Christianity: Who Is The Kingdom Of God?

Matthew is the first of four gospels in the New Testament. Matthew presents his story of Jesus, the demands of Christian discipline, and shares the news of the death and resurrection of Jesus. There are many questions in Matthew that can not be answered.The book of Matthew is a gospel that contains narrative history, genealogy, parables, sermons, and some prophetic oracles. The gospel of Matthew was originally written for a Jewish audience by a Jewish perspective. This is why Matthew is often referred to as "The Gospel for the Jews". Although Matthew was written for Jews, it does not include very much of the Jewish culture and tradition. Throughout the entire gospel of Matthew, it is very clear that the entire book is mainly incorporated with Jews. The book of Matthew ties in with the Old Testament several times, such as when they refer to Jesus as Messiah or King. The key word used in Matthew is "kingdom" and it is used 28 times. The reason Matthew was written was to reveal that Jesus was the messiah, the long of the Jews, and to conceive the Jews that Jesus Christ was indeed their long awaited messiah. The author of Matthew

In his approach Snyder utilizes seven themes from the Old and New Testament that he say’s help reveal the meaning of the kingdom of God. The themes presented are interrelated and not disconnected or segmented from each other. Rather, each theme is a partial expression of the whole, in other words, the kingdom of God is this, but it is also that. The challenge that the Western (US) reader faces is that one has been conditioned by “National Idealism,” to think that we are a Christian nation. Therefore, as a nation of God, we live out the biblical principles that are important to Christian values. This is important to state, since this type of thinking permeates throughout our churches and is expressed as kingdom living.

The term ‘Kingdom of God’ (or as is otherwise referred to as ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ in Matthew's Gospel) is mentioned throughout the Four Gospels. Over the centuries many scholars have reached the same conclusion that the central theme of Jesus’ message regards the ‘Kingdom of God.’ But what did Jesus mean by this term? This essay aims to discuss the meaning of the term ‘Kingdom of God’ and what Jesus must have meant by this.

Of all the branches of theological study to emerge from the New Testament, there are perhaps no more elusive than the concept of the "Kingdom of God" which is raised repeatedly throughout the Gospel of Luke. The cryptic words found within Luke 17:20-21, in which Jesus addresses the Pharisees interrogation on when the kingdom of God would arrive, declare that "20 the kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." This statement follows numerous additional references to the Kingdom of God throughout various chapters of the Gospel of Luke, however, the semantic details of the verse above have spurred centuries of debate regarding Jesus' true meaning. The reason for the ongoing dispute lies in another verse of Luke's gospel, Luke 21:31, in which Jesus exhorts his followers "31so likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." When taken at face value, the instructions given by Jesus in these two verses of Luke appear to be wholly contradictory, as the Lord first tells the Pharisees in Luke 17:20-21 that they should not bother looking for worldly signs concerning the Kingdom of God, but later countermands that directive in Luke 21:31 by saying that there will be visible signs alerting people to the Kingdom's impending arrival. By reading the Gospel of Luke in its entirety and contemplating this apparent dilemma with an open mind, I

Over the centuries, Christianity has organised its beliefs into a systematic theology that draws from its sacred writing and tradition. While the main beliefs of Christianity are shared by all Christian variants, there are degrees of different in the interpretation of these beliefs and how they are lived out in everyday life. This can be seen in the important of sacred text, principle belief of the concept of salvation in John 3:16, principle belief of divine and humanity in ‘John 1:14’, principle belief of resurrection in ‘Mark 16:1-8’, principle belief of revelation in ‘1 corinthians14:6’, and beliefs through the Trinity in ‘2 Corinthians 13:14’. This essay will explain the important of the sacred text and the principal beliefs of Christianity.

The gospel describes Jesus as a great teacher who astounded the crowds who gathered to hear him. Though he engaged in debates with Pharisees and Sadducees, he took great interest in ordinary people. He often taught them in parables, stories that used vivid images from everyday life to illustrate spiritual truths (Invitation to World Religions, pg.416). The central theme in Jesus’ teachings was the Kingdom of God. For Jesus, the kingdom of God was not an ordinary kingdom, but that exists when human beings recognize God’s sovereignty over the world and respond in love and in

The evidence that exists to prove the diversity of the early Christian community is the many other writings which have been discovered by historians from the same time period (Harris 2014). In addition, the writings reveal that each separate group of Christians from this era had their own understanding of what Jesus was teaching His followers. The “fifth gospel” of Thomas paints the picture of Jesus as a guide towards His disciples by enlightening them with the message that God’s Kingdom already rules, but many people would not believe him. The portrait that Thomas provokes is an example of the diversity of the early writers and several of his ideas are similar to Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Harris 2014).

Harnack understands the Kingdom of God in Jesus’ teachings to have two basic aspects. First is the traditional view as a future event, establishing God’s rule on earth. The roots of this view come from the historic elements of Jewish apocalypticism and in the teachings of John the Baptist. Jesus accepted and supported but also surpassed the teachings of John the Baptist. However, Jesus presented an idea of the Kingdom of God that was in contrast with the traditional understanding of the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ understanding of the Kingdom is a present and internal event which happens in the hearts of those of faith. According to Harnack Jesus would have seen the two aspects as complimenting one another wherein those of a present perspective would see a tension between the two. Harnack says that it is the second aspect of God’s Kingdom that held as the most important in Jesus’ teachings. The Kingdom of God then should be understood as “coming to the individual, by entering into his soul and laying hold of it. ” It is then that the Kingdom of God fills the Christian with the life of God. Looking at the Kingdom of God in this way makes it the rule of God “in the hearts of individuals.

The essential problem Wright identifies in the introduction can be documented most clearly in six ordinary, but unsatisfactory responses often provided by the church to the query "What are the Gospels all about?, ” which are: 1) teaching people how to go to Heaven, 2) recording Jesus's exclusive ethical teaching, 3) depicting Jesus as a moral prototype for the people, 4) exhibiting Jesus as the perfect sacrifice, 5) telling stories with which humans can recognize and then find direction, and 6) signifying Jesus's spirituality. While each of these answers contains a portion of truth, Wright contends they all fail to hold the heart of the Gospel accounts. According to Wright, “the gospels tell of Jesus who embodied the living God of Israel and whose cross and resurrection really did unveil and initiate the Kingdom of God.” Wright then claims that the kingdom is apart of a greater eschatological theology, which is concerned with what is believed to be the final events of history, or the definitive destiny of humanity.

“A kingdom is a human political reality”, which is both earthly and physical. (pg 176) People see it as a negative impersonal political institution but rather it should positively flipped into community based. This includes individuals under one common influence. The power that kingdom has over politics transformed the power God has on earth through the churches until the day when He finally makes all things new (Rev 21:5). Together, the term kingdom politics is metaphor to what we should be basing our lives onto, the kingdom above under the political allegiance of God. As Christians, we must build this kingdom before God within the community of those living for the

Speers and Norris preface their cross country trip with an explanation of why they embarked on the journey. Both Speers and Norris come from varied political and religious backgrounds, however, they both agree that “the church needs a new political vision, one that takes its cues about the nature of politics from another political reality: the kingdom of God” (7). The authors are strongly convinced that mainstream churches in America today focus disproportionately on either King or Kingdom – at the expense of the other. Although Norris and Speers explore a multiplicity a issues within each church, the most crucial

In his letter, King employs all four of the sources of theology. His definitions of the sources can be ascertained by studying his use of them. In this paper, King used scripture the most. One may assume that he believed scripture is the most important source of theology. His usage of scripture includes both the Old Testament and the New Testament. King uses tradition, including both the ways of the church throughout the ages and more visibly in this

The Kingdom may exist in the individual human heart, in groups, in institutions, and in nature. The Kingdom of God is as broad and as overarching as the presence of God which renews and transforms and recreates everything touched by it.

In the first sense, the kingdom of God has already been created when Christ died on the cross for our sins, but in the second sense, the world had not yet been united under God’s banner. I am also reminded by Karl Barth that the kingdom of God “escapes all intellectual systematizing” (McKim, 1988, pg. 164). The true glory of the Kingdom of God will never be understood until the day it

Finally, he addresses to the Emperor by informing that Christians do seek to be member of another kingdom, Kingdom of “God” and not the kingdom of “human one.”