Kingdom Ready Blog

Jesus proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was near, but that there would be an interim period before it was fully inaugurated. The Kingdom, to him, was primarily the eschatological (end-times) reign and judgment of Messiah on earth. It is in this sense that it would fulfill the promises to Abraham and David, and the many prophecies of the Day of the Lord and the coming of the Son of Man.

But Jesus taught there would be a delay between the initial declaration of the Kingdom and its inauguration. He compared it in Luke 19 (dealt with here) to a nobleman going away to a far country to receive a kingdom, and to return later. He specifically spoke this parable to correct their idea that the Kingdom would appear immediately (Luke 19:11). So the disciples knew there would be a period of time before the Lord returned, and were prepared for the possibility that it could be long. Still, Paul can be seen to have expected it in his lifetime, when he spoke of “we which are alive and remain…” (I Thessalonians 4:15-17).

Time went by and the Kingdom did not appear. After the Apostles died, and more and more Gentiles became Christians, Gentile thinking rather than Hebrew gradually came to dominate the Church. This had two great effects: the decrease in understanding of the Hebrew foundations of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the increase of the Greek ideas about an immortal soul and conscious existance after death.

As can be seen in the Closer Look article on the writings of the Early Church Fathers, the Kingdom was still primarily seen as an eschatological event through the mid to late second century. But an idea did arise that there would be different levels of reward: some would abide in heaven and some on earth after the resurrection. Later writers held that while the kingdom would be on earth when Christ returns, it existed now in heaven.

The phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” is a particularly Hebrew phrase, used exclusively in the Gospel of Matthew. It was a way of referring to the Kingdom of God which originated from heaven (as discussed in What is the Gospel). Early Church Fathers tended to use the phrase much more frequently, and it came to mean a kingdom in heaven, which would ultimately be brought to earth.

The Pagan concept of disembodied souls going to heaven (which was gaining more and more acceptance at that time) was applied to the Bible’s references to God’s rule in heaven, and it was concluded that saints depart to this heavenly kingdom at death. Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” But God’s will is done in heaven by the angels, not by dead saints living in a disembodied state.

Ultimately Apologists such as Origen and Augustine concluded that departed souls now in heaven will at the end of the world be reunited with their bodies, but they will be spiritual bodies and will ultimately dwell in heaven. But the primary understanding of the Kingdom of God now was the community of those who now follow Christ, i.e., the Church. According to them, all the prophecies of a coming kingdom are spiritually fulfilled in the Church. A physical kingdom on earth was associated with Jewish thinking and considered ridiculous and spiritually immature. From the time of the Apologists until the Reformation, this was the dominant view regarding the Kingdom of God.

While the Bible speaks of the reign of God and the power of His Spirit being experienced in the lives of individuals, it presents this as a foretaste and an anticipation of the coming Kingdom, not its fulfillment. After teaching his disciples for 40 days things concerning the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3), Jesus made a clear distinction between the future Kingdom of God and what would be inaugurated on Pentecost.

Acts 1:
4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Notice first of all that Jesus did not correct them or reprove them for asking about the Kingdom in verse 6. I was taught in the past, and many theologians hold, that the disciples were still carnal and spiritually immature at this point because they were thinking about the political Kingdom being restored to Israel. But if you read it in context, it was a perfectly reasonable question, since the Kingdom had been the subject of Jesus’ teaching from the beginning of his ministry, and especially for the 40 days since his resurrection. He did not reprove them or indicate that their question was improper, only that the times and seasons were not for them to know.

Secondly, notice that it does not say that the Kingdom would arrive “not many days hence.” The Kingdom would arrive at some undisclosed future time, but in the meantime, “not many days hence,” they would receive power when the holy spirit came upon them, and they would be witnesses. Clearly then, the Christian Church is not the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. As we have seen, the holy spirit is a token and a foretaste of what is to come in the future.

The position that the Church was the spiritual Kingdom of God was maintained throughout the middle ages, but was challenged at the time of the Reformation. The New Bible Dictionary describes it this way:

In their resistance to the Roman Catholic hierarchy, the Reformers laid chief emphasis on the spiritual and invisible significance of the kingdom and readily (and wrongly) invoked Lk. 17:20f. in support of this. The kingdom of heaven, that is to say, is a spiritual sovereignty which Christ exercises through the preaching of his word and the operation of the Holy Spirit. While the Reformation in its earliest days did not lose sight of the kingdom’s great dimensions of saving history, the kingdom of God, under the influence of the Enlightenment and pietism came to be increasingly conceived in an individualistic sense; it is the sovereignty of grace and peace in the hearts of men.

Since the Reformation, it has been taught more and more among Protestants that Jesus declared the Kingdom to have arrived, but that he taught his disciples the “true” understanding of the Kingdom, namely that of God’s reign in one’s heart. The most often quoted “proofs” are undoubtedly “the Kingdom is within you” (Luke 17:21) and “the Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36), which we have dealt with.

To Be Continued…