline dealt with that particular covenant or epoch of the unfolding kingdom of glory; “Further Reading” provides a launching point for those who wish to engage in more in-depth study on that particular covenant or epoch by reading authors besides Kline. Each chapter concludes with discussion questions that can be used individually to encourage further reflection on the part of the reader or in a small group setting to stimulate discussion. Ideally, the leader of the small group would have some familiarity with Kline’s thought and be able to guide the discussion appropriately.
I have also appended a Glossary. Kline often created new terms and used old terms with very specific meanings, which can be intimidating to the beginner. In this book, I will attempt to expound Kline’s thought, but at the same time it is hard to completely avoid Kline’s vocabulary. Hence I encourage the read to make frequent use of the Glossary as they read this book. Perhaps it would be good to flip to the back right now and get acquainted with its contents.
The title, “Kingdom of Glory,” reflects two themes in Kline’s biblical theology—kingdom and glory. That Kline views the kingdom of God as the overarching theme of Scripture is clear from his book, Kingdom Prologue. In the preface, he speaks of “the eschatological movement of the kingdom of God from creation to consummation.” He then views the book of Genesis as the prologue to that story. The other theme—glory—may be less obvious. It was brought home to me in a fresh way when reading his book, Images of the Spirit, which is about the Glory-Cloud that can also be traced, like the kingdom theme, from creation to consummation. I wanted a title that combined the two themes in order to highlight the eschatological orientation of Kline’s biblical theology. God’s kingdom is not merely his sovereign reign, but will ultimately be a physical realm—the entire creation—filled with the light of his glory and presence. I had already chosen this title for the book, but in preparing the final chapters on Kline’s critique of the two millennial views, I re-read some of his writings and was delighted to discover that he used that very phrase, “kingdom of glory.”2
My goal in this book is to give you an overview of the Bible, framed by Kline’s biblical theology, that attempts to make sense of it all. Think of it as An Idiot’s Guide to the Bible, or Telling the Story of the Bible as Kline Would Tell It. I want to cover the entire sweep of biblical history, beginning with Genesis. I realize that this is quite a challenge. It’s like attempting to climb Mount Everest in a single day. But I think it will be rewarding for you to get a bird’s eye perspective of the panoramic sweep of the biblical narrative. In the end, I hope you will see that the biblical narrative from Genesis to Revelation, from creation to new creation, is indeed very relevant to us today, because everything centers upon our Lord Jesus Christ. At the end of the day, Jesus is revealed in all his glory at the center of the stage.