Understanding The Doctrine Of The Kingdom Of God

Understanding the Doctrine of

The Kingdom of God

By

Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr

OPENING: - Mark 1:14-15 “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel”. This is the message that Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom of God!

What is the Kingdom of God / the Kingdom of Heaven? How does the Bible define them? Understanding the Doctrine of the Kingdom of God is to understand the complete timeline of Biblical history past, present, and future, the proper place of the Church and the prophetic future of Israel. Who will be allowed to enter it and who will be rejected? Understanding the Kingdom of God is fulfilling the scripture of 2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”.

If you are like me, you’ve grown up in the church, you know the Sunday school stories, you’ve memorized certain passages of scripture, and you did your Christmas and Easter recitations every year. So, we might feel embarrassed or even dumb asking the question what the Kingdom of God.

In my studies on this week, I came across something I really hadn’t given to much thought to before, but as I read it this week God stopped me and simply had me to look deeply at what was being said in the scripture. I was reading a passage of scripture that I actually did my trial sermon from many many many years ago Luke the 17th chapter about the 10 Lepers and how only one came back to say Thank You. Then I spoke about the other 9 and the subject of my trial sermon was “How do you like me Now”.

However as I was reading this on this week God stopped me and I read it real slow Luke 17:20-21 “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” when I got to the end I underlined behold, the kingdom of God is within you and God took me to Matthew 11:12 “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force”. He now says to me stop and ask yourself a question If the “Kingdom of God” is within you, and if the “Kingdom of God” and “Kingdom of Heaven” are one and the same, how could anyone take it out of you and cause it to suffer violence? Mind Blown!

So, let’s Understand the Kingdom of God.

PRAYER

SCRIPTURE: - Luke 17:20-2, Matthew11:12, Mark 1:14-15

The phrase “Kingdom of God” appears more than 80 times in the New Testament, with most of these references occurring in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” is found 32 times, primarily in the Gospel of Matthew mainly out of respect for not using God’s name Matthew uses the phrase Kingdom of Heaven they are interchangeable.

One of the most hated and least understood doctrines of the Bible, yet one of the most important in rightly dividing the truth is the Kingdom of God. Some do not want to hear this, because they think that the Church has replaced Israel and don’t believe that the church and Israel are both necessary in fulfilling the Kingdom of God. The whole world hates the idea of Israel becoming the head of the Kingdoms of this world and there is a hatred of Christians and Jews on a spiritual level that is beyond the unsaved world's comprehension, it is called hogwash, religious crap, and many other names, but we must understand what is going on – 2 Corinthians 4:3 says, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost”. This present evil world is under Satan's spiritual control. Israel is the place God has chosen to be the place He will rule from on the earth and the reason it is literally one of the most sin filled and corrupt places on the planet and why the people are hated so much because Lucifer, God enemy despises Him and will do whatever he can to try to stop His plans although it is useless. We look at what is happening there now and there are many different emotions and ideas about what is going on, but we must understand that currently it is under control of Lucifer, the Devil, and what we see is contrary to the Will of God.