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The Kingdom of God:
The Heart of Christ's Message

The central theme of Jesus Christ's message was the Kingdom of God. What did He teach about this Kingdom, and why is there so much confusion about it?

by Cecil Maranville

A king is a supreme ruler. An absolute monarchy, the undivided rule of a single person, is not a form of government familiar to most of us. Most people are more aware of the personal profiles of princes and princesses, along with exposés of their errors and excesses, than they are of the monarchy itself.

Fewer still are aware that the concept of a monarchy is to be found in the New Testament and that it has a direct connection to the future of mankind.

In Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus Christ gave a model for people who wish to learn how to pray effectively. Most people know this passage as the Lord's Prayer. But do they consider its content?

Twice in this prayer outline Jesus refers to the Kingdom of God. First is a plea for that kingdom to "come"? then follows an acknowledgment that God indeed has a kingdom. When we acknowledge that God has a kingdom, we also acknowledge that He is royalty.

Scripture shows that the Kingdom of God is yet to come, and the world will see an obvious, dramatic occurrence when it is established. Few religions, however, believe this. Few even acknowledge the word kingdom except in an ethereal sense.

What does the Bible have to say about the Kingdom of God?

Kingdom theme in the Gospels

The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible says this about the Kingdom of God: "The word 'kingdom' is found fifty-five times in Matthew; twenty times in Mark, forty-six times in Luke and five times in John. When allowance is made for the use of the word to refer to secular kingdoms and for parallel verses of the same sayings of Jesus, the phrase 'the kingdom of God' and equivalent expressions (e.g., 'Kingdom of heaven,' 'his kingdom)' occurs about eighty times . . . These statistics show the great importance of the concept in the teachings of Jesus . . . There can, therefore, be little doubt that the phrase 'the kingdom of God' expresses the main theme of His teaching" (Vol. III, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1976, p. 804).

Read the full article at www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn13/kingdom.htm


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