The Church – The Kingdom of God
The vast majority of “Christian” denominations teach that the church and the kingdom of God are two completely separate and distinct institutions. The damnable doctrine of premillennialism is at the heart of the attempt to draw lines of distinction between the church and the kingdom. In a nutshell, those who advocate premillennialism teach that Jesus the Messiah came to earth in order to establish an earthly kingdom in Jerusalem. However, the Jews rejected him and his ideals, and put Him to death upon the cross, thwarting the attempt of the Godhead to establish this terrestrial Messianic kingdom. In place of this earthly kingdom, Christ then set up the church to act as a stand-in for the kingdom until such time as he can return and try the second time, albeit successfully on this attempt, to establish his earthly kingdom headquartered in Jerusalem. There are a number of problems with this devilish, yet extremely popular, teaching.
First of all, why would the Jews reject a physical kingdom based in Jerusalem when they so desperately wanted that to come to pass? With the exception of but a few, the Jews as a whole viewed the coming Messiah and his kingdom as an earthly institution which would be their deliverance from Roman oppression. On a number of occasions the Jews tried to take Jesus and force him to be king, but each time he fled from them. Why refuse their attempts if an earthly king was part of the Divine plan? Even those closest to Christ, His apostles, greatly misunderstood the kingdom. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, sought out positions of greatness in the Messianic kingdom, believing it to be earthly in nature (Matthew 20:20, 21). Even after Jesus had been crucified, the apostles still did not understand the nature of the kingdom of the Lord. When Jesus appeared to them before his ascension, his followers asked, “[W]ilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel” (Acts 1:6)? They were looking for the restoration of Israel to her former glory as a great political and military power, this being the Jewish concept of the Messianic kingdom. Christ’s teaching while upon earth left no doubt as to the nature of His coming kingdom. Consider John 18:36, 37: “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” Notice that Jesus states He was born to be a king, and that was His reason for coming to this earth, but that His kingdom is spiritual in nature, not earthly. This should forever put to rest the false notion that Jesus will reign over a physical kingdom.
Second, the premillennial view of the church, that it is nothing more than an afterthought, a fill-in, does not find harmony with what the Bible teaches regarding the church. While men say that the church is not important, that it was plan B, the Bible teaches that the church has always been a part of the Divine plan to save man through the Messiah. Paul states, “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, [a]ccording to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:10, 11). This passage destroys any idea of the church being an afterthought, for Paul states that the church is the eternal purpose of God. Christ considered the church of utmost importance, for He gave his very life for it (Acts 20:28; Ephesians 5:25). Does this sound like an unimportant secondary plan? Absolutely not!
- Patrick Morrison
One Response to “The Church – The Kingdom of God”
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August 22nd, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Great article Patrick!