Or Was It Just that Jesus was A Germanic Savior?
In my post linked above on God’s glory and what Calvinists do not tell us about it, I thought I would add another quote to the mix from a twitter status, and then do some excursus:
God is not glorified thru the death of thousands of people who are made in God’s image, God is glorified thru resurrection & life!
Not only do I assent to Chad’s analysis of Piper’s narcissistic g*d who stays in the mirror only to tell HIMself how pretty he looks (sounds pretty metro, huh?), I would like to continue to add to my rebuttal of the unbiblical calvinist definition of g*d’s glory. No one can one separate the divine glory from the Jewish bible and it’s concept of shekinah YHWH (which Piper & his ilk do, because studying that first century Judaism thing, it’s bad for your health, right?) ON to Anachronism Hedonist Island we must go for vacation! And I do mean by hedonist, Christian Hedonism and the very anachronist eisegesis & anti-intellectualism it represents (trust me, I have read the material, and I was a Calvinist at 1 point). I understand completely why American calvinists avoid the book of Ezekiel completely; um, #1, it is a prime resource in Jewish theology, #2, Ezekiel is all about repentance and the possibility of another world (as opposed to fatalism), and #3, God’s shekinah glory shines the brightest. I see that in Ezekiel 37, there is resurrection (not in some scholars’ eyes, but im not into group think), and the return of God’s glorious presence are interconnected. Jesus, as a first century Jew and being the Word of YHWH, affirms this vision of God’s glory. God is not glorified in Israel and Judah’s exile; God’s glory leaves the temple and returns with the upliftment of human bodies in part due to Ezekiel envisioning a penitent remnant of God. As a child, I enjoyed reading 1st and 2nd Samuel, and the funny part is, because of the idea of God’s glory, which was in those days “the ark of the covenant”– or God’s presence being connected to it in 1st Samuel 4. The apostle Stephen saw the glory of God: it was the Risen Christ: Acts 7. The author of John says, and we have seen his glory? Who is that but the Johannine community giving witness to the Resurrected Messiah. The author of Hebrews (1:3)? Jesus is God’s glory, because he has been raised from the dead, and lifted up at God’s right hand (meaning: Jesus is God’s power & glory). The glory of God according to the Apocalypse? The LAMB who had been slain, who gives the new creation its light (21:23).
Thus another adventure in Jesus continuing various Jewish theological traditions. Just beautiful, magnificent, and glorious.
SOLI DEI GLORIA!
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