The kingdom of God

The reign of God the King

Jesus began his preaching with the kingdom.

“The time is fulfilled,” He said, “and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel!”

Mark 1:15

The Greek word, basileia (βασιλεία), means first a king's reign, his rule, rather than a territory with borders. Matthew usually says ‘the kingdom of heaven’, most likely following the Jewish custom of reverently avoiding the name of God; it is the same kingdom. Israel had long confessed God as King of all: "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom" (Psalm 145:13). The prophets promised that the God of heaven would set up "a kingdom that will never be destroyed" (Daniel 2:44), and Israel waited for the Messiah who would reign over it.

Jesus announced that the promise was being kept in him: "if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Matthew 12:28). Yet he also taught his disciples to pray, "Your kingdom come" (Matthew 6:10). The kingdom has come, and it is still coming. It starts as small as a mustard seed (Matthew 13:31), but the day is coming when "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ" (Revelation 11:15).

It does not come by the sword. "My kingdom is not of this world," Jesus told Pilate (John 18:36). No one can see it "unless he is born again" (John 3:3). God has "brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son" (Colossians 1:13), and its marks are "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17).

The kingdom the church prays for

The Nicene Creed confesses of the returning Christ, "whose kingdom shall have no end" Nicene Creed. Cyprian, explaining the Lord's Prayer, said that "The kingdom of God may stand for Christ Himself" Cyprian, since in him we are to reign. Augustine taught in The City of God that the church even now is the kingdom of Christ Augustine, City of God, Book 20, a thought that shaped the Western church for centuries. The Westminster Shorter Catechism explains the second petition of the Lord's Prayer like this:

In the second petition, which is, Thy kingdom come, we pray, that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed; and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it, and kept in it; and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened.

Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 102

Where the traditions differ

The Catholic Church teaches that the church is on earth the seed and the beginning of the kingdom Lumen Gentium. The Reformation churches saw the kingdom above all as Christ's rule by his word and Spirit. Lutherans distinguish two ways God governs: the world through law and the authority that bears the sword, the church through the gospel. Many in the Reformed tradition stress that Christ's kingship reaches every sphere of life Abraham Kuyper, Sphere Sovereignty. Nineteenth-century liberal theology understood the kingdom as a moral community living by love; many answered that this lost sight of a kingdom God himself brings.

Evangelicals also differ over when and how the kingdom will be fully revealed. Premillennialists expect Christ to reign on earth for a thousand years after his return; postmillennialists expect the gospel to transform the world before he comes; amillennialists hold that Christ reigns now from heaven, and that the kingdom will be revealed in full at his return. All share the hope of a kingdom without end. For more, see What did Jesus teach? and the lesson The ascension and Christ’s reign.