The Kingdom of God – When Is it?

In my previous article, I covered my view of what the kingdom of God is, and I provided some definitions and some of the things I consider to be helpful in understanding it. Here are a few key points to bring you up to date in case you have not read the previous articles in this series:

• The kingdom of God was the central message of Jesus (Matthew 9:35)
• Preaching the kingdom was the primary reason Jesus was sent to the earth (Luke 4:43)
• The kingdom of God is not a place, it is the governing influence of our creator in us and through us (Luke 17:21)
• The kingdom of God is manifested and made tangible by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:28, Romans 14:17)

I also shared in a previous post that many years ago, I thought that the kingdom of God was the place you go when you die. And so in my mind, that meant that the kingdom was located somewhere other than earth, and that the coming of the kingdom was something that happened way off in the future at the end of time. So my old answer to the question “when does the kingdom of God appear?” would have been “in the future at the end of time when Jesus returns.”

This was mostly because I looked at the issue like it was binary, or black and white. It was all or nothing. My view was “when the kingdom of God appears, it will be in total 100% fullness all at once.” That led me to believe that the kingdom is not here now, but someday in the future, the kingdom will appear. It was like an off/on switch in my mind. I thought that things on earth would keep getting worse, and then at some date the future, Jesus would come and change everything all at once. This was what I believed about the 2nd coming of Christ.

But as I started to learn about the kingdom, especially through the parables of Jesus, I found out that I was very mistaken. The parables do not describe the kingdom in this way. Jesus did not teach that the kingdom would appear in all its fullness in one instant. And he did not teach that it was way off hundreds or thousands of years in the future.

Rather, he taught many parables showing that the kingdom starts small and then grows and expands over time. He said it was like a mustard seed that was very small, but yet it eventually takes over the entire garden (Mark 4:31-32). He said it was like yeast that, when added to a measure of flour, would spread throughout the whole lump of dough and cause it to rise (Luke 31:21).

The kingdom does not suddenly appear in all its fullness at some point in the future. Rather, according to Jesus it starts small, and then it grows until it takes over. To put it another way, the kingdom does not fully and completely arrive as a single future event, rather it is a process that happens over time.

When you read the Bible from this perspective, it will take some of the confusion out of many scriptures. Consider this passage from the book of Colossians

[God the Father] delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves

Colossians 1:13

Paul is the author of of this passage from Colossians. He lived in the first century, and most scholars believe he wrote this somewhere around 60AD. When you look at the tense of the verbs “delivered” and “transferred” you see they are both past tense. Paul says that he had already been “delivered” and “transferred” into the kingdom at this point in his life. This tells us that the kingdom of God was already on the earth by ~60AD, and Paul was already under its influence as a citizen. So according to Paul, the kingdom of God was already on earth in the 1st century, and he was already part of it.

Now let us rewind about 30 years to something Jesus said.

And he said to them, “I tell you the truth, there are some standing here who will not experience death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.”

Mark 9:1

Jesus said explicitly that the kingdom would come in the lifetime of those people standing there listening to him. It was not something that would come way off in the future at the end of time. It would come in the first century AD, and start growing.

In addition, consider all the statements made by Jesus, John the Baptist, and the 12 apostles in the four Gospels where they said “the kingdom of God is at hand” or “the kingdom of God is near” or “the kingdom of God has come upon you.” They were not teaching that the kingdom of God will be way off in the future, at the end of time. They were teaching those around them to expect it to begin having an effect immediately.

Taking all of this together, it is very clear that the kingdom of God is not something that comes to pass in the future at the end of time. Rather, it began some time before 60 AD, and it likely began close to or during the life of Jesus on the earth.

There are many debates by people much smarter than me over the exact date of when the kingdom actually began. Some say it began with the birth of Christ. Some say it began at his baptism in the Jordan when the Spirit fell on him. Others say at his resurrection, or at the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 when the Spirit fell upon the whole church.

But regardless of which of these is correct, the important thing to me right now is that the kingdom is already here on the earth right now, and it has been growing for 2000 years. And according to the parables, it never stops growing until it takes over the whole environment where it is introduced (Mark 4:31-32, Luke 31:21).

This means that Jesus expected that the kingdom of God would gradually but eventually take over the earth. And despite all the preachers of doom and gloom, this is exactly what has been happening. Each year there are more converts to Christianity worldwide than the previous year, and as far as I know that has been the trend as far back as we can calculate. There will come a day when those that are born-again will far outnumber those that are not. If you believe the parables of Jesus, then this is inevitable.

If you are like me, and you used to think the kingdom was going to appear in the future all at once, then this new information will cause a chain reaction in your interpretation of scripture. The things Jesus said are going to take on a whole new meaning, and you will need to repent from some previous beliefs you carried about the kingdom, and the future.

When I began that process, it was very uncomfortable at first. I had to reevaluate a lot of my assumptions about the state of things on the earth, and my assumptions about what to expect in the future. But I would like to encourage to to take that journey, and see what you find. I promise that you will not be disappointed, and your view of the future will become much more optimistic that it used to be. Remember, the truth shall make you free. It should not make you feel afraid.