A Brief Study on the Kingdom
There’s a lot of debate and confusion regarding the term “Kingdom of God.” We thought this article from The Servant’s Place was very helpful. While it isn’t an exhaustive study, it provides a great outline from a premillennial dispensational perspective with some discussion of the other views:
Much has been written about God’s Kingdom and a great deal of debate about its presence “here and now” and its presence “in the future “ still occupies the published works of scholars from all spectrums of the theological scale. It would take too much space in these outline notes of Isaiah to delve into the details of this debate so only the briefest of comments will be offered.
Three Concepts about the Kingdom:
The first concept of the Kingdom is that it is “a general kingdom” ruled by God and it comprises all history from creation to the eternal state. This concept defines the word “kingdom” as: God’s universal and sovereign governance of everything, everywhere and at any time in every realm and dimension of existence including the spiritual and physical realms. God oversees His kingdom and works out His glorious purposes through the superintendence of all three persons of the Godhead. Within the time frame God has intended for its earthly presence, the kingdom has witnessed at least three discernible eras. The first was the creation itself with God alone taking the initiative to shape for Himself a place where humans could live in harmony with Himself and with what we call “nature”, which is the animal, mineral, flora, air, water and atmospheric spheres. The second discernible era was and is the dominance of the earth by mankind as God had originally intended. This era, however was and is corrupted by the sinfulness of man and will only end with the second coming of Jesus Christ. The third discernible era is the eternal state, where God will continue forever His kingdom rule on a new or restored earth. Note: This is an all too simplistic and compressed snapshot of the first concept of God’s kingdom…keep reading