God’s Flaming Glory – An Introduction – Post 1

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            How important is one’s view of the glory of God? Well, I think it’s extremely important. Your idea of glory will affect your idea of everything else – human personhood, human interactions, God-human relationship, your work, the meaning of your life, the meaning for everything.

            Today, many Christian leaders and theologians are presenting the glory of God as a theatrical reality. In all God does, He is displaying who He is so that we will praise Him because we have a glimpse of His glory. This has led, I think, to catastrophic consequences across all theological studies and throughout many Christians’ lives – not that the catastrophe is intentional, but it is real.

            In this series of blog posts, I want to dig down deep, and get at the roots of the theatrical definition of the glory of God. I want to show you that God’s glory is communicative. God’s glory isn’t simply about displaying who He is to others. It’s about more than a glimpse; in a way, participate in God’s glory in Jesus.

            The Triune God has revealed Himself in the Bible as He really is. And He has been revealing the glory of who He is in the face of Jesus Christ. Through these blog posts I want to show how delightful the glory of the God of the Bible is.

            This is not an exegetical endeavor. I’m not making a case from the pages of Scripture for a communitive definition of God’s glory. These posts are meant to be a demonstration of what a theatrical theology of God’s glory looks like and does, versus what a communicative theology of God’s glory looks like, and what implications it has.

Here is an outline of these posts:

• In Post 2, I want to show the opposite of God’s glory – the glory of Allah: a purely theatrical glory.

• In Posts 3-6, I want to analyze John Calvin’s understanding of the glory of God in creation, life, the cross, and irradiation.

• In Posts 7-10, I want to analyze Albert Mohler’s understanding of the glory of God, and show its theatrical deficiencies.

• In Posts 11-17, we will analyze Johnathan Edward’s theology of the glory of God throughout his works, and see one of the most well formulated understandings of the glory of God that has ever been had.

• Finally, we will conclude with Post 18.

            In many of these posts, I criticize Dr. Albert Mohler. I want to make clear from the start that I mean no ill will towards him. If he ever reads these, I pray that he will hold to the Biblical understanding of what the glory of God is.

            These posts are a smaller, more succinct version of a 75-page paper I wrote last year, titled “The Rekindling of Glory.” And that is my prayer for what these posts will help facilitate in your life – a rekindled love and delight in the glory of God!

My desire is to post these once a week, hopefully on Tuesday and/or Friday. If you want to follow along and not miss a post, you can subscribe to my emailing list below (if you aren’t already), or follow me on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/SBGB19 or on my website here: https://standingbeforegodblog.wordpress.com/