What is the Kingdom of God?

Kingdom
The word Kingdom is translated from the Greek word basileia, which refers to the realm of a king (gr. basil).

A common belief that many Christians have about the Kingdom of God is that it’s just a state of mind and heart. They draw this conclusion from what Jesus said, as found at Luke 17:21. For according to the Greek text, he said:
‘He basileia tou Theou entos hymon estin,’
or,
‘The Kingdom of the God in you is.’

So, was Jesus saying that God’s Kingdom will never be a real government, and it’s just something that we hold within ourselves?

Well, the conclusion that some have reached about this is that Jesus was saying that he (the king of that Kingdom) was there in their midst… and that could have been what he meant. However, recognize that true Christians must first and foremost live by the laws of God’s Kingdom. Therefore, the Kingdom of God should also be within us!

But either way, it doesn’t appear as though Jesus was saying in this instance that the Kingdom will always be just a state of mind. For, notice what Jesus said about his Kingdom (at Luke 22:16) after eating his ‘last supper’ with his disciples:
‘I won’t eat it again until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.’

So, he was clearly saying that the Kingdom of God was to be a future thing and it is not just a frame of mind.

Then, is this Kingdom something that will exist just in heaven? This is what many have concluded from what Jesus said at Matthew 8:11, where he is quoted as saying:
‘Many from the sunrise and sunset will come and recline with AbraHam, IsaAc, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven.’

So, on the basis of this scripture, they have concluded that AbraHam, IsaAc, and Jacob are now in heaven, and that’s where God’s Kingdom is located.

However, notice that these patriarchs weren’t really in heaven at the time that Jesus spoke those words… they couldn’t have been, for Jesus himself said at John 3:13:
‘No one has gone to heaven other than the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man.’

So, why did Jesus say that those men were in heaven? Well, it appears as though those weren’t his exact words. Please consider the following:

According to the Christian writer Origen (who wrote during the early 3rd Century C.E.), Matthew’s Gospel account was originally written in Hebrew and then it was translated into Greek. However, the Greek copy was thereafter lost. So, it was translated into Greek a second time around the beginning of the 2nd Century.

Therefore, according to this ancient Christian writer (Origen), the text that we have of Matthew today comes from this later Greek translation. And the reason why we are pointing this out is that the book of Matthew shows signs of significant textual corruption that likely came about during this Second-Century translating attempt!

Notice, for example, that the words ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ are not found at all in the Gospels of Mark and Luke (which appear to have originally been written in Greek) where these Gospels were quoting the very same words of Jesus that are found in the Gospel of Matthew. Rather, Mark and Luke wrote that Jesus actually said, ‘Kingdom of God,’ not ‘Kingdom of heaven.’

So, since we know that our modern text of Matthew’s Gospel was just a later translation of what Jesus actually said, we have chosen to put more trust in what the other Gospel writers wrote in their Greek texts wherever we find contradictions (and we have found several).

However, does the mistranslation of that one word (‘heaven’ instead of ‘God’) really make much difference? Yes, because the words ‘Kingdom of God’ don’t necessarily imply that the Kingdom is something that is just in heaven!

Rather, notice where it was that Jesus’ followers really expected the Kingdom to be established (just before his death). At Luke 19:11 we read:
‘While they were listening to these things, [Jesus] told them another illustration, because he was getting close to JeruSalem, and they all thought that the Kingdom of God was about to happen instantly.’

So from these words, it is clear Jesus’ Apostles believed that the Kingdom was going to be established then and there in ancient earthly JeruSalem. For, notice what they asked Jesus just before he ascended into heaven (as recorded at Acts 1:6):
‘Lord, are you going to restore the Kingdom to IsraEl now?’

As you can see, back in the First Century, Jesus’ Disciples weren’t looking for a ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ or for a Kingdom that would just be in their hearts. Rather, they were expecting the Kingdom of IsraEl to be re-established here on the earth with Jesus ruling as king from the literal City of JeruSalem.

However, by the end of the 1st Century, as Christians became discouraged after the deaths of the Apostles, it seems as though many had started to believe that the Kingdom was actually going to be in heaven, since it hadn’t come on the earth. So, they started to teach that the Kingdom is the place where people go only after they die!

Therefore, it is easy to see why those later Christians who translated the book of Matthew from Hebrew into Greek changed the words ‘Kingdom of God’ to read ‘Kingdom of Heaven.’ For, this is what many ‘Christians’ had started to believe was their hope by beginning of the Second Century CE.

Yet, if the Kingdom of God is really something that is going to rule the earth, you might wonder why it hasn’t happened already, since it has been almost two-thousand years since he said that we should expect its arrival.

Notice that Jesus actually gave us an answer to this. For he gave a parable (that is found at Luke 19:12-27), where he spoke about a man who would be going on a long trip to a distant land to receive his appointment as king. And clearly, the point of this parable was that he (Jesus) was to be going on a journey to receive his kingship, and that this would take a long time. Then, upon his return, he would reward his faithful slaves, and he would punish those who didn’t want him to be their king.

When would this return happen? Well, he didn’t tell us when in his parable.

However, notice what Revelation 12:10 (which was written about the beginning of the Second Century) says would happen when he actually returns:
‘At that I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
Now has arrived the salvation and power,
As well as the Kingdom of our God;
For His Anointed has now been empowered,
And the accuser of our brothers has been cast down,
Who blames them before God day and night!’

So, we can see that the distant place where Jesus went to receive his authority to be king is in the heavens. And thereafter, according to the Revelation, Jesus will return to establish his Kingdom here on the earth… which hasn’t happened yet, because we clearly have not yet entered ‘the Day of the Lord’ (the return). For this is what the entire book of Revelation was foretelling (see Revelation 1:10).

Then, what is the Kingdom? Well, though it is true that Christians may now actually live under the rulership of Jesus in their hearts, the Scriptures show that there is to be a future period of eternal righteous rule that will encompass ‘the lands and the skies’ (the universe) after the evil one is no longer allowed access to the presence of God (see Job 1:6) and after all opposition to Jesus’ rule has been removed from the earth (for more information, see the linked document, ‘The Seed – God’s Kingdom’).