I’m reading and thinking through Matthew’s gospel at the minute and it’s quite obvious that the concept of the kingdom of heaven is one of the key emphases of his book. Even at the very start, Jesus is introduced to the reader as the Messiah, the son of David. There is no doubt that the stage is being set for the introduction of one who is a King. The King is born in accordance with ancient prophecy and even the Jewish leaders recognise that the future King of Israel will be born in Bethlehem. He is preceded by a herald called John who announced to the nation that the kingdom of heaven has come near and that they must repent in preparation for the kingdom. So far so good. But this kingdom… what is it? For many years I simply assumed that this was some sort of “spiritual kingdom” which had no physical manifestation. But as I read various literature I discovered that such a view made nonsense of a Scriptural view of this kingdom.
Alva McClain in his excellent work, “The Greatness of the Kingdom”, describes eight distinct views on what the kingdom is. Such variety is a testimony to the confusion which exists as to this important doctrine.
The first is the National Kingdom Idea which is primarily a Jewish idea which identifies the kingdom of God with the nation of Israel. Then there is the Celestial Kingdom Idea which suggests that the kingdom of God refers to the reign of God in heaven. The Ecclesiastical Kingdom view identifies the Church with God’s kingdom. This view was espoused by the Roman Catholic Church and seems to be still the popular view despite dissent from certain theologians such as Hans Kung. This view then spread into Protestantism during its formation and was espoused in a sense by various Reformers. The Spiritual Kingdom view refers to the idea that the kingdom is God’s rule in the heart’s of people. It is an idea of the kingdom which makes it a soteriological concept. This view distinguishes between the Church and the kingdom but believes that the Church is one of the most effective ways for the establishment of this kingdom on earth. Then, the Moral Kingdom view is the idea that the kingdom of God is the moral rule of God over humankind. However this idea is drawn mainly from the philosopher Immanuel Kant. The Liberal Social-Kingdom view sees the kingdom as the “progressive social organisation and improvement of mankind”. The Modern Eschatological-Kingdom view, as McClain called it, is perhaps not so modern anymore and was propounded by liberal theologians such as Albert Schweitzer who argued that Christ’s concept of the kingdom was a literal kingdom which he intended to establish on earth but apparently Jesus’ expectations of the second coming were not fulfilled and he then began to arrange to get himself executed.
That’s seven of the views so far. But there’s another one. This is what McClain calls the Millennial Kingdom view. This is the view that sees the kingdom of God as a literal kingdom which will be established on earth for a thousand years. I contend that this view is the Biblical one.
These eight views however, are not mutually exclusive. G.E. Ladd in some very influential writings among evangelical circles, believed a combination of the Spiritual Kingdom view and the Millennial Kingdom view. He suggested that the kingdom offered by Jesus was a spiritual one while still maintaining that there would be a literal millennial kingdom (although he did waver on whether or not the kingdom would last for precisely a thousand years or instead, a long time).
In my next post I’ll talk about why I think the Millennial kingdom view is the one most often presented in Scripture and indeed, the one offered by the Lord Jesus Christ to the nation of Israel. Having said that, the Scriptures do sometimes speak of the rule of God presently in various ways and at some stage I’ll take a look at some relevant passages.
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