The Glory of God as the Goal of Theology in Dispensationalism

Unlike non-dispensational systems that take a simplistic-reductionalist, man-centered approach in God's redemptive plan and purpose in history by being too exclusively focused on man's individual salvation, as if it's the only thing that gives glory to God, Dispensationalism gives more proper attention to the whole counsel of God and gives God His due glory as He declared in His word. God's purposes is more than just individual election, regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. While this is not exhaustive, God's purposes in history includes the following subjects.

Nations - national election, regeneration, sanctification, and glorification. God will one day bring His elect nation, Israel, to national repentance and circumcise their hearts that they will all receive their Messiah who will save them from their enemies, bring them to their own land in fulfillment of God's covenant with Abraham, and establish the Messianic Kingdom in Israel and finally the nation will fulfill it's original purpose of being a kingdom of priests that will bless all nations as all nations of the whole world will repent and will also be saved as whole nations not just individual persons. Israel will be the center of world worship and capital of world government as all will bow the knee to the God and King of Israel, the true Israel, the second Adam, the ultimate Davidic King, the Lord Jesus Christ who will rule like no other world ruler ever did. He will be the only One who will reign in perfect implementation of justice and all socioeconomic, geopolitical, scientific and technological, academic, ecological, religious, and ethical aspects of human existence in all levels. The glorious potential of human flourishing will be achieved under the rule of the King of kings together with His saints.

Land - although God is omnipresent and doesn't need a physical place to exist, His creatures are not omnipresent and we need a place to exist and can only be at one place at a time. In fact the very name mankind, Adam, means earth or ground from which he is made. Our very existence is inseparably tied to the earth that God cursed the ground when Adam sinned and will remove the curse when the second Adam succeeds. God won't even let us exist as disembodied spirits for eternity but will give us glorified bodies so we can live together with Jesus who too have a glorified body in the New Heavens and New Earth or New Universe. God removed Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden when they sinned, God judged and expelled the Canaanites from the promised land because of their defilement of it, and God's people too, Israel, was vomited by the land because of their defilement of it with sinful idolatry and neglect of 70 sabbath year rests that resulted into the 70 year exile to Babylon. So throughout the Bible we can see that geography is also important to God. He chooses special places where to manifest Himself to His finite people, declares a place to be sanctified to Himself and be treated with utmost respect, commands where He should be worshiped and even its design. He also predestined His Son to be born a certain place, die a certain place, ascend a certain place, return a certain place, and reign a certain place. God is the one who appoints and assigns where each individual will be born and the national boundaries in which they live and have part of their identity tied to their geographical location with its distinct cultural flavor that is largely influenced by the topography of their hometown. As Jesus' ministry during His first coming was focused in Israel and the gospel was spread over the world by His command to His disciples so too His earthly Kingdom will have its capital at Israel in His holy city of Jerusalem on Mount Zion and His rule extended throughout the whole world by His glorified saints whom He promised to give key positions in His Kingdom. At that time culture will no longer be anti-God but will fully display God's manifold and endless wisdom visibly seen in the diversity of cultural contributions that all nations will be united in giving God glory. God's Kingdom includes both the material and immaterial dimensions of creation. Those who argue that it is narrow-minded to think that Jesus' millennial reign will be localized in Israel aren't thinking in God's terms and so they spiritualize it to abstraction and diminish the significance and goodness of the material realm that God created. Trying to become more spiritual than God intended us to be is to exhibit disdain for how we are wonderfully and fearfully made out of the material dust of the ground and the spiritual breath of life.

Ages - Time began in Genesis with God's creation of the cosmos as a space time continuum and will end in Revelation with the beginning of the New Creation. God is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and everything in between. He permeates all of time and has specific designs for all of time. Time is important to God as in His wisdom He acts in time specific manner. He began in creating the entire universe specifically in 6 days and made the 7th a sabbath day. He created humans last as the pinnacle of creation made in His image and created man first to be the head of the woman. When man fell God promised the Messiah and in the fullness of time He sent forth His Son. Although God is always the same yesterday, today, and forever, His activities are not uniform or the same at all times. His diverse acts displays His diverse attributes and reveals it to us progressively in bits and pieces and perfect timing according to his plan. Even the manner of revelation is diverse according to epochs and eras and His stewardship or dispensing of His graces according to certain patterns. God's plan for the ages is diverse according to different dispensations yet united as they are all part of one whole storyline. God acts and relates with His creatures distinctly during pre-fall and post-fall, pre-flood and post-flood, the scattering of the nations after Babel, the giving of the Abrahamic covenant, the exodus of God's people, the giving of the law and birth of God's nation Israel, His patient waiting until the sin of the Amorites is complete before executing judgment, the time of the Judges, the establishment of God's theocratic kingdom, the exile to Babylon, Daniel's 70-week prophecy beginning from Israel's restoration back to their land and rebuilding of the temple with the 69th week ending in the cutting off or death of Messiah. God predestined a specific time for the birth of Jesus, the start of His ministry, His death, crucifixion and ascension, the sending of the Holy Spirit to give birth to the church in perfect timing during Pentecost, the end of the church age with Jesus' rescue and rapture of the church before the start of the final week of Daniel's 70 weeks, the tribulation period, the rise of the Antichrist when the restrainer was taken away, Israel's national repentance, salvation, and restoration, the resurrection of the saints, the restoration of all things to Edenic conditions in the millennial kingdom, the release of Satan after a specific thousand years, the resurrection of the damned, the destruction of the old universe, the great white throne judgment, and the New Heavens and the New Earth. Certainly, like all His creation, time is important to God and His impeccable kairos timing in chronos history gives Him glory.

Angels - one of God's purposes in history is to display to His elect angels His glorious attributes that they won't otherwise have known if there was no rebellion. God allowed Satan, the original revolutionary, and his fallen angels to rebel to show His holiness that will execute justice against all evil so there are no redemption provided for fallen angels. Yet God let Satan tempt Adam to join him in his rebellion against their Creator and as a consequence all mankind became rebels against God. But God provided salvation for man to show His elect angels the beauty and magnificence of His glorious grace in forgiving His enemies by becoming like them and going through great suffering to pay the price of redemption for every man and woman who repents and believes. Satan has been competing with God since the beginning in trying to conquer the whole world. Satan knows the only way he could win is to prevent the promised Messiah from being born so he tried time and again to kill the lineage of the seed, from Adam to Seth to Noah to Shem to Abraham to Isaac to Jacob, who became Israel, to Judah, to David to Mary and Joseph. Satan failed so he used his corrupting influence to have the Jews kill Jesus, entering even one of the Apostles, Judas, to betray their Messiah and have Him crucified. Then Jesus promised to return when His people Israel repents and look on Him whom they pierced and that sets off Satan to deceive the nations and inspire Jewish hatred all over the world resulting to persecution even to the intensity of the holocaust and now Islamic Jihad. If Satan could only eliminate the Jews, then God cannot fulfill His promised return based on His self-imposed condition of Israel's national repentance. And if Jesus would not return, hypothetically speaking, then Satan would be king of the world forever. But God will let Satan run his rebellion to the maximum during the tribulation even opening the abyss to let out all the wicked demons and all hell will break loose upon the earth and so God can pour out His full wrath on them. Then in full force Satan will go after Israel through his proxy, the Antichrist. Again Satan will fail because when Israel is on the brink of destruction they will call on their Messiah and Jesus will not delay in rescuing His beloved people. He will then destroy His enemies, throw the Antichrist and the False Prophet in the Lake of Fire, and bound Satan for a thousand years so he would not be able to deceive the nations any longer and the kingdom of the world will become the Kingdom of Christ. But after a thousand years Satan will be released to deceive the nations one final time that God may deal with the problem of evil comprehensively for eternity and throw Satan and everyone who joined him in revolution against Christ into the Lake of Fire where the smoke of their torment will burn forever and ever. Then Jesus will hand over His successful Messianic reign, His perfect rule of a thousand years and His victorious defeat of the rebellion at the end, to God the Father who will now consummate it into the Eternal State as God glorifies all creation to its perfection in the New Heavens and the New Earth where there will no longer be any curse and only righteousness dwells.