Let’s Talk About The Kingdom of Heaven

Two Kingdoms: The Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God

The kingdom of heaven has been misunderstood throughout the history of the church. As I note in my introduction to the topic (see), this misunderstanding has caused confusion in the minds of many and given birth to a variety of interpretations.

I am using this website as an opportunity to advance and hopefully settle the meaning of the phrase. By doing so, it will also clarify many other doctrines of Scripture that hinge on its meaning.

Simply state, the kingdom of heaven was the kingdom Jesus, the rightful heir to the throne of David, came to offer. It was distinct from, though representative of, the eternal kingdom of God. Since it was on earth, it was temporal. On the other hand, the kingdom of God is timeless and existed before creation, and will continue forever.

The phrase, the kingdom of heaven, was used by Jesus to appeal to the Jews of His day to prepare to receive it and then to receive it when it was offered. However, when Jesus entered Jerusalem at the very moment in history prophesied by Daniel at the end of the sixty-ninth weeks of Daniel (Dan 9:23-27), the Jews rejected the kingdom of heaven and crucified their King.

Since the kingdom of heaven is a literal earthly kingdom and the King is no longer present, it is still future. It is the millennial kingdom mentioned in prophecy when Jesus will return to sit on the throne of His father David.

I am dividing this study into a number of separate posts. Each new post will be listed with a separate title and will be linked to this subcategory.

I have posted my research of all of the occurrences of the kingdom of heaven in the Bible together with notations to assist in following Matthew’s use of the phrase in the development of his gospel record.

I have also provided a detailed introduction and explanation of my approach to this study. It is the same approach I use for all of the posts on this website.

When coming to the conclusion of any study, I am cognizant that God the Holy Spirit speaks triangularly. That is He does not convey one truth to one person and contradict it to another. When my conclusions depart from what others teach, it gives me pause.

I have taught on the subject for decades, never changing from my original understanding even though I did not find anyone else coming to the same conclusion.

It was not until I found an article at bible.org by Dr. John Walvoord that I found anyone who came to a similar conclusion.

The difference between Dr. Walvoord's approach to the subject and mine is that I am seeking the doctrine of God with regard to the kingdom of heaven and am not concerned with the doctrine of men expressed in their theologies. Dr. Walvoord's article provides some valuable insight into this topic and so I have hyperlinked it here (see).