A SCEPTICAL ATHEISTIC BIBLE STUDY OF THE GOSPELS – JESUS ON THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
The Kingdom Of God is central to Jesus’ sermons and proclamations. He often refers to it with a desperate note of urgency as though it is going to manifest itself at any time. The Apostles and others were led to believe the Kingdom would be seen in their lifetimes. It has still not arrived 2011 years on from the death of Jesus.
The Kingdom is nothing less than an extension of Heaven to Earth, centring on a new and golden temple at Jerusalem. Its appearance involves events seen in more detail in the book of Revelation, where the World is destroyed, evil ones smited, a handful of living people, protected by divine grace, gain eternal life, and the rest of the blessed return as angelic spirits in a Utopian theme park filled with divine grace & wonder.
Many modern scholars and apologists treat the Kingdom as a state of mind, rather than a literal terraforming of a scorched Earth by a celestial dimension. Jesus certainly makes references to the Apostles and others about Heaven as an inner feeling, but that is more to do with faith and a sense of the approach of the great transformation.
Matthew prefers to refer to the Kingdom of ‘Heaven’ rather than the Kingdom of God, though this seems to be a euphemism for one and the same event. It seems the full dimension won’t actually manifest until the evildoers are purged from the Earth. The New utopian order won’t materialize without a great period of destruction in which unbelievers, Pharisees, Romans, Jews, etc, are eradicated, leaving the Chosen Ones to experience the arrival of Heaven on Earth.
Most people will die to see the new Heaven-Earth only upon resurrection as holy spirits, or angel like beings. A few particularly blessed individuals are scheduled to be granted immunity from death & resurrection. Jesus assures the Apostles that they will witness the rise of the Kingdom in their lifetimes, though all twelve would die without the experience having occurred.
The imminent arrival of the Kingdom is promised because the people of Palestine dreamt of God removing the hardships caused by famines, diseases, invasion and conquest. They felt that life was so dreadful that God would soon intervene spectacularly to right the situation.
Jesus effectively promised that he was heralding the Kingdom, and seemed to fully expect it to follow in his wake. He assured his immediate followers that he would absorb the suffering himself rather than have God inflict pre-Kingdom hardship on the people. Their transition from the Kingdom of Earth to that of God / Heaven would therefore be smoother. Outsiders were not made privy to this inner teaching, until Judas released details to the Pharisees as the first stage of his betrayal of the mission.
Knowledge of the imminence of the Kingdom was supposed to be for converts only. Inevitably, word got out. Jesus’ doomsday prophet status helped to get him arrested and crucified. His promise never came true.
© Copyright. Arthur Chappell
