What is the Kingdom of God? 8 Possibilities.
First in a series on the Connections Between the Kingdom of God, Missional Ministry, and Vocation.
“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9
The confession that “Jesus is Lord” is foundational for the entirety of the gospel.
Every time we see “Jesus Christ,” we are actually reading “Jesus the King.” I often joke with college students that “Christ” isn’t Jesus’s last name (as I always thought before becoming a Christian). It is his title. “Christ” is the Greek word for the Hebrew word “Messiah.” Messiah has many connotations, but the key one is that of “king.”
When we confess that Jesus is Lord, we acknowledge that all of life is placed under the sovereignty of Jesus. Jesus is king. Jesus himself told us what the gospel is that he was proclaiming:
“I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” (Luke 4:43).
What is the “Kingdom of God” that Jesus proclaimed, and that we, too, should be proclaiming? This should be very clear for our lives and witness. But it seems that it is not very clear to Christians what the kingdom of God actually is!
Considering the Various Traditions on the Kingdom of God
Various Christian traditions have held to different perceptions of the “kingdom of God.” Howard Snyder, in his book Models of the Kingdom (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1991). delineates eight models of the kingdom of God held by these various traditions:
The kingdom as future hope: the future kingdom.
The kingdom as inner spiritual experience: the interior kingdom.
The kingdom as mystical communion: the heavenly kingdom.
The kingdom as institutional church: the ecclesiastical kingdom.
The kingdom as countersystem: the subversive kingdom.
The kingdom as political state: the theocratic kingdom.
The kingdom as Christianized culture: the transforming kingdom.
The kingdom as earthly utopia: the utopian kingdom.
When you think of the “Kingdom of God,” which of these eight (or maybe a combination of these) do you think of? Why do you think of the kingdom of God in that way? Who taught you that? Have you ever considered any of the others?
The kingdom of God is an extremely important concept in the Bible. We had better know what we are saying when we banter about phrases like, “We’re doing kingdom work!”
Trying to Resolve Theological Tensions
Snyder makes the point that “biblical teachings present us with six fundamental tension points or polarities that are central to the mystery of God’s reign.” According to Snyder, each of the eight models is an attempt to deal with these six polarities found in Scripture. For the sake of this series on the kingdom, the mission of God’s people, and how these relate to our vocations, three of the major tensions that need to be resolved are these:
Is the kingdom present of future?
Is the kingdom individual or social? and
Is the kingdom particular for those under the reign of God (that is, Christians), or is the kingdom universal for the entirety of the cosmos (for the sake of the common good)?
What do you think? We will be exploring these tensions in the posts to come.