by Anthony F. Buzzard
The term “Kingdom of God” is perhaps the most important word in the Bible. As someone has said, the whole genius of the Christian faith is concentrated in the words “Kingdom of God.” Jesus said that the whole point of his mission was to proclaim the Gospel about the Kingdom of God (Luke 4:43; cp. Acts 8:12).
This means that Bible readers should make every effort to define the Kingdom of God accurately. The saving Gospel, according to Jesus and Paul (Mark 1:14, 15; Luke 4:43; Acts 19:8; 20:25; 28:23, 31, etc.), has a descriptive title. It contains information requiring a response of faith. That label is “the Kingdom of God.” In the parable of the sower it is “the Message about the Kingdom” (Matt. 13:19) which a potential convert must embrace, so that the saving process can begin. The devil knows this well.
That is why Luke reports Jesus as saying: “Whenever anyone hears the Message [about the Kingdom, Matt. 13:19] the Devil comes and snatches away the Message sown in his heart, so that he may not believe [the Message about the Kingdom of God] and be saved” (Luke 8:12).
So what is this Kingdom of God? What, in fact, is the Gospel which Jesus commands us to believe (Mark 1:14, 15)? Sometimes Christians would do well to go back to a standard Bible lexicon to find a proper definition. Consulting the famous lexicon by Thayer under the entry “Kingdom of God,” we read: “Relying principally on the prophecies of Daniel, the Jews were expecting a kingdom of the greatest felicity, which God through the Messiah would set up, raising the dead to life again and renovating earth and heaven; and that in this kingdom they would bear sway over all the nations of the world. This Kingdom was called the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of the Messiah; and in this sense these terms must be understood in the utterances of the Jews and of the disciples of Jesus when conversing with him, as Matt. 18:1; 20:21; Mark 11:10; Luke 17:20; 19:11.” The lexicon then provides the important Gospel-defining information from Daniel: “Daniel had declared it to be God’s purpose that after four vast and mighty kingdoms had succeeded one another and the last of them shown itself hostile to the people of God, at length its despotism would be broken and the empire of the world would pass over forever to the people of God (2:44; 7:14, 18, 22, 27).”
Thayer then speaks of the foundation of the Kingdom which has already been laid in the preaching and miracles of Jesus in his ministry on earth. Then he refers to the primary meaning of the Kingdom of God: “But far more frequently the kingdom of Heaven/God is spoken of as a future blessing, since its establishment is to be looked for at Christ’s solemn return from the skies, the dead being called to life again and the ills and wrongs which burden the present state of things being done away, the powers being hostile to God being vanquished (Matt. 6:10, “Thy Kingdom come,” 8:11, Luke 13:26: “When you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom,” “until the day when I drink the wine new with you in the Kingdom of God,” Luke 22:28: “I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom shall come,”
Mark 9:1: a reference to the second coming. See 9:2-9 and Peter’s interpretation of the transfiguration as a
vision of the Second Coming, II Pet. 1:16-18; Mark 15:43: Joseph was waiting for the Kingdom of God,
just as Jesus is still now waiting for his enemies to be put under his feet, Heb. 10:13; Luke 9:27 with its fulfillment in the transfiguration in vv. 28-35; Luke 14:15; II Peter 1:11: “everlasting Kingdom”; also in the phrase “enter the Kingdom of God,” Matt. 5:20; 7:21; 18:3; 19:23, 24; Mark 9:47; 10:23, 24, 25; Luke 18:24, 25; John 3:5; Acts 14:22; James 2:5: “heirs [not yet inheritors] of the Kingdom”; “inherit the Kingdom of God,” Matt. 25:34; I Cor. 6:9; 15:50;
Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5).”
Thayer speaks of the Kingdom of God as occasionally a description of persons (Christians) preparing now for admission into the Kingdom of God when it comes (Rev. 1:6). But it should be noted that the first and dominant meaning of the Kingdom of God is the one given us by Daniel 7, from which the whole idea of the Kingdom of God, and thus of the Gospel, is derived.
Note carefully the time sequence given us by Daniel. In the vision of chapter 7, we see four beasts and a final tyrant (“horn”). Following these four beasts and the “horn” the Kingdom of God is introduced. It will be governed by the Son of Man (Dan. 7:13, 14). The sequence of events is of crucial importance. Where does the Kingdom come in relation to the other elements of the story? The answer is very simple. First the Beast power (antichrist) is slain and his body is destroyed by being given to the flame (the lake of fire) (see Dan. 7:11: “I watched until the Beast was slain…”). At that same time the dominion of the rest of the beasts was taken away (Dan. 7:12).
Only after this is the Kingdom given to the Son of Man and to the saints.
The interpretation given to Daniel reinforces a proper understanding of the Kingdom as the climax of
the series of events. First there are four Beasts (Dan. 7:17). After that, the Kingdom is given to the saints (Dan. 7:18). No less than three more times, this sequence is emphasized. First the 10 horns of the fourth Beast appear, as does the little horn (7:20, 21).
And then (and here we have our answer about the timing of the Kingdom of God) “the time comes that the saints possess the Kingdom” (Dan. 7:22). The same point is made again: 7:23-25 first describe the rule of the Beast power which culminates in the arrival of a final tyrant (horn) who persecutes the saints. But this is only for a limited time (v. 25). The dominion of the little horn is removed, and he is consumed and destroyed (v. 26). Following the removal and destruction of the Beast, the Kingdom of God on earth, “under the whole heaven,” is given to the saints and “all nations serve and obey them” (Dan. 7:27, GNB, RSV, etc.).
This essential background in Daniel enables us to understand that the Kingdom of God is, as Thayer says, “far more often spoken of as a future blessing.”
