To manifest His glory

IDEOLOGY—THEOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS
An additional unit for The Drama of Redemption

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2010

God's purpose in history is to manifest His glory. As He says through the prophet Isaiah...¹

Isa 40:5 [T]he glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh will see [it] together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

This is the status quo, the way things ought to be for a sovereign God. There is, however, a challenge to God's sovereignty, a disruption in the status quo that leads to conflict. By manifesting His glory, God seeks to restore the status quo and, thereby, to resolve the conflict. In order to accomplish His goal, God must reveal Himself, for only then will others see and acknowledge His glory. The means by which God will accomplish His goal is through the kingdom, and it constitutes the primary subject matter (content) of scripture.

The Occasion for God's Work in History

Status Quo	Disruption	Conflict	Resolution	Status Quo
I am God.	Are You?	[Debate]	You are!	I am God.
Glory  Manifested	Glory Questioned	Glory Proven	Glory Affirmed	Glory Manifested

The biblical writers all seem to have some understanding of this "Big Picture," of what God is doing in history. It is an ideology that infuses their work, a theme that provides unity from Genesis to Revelation, a concept we call the Theocratic Ideal.² God sets forth the concept of a kingdom in the Abrahamic promises, details it in the Mosaic covenant, models it in the Davidic dynasty, envisions it through the prophets, rehearses it in Israel's liturgy, and will culminate it in the Messianic Age.³

Language

TOWARD MEANING: LANGUAGE—LINGUISTIC CONSTRAINTS

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2011

To have a better appreciation for what God has revealed in His word, it is helpful to understand how that revelation came about, not only the process of revelation but also the mechanics of recording it (writing, grammar, discourse).

1. Writing (Semiotics)

• Paleography

• Archaeologists have unearthed many inscriptions that date to biblical times, and they testify to a fairly high degree of literacy in Israel.¹ These inscriptions also help explain how our present system of writing developed. To see where they fit in the evolution of writing, we must survey five stages in the development of writing systems.

 1. Stage #1—Pictographic symbols (one symbol = one thing; before 5,000 BCE)

• During prehistoric times, people used a picture to represent a particular object (e.g., an ox head = "my ox").

2. Stage #2—Logographic symbols (one symbol = one word; c. 3100 BCE)

a. Later, a picture came to represent the name of that thing, a single word (e.g., an ox head = "an(y) ox").

b. This system was extremely cumbersome because if the basic vocabulary of a language contained 1000 words, writing in that language required as many symbols (most English dictionaries define 50,000+ words). Sumerian and Egyptian (two non-Semitic languages) both used logographs (pictorial symbols). For example, the simple sketch of an ox (or just its head) stood for the word "ox" (e.g., Summarian GUD).

c. As these languages developed, their symbols became more stylized, evolving into the cuneiform (wedge-shaped) and hieroglyphics (Greek for "sacred inscriptions") respectively (Carter 1984:11-12; Naveh 1982:12).

 3. Stage #3- Ideographic symbols (one symbol = one concrete or abstract concept; c. 2900 BCE)

• Eventually, logographs also came to mean abstract ideas associated with the things they represented (e.g., ox head = strength).²

The Drama of Redemption

THE DRAMA OF REDEMPTION
Tracing the program of God in the progress of history

Dr. Paul Manuel—2012

Paul Manuel writes about the genesis of this study:

When Linda and I where at CBC, the most popular course was The Progress of Redemption, which traced God's plan through scripture. The reason I found it helpful was that it filled in a lot of gaps in my understanding of the Bible and of what He is doing throughout history. Years later, while at the University of Wisconsin, Steve Lancaster and I created a similar course called, The Drama of Redemption, that we expanded and taught in our respective congregations and in a Trinity extension. We modeled the course on a Greek play (with acts and scenes). Several years after that, I developed it a bit further to teach in the German Seventh Day Baptist church here (adding several philatelic illustrations from Linda's and my Bible stamp collection).

Because of length, only the "Program Guide" is provided below. Each link will take you to a pdf of that section of the study.

Program Guide    Program Guide and Bibliography

Preface
	Preview (coming attractions)
	Prologue
	God's goal God's glory
Act I:	Introduction—God Promises the Kingdom.
	Scene 1: Primeval Conflict
	The creation The fall The flood The tower
	Scene 2: Patriarchal Expectation
	Abraham Isaac Jacob
Act II:	Rising action—God Models the Kingdom.
	Scene 1: Wilderness Experience
	The exodus The covenant The wandering The renewal
	Scene 2: Canaan Conquest
	The invasion The settlement
	Scene 3: Israelite Consolidation
	Deborah Gideon Samuel
	Scene 4: United Monarchy
	Saul David Solomon
	Excursus: David's Devotion
	David's fitness for office David's failure in office