20th Century Restoration of Jesus' Teaching About the Kingdom of God

Pastor Mike Leiter

MA in Theological Studies, Fuller Seminary

Words and phrases can change meanings over time. This is evidenced all over history and is seen in our own modern context. In today's world, if something is "sick" it can mean that they are actually ill or it can mean that it is extraordinary. If someone were to perform a difficult stunt on a skateboard, someone may say, "That move was sick". The spelling and pronunciation of the word remains the same, but the meaning has changed. This is what happened to the New Testament term, "Kingdom of God" or "Kingdom of Heaven." Shortly after the events of the first century, many Christians began to alter the meaning of Kingdom of God due to Greek and Roman philosophical influences and the anti-Jewish sentiments among Gentile Christians and leaders. By stripping away of the Jewish underpinnings behind Jesus' Kingdom teaching, the term was meant to signify something other than what Jesus intended. The newer uses of the term may have been partially true, but incomplete. 

In Jesus' teaching, the kingdom of God was the in-breaking rule of God into this present evil age where God was setting right all of the things had gone wrong during the fall. Jesus announced the in-breaking kingdom and demonstrated it. We now live in an already/not yet dynamic. The kingdom has come, but is not here in its fulness and will not be until the second coming. We live in a reality where there is a cosmic conflict between the invasion of God's kingdom and the resistance of the kingdom of Satan. The decisive blow against the powers of darkness was made at the cross. Paul's brief summary is an excellent way of explaining this concept: "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." (Col 2:15).  This echoes my favorite parable of Jesus - the parable of the strong man. The strong man (Satan) occupies the house until someone stronger (Jesus) breaks in and plunders it (Luke 11:21-22). The powers of the age to come are invading this present age. This is not an exhaustive teaching on the kingdom of God, but offers a biblical understanding of it. Yet, as mentioned, shortly after the end of the first century, the kingdom came to mean something else. It became primarily understood to be a far-off place that one will want to qualify for someday (heaven) or, eventually, it became known as the Church by around the 4th century. Christians struggled to grasp Jesus' concept of the kingdom of God for centuries. It was not until the 20th century that the Jesus' meaning of the kingdom of God was restored to us

Read Dr. Derek Morphew's explanation of this restored understanding of the Kingdom:

"Due to a remarkable confluence of factors that have only emerged in the last 60–80 years, we can now view Jesus and his mission and message with a level of clarity not possible prior to this era. These factors include: The availability of the literature of Second Temple Judaism (setting the historical context),  The post-holocaust dialogue between Jewish and Christian scholars discovering Second Temple Judaism together, including the historical figure of Jesus,  Shifts in the historical discipline due to the turn from modernism to postmodernism, and  The emerging consensus that the mission and message of Jesus can be broadly described as inaugurated eschatology.  Without a proper understanding of Jesus as a historical figure within Second Temple Judaism, we cannot really grasp the central message of the New Testament. John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard movement, and an early purveyor of this realization, once said, 'Once you get the kingdom, you realize that all the books will have to be re-written'. Because Jesus is the centre of Scripture itself, to rediscover Jesus is to review everything, since the way we see him affects the way we see God, salvation, discipleship, the gospel, mission, and in fact all of theology." 

While there are some that still resist this restored understanding of the kingdom of God, most reputable scholars have come to agree with this restored concept of the kingdom.

I pray that we take Jesus' teaching on the kingdom to heart and get busy as we allow God to use us to be a vehicle for the continued invasion of God's kingdom into this present evil age.

(1) Morphew, Derek. The Kingdom Reformation: Rediscover Jesus, Review Everything! (p. 16). Kindle Edition. 

Disclaimer: I do not have an editor and I write these on the fly, expect typos until I have a chance to come back and re-edit (when I have time).