With sadness the Westminster Seminary California community received the news that Dr. Meredith G. Kline, the seminary's founding professor of Old Testament, had died on Friday night, April 13, 2007, in Massachusetts. Dr. Kline taught at WSC from 1982 to 2001, introducing successive generations of students to the richness of biblical theology and to the covenantal structure and eschatological trajectory of Scripture. His stimulating interpretation of both Old Testament and of New Testament texts exemplified rigorous exegetical attention to Scripture's original languages and literary structures, in combination with a passionate commitment to Reformed theology. Those who had him as a teacher remember the striking piety of his prayers, the brilliance of his mind, the incisive character of his lectures, and his kindness to students with honest questions. The WSC board of trustees named Dr. Kline professor emeritus in 2002.
Dr. Kline is survived by his wife, Grace; his sons, Meredith, Sterling, and Calvin; and their families.
Dr. Kline was a graduate of Gordon College (A.B.), Westminster Theological Seminary (Pennsylvania) (Th.B., Th.M.), and Dropsie University (Ph.D.). He pastored Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Ringoes, NJ (1948-50) and remained a member of the Presbytery of New Jersey (OPC) throughout his teaching ministry. He taught Old Testament full-time at Westminster Theological Seminary from 1950 to 1965 and returned as a visiting professor in successive years. He was appointed professor of Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1965 and was named professor emeritus by Gordon-Conwell in 1993. From 1982 through 1993, he split his time between Gordon-Conwell and WSC, teaching in Massachusetts each fall semester and in California each spring. From 1994 through 2001 he and Grace continued to travel to California each spring, so that he could teach WSC's required courses on Pentateuch and Prophets. He also served as a visiting professor at Reformed Theological Seminary and Claremont School of Theology.
Dr. Kline opened the Old Testament scriptures not only to those privileged to sit in his classroom but also to countless other students and preachers of the Word, who benefited from his insightful, content-rich publications, which include: Treaty of the Great King: The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy, Studies and Commentary (1963), By Oath Consigned: A Reinterpretation of the Covenant Signs of Circumcision and Baptism (1968), The Structure of Biblical Authority (1972, rev. ed. 1989), Images of the Spirit (1980), Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview (1981-86, rev. ed. 2000), Glory in Our Midst: A Biblical-Theological Reading of Zechariah's Night Visions (2001), and God, Heaven, and Har Magedon: A Covenantal Tale of Cosmos and Telos (2006). He contributed entries and essays to various exegetical dictionaries, commentaries, and other anthologies; and he authored such journal articles as "Intrusion and the Decalogue," "Because It Had Not Rained," "The First Resurrection," "Lex Talionis and the Human Fetus," "Comments on an Old-New Error," "Of Works and Grace," "Double Trouble," "Gospel Until the Law: Rom. 5:13-14 and the Old Covenant," "Space and Time in the Genesis Cosmogony," and "Har Magedon: The End of the Millennium."
In 2000 Dr. Kline was honored by colleagues and former students with a Festschrift,
Creator Redeemer Consummator, (H. Griffith and J. R. Muether, editors), to which WSC President
W. Robert Godfrey and (then) Librarian James T. Dennison, Jr., contributed.
Building on the legacy of Geerhardus Vos, Meredith G. Kline combined a stalwart commitment to and defense of classic covenant theology and of the gospel of sovereign grace articulated in the Reformation with illumining new insights into Scripture and critical engagement with contemporary biblical scholarship. We mourn his loss to the church militant, but rejoice in the assurance that by God's grace he has experienced the "first resurrection" and is "present with the Lord," resting from his labors and awaiting the sure and certain hope of the final resurrection.
Written by Dr. Dennis E.
Johnson, Academic Dean and Professor of Practical Theology
The Rev. Dr. W. Robert Godfrey offered a devotion entitled, "The Power of An Indestructible Life" during the memorial. The Rev. Mr. Owen Lee, pastor of New Life Mission Church (Burbank, CA) spoke as a representative of WSC alumni. WSC faculty also took part.
