The Kingdom of God

What we anticipate is God’s enactment of

God’s gracious rule over all of creation.
The meaning and the timing of this
Kingdom has been an issue of
questioning: e.g. Acts 1:6-8.
The biblical texts possess a determinative
eschatological valence.
How to connect the Kingdom of God with
the eschatological position?
 The Kingdom of God
How you approach this relationship between
this age and the next influences your
biblical interpretation.
How does the next age relate to the
ministry of Jesus?
Does this question arise from the Scriptural
witness to Jesus, or has the church
imposed this upon Jesus’ teaching?
 The Kingdom of God
A. Jesus: eschatological bearer of God’s
Kingdom
Johannes Weiss: Jesus’ preaching was of the
expectation of a coming universal
destruction of the present world, with
judgment or eternal bliss for humanity.
Responding to Liberal theology’s description of
the Kingdom as primarily an experience by
asserting that it is supra-temporal reality.
 The Kingdom of God
A. Jesus: eschatological bearer of God’s
Kingdom
Johannes Weiss: Jesus’ preaching was of
the expectation of a coming universal
destruction of the present world, with
judgment or eternal bliss for humanity,
but these were not the subjective, inward
experiences Liberalism proposed.
1) Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom is near;
 The Kingdom of God
A. Jesus: eschatological bearer of God’s
Kingdom
Johannes Weiss: 2) only God can bring the
Kingdom; 3) Kingdom’s coming means
the destruction of the world.
End did not come, so he was in reality a
failed prophet.
Bultmann: demythologize Jesus’ message
 The Kingdom of God
B. Jesus’ Ministry as Realized Eschatology
C. H. Dodd: Jesus conceived of the
Kingdom as an already active power in
history, so the Kingdom is present and
not futural in orientation.
The early church brought into Christianity
the notion of cataclysmic events after the
delay of the parousia.
 The Kingdom of God
C. The Kingdom Inbreaks in Jesus’ Ministry
Jeremias, Cullmann, et. al.: Jesus held a
dialectical relationship with the Kingdom.
God’s Kingdom was both a present
reality in Jesus’ ministry but also
contained a future expectation.
 The Kingdom of God
D. A Non-eschatological Jesus?
Some have rejected outright that Jesus
thought of himself as a particular bearer
of God’s Kingdom.
Harnack: what made Jesus unique is that
he taught that the Kingdom of God is
internal.
God’s rule is in human hearts, not in
supratemporal categories.
 The Kingdom of God
E. NT Portrayals of the Kingdom of God
1. KG is the establishment or in-breaking of
God’s rule in the ministry of Jesus.
Jesus never succinctly explains the
meaning of the KG, but does indicate its
meaning (especially in parables).
KG implicitly seen in Jesus’ acts of
teaching and healing.
 The Kingdom of God
E. NT Portrayals of the Kingdom of God
2. KG indicates a present reality in the
world.
Mark 1:14-15 indicates difference between
Jesus’ and John’s preaching; the time is
fulfilled!
Christian hope in the Kingdom is rooted in
the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
 The Kingdom of God
E. NT Portrayals of the Kingdom of God
2. KG indicates a present reality in the
world.
This hope does not issue in complacency,
but Christians “begin to suffer under it, to
contradict it.”
Because of God’s presence, we are not
abandoned to the world’s evil.
 The Kingdom of God
E. NT Portrayals of the Kingdom of God
3. KG indicates a future reality whose full
consummation we await.
E.g., Matthew 5:3 ff are in the future tense.
The newness of life now experienced is tied
to the Kingdom that will come in the
future.
The future gives us hope for action now.
 The Kingdom of God
E. NT Portrayals of the Kingdom of God
4. KG is both present and future.
It is a coming reality that is already irrupting
in the present in anticipation of its full
consummation in Christ’s return.
2nd Timothy 2: 8-13, 18
 Approaches to Eschatology
II. Interpretations of Eschatology
Most interpretations fall into 1 of 4 streams.
A. Futuristic: Revelation must be understood
literally, so all events described after
chapter 3 will occur in the future.
B. Preterist: Revelation recounts in symbolic
language events that were occurring at the
time the book was written (AD 95-96).
 Approaches to Eschatology
II. Interpretations of Eschatology
C. Historical View: the events in Revelation
refer to matters that take place throughout
the history of the church.
D. Symbolic View: Revelation presents
timeless or atemporal truths in symbolic
language rather than singular, historical
events (e.g., God’s sovereignty, the triumph
of good over evil).
 Kingdom of God & Millennium
Views
The Kingdom of God and Millennial Views
These concern the chronological relationship
between Christ’s second-coming and other
events in this present age.
Often this involves two questions: will there be
a millennial reign? Will there be a
tribulation?
Chiliasm: belief in a literal 1000-year earthly
reign of Christ.
 Kingdom of God & Millennium
Views
The Kingdom of God and Millennial Views
I. Four Millennial Views
A. Postmillenialism
Preaching of the Gospel will convert the
whole world.
Predominate in the Medieval Church.
The Millennium is a present reality.
Matthew 13:33; Isaiah 45:22-25;Hosea 2:23
 Kingdom of God & Millennium
Views
The Kingdom of God and Millennial Views
A. Postmillennialism
Millennium may not be a literal 1000 years.
Expects the world to become progressively
better prior to Christ’s return.
Popular at the beginning of the 20th century
but events of last century made it seem
highly untenable.
 Kingdom of God & Millennium
Views
The Kingdom of God and Millennial Views
B. Dispensationalism
J. W. Darby: 19th-century minister
associated with the Brethren.
Christ’s 2nd-coming will take place in 2
stages: (1) a rapture of the saints to meet
Jesus in the air (1 Thess. 4:14-15) and
earthly disasters culminating in the battle of
Armageddon; (2) Christ returns, defeats
Satan, and sets up earthly kingdom of
Israel.
 Kingdom of God & Millennium
Views
The Kingdom of God and Millennial Views
B. Dispensationalism
History is governed by divinely preordained
dispensations or how God manages
creation
God has 2 distinct people,1 for Israel and
one for the church. Israel as a nation is to
remain, and God will fulfill literally the OT
promises to David’s descendants.
 Kingdom of God & Millennium
Views
The Kingdom of God and Millennial Views
B. Dispensationalism
Problems: (1) in the NT, God has only 1
people, and this includes Israel and the
church together. E.g., Ephesians 2:11-20
(2) in the NT, the resurrection appears as
one event, not several. E.g, John 5:25-29
(3) Kingdom is in Christ (Col. 1:16-20) and
his people (Luke 17:20-21)