There was a common belief at the time of Jesus that the Messiah's kingdom would be a physical kingdom, and that it would include all of Israel (and no Gentiles). The disciples asked Jesus in Acts 1:6, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?"
The disciples are showing in their questioning of Jesus that they are among those who held such a belief. The question must be raised, "was this common belief true?" This must be asked, because there are religious groups today who still believe some of these things. They would disagree with the belief that the gentiles would not be part of the Kingdom, but they still agree that God will set up a physical Kingdom on the earth which will include all of the Jews.
So is this belief true? My answer to the question is, “no.” I believe this belief was (and still is) based on a misunderstanding of the nature of the kingdom and what Old Testament prophecy says about the Kingdom of the Messiah. My argument is as follows (I will support with scripture shortly):
1. The Old Testament prophesied that the Messiah would be a King over the Kingdom
2. The Old Testament prophesied that this Kingdom would come at the time of the Roman Empire
3. Jesus Himself said that His kingdom is not a physical kingdom of this world, thus it is a spiritual kingdom
4. The throne of David, which the Messiah would sit on, is not spoken of in scripture as being on earth, but in Heaven.
5. Christians are referred to in scripture as citizens of the kingdom now, and they are also referred to as Israel/descendants of Abraham.
To deny any of these points would bring one in contradiction to scripture. Let’s examine what the Bible says about each point:
1. THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHESIED THAT A GOD-MAN WOULD BE A KING OVER GOD’S KINGDOM.
I believe that everyone who calls themselves a Christian would agree on point #1. It was clearly prophesied in the Old Testament that God would raise up a man (who is also God) who would sit on the throne as both King and Priest.
This is the promise that God gave to David in 2 Samuel 7. God promised to build David a dynasty. This dynasty would include the Messiah. God says that He “will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (v13).
Later in Isaiah 9:6-7, God says that a child would be born who would be given the government and that the increase of it “would have no end.” The Messiah would sit “upon the throne of David” and reign “from that time forward, even forever.”
Also, in Psalm 45:6-7, God speaks to His King about His throne. He says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. 7 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of joy above Your fellows” This passage speaks of someone who is God (who is king) being anointed by His God. (This prophecy is quoted in Hebrews 2 where we are told that it spoke of Jesus.)
2. THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHESIED THAT THIS KINGDOM WOULD COME AT THE TIME OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
We are given a prophecy in Daniel 2 which shows when the kingdom of the Messiah would spread over the whole world. Daniel sees a vision of a statue which consisted of
• A head of gold
• Chest and arms of silver
• Belly and thighs of bronze
• Feet of iron and clay
The prophet Daniel interpreted the king's dream in Daniel 2:36-45. He prophesied that each of these four parts represented a kingdom. This is spelled out in the text.
"You, O king, are a king of kings...you are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom, inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron... 44 And in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed..."
So the "head of gold" is identified in this passage as being the kingdom of Babylon. Babylon was the first of the successive world empires.
The second kingdom that followed Babylon, though not named in the text, is named elsewhere in the book of Daniel. In Daniel 5:26-31, Daniel told the Babylonian king Belshazzar that "Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians."
What about the third kingdom? In Daniel 8, we find the vision of the ram and goat. To make a long story short, a male goat with one horn obliterated a ram with two horns. In verses 20-23, it says, "The ram which you saw, having the two horns - they are the kings of Media and Persia. And the male goat is the kingdom of GREECE. The large horn that is between its eyes is the first king. As for the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place, four kingdoms shall arise out of that nation, but not with its power." Historically, the Grecian empire conquered the Persian empire. We also know that the Grecian empire was led by a famous king, Alexander the Great. However, Daniel prophesied that the first king would be broken and the Grecian kingdom would be divided four ways. We know, historically, that Alexander died at an early age, following which, his kingdom was split and given to his four generals.
And finally, the FOURTH kingdom - the one following Greece - was the Roman empire. We know this is what happened historically, but even within the book of Daniel, there is evidence, I believe, of this. In Daniel 11, as Daniel explains in great detail the downfall of Persia, the emergence of Greece, and the political turmoil that Greece would experience, he eventually makes mention of "ships from Kittim" (vs. 29), which many translate as Rome.
Then there comes, at the time of the Roman Empire, the fifth Kingdom: God’s Kingdom.
"In the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever."
In Daniel 7, Daniel "had a dream and visions in his head," the details of which correspond to what we've read in Daniel 2. Instead of a statue made up of four parts, Daniel sees a vision of four beasts (lion, bear, leopard, and a "dreadful and terrible" fourth beast) that represent the same four kingdoms that have already been mentioned.
But in the Daniel 7 prophecy, MUCH more attention is given to the kingdom that God would set up during the days of this fourth earthly kingdom (i.e. Rome). I could easily devote a lot of attention to this prophecy of God's kingdom, but here are the highlights:
• God, the "Ancient of Days" sits in His judgment seat (vs. 9-10).
• "One like the Son of Man" goes to the Ancient of Days (vs. 13).
• The Son of Man is given "dominion and glory and a kingdom" (vs. 14).
• One of the Roman kings (vs.7-8, 11-12) makes "war with the saints" (vs. 21) until God is seen coming in judgment against it (vs. 21-22).
So it is clear from the book of Daniel that during the time of the Roman Empire, the Son of Man (Jesus) would be given a Kingdom by God, which obviously means He would become King during the time of the Roman Empire. Any attempt to delay this to a time in the future when the Roman Empire would be established does not make sense considering the prophecy. It speaks of four successive world kingdoms.
And remember, that during the ministries of both John the Baptist and Jesus, they both preached to the people that they needed to repent because the Kingdom of God was at hand.
In the book of Acts, the Apostles and early disciples in many instances proclaimed Jesus as Lord and Christ. The term Christ is a kingly term, a term that speaks of Jesus as the anointed priest-king who was prophesied in the Old Testament. The disciples also went out into the world preaching the gospel of the kingdom (Acts 8:12; 19:8). The Christians were persecuted for one main fact that they were professing: that Jesus is King.
“When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, "These men who have upset the world have come here also; 7 and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there IS another king, Jesus" (Acts 17:6-7).
Note that this passage does not say that they were saying there would be a King and a Kingdom in the future. They were saying that Jesus IS King. He was King at that time!
3. JESUS HIMSELF SAID THAT HIS KINGDOM IS NOT A PHYSICAL KINGDOM OF THIS WORLD, THUS IT IS A SPIRITUAL KINGDOM
Some do object to the prophecy in Daniel because Jesus did not set up an earthly kingdom during the time of the Roman Empire. But this misunderstands some clear teaching of Jesus within the New Testament which teaches what the nature of the Kingdom would be. Jesus Himself said the following...
"The kingdom of God does not come with observation...for indeed, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20-21).
"My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here" (John 18:36).
Jesus Himself says that His kingdom would be spiritual in nature, not a kingdom on the earth. How someone can say that the kingdom would be a physical kingdom on earth flat out contradicts these clear passages of scripture. It wasn't going to fill the earth and dominate these other kingdoms by means of war and violence, but by means of salvation and persuasion. In fact, the prophecy in Daniel 7 confirms the spiritual nature of the kingdom because it would be persecuted by the Roman empire (another detail of the prophecy); this wasn't a kingdom that would conquer with a sword.
4. THE THRONE OF DAVID WHICH THE MESSIAH WOULD SIT ON IS NOT SPOKEN OF IN SCRIPTURE AS BEING ON EARTH, BUT IN HEAVEN
First, let’s look at an Old Testament passage which shows that God Himself prophesied something that would make it impossible for Jesus to reign in Jerusalem without a contradiction taking place. Speaking of King Coniah (referred to as Jechoniah or Jehoiachin elsewhere), who was a descendant of David, God says:
"As I live," declares the LORD, "even though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring on My right hand, yet I would pull you off; 25 and I will give you over into the hand of those who are seeking your life, yes, into the hand of those whom you dread, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 "I will hurl you and your mother who bore you into another country where you were not born, and there you will die. 27 "But as for the land to which they desire to return, they will not return to it. 28 "Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered jar? Or is he an undesirable vessel? Why have he and his descendants been hurled out And cast into a land that they had not known? 29 "O land, land, land, Hear the word of the LORD! 30 "Thus says the LORD, 'Write this man down childless, A man who will not prosper in his days; For no man of his descendants will prosper Sitting on the throne of David Or ruling again in Judah.'" (Jeremiah 22:24-30)
God here obviously pronounces a harsh penalty to Coniah. At the time this prophecy is given, God says that Coniah would have no more children, but even more important for the sake of this discussion, God says that NONE of his descendants will sit on the throne of David ruling in Judah. Why this is so important to this discussion is because Jesus is a descendant of Jeconiah, as is seen in His genealogy:
“Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. 12 After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel” (Matthew 1:11-12).
Since God prophesied through Jeremiah that NONE of Coniah’s descendants would rule again in Judah on the throne of David, this would include Jesus, who is a descendant of Coniah. A belief otherwise would contradict these passages.
Also, let’s consider what Peter said in Acts 2 about Jesus CURRENTLY at that time reigning as King:
"But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. 25 "For David says of Him, 'I SAW THE LORD ALWAYS IN MY PRESENCE; FOR HE IS AT MY RIGHT HAND, SO THAT I WILL NOT BE SHAKEN. 26 'THEREFORE MY HEART WAS GLAD AND MY TONGUE EXULTED; MOREOVER MY FLESH ALSO WILL LIVE IN HOPE; 27 BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO HADES, NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY. 28 'YOU HAVE MADE KNOWN TO ME THE WAYS OF LIFE; YOU WILL MAKE ME FULL OF GLADNESS WITH YOUR PRESENCE.' 29 "Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 "And so, because he was a prophet and knew that GOD HAD SWORN TO HIM WITH AN OATH TO SEAT one OF HIS DESCENDANTS ON HIS THRONE, 31 he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY. 32 "This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. 33 "Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. 34 "For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: 'THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, "SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, 35 UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET."' 36 "Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified."(Acts 2:24-36)
This passage, which is part of the first Gospel sermon, drives this point home. Jesus is referred to as being resurrected to ascend to THE THRONE OF DAVID, where He will reign until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. His reign on the throne of David IN HEAVEN will continue until the final enemy of His is conquered (death). We are told in 1 Corinthians 15 that this will happen until the resurrection, and after the resurrection, the kingdom will be given by Jesus to the Father (1 Cor 15:24). The kingdom will have its perfect fulfillment in Heaven (the Heavenly Kingdom), where God will be the authority and we all submit to Him perfectly.
5. CHRISTIANS ARE REFERRED TO IN SCRIPTURE AS CITIZENS OF THE KINGDOM NOW, AND THEY ARE ALSO REFERRED TO AS ISRAEL/DESCENDANTS OF ABRAHAM.
Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John all state in the New Testament that the church are the citizens of the kingdom.
In Matthew 16:18-19, the following discussion takes place:
“Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17 And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 19 "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven."
In this passage, the phrases “my church” and “the kingdom of Heaven” are used interchangeably. The church is described as a Kingdom which will go against the gates of the Kingdom of death to gain victory in battle, and Peter would be given the keys (the teachings of how to enter the kingdom), which he used on the day of Pentecost to open the doors to the Kingdom for those who would be saved.
Paul says in Colossians 1:
“He [God] rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13).
This passage is speaking about what God did for Christians. Two things happened at the same time. They were saved from the domain of darkness and they were transferred into the Kingdom of the Christ. These passages are too clear to deny.
John, In the book of Revelation also makes this point about Christians:
“and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father” (Revelation 1:6)
"You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God” (Revelation 5:10)
Also in the New Testament, Christians are referred to as the Israel of God; the true descendants of Abraham. Jesus reigns over Israel NOW!
“For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all” (Romans 4:16)
“Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.” (Galatians 3:7)
“And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:29)
These passages show that we are the descendants of Abraham by faith in Jesus Christ. We are Israelites as Christians. This point is also made by Paul in Romans 11. This passage teaches that “all Israel shall be saved” (v26). The question we must ask is this, “Who is the Israel being spoken of in this text? Here is a brief overview of the text:
• The "root" of the tree is speaking of the patriarchs and God's promises to them
• The tree is Israel; all who have the faith of Abraham
• Those Jews who lacked faith were broken off of the olive tree
• Those Gentiles who did believe were grafted in to bring the Jews to jealousy
• Those Jews who repent and come to Christ will be re-grafted into the Israel tree
• All Israel (the whole olive tree) will be saved, which is composed of all who have faith in Jesus Christ (Jew and Gentile)
I believe that when one goes through this text, it is clearly seen that Paul is saying that the church is the Israel of God. We are God’s elect nation, His chosen race and priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). All who want to be saved must come to faith in Christ and become members of the New Covenant. This is what God purposed before the foundation of the world.
CONCLUSION
With this New Testament understanding of the Kingdom which is given to us by Jesus and His Apostles, we need to go back to the Old Testament and interpret those passages properly. When the Old Testament spoke of the Messiah reigning over Israel, it was referring to those who have faith in Jesus Christ, not about a physical kingdom that would have it’s headquarters in Jerusalem. To believe that Christ does not reign right now as King over His Kingdom contradicts all of the passages given in this article. I pray that these things are helpful for you to see that many of the modern theories about the end times are not true. The majority of them, unfortunately, have their beginnings within the past 2-300 years. When learning about Christ and His kingdom, we need to go much farther back. We need to go back to the Bible and see what both the Old and New Testaments taught about the Kingdom.
1. The Old Testament prophesied that the Messiah would be a King over the Kingdom
2. The Old Testament prophesied that this Kingdom would come at the time of the Roman Empire
3. Jesus Himself said that His kingdom is not a physical kingdom of this world, thus it is a spiritual kingdom
4. The throne of David which the Messiah would sit on is not spoken of in scripture as being on earth, but in Heaven.
5. Christians are referred to in scripture as citizens of the kingdom now, and they are also referred to as Israel/descendants of Abraham.
These facts show that Jesus now reigns as King, and He must be submitted to if you want to be saved. This is the case now, and this will be the case until the end.
Do you disagree with this study on the Kingdom? Please let me know which points you disagree with, and how you reconcile what you believe with these verses.
