KINGDOM OF HEAVEN and KINGDOM OF GOD Knowing the doctrinal difference between the terms Kingdom of Heaven and Kingdom of God is the key to understanding the complete time line of Biblical history past, present, and future, the proper place of the Church and the prophetic future of Israel. The Bible is about the struggle for a Kingdom; the Kingdom of Heaven, a Kingdom with its Capital City (Jerusalem) on this Earth. Israel rejected the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah when He first came because the religious rulers of Israel were only looking for a political Messiah King who would make Israel the ruling kingdom of the world. (See Jeremiah 23:5, Psalms 48:2.) They were expecting a warrior leader who would deliver them militarily from the Romans and the rest of the heathen. They were expecting carnal deliverance. Because of their hardened hearts, and their legalistic and ritualistic zeal for works, they were blind to their need for spiritual deliverance and the true righteousness of God, which must be born into the heart. That is what led them to ask this of Jesus: And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. (Luke 17:20-21) In that statement, Jesus was declaring a spiritual truth that Israel did not see. But on another occasion, when asked about His Kingdom by Pontius Pilate, He gave a somewhat different answer: Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. (John 18:36) In this particular passage the word now is not speaking about the spiritual Kingdom of God (within the heart of the redeemed), but of a literal political Kingdom yet to come on this Earth. You should also take note that the word now has been removed from many newer Bible translations. The reason is because most of the translators of todays Bibles are Amillennial in their position on prophecy. In other words, they do not accept the literal return of the Lord Jesus Christ to reign on the Earth for a thousand years as foretold in in the book of Revelations. Although that truth is rejected by a major portion of Christianity today, His Jewish disciples knew what He was speaking of and they pointedly asked when the literal Kingdom would come: When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:6-8) The disciples were clearly asking about a literal Kingdom, and the Lord says it is not for them to know the time when that literal Kingdom (the Kingdom of Heaven) will take place. Until that time the disciples were given power to preach the Kingdom of God; righteousness through faith in the risen Savior who will return to Earth one day and rule over the whole Earth from Jerusalem...Next
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 14:13:10 +0000
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