KINGDOM OF GOD

Submitted to
Global School of Open Learning

In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the course:

Biblical Theology (DB734)

By
Jerina Joy Justin
M17D079

Submitted on
9th July, 2021

GLOBAL SCHOOL OF OPEN LEARNING,

BANGALORE

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 Table of Contents
Page
Introduction 3
Kingdom of God – Meaning 3
Kingdom of God – Creation & Early Events 3
Kingdom of God – Mount Sinai & Ancient Israel 4
Kingdom of God – Israel’s Monarchy 4
Kingdom of God – Postexilic Period 5
Kingdom of God – New Testament 5
Conclusion 6

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Introduction
The kingdom of God is a Metaphor derived from the human kingdoms or we
can say the all the kingdoms of the world are faint derivations of the kingdom of God.
The responsibilities of this kingdom are given to mankind for them to rule for Him and
with Him. The establishment of the kingdom begins with the creation and is being
fulfilled in us through Christ Jesus even today.
Kingdom of God – Meaning
Generally, the kingdom of God is the rule of God over all creation, which God
established by virtue of his creating work. This is the basis for the LORD's claim that
it's all his.' God rule over all creation is just as purposeful as his rule over his covenant
people, He has purposed to defend his holy sovereignty over all his creation, and he has
purposed to transform it into a holy and blessed realm. Specifically, the kingdom of
God is his rule over the community of the elect, those who submit to his authority, trust
in his care, exist by his blessing, and live to his glory. For the elect, the kingdom is both
present, in the order of nature and the joys of life sustain by divine providence, and also
eschatological. Because of this, God's people presently form a counterculture in "this
world," awaiting the era of full and final peace prepared for those who will live and
reign with the Lord over his realm.1
Kingdom of God – Creation & Early Events
God created Adam and Eve, put them in the Garden of Eden and gave them the
authority over His other creatures. God was the King who created everything on the
Earth. He then gave responsibilities of ruling the Earth to Man who was created in His
own Image.
Eden itself represented a holy theocratic kingdom, a holy realm or divine
protectorate for God's people. God placed man there as his image to function as a king
and priest (Gen 1:26-28)." Man was created as the image of God, so imitation of God
was the fundamental covenantal obligation, no matter what the details of his function
in the kingdom's program. So, man was commissioned to build the kingdom of God
(Gen 1:28): "Through human procreation and by the various labours of their royal rule
they were to produce a royal human race, a universal ruling community." Indeed, the
covenant originally displayed a family authority structure, which Paul later expounded
in terms of Christ's headship over his church (Eph 5:23-24). Before the Fall, ‘The
Covenant Family’ served as the universal representation of theocratic rule; it was “the
original ‘kingdom of priests and holy nation’ (Exod. 19: 6). God gave this covenant
family a cultural commission to actualize divine dominion in God’s creation through
imitative rule, which would bring even mankind finally to creator God’s own royal
rest.2

1
Dale A. Brueggemann, Biblical Theology – Study Guide, (Distance Learning
Department, Southern Asia Bible College, 2010), 127.
2
Dale A. Brueggemann, Biblical Theology – Study Guide, (Distance Learning
Department, Southern Asia Bible College, 2010), 129.

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 But due to the Fall, humans made mistake and disobeyed their creator God. This
resulted in them being exiled from the Garedn of Eden and also to be banished from the
presence of God. The world which humans were supposed to take dominion over begins
to torment them by taking up man’s sweat and providing thorns and bristles instead of
a good yield. As generations pass Sin overtakes every human that God decides to
destroy them with flood and choosing Noah and his family to be a remnant. In all these
events God did not take away his ‘common grace’ away from mankind.
Kingdom of God – Mount Sinai & Ancient Israel
When the covenant line found themselves no longer enjoying the bounty of
common grace in Egypt, God raised up a leader who would bring them out and set them
on their way to being and landed nation. The kingdom of God would find a theocratic
manifestation, first through Moses' leadership and even God's own direct leadership in
the fiery and cloudy pillar, which either moved ahead of the traveling camp or dwelt in
the midst of it on the seat of the ark, which was the Lord’s own throne chariot. During
this period, there was no king, but a series of judges whom God raised up, whether
Moses, who judged Israel either alone or with the help of elders (Exod.18); or his
successor Joshua, who was also joined by "elders, officials, and judges" (Josh 8:32).
Once they people entered the land that God gave them, they went through a series of
judges. God would bless them in their land, and they would forget the goodness of God
and fall under his wrath. God would raise up enemies against his own people, then they
would cry out to God, who would respond by appointing and anointing a powerful
leader to give them victory over their oppressors. This pattern was repeated in a spiral
down warn, until the judges they were getting were either such outcasts that even the
own people would not own them until they really needed their service.3
The limitations and failures of the Judges to establish a peaceful kingdom of
God in the land of Israel, it led to the expectation of a greater ruler who would extend
the kingdom of God to them.
Kingdom of God – Israel’s Monarchy
Though the history of Monarchy of Israel began with trouble, the second king
of Israel, King David is seen as the fulfilment of the hopes the Israelites had.
The psalms display a vivid expectation that the Davidic dynasty's rule will be
extended throughout the nations. The royal psalms extol God's rule. Sometimes they
proclaim that God himself is Israel's eternal warrior (110, 144), their king in Jerusalem
(46-48). Actually, he's king over all the earth (47:7). But a common way to extol God's
rule is by focusing on the Davidic king in Jerusalem (Pss. 2, 18, 20, 21, 45, 48, 48, 72,
89, 101, 110, 132, 144). These psalms note the king's special relationship with the Lord
as his "son" and "anointed one" (Pss 2, 20, 72), and his war chief (Pss 2, 18, 20, 21).
Because a king in David's dynasty is God's "son" (Ps 2:7), he can rule not only over all

3
Dale A. Brueggemann, Biblical Theology – Study Guide, (Distance Learning
Department, Southern Asia Bible College, 2010), 136.

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Israel, but overall, the earth (Ps 72), The dynasty itself will be eternal, even if it falls on
hard times because of sin4
The understanding that David had about God’s kingdom and his relationship
with Him began to decline even during the reign of David’s own son Solomon. Just like
the time of Judges, Israelites began to worship other gods that was infiltrated into them
due to their relationship with the pagan nations. Solomon began this by marrying
various foreign women and also building temples for their gods in Israel. After the
division of Israel into two kingdoms, there were many kings who disobeyed God while
there were a few who remained true to Him. God raised a number of prophets to warn
His people of the consequences of sinning against Him. But Israelites turned a deaf ear
to all these warnings. Then God gave them up to their enemies who destroyed the nation
and took the people as captives. Through all the prophets God promised them of a
‘Redeemer’, The Messiah. The kings of Israel failed to measure up to God’s standards
and made them look forward to the greatness of His promise.
Kingdom of God – Postexilic Period
The postexilic state of Israel never regained the glory of the former monarchy,
and the resultant tension between the people S expectations and the political realities
forced a reassessment of the Jews' understanding of the “kingdom of God”. As the
possibility of God's kingdom ever being realized upon earth diminished, that reign was
relegated to a period distinct from history and time and reinterpreted as a spiritual
reality. Apocalyptic literature (Daniel) represents the kingdom as a realm where God
would rule personally over all "peoples, nations, and languages". This new realm,
which would be the climax of human history, would be only for the saints; the wicked
would be judged for their deeds. Nominally, this distinction was primarily between
Jews and Gentiles. Ultimately, membership in the kingdom seemed to depend more on
lack of material possessions than blood ties to Israel. This kingdom would be ushered
in personally by God or his Messiah, who in this period was viewed as a demigod than
simply an exalted king or military leader.5
Kingdom of God – New Testament
Though the concept of Kingdom of God is not direct in the Old Testament, but
it becomes the central theme of the New Testament. Jesus spoke directly about
establishing the Kingdom of God. Jesus spoke about it not in military terms but
referring to it as ‘the treasure’, ‘growth of a garden herb’, and likewise. The kingdom
of God also refers to Jesus Christ, the One who was in perfect submission to God.
The New Testament presents the kingdom as one of three interrelated concepts:
a theocracy, an actual political kingdom ruled by God; a spiritual reality, an inner
attitude of voluntary acceptance of the rule of God; and, par excellence, the individual

4
Dale A. Brueggemann, Biblical Theology – Study Guide, (Distance Learning
Department, Southern Asia Bible College, 2010), 138.
5
Kingdom of God, The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, ed. Allen C. Meyers, (Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co.: Michigan, 1987), 625.

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who placed himself in total and perfect submission of God – namely Jesus Christ
Himself, who in fact personifies the kingdom.6
Paul in his epistles refers to the kingdom of God to an inner, spiritual reality
when he argues that it is not of this world consisting of food and drink the major need
of humanity (Rom 14: 17). In writings Paul shows that the unrighteous do not inherit
the kingdom of God relates to the apocalyptic idea of a future kingdom. His emphasis
on the believer’s ‘hope of Glory” seems to indicate a future possibility realized only
after enduring the suffering and persecution of this world. The depiction of the kingdom
in the book of Revelation differs a lot from its portrayal in other New Testament books.
While other books show it as an inner, spiritual commitment, Revelation shows it with
war and plague dividing the society into the people of the kingdom and the others who
are not part of it.
The kingdom of God is thus a broad concept with many divergent strands. The
writers of the New Testament synthesized to a great extent the prevailing views of their
day. Like the rabbis, they perceived that the kingdom was present wherever people
allowed God to rule in their hearts and minds. But the followers of Jesus were unwilling
to settle for a simple spiritualization of the kingdom. Rather, the kingdom began as an
inward reality that would grow to dominate the whole earth until ultimately the
kingdom "of our Lord and of his Christ" would swallow up the kingdoms of the earth.
Then God would dispense judgment and personally rule over his people, assisted by
those who voluntarily accepted his kingdom: the poor, the weak - those who became
Christians.7
Conclusion
The kingdom of God was inaugurated by God’s act of creation. He sustains and
governs this world in wisdom, love and righteousness. This kingdom comes to
expression in both His acts of judgement and his acts of deliverance, both of which
point forward to the eschatological fulfilment of all righteousness.8

6
Kingdom of God, The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, ed. Allen C. Meyers, (Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co.: Michigan, 1987), 625.
7
Kingdom of God, The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, ed. Allen C. Meyers, (Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co.: Michigan, 1987), 626.
8
Dale A. Brueggemann, Biblical Theology – Study Guide, (Distance Learning
Department, Southern Asia Bible College, 2010), 141.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brueggemann, Dale A. Biblical Theology – Study Guide. Distance Learning
Department. Southern Asia Bible College, 2010.
Meyers, Allen C. The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.:
Michigan, 1987.