Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write off the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Showing posts with label Kingdom of God as a Community. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kingdom of God as a Community. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

How Do You See the Kingdom of God? Part 2 of 2

 

Notes from a dear friend

Russ, here is my summary of N.T. Wright's teaching on the Kingdom of God. Am I summarizing him correctly?

THE KINGDOM OF GOD - WHAT DID JESUS MEAN BY THIS?

"It assumes that Israel's God was the world's true ruler. Israel's God would rule Israel in a whole new way returning in Power and Glory, to rescue His people, rebuke the wicked, and set up a new rule of justice and peace. Torah would be fulfilled at last, The Temple would be rebuilt and the Land cleansed. Israel's God would rule in the way He always intended through properly appointed persons and means. By implication the rest of the world will also be ruled through Israel whether for blessing or judgment. Promised Kingdom of God as promised throughout Psalms, Isaiah 40-55, and the Book of Daniel. The people in Jesus' day had long cherished hope for a new exodus out of the exile that began with the Babylon Captivity in 597 BC, a new Temple, a reconstitution of the 12 tribes, a renewal of the Covenant, a national forgiveness of sins, the release from captivity, an epoch of peace and justice and an end of foreign rule. Through Jesus, God was now unveiling his age-old plan." - Anon


N.T. Wright on the Kingdom of Heaven and Sovereignty of God
Jul 3, 2020


This is an excerpt from an interview about Wright's new book, "God and the Pandemic."
Watch the whole interview: https://youtu.be/mqV8igW9COg



The Upside Down Kingdom of God

How Do You See the Kingdom of God?
PART 2 OF 2

by R.E. Slater



INTRODUCTION

In Part 1, I spoke to the dispensational or covenantal eschatologies of the church. Today let's work on just what Jesus meant by seeking first the kingdom of God....

The Angelican Theologian NT Wright has well observed that too many times we, as Christian Gentiles, have interpreted the New Testament apart from its native Jewish setting. We have taught and enacted the New Testament away from its natural flow and rhythm of the Jewish culture and history from which it was founded... the Covenants of God, Jesus as the Messiah of God, the Jewish apostles who become Jesus' disciples and later, post-resurrection Jewish Christians to the cultural worlds of both Jew and Greek.

Further, today's postmodern cultures no longer really understand a national identity linked to a monarch, especially to monarchs who are benevolent or who serve their people in all they do on both a religious (priestly) and civil level. We may ascribe to the idea of rulership, or dominion, but for any individual circumscribing one's whole being to the practices and elevation of a kingdom realm is fraught with personal or communal objectives which may run counter to those expectations of a king and his or her rule... especially a corrupt or irreligious king.



Jesus, Kingdom of God's Inheritor

Jesus is often described by Christians as God's prophet, priest and king. That is, Jesus preached God's ethics of love, atoning redemption, and responsibilities of love as God's prophet. As God's priest, Jesus bore us both body and soul upon the Cross of Calvary as God's holy Lamb slain before the foundations of the world. And as God's king, Jesus was raised by God to His right hand to sit on the throne and rule the world in love and judgment. 

The Gospels speak to Jesus' life and death. Paul's writings to the church at large and its responsibilities to loving engage its fellowship and witness. And the "end time" passages and books of the New Testament as Jesus' fulfillment to the OT's Day of the Lord by bearing God's wrath upon our sin. Each section of the NT speak to a king, the realm of the king, the life of the community of the kingdom, and its ethical responsibilities to loving speak to, work towards, and bear the burdens of love with one another. As such, the entirety of the New Testament lays witness to the rule of God over creation as His realm and to creation as God's community in which His atoning love is spoken.



The Language of the Kingdom of God is LOVE

If you have noticed, I am emphasizing God's rule of love, not the exercising of God's wrath. This is important because too many Christians believe it is their duty to not love but to judge the sinful of this life. But like Jesus, I say to you, judge first yourselves as sinners before going to judge your neighbor. We are not God. This is God's jurisdiction. We, like Jesus, are to love one another, both neighbor and foreigner, passionately. We are to take in the refugee seeking assylum, provide cold water, a tunic and cloak, food, shelter, livelihood, whatever it takes to insure all is done in Christ's love.

In essence, by demonstrations of Christ's love the church is enacting the Kingdom of God come to earth without waiting for it to come fully at a future time. We are living out the Kingdom of God in tension in this life. One that is here, presently in Christ, but not yet fully, as promised of God in the future. But in this life we are to love. Not hate. Not divide. Not refuse. Not turn away. Just love. If we love, which is no small task, to God it is enough... and yet it is only the beginning of what Godly community might be.




The Kingdom of God is Here

Another observation to the idea of the Kingdom of God is that of God's hereness - or nearness - or immanence to mankind. God is not spoken of by Jesus as some holy, heavenly dictate out there beyond us somewhere. But closely present. Intimately present. Made more so by His Holy Spirit who bears us at all times before the throne of God. Who is with us in every hour of our lives. Who is never departed nor will ever abandon us.

And importantly, this is especially true not only for believers in God but for the unbeliever too. For how can the God of the universe who inhabits all of life not be with all things great and small? He cannot. God is the immanent presence inhabiting all His realm at every moment, whether it is submitted to Him or not. Even as a source of helps and compassion, love and testimony. God is here, now, with us, guiding and directing as He we allow Him in our lives.

Become the Living Water of Jesus


God's Kingly Reign is to All and For All

Yes, the Christian will say they are God's special children - and this is true - but all our God's children and all our as loved by God whether they are completed in His atonement or not. For all our atoned in Christ regardless if all have appropriated this atonement in their life. Humanity is the children of God, and the true remnant of God's earthly children, God's faith children, are the mantle bearers of His love to the world.

One last word, over the years I have spoken of God's kingdom as present with us now. That we are not to await it's coming but to get busy because Jesus, God's Messiah, has come and fulfilled, or enacted, God's salvation at Calvary. That said, we follow Jesus... not churchly doctrines or dogmas teaching to follow antiChrists, anathemas, or apostasies against the Spirit of God. We are to love all men and women. Walk with each. To learn life and perspective from each. There are no boundaries on whom we should love. God doesn't and neither should we, as God's emissaries. 

This, then, is the LIFE of the kingdom children of God.

Peace,

R.E. Slater
June 22, 2021

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Kingdom Series, Parts 1-3

Sunday, June 20, 2021

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Tuesday, June 22, 2021



Article References







Related Topics Here at Relevancy22


Eschatology - End Times (22 articles)

Eschatology - Our Responsibility (15 articles)

Kingdom Eschatology (37 articles)

Kingdom Now (12 articles)

Theologian N.T. Wright (19 articles)

Paul - NT Wright Series (23 articles)






Related Topics at Relevancy22

Listed by Topic

Eschatology - End Times (22 articles)

Eschatology - Our Responsibility (15 articles)

Kingdom Eschatology (37 articles)

Kingdom Now (12 articles)

Theologian N.T. Wright (19 articles)


Listed by Index





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How God Became King :
Why We've All Misunderstood the Gospels | N. T. Wright
Apr 19, 2016

*I attended Dr. Wright's discussion at Calvin
and thought it to be helpful to our topic here
re THE KINGDOM OF GOD. - re slater





https://www.ntwrightonline.org/ebooks/


The Gospel and the Kingdom of God

by N.T. Wright / David P. Seemuth
‘Gospel’ is the announcement that everything has changed in the coming of Jesus and it leads us to a new kind of living. It is a Kingdom of God lifestyle with allegiance to a King as the ultimate restorer.

One of my roles in leading this effort called N.T. Wright Online is to provide a framework for understanding the apparent ‘goal’ or ‘end’ to which the biblical narrative points. Of course, many of Prof. Wright’s teachings focus on this. In the world of many Christians, the idea of ‘what’s in it for me’ often seems to be the focus of concern. I understand that. Many people have a deep sense that they are in need of God’s intervention, a ‘healing’ perhaps, or a desire to be at peace with God. This is evident even in the Gospel narratives where people are approaching Jesus to solve a particular problem.

Perhaps we think of the paralytic who complains that nobody is available to place him in the Pool of Bethesda when the water is stirred. The expectation was that if he was the first one into the water, a healing would have taken place. We find this story in John Chapter Five:

John 5:1-15 (KNT)

After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

In Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, there is a pool which is called, in Hebrew, Bethesda. It has five porticoes, 3 where there were several sick people lying. They were blind, lame and paralysed.

There was a man who had been there, in the same sick state, for thirty-eight years. 6 Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been there a long time already.

‘Do you want to get well?’ he asked him.

‘Well, sir,’ the sick man replied, ‘I don’t have anyone to put me into the pool when the water gets stirred up. While I’m on my way there, someone else gets down before me.’

‘Get up,’ said Jesus, ‘pick up your mattress and walk!’

At once the man was healed. He picked up his mattress and walked.

The day all this happened was a sabbath. 10 So the Judaeans confronted the man who had been healed.

‘It’s the sabbath!’ they said. ‘You shouldn’t be carrying your mattress!’

‘Well,’ he replied, ‘the man who cured me told me to pick up my mattress and walk!’

‘Oh, really?’ they said. ‘And who is this man, who told you to pick it up and walk?’

But the man who’d been healed didn’t know who it was. Jesus had gone away, and the place was crowded.

After this Jesus found the man in the Temple.

‘Look!’ he said. ‘You’re better again! Don’t sin any more, or something worse might happen to you!’

The man went off and told the Judaeans that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 This was why the Judaeans began to persecute Jesus, because he did these things on the sabbath.

This was Jesus’ response to them.

‘My father’, he said, ‘is going on working, and so am I!’

So for this reason the Judaeans were all the more eager to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath, but spoke of God as his own father, making himself equal to God.

Assumptions

Isn’t it amazing to examine the ‘assumptions’ of the many people involved? The paralyzed man thought he knew that the answer to his problem was found in the Pool of Bethesda. Jesus becomes the answer to his problem by healing him, very unexpectedly, it seems. The man did not ask to be healed; the man just described his barrier to healing. Jesus changed the world of this man (as well as the world of Jewish leaders) by restoring his body. The man gets up, takes up his mat, and walks. Jesus upsets the people there because he breaks the rules of ‘the way things are supposed to be’. The Pool of Bethesda becomes irrelevant to the paralytic; the Jewish leaders complain that the healed man is walking around carrying his mat against Sabbath laws; Jesus explains, much to the consternation of the Jewish leaders, that the Father is at work so Jesus must be at work as well. As John writes,

‘So for this reason the Judaeans were all the more eager to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but spoke of God as his own father, making himself equal to God’.

God seems to ‘break the rules’ by restoring the man to health and, at the same time, be present in Jesus himself. God is not supposed to do that, so thought the Jewish leaders. But, of course, the restoration of things that are broken IS what God is about. It is we who forget the ultimate plan of God and focus on our own personal, local, or religious concerns.

I happen to live in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where we have a street named Bethesda, a school named Bethesda, and a park named Bethesda. In times past, the city was a destination for many people who were seeking the restoration of their bodies through the healing, ‘medicinal’ waters that came from the wells of this geographical area. There used to be a thriving ‘spa’ atmosphere because of the famous qualities of the water and people would come to the businesses that catered to those seeking cures for their ailments.

Think of the mixture of motivations and assumptions surrounding that era: ailments cured or helped by the medicinal waters, money to be made by the local business people who could ‘market’ the spa reputation, pride of the local people who knew that their small city was a destination. Now, those ‘health spas’ of past times are long gone and the city is more known for manufacturing and also as the birthplace of Les Paul, the inventor of the electric guitar! If people wish for healing, they go to the local hospital or to their doctor. Money is still made by those who cater to the need… now it is called the ‘healthcare industry’. But the needs still exist and there are methods of seeking solutions to one’s maladies.

How Jesus Changes Expectations

Jesus has changed the rules and the expectations. Something new has broken into the world with his coming. The Kingdom of God is active and moving in and through God and his people.

During the first part of 2020, we at N.T. Wright Online are putting the focus on this idea of Kingdom Living at the forefront of our efforts. In these times there is a plethora of problems—whether personal, national, or even international—we are trying to remind everyone that for all those needs, Jesus has changed the narrativeWe are part of the New Creation people of God. The restoration project that has been going on since Genesis 3 has found its ‘goal’ its ‘end’ in Jesus the King. We, the people who are in the Messiah, are those who reflect God’s continuing work in the world. Restoration and Renewal are the ends to which we point.

The title of this piece is ‘The Gospel and the Kingdom of God’ because we often think of ‘Gospel’ as the part that brings the forgiveness of sins (and of course, that is part of the idea), but ‘Gospel’ is the announcement that everything has changed in the coming of Jesus and it leads us to a new kind of living. It is a Kingdom of God lifestyle with allegiance to a King as the ultimate restorer. We are his workers to reflect that good news and a new way of life in a world that is seeking answers in profoundly short-sighted ways rather than in the Way of Jesus.

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David Seemuth is the Founder and President of the Wisconsin Center for Christian Study which exists to bring transformation to Christian believers through the renewal of the mind. He and Prof. N.T. Wright collaborate in online course development and launched N.T. Wright Online in 2015. David has been an Adjunct Professor at Trinity International University for over 35 years and teaches in the area of Biblical Studies, specializing in the New Testament. He also served as an Associate Pastor at Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, WI, for 30 years.


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Love is the language of God's Kingdom



Kingdom of God (Christianity)

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God the Father on his throneWestphalia, Germany, late 15th century.

The Kingdom of God (and its related form the Kingdom of Heaven in the Gospel of Matthew) is one of the key elements of the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament.[1][2] Drawing on Old Testament teachings, the Christian characterization of the relationship between God and humanity inherently involves the notion of the Kingship of God.[3][4] The Old Testament refers to "God the Judge of all" and the notion that all humans will eventually "be judged" is an essential element of Christian teachings.[5] Building on a number of New Testament passages, the Nicene Creed indicates that the task of judgment is assigned to Jesus.[5][6]

The New Testament is written against the backdrop of Second Temple Judaism. The view of the kingdom developed during that time included the restoration of Israel to a Davidic Kingdom and the intervention of God in history via the Danielic Son of Man. The coming of the kingdom of God involved God finally taking back the reins of history, which he had allowed to slacken as pagan Empires had ruled the nations. Most Jewish sources imagine a restoration of Israel and either a destruction of the nations or a gathering of the nations to obedience to the One True God. Jesus stands firmly in this tradition. His association of his own person and ministry with the "coming of the kingdom" indicates that he perceives that God's great intervention in history has arrived and that he is the agent of that intervention. However, in the Parable of Mustard Seed,[7] Jesus seems to indicate that his own view on how the kingdom of God arrives differs from the Jewish traditions of his time. It is commonly believed that this multiple-attested parable suggests that the growth of the kingdom of God is characterized by a gradual process rather than an event, and that it starts small like a seed and gradually grows into a large firmly rooted tree.[8] His suffering and death, however, seem to cast doubt upon this (how could God's appointed king be killed?) but his resurrection affirms his claim with the ultimate proof of only God having resurrection power over death. The claim includes his exaltation to the right hand of God establishes him as "king." Jesus' predictions of his return make it clear that God's kingdom is not yet fully realized according to inaugurated eschatology but in the meantime the good news that forgiveness of sins is available through his name is to be proclaimed to the nations. Thus the mission of the Church begins and fills the time between the initial coming of the Kingdom, and its ultimate consummation with the Final Judgment.

Christian interpretations or usage of the term "kingdom of God[9]" regularly make use of this historical framework and are often consistent with the Jewish hope of a Messiah, the person, and ministry of Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection, his return, and the rise of the Church in history. A question characteristic to the central theme of most interpretations is whether the "kingdom of God" has been instituted because of the appearance of Jesus Christ or whether it is yet to be instituted; whether this kingdom is present, future or is omnipresent simultaneously in both the present and future existence.

The term "kingdom of God" has been used to mean Christian lifestyle, a method of world evangelization, the rediscovery of charismatic gifts and many other things. Others relate it not to our present or future earthly situation but to the world to come. The interpretation of the phrase is often based on the theological leanings of the scholar-interpreter.[10] A number of theological interpretations of the term the Kingdom of God have thus appeared in its eschatological context, e.g., apocalypticrealized or Inaugurated eschatologies, yet no consensus has emerged among scholars.[11][12]

Etymology

The word Kingdom (in Greekβασιλεία basileíā) appears 162 times in the New Testament and most of these uses relate to either basileíā toû Theoû (βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ) i.e. the Kingdom of God or to basileíā tō̂n Ouranō̂n (βασιλεία τῶν Οὐρανῶν) i.e. Kingdom of Heaven in the Synoptic Gospels.[13] Kingdom of God is translated to Latin as Regnum Dei and the Kingdom of Heaven as Regnum caelorum.[14] Kingdom of Heaven (Basileíā tō̂n Ouranō̂n) appears 32 times in the Gospel of Matthew and nowhere else in the New Testament.[15] Matthew also uses the term the Kingdom of God (Basileíā toû Theoû) in a handful of cases, but in these cases, it may be difficult to distinguish his usage from the Kingdom of Heaven (Basileíā tō̂n Ouranō̂n).[15]

There is general agreement among scholars that the term used by Jesus himself would have been "Kingdom of God".[1][2] Matthew's use for the term the Kingdom of Heaven is generally seen as a parallel to the usage of Kingdom of God in Mark and Luke's gospels.[1][2] Matthew is likely to have used the term Heaven due to the fact that the background of his Jewish audience imposed restrictions on the frequent use of the name of God.[16] R.T. France suggests that in the few cases where the Kingdom of God is used, Matthew seeks a more specific and personal reference to God and hence goes back to that term.[17]

Kingship and kingdom

The Christian characterization of the relationship between God and humanity involves the notion of the "Kingship of God", whose origins go back to the Old Testament, and may be seen as a consequence of the creation of the world by God.[3][4] The "enthronement psalms" (Psalms 45939697–99) provide a background for this view with the exclamation "The Lord is King".[4] However, in later Judaism a more "national" view was assigned to God's Kingship in which the awaited Messiah may be seen as a liberator and the founder of a new state of Israel.[18]

The term "Kingdom of God" does not appear in the Old Testament, although "his Kingdom" and "your Kingdom" are used in some cases when referring to God.[19] However, the Kingdom of God (the Matthean equivalent being "Kingdom of Heaven") is a prominent phrase in the Synoptic Gospels and there is near-unanimous agreement among scholars that it represents a key element of the teachings of Jesus.[4][10]

Jesus giving Peter "the keys of the kingdom of heaven", (Matthew 16:18),[20] depicted by Perugino, 1492.

Historically, the Church Fathers presented three separate interpretations of the Kingdom of God: the first (by Origen in the 3rd century) was that Jesus himself represents the Kingdom.[21][22] The second interpretation (also by Origen) is that the Kingdom represents the hearts and minds of the faithful captured by the love of God and the pursuit of Christian teachings.[21][23] The third interpretation (influenced by Origen but brought forth by Eusebius in the 4th century) is that the Kingdom represents the Christian Church composed of the faithful.[21][23]

Over the centuries a wide range of theological interpretations for the term Kingdom of God have appeared.[10][21][23] For instance, in Catholic teachings, the official declaration Dominus Iesus (item 5) states that the kingdom of God cannot be detached either from Christ or from the Church, for "if the kingdom is separated from Jesus, it is no longer the kingdom of God which he revealed."[21][24] Eastern Orthodox Christians believe that the Kingdom of God is present within the Church and is communicated to believers as it interacts with them.[25]

R. T. France has pointed out that while the concept of "Kingdom of God" has an intuitive meaning to lay Christians, there is hardly any agreement among theologians about its meaning in the New Testament.[10] Some scholars see it as a Christian lifestyle, some as a method of world evangelization, some as the rediscovery of charismatic gifts, others relate it to no present or future situation, but the world to come.[10] France states that the phrase the Kingdom of God is often interpreted in many ways to fit the theological agenda of those interpreting it.[10]

Eschatology

An angel blows the "last trumpet", as in 1 Corinthians 15:52Langenzenn, Germany, 19th century

Interpretations of the term Kingdom of God have given rise to wide-ranging eschatological debates among scholars with diverging views, yet no consensus has emerged among scholars.[11][12][26] From Augustine to the Reformation the arrival of the Kingdom had been identified with the formation of the Christian Church, but this view was later abandoned by some Christian Churches and by the beginning of the 20th century, some Protestant churches had adopted the apocalyptic interpretation of the Kingdom.[11][26][27] In this view (also called the "consistent eschatology") the Kingdom of God did not start in the first century, but is a future apocalyptic event that is yet to take place.[11]

By the middle of the 20th century, realized eschatology, which viewed the Kingdom as non-apocalyptic but as the manifestation of divine sovereignty over the world (realized by the ministry of Jesus), had gathered a scholarly following.[11] In this view the Kingdom is held to be available in the present.[12] The competing approach of inaugurated eschatology was later introduced as the "already and not yet" interpretation.[11] In this view the Kingdom has already started, but awaits full disclosure at a future point.[12] These diverging interpretations have since given rise to a good number of variants, with various scholars proposing new eschatological models that borrow elements from these.[11][12]

Judgment

Denominational variations

Given no general agreement on the interpretation of the term Kingdom of God, significant diversity exists in the way Christian denominations interpret it and its associated eschatology.[10] Over the centuries, as emerging Christian denominations introduced new concepts, their teachings and experiments with the linking of personalism with new notions of Christian community often involved new interpretations of the Kingdom of God in various socio-religious settings.[29][30]

Thus the denominational attempt at incorporating the ideals expressed in the Acts of Apostles regarding the sharing of property within the Christian community came to interact with the social issues of the time to produce various interpretations regarding the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth.[29][30] Eschatological perspectives that emphasized the abandonment of the utopian visions of human achievement and the placement of hope in the work of God whose Kingdom were sought thus resulted in the linking of social and philanthropic issues to with the religious interpretations of the Kingdom of God in ways that produced distinct variations among denominations.[30]


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Kingship and kingdom of God

Matt 5:10: "Blessed are the poor in spirit: For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven".

The concept of the kingship of God appears in all Abrahamic religions, where in some cases the terms Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven are also used. The notion of God's kingship goes back to the Hebrew Bible, which refers to "his kingdom" but does not include the term "Kingdom of God".

The "Kingdom of God" and its equivalent form "Kingdom of Heaven" in the Gospel of Matthew is one of the key elements of the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament. The Gospel of Mark indicates that the gospel is the good news about the Kingdom of God. The term pertains to the kingship of Christ over all creation. Kingdom of "heaven" appears in Matthew's gospel due primarily to Jewish sensibilities about uttering the "name" (God).

Jesus did not teach the kingdom of God per se so much as the return of that kingdom. The notion of God's kingdom (as it had been under Moses) returning became an agitation in "knaan," modern Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon, 60 years before Jesus was born, and continued to be a force for nearly a hundred years after his death. Drawing on Old Testament teachings, the Christian characterization of the relationship between God and humanity inherently involves the notion of the "Kingship of God".

The Quran does not include the term "kingdom of God", but includes the Throne Verse which talks about the throne of Allah encompassing the heavens and the Earth. The Quran also refers to Abraham seeing the "Kingdom of the heavens"....

Hebrew Bible
Main article: Kingship of God (Judaism)

The term "kingdom of the LORD" appears twice in the Hebrew Bible, in 1 Chronicles 28:5 and 2 Chronicles 13:8. In addition, "his kingdom" and "your kingdom" are sometimes used when referring to God. "Yours is the kingdom, O Lord" is used in 1 Chronicles 29:10–12 and "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom" in Daniel 3:33, for example. There are also verses like Exodus 19:6 that show how Israel, as God's chosen people, are considered to be a kingdom, mirroring some Christian interpretations that view God's kingdom as Christendom.

"The Hebrew word malkuth [...] refers first to a reign, dominion, or rule and only secondarily to the realm over which a reign is exercised. [...] When malkuth is used of God, it almost always refers to his authority or to his rule as the heavenly King." The "enthronement psalms" (Psalms 45, 93, 96, 97–99) provide a background for this view with the exclamation "The Lord is King".

1 Kings 22:19, Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1 and Daniel 7:9 all speak of the Throne of God, although some philosophers such as Saadia Gaon and Maimonides interpreted such mention of a "throne" as allegory.

Intertestamental period
See also: Intertestamental period

The phrase the Kingdom of God is not common in intertestamental literature. Where it does occur, such as in the Psalms of Solomon and the Wisdom of Solomon, it usually refers "to God's reign, not to the realm over which he reigns, nor to the new age, [nor to ...] the messianic order to be established by the Lord's Anointed."

The term does occasionally, however, denote "an eschatological event," such as in the Assumption of Moses and the Sibylline Oracles. In these cases, "God's Kingdom is not the new age but the effective manifestation of his rule in all the world so that the eschatological order is established." Along these lines was the more "national" view in which the awaited messiah was seen as a liberator and the founder of a new state of Israel.

Gospels
The Gospel of Luke records Jesus' description of the Kingdom of God, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; ... For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you." The Apostle Paul defined the Kingdom of God in his letter to the church in Rome: "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."

In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus speaks frequently of God's kingdom. However within the New Testament, nowhere does Jesus appear to clearly define the concept. Within the Synoptic Gospel accounts, the assumption appears to have been made that, "this was a concept so familiar that it did not require definition." Karen Wenell wrote, "Mark's Gospel provides for us a significant place of transformation for the space of the Kingdom of God, precisely because it can be understood as a kind of birthplace for the Kingdom of God, the beginning of its construction ...".

Within the non-canonical, yet contemporary Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, Jesus is quoted as saying, "If those who lead you say to you: ‘Look, the kingdom is in the sky!’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you: ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fishes will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you and outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the living Father." This same Gospel of Thomas further describes Jesus as implying that the Kingdom of God is already present, saying, "The kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and people do not see it.”

The Kingdom of God (and its possibly equivalent form Kingdom of Heaven in the Gospel of Matthew) is one of the key elements of the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament. Drawing on Old Testament teachings, the Christian characterization of the relationship between God and humanity inherently involves the notion of the "Kingship of God".

Most of the uses of the Greek word, basileia (kingdom), in the New Testament involve Kingdom of God (or Kingdom of Heaven). Matthew is likely to have instead used the term heaven because the background of his Jewish audience imposed restrictions on the frequent use of the name of God. However, Dr. Chuck Missler asserts that Matthew intentionally differentiated between the kingdoms of God and Heaven: "Most commentators presume that these terms are synonymous. However, Matthew uses Kingdom of Heaven 33 times, but also uses Kingdom of God five times, even in adjacent verses, which indicates that these are not synonymous: he is using a more denotative term." Kingdom of God is translated to Latin as Regnum Dei and Kingdom of Heaven as Regnum caelorum.

Christianity
Main article: Kingdom of God (Christianity)

The Old Testament refers to "God the Judge of all" and the notion that all humans will eventually "be judged" is an essential element of Christian teachings. Building on a number of New Testament passages, the Nicene Creed indicates that the task of judgement is assigned to Jesus.

No overall agreement on the theological interpretation of "Kingdom of God" has emerged among scholars. While a number of theological interpretations of the term Kingdom of God have appeared in its eschatological context, e.g. apocalyptic, realized or Inaugurated eschatologies, no consensus has emerged among scholars.

R. T. France points out that while the concept of "Kingdom of God" has an intuitive meaning to lay Christians, there is hardly any agreement among scholars about its meaning in the New Testament. Some scholars see it as a Christian lifestyle, some as a method of world evangelization, some as the rediscovery of charismatic gifts, others relate it to no present or future situation, but the world to come. France states that the phrase Kingdom of God is often interpreted in many ways to fit the theological agenda of those interpreting it.

In the New Testament, the Throne of God is alluded to in several forms. Among these are Heaven as the Throne of God, The Throne of David, The Throne of Glory, The Throne of Grace and many more. The New Testament continues Jewish identification of heaven itself as the "throne of God", but also locates the throne of God as "in heaven" and having a second subordinate seat at the Right Hand of God for the Session of Christ.

Islam
Further information: Divisions of the world in Islam

The term "kingdom of God" does not occur in the Quran. The modern Arabic word for kingdom is mamlaka (المملكة), but in the Quran mul'kan (مُّلْكًا), refers to Heaven, e.g. in 4:54 "Or do they envy mankind for what Allah hath given them of his bounty? but We had already given the people of Abraham the Book and Wisdom, and conferred upon them a great kingdom" and 6:75 "Thus did We show Abraham the kingdom of the heavens and the earth." The variant Maalik (Owner, etmologically similar to Malik (king)) occurs in 1:4 "[Allah is] The owner of the Day of Judgement".