Editorial April 13, 1987 Issue

"The earth shined with his glory"

Allison W. Phinney, Jr.

You don't hear the word glory much today. Maybe you recall someone talking about a summer morning as "glorious." But the word glory is used often in the King James Version of the Bible.

For example, we're told that Jesus in his prayer to God before his crucifixion, when speaking of his followers, said: "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one."^{John 17:22.} And God is described by the Psalmist and by Stephen in the book of Acts as the "God of glory." The writer of Ezekiel says, "The earth shined with his glory."^{Ezek. 43:2.}

Much of contemporary life seems anything but glorious. It is sometimes bleak. Dark in its mindless terrorism and meaningless wars. Cold in its acceptance of lying and manipulation and power games as today's OK way of life. Bleakest of all in its underlying materialism and sadness. Yet the writer of II Peter says God has "called us to glory." What could those Biblical writers have meant? What could they have seen?

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