The Kingdom of God
August 25, 2002
Dear Friends,
We would like to take the next few weeks to discuss several deeper aspects to the Kingdom of God. For those who may not understand the basics of the Bible teaching of the Kingdom of God on earth, we recommend that you visit one of the following websites. (http://www.bbie.org or http://www.capecod.net/learnbible/learnbible.html) There will be, at some point yet future, a kingdom on earth ruled by Jesus Christ. This is one of the most basic principles in Scripture which these web sites can make clear to anyone willing take the time to peruse the matter. However, with the exception of a few basic doctrines, we will focus our attention on these more spiritual topics of the Kingdom of God. We must keep in mind and be familiar with the basics though or we will end up getting confused.
The New Testament is full of “hard sayings” concerning the Kingdom of God which we hope to clear up. The very first mention of the Kingdom in the New Testament is such a saying. John the Baptist came preaching “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Now if we take this to mean the future Kingdom of God of earth, we have several difficulties. If “at hand” means at least two thousand or more years in the future, we have a very loose rendering of “at hand”, don’t we? In fact, we might even say it would be deceiving. If I told my friend to wait as I will “be right there” when in fact I meant “I’ll be right there in two thousand years”, you would think that would be deceiving. Some have said this means that the King (Jesus) was at hand. However, this too is taking liberties with what is said. We don’t have the liberty to insert words for others in the Bible. If the original says “kingdom”, we don’t have the liberty to insert “king” because we don’t like the inspired use of “kingdom.” Keep in mind that this is not an isolated verse. The very next reference is Jesus himself saying “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
In Matthew 12, another “hard saying” occurs. Jesus says “if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.” He does not say “will come”, but “is come.” Unless you are like former President Bill Clinton who wanted to know what the definition of “is is”, you know the difference between the two and why this presents us with difficulty. Along the same lines, we have Jesus saying “the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.” (Matt. 21:31) Again, Jesus does not say “will go”, but “go.” The New American Standard translates this a little differently as it says “I say to you that the tax-gatherers and harlots will get into the kingdom of God before you.” However, this presents a similar if not the same issue. How can someone get into the Kingdom before someone else? Will not the Judgment take place all at the same time?
Yet another problematic verse is “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” (Matt. 21:43) How can you take something from someone that they do not yet have? You could take someone’s birthright or inheritance, but you still are taking something. What is being taken from these people?
Also from Matthew 13:24,25, we have the following verses: “The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.” The Kingdom in this analogy is likened to a field where a seed is sown along with weeds. The landowner is asked by his servants whether he should dig up the weeds to which the landowner replies “Let both grow together until the harvest.” Most understand this parable to be concerning the present ecclesial age, not the future kingdom of God on earth which would be represented in the parable as the “harvest.” Yet, the Scripture plainly says “the kingdom of heaven” is like this parable of incompatible seeds growing together.
Next week, Lord willing, we will offer a few more confusing verses before we attempt to clear the matter up.
Have a great week!
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