God's Kingdom - What is it?

God's kingdom was an important part of Jesus' message. He went to "all the cities and villages...preaching the good news of the kingdom" (Matthew 19:35). That was the focus of his ministry while here on earth. What did he teach the kingdom to be though? Was the good news that good people would go to heaven? Or was the kingdom something else? Did it have a more practical meaning?

Well let's look at what the word "kingdom" actually means. A kingdom is defined as "a state or government having a king or queen as its head." A king is the ruler of the kingdom defined as "the chief authority over a country and people." By establishing those definitions, we now know these facts about a kingdom; one must have a ruler - a king or queen - and it must have citizens to be ruled over. Notice how Daniel spoke of the kingdom:

"“In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. And this kingdom will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it alone will stand forever,"" - Daniel 2:44 (NWT)

To reason on Daniels words here, if the kingdom he was talking about were heaven, which many believe, then it would be completely acceptable to replace the word "kingdom" with the word "heaven". It would read like this:

"“In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a HEAVEN that will never be destroyed. And this HEAVEN will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these HEAVENS, and it alone will stand forever""

When replacing the word kingdom with heaven it makes Daniels word grammatically incorrect, and not to mention, completely nonsensical. A heaven that will crush all the other heavens? Clearly not the message here. Asserting that when the "Kingdom of God" means heaven is fallacious. That is not how what the Kingdom of God is. For example, now replace kingdom with the word "government" and notice how perfect and logical Daniel's words remain:

"“In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a GOVERNMENT that will never be destroyed. And this GOVERNMENT will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these GOVERNMENTS, and it alone will stand forever""

Perfect, right? Obviously then this kingdom that God will be setting up is not referring to heaven, but a government. That has a ruler and that has people to be ruled over. So who is the king of this kingdom? Easy right? Jesus!

"...they lived and reigned [as kings] with Christ a thousand years." - Revelation 20:4

"...they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years" - Revelation 20:6

These verses say that Christ will reign [as king] but they also say there will be others that will "reign with him". The teaching of Christendom is that all the good "Christians" that go to heaven are the ones that will rule with him. But does that make sense considering what we know about kingdoms and how governments work? Can a kingdom be a kingdom full of kings without anyone to rule over? Could the United States be a government if all of its citizens were Presidents of the United States? Could England be a government if all of it's citizens were kings?

Let me illustrate how a kingdom works, traditionally. There is a King who rules over his people from his castle. He governs and rules over the people and the land. We can all agree on that right? Now let's fill it in using the Biblical perspective.

Jesus is the King who will rule from his throne at the right hand of God with others in his castle - or in this case, heaven.

What is missing from this picture? Who are the citizens they are ruling over? Are they all living in the castle, or heaven, with him? Well, not exactly. But that conversation is for next time. The idea for this post is to just make it clear than when the Bible is talking about God's Kingdom, it is not talking about heaven. The writers used the word for a reason. Had they intended for God's kingdom to be heaven then the context would need to be completely altered to fit it grammatically and sensibly. Instead God's kingdom is actually referring to the future government set in place by God with a King whom He has chosen to rule, Jesus.

"Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, when I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, who shall reign as king, and act wisely, and shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land." - Jeremiah 23:5 (Darby Translation)