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Home » Featured, Uncategorized, word & image

The Kingdom of God

Submitted by JoshuaDbauIII on June 22, 2009 – 11:07 pmComments
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jesus-thumps-up1The Kingdom of God or Reign of God (Greek: Βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ – Basileia tou Theou translates to the “reign of the God”) this is a foundational concept in the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

According to Jesus, the Kingdom of God is within (or among) people, it is approached through understanding, and entered through acceptance like a child, or the faith of a child, spiritual rebirth, and doing the will of God, etc. It is a kingdom peopled by the faithful who do what God commands. The phrase occurs in the New Testament more than 100 times, but not at all in the Hebrew Bible and only once in the deutero-canonical/apocryphal book the Wisdom of Solomon (10:10) and is defined almost entirely in parables. When speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, God tells Moses that Israelites “will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Exodus 19:3-6 The term Israelite comes from the name given by God to Abraham’s grandson Jacob. “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with human beings and have overcome.” ” Genesis 32:28 Spiritual warfare is referred to throughout the bible with God ultimately winning and establishing God’s kingdom. “The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:”The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ,and he will reign for ever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.Revelation 11:15-17

This is a straight forward theological explanation of how many theologians describe the Kingdom of God, however, after being involved in theological circles and doing my own reflection upon the matter I would describe it differently. I would say that not only do humans have dreams for what the world could or should be like, God has a dream for the world and the way it should be. This dream is the Kingdom of God, a kingdom of conscience, or a Kingdom where things are on earth as they are in heaven. Where the priorities of the nations are peace, co-creation, mutual service, a Utopian sort of lifestyle where people live simply so that others may simply live. A world where others come before ourselves and each person is considered the first among equals. The Kingdom of heaven is more than a dream of the hippies or the ‘godly’, what gives credit to this dream is that it is God’s dream for the creation.

In the Hebrew scriptures there is concept called the mitsvod, which is the Hebrew word for command(s), when we do the commands of God we are helping to repair and restore the world. God is not a God of abandonment, this world will not be abandoned to destruction, rather this world is being reclaimed. Throughout the centuries the faithful, and those who have done the commands of God have been partnering with God to repair, restore, and reclaim this world.

The Kingdom of God is at hand for God’s dream/hope for this world can never be quenched, it lives on whether the church has eyes to see or not.

Just a thought…

  • I'm familiar with all the descriptions of the kingdom you mention, Joshua. But I can't quite tell if you think the more modern descriptions add something new, or are just a different way of talking about it.

    The language of "helping to repair and restore the world" tends to suggest a slow and gradual appearance of the kingdom of God, a "building of the kingdom" in which we are "partners" with God. Is that what you are saying?

    I seem to recall that Ellul was a big critic of that more recent interpretation of the coming of the kingdom of God. I know I find it hard to reconcile it with the way scripture talks about God's kingdom and the way Jesus talked about it (and the kingdom seemed to be his favorite topic). If this is what you're saying, where do you get the "gradual building of the kingdom" idea? Or the "partners" idea?
  • No interest in this question? Maybe it would help if I was a little more explicit. Here's a piece from a journal entry on this subject, from several years ago, referring to a Methodist belief statement that sounds a lot like Joshua's:

    The phrases that stand out (and trouble me) are: "comes slowly," "through the joint efforts of God and man," "in the struggle to create a new and divine order."

    They trouble me because they seem to present the kingdom of God as something much less than Jesus preached. They speak of God's kingdom as coming slowly, while Jesus announced:
    "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand." (Mk 1.15)

    "If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." (Mt 12.28)

    "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, 'Lo, here it is!' or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you." (Lk 17.20-21)

    And if they are referring to Jesus' second coming, why say "slowly" when Jesus said "like lightning" (Mt 24.27) and "suddenly like a snare", with "the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory" (Lk 21.27-35)?

    Most importantly to me, Jesus seems to be promising an immediate experience of his kingdom. "The kingdom of God has come upon you." If this is true, then a promise of a kingdom that "comes slowly through the joint efforts of God and man" doesn't sound like very good news in comparison.

    (For the rest, go here: "building the kingdom"?)
  • I see what you're saying Paul. As another possible perspective, it could be one of those things that just "creep up on you." Like, all the signs are there but you just don't see it until BAM! and it's there.

    Or there could be a gradual building up or preparation for the Kingdom of God when, all of the sudden, a cataclysmic event that triggers people to take up the Kingdom of God.
  • Yes, I suppose that could describe our experience of it, Jesse. But I'm more interested in the reality of the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed. If it comes slowly to us because we're not paying attention, then that's what we have chosen for ourselves, but it is still immediately available to those who eagerly accept Jesus' invitation.

    And my complaint is about a theology (kingdom-ology?) that pushes the kingdom off into the future (as a "dream"), a culmination of centuries of hard work. Which is a great diminishment of Jesus' good news. And also a shift in focus away from God's gift (announced as an immediate gift by Jesus, and ultimately a "new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God," another clear gift from God) towards an emphasis on human accomplishment (through reform, activism?) which happens slowly and gradually. Grace is nudged aside in favor of the amazing things we can accomplish if we work together, patiently, committed, trusting the hopeful motto, "Yes, we can!"

    Not Jesus' message at all.
  • Woa. Something about the way you put that... Gives a whole new understanding (to me, at least) of "the kingdom of god is within you."

    See, I always kinda thought of the kingdom of God as that eventual, inevitable utopia on earth (for all of mankind). Like everyone eventually accepting it, and once EVERYONE accepts it, then it's here. (that's kinda the short version of what I thought) But I see what you're saying.

    It's gonna take awhile for that to digest.

    Huh.

    Thanks for blowing my mind, Paul. I'll be back as soon as I recover.
  • Yeah, you don't hear that preached much in church, but that is as central to Christianity as it gets. The gospel Jesus preached was the "Gospel of the Kingdom." He proclaimed that "the Kingdom of God is at hand" and announced the Jubilee.

    A book that helped me to realize that sharp distinction between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdoms of the World and better understand the nature of the Kingdom of God was Greg Boyd's "The Myth of a Christian Nation."
  • joshuadbau
    Sorry it took so long for me to respond, I was unaware that you responded to this text. I do not mean to say that the Kingdom is not here, for it is, and Jesus has already returned, the sort of waiting for Jesus theology that implies an escapist theology where Jesus isn't with the people of God, but Jesus said, wherever two or more are gathered in my name there I am in their midst. So I do think that the Kingdom of God is here, but I'm sure that you have noticed that the world doesn't look a think like Jesus described the Kingdom of God to be, its still a fallen, sinful world. Thus we do partner with God, and it is slow work reclaiming and restoring the world, its been around two thousand years since Jesus came to earth and the work of the Kingdom of God, the building of the firm foundation for the coming age is still continuing. I'm not sure that is a full comment, however, I am in a class session right now and I need to pay attention. LOVE

    J
  • Hi Joshua. As I wrote in my initial comment, I question the imagery of "building the kingdom," "slow work," and "partnership" to describe the kingdom of God, when Jesus always seemed to speak of it as a gift from God. An immediate gift offered now, or a sudden gift at his return. I quoted some examples in my second comment above.

    So I'm wondering where you're drawing concepts like "slow work reclaiming and restoring the world," "building of the firm foundation for the coming age," and "partnership" from. They sound to me more like the language of activists or politicians than the way Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God.
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