...Running head: KINGDOM OF GOD Kingdom of God Derek Fullmer Grand Canyon University Kingdom of God According to the Gospel, the translation phrase “kingdom of god” can interpreted into life in heaven after you die or having a personal relationship with God. Surprisingly a large number of committed Christians still assume these metaphors as life of the ages or life to the full, but in my opinion this is a misbelieve (McLaren, 2008, p. 1). For that reason, these principles may have small improvements on the meaning of kingdom of god, but it still misses much more. The metaphor kingdom of god is like life of the ages of life to the full is so rich and revolutionary that resists into a simple definition. As a result, it invites Christians to multiply metaphors and create parables as Jesus did (McLaren, 2008, p. 1). Therefore, instead of simply trying to nail down what it is, we should imaginatively explore what it is like. For an example a woman making bread, a man planting seeds, a net catching fish, and so on (McLaren, 2008, p. 1). Now some Christian’s belief the kingdom of god is the gospel rather believing it is the good news. For this reason, we as Christians are missing the whole point. The good news explains itself on Jesus’ sayings on, it was that the kingdom of God was at hand – which was a way of saying it is near, or here, or available, or live option – something you can reach out and touch (McLaren, 2008, p. 1). Moreover, the kingdom of God is not something you...
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...The Kingdom of God is Like… In this essay I have chosen two different metaphors, the first one from Tame’s article in the reading, and one from my personal experience, for the Messiah and the Kingdom of God. I will try to elaborate on the characteristics of the Messianic kingdom of God as Jesus taught and modeled it. Great focus has been put on the specific teachings about the kingdom in the assigned readings for this period. My essay will show my understanding of Jesus teaching of the Kingdom of God and His role as the Messiah. As Jesus taught he often spoke in parables. “A parable is an extended metaphor, a simple story based on everyday kinds of events. These comparisons could be easily understood by those who heard them because they fit into the experience of the common folk of Judea and Galilee (Niswonger, p. 147).” The people of this era understood the parables because it was fitting for that time period. The Messiah was using metaphors and parables to give them a greater understanding of what the Kingdom of God was and what the Kingdom of God stood for. The parables and metaphors made God message clearer and direct so that the disciples would have clarity as to what he spoke. The parables were used to hide God mystery from the unbelievers and skeptics who doubted Him. The Messiah only gave the “secret of the Kingdom of God” to his disciples, and everyone else he spoke in parables to them because he wanted them to always be hunger and thirsty for the word of God...
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...The benevolent way in which Jesus respected and valued women in first century Palestine, significantly revealed the Kingdom of God and highlighted how society can be a more inclusive and compassionate place today. This essay will explicate the Kingdom of God, exemplify the ways Jesus demonstrated the Kingdom of God with women and express the importance of Jesus' teachings in today's society. • Linking sentence to Paragraph 1 The central message of Jesus's teachings, the Kingdom of God, is the conceptual spiritual realm where God reigns as king in the lives of his people. According to Zanzig, Jesus saw the Kingdom of God as the reign of God’s love over the very hearts and lives of people. This delineates that the Kingdom of God is already present among us, thus it is the saving presence of God within us and our...
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...Kingdom of God Dr. Pat Francis Dustin William Hall September 8th 2011 Introduction In a kingdom there are kings and queens, princes and princess's and all kinds of other royalty figures. To the common person access to the royal people and the royal property is not allowed. To capture and take hold that we we're born with royalty in our spiritual bloodline and that the God that sent HIS only begotten son not only wanted us to receive the free gift of salvation but wanted us in his royal family is astonishing. God not only wants us to be blessed but he wants us to accept the benefits of being in the royal family. Kingdom of God I have the ability to be so attractive. The kingdom of God is something that when placed inside of our hearts makes us attractive to those around us. We posses the solutions to the modern day questions. We walk with something that all mankind will react too because God created all in HIS image and are allow subject to HIS creativity entity. With the kingdom of God reigning in our hearts we allow the invisible kingdom to take reign and allow an everlasting kingdom to begin to open up opportunities for us. Opportunities like establishing that which was rightfully the LORDS back to HIM. The world has established it's kingdom and is in pursuit of capturing the sons and daughters of light. When we realize that we have the kingdom of God within us, we can begin to take authority over the kingdoms that threaten God's. The phrase...
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...revolutionary. In first century Palestine Jesus’ unconditional love and acceptance of women clearly revealed the Kingdom of God and showed us how to act justly in today’s society. In first century Palestine Jesus preached his interpretation of a new Kingdom of God. The Jews believed the Kingdom of God was a symbol of God’s complete rule or dominion over all creation. In Psalm 103:19, “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all,” (National Council of Churches of Christ, 2011) it shows that Jewish people envisioned a political kingdom, which was to come when the Roman Empire...
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...THE KINGDOME FOCUSED CHURCH Kenneth Davie Sr 4/16/2012 Full Name of Student Kenneth D. Davie Student I.D. No: 11-0005240 Course Type: Pastoral leadership Textbook Summary (Verbatim/Seminar Summary/Textbook Summary/Ministry Project/Dissertation) Course Title: The Kingdom Focused Church Course Number: MEC570 Date Submitted: 04/1/13 The kingdom of God is the reign of God in today’s world. This is the truth that Jesus Christ rules over all things and the evidence by God’s super-natural work in the believer and through believers in local churches. When churches focus on the kingdom of God they will and can flourish. Chapter 1: In search of the perfect church. Many may have a vision of the perfect church, but the perfect churches share a number of characteristics. Some are filled with people on fire for Christ who put selfishness, politics, and personal agendas aside for the glory of God and His purpose. They treat their pastors with respect and pay them fairly. They give generously, evangelize tirelessly, and teach truthfully. They are a joy and blessing to every member and visitor, and they serve the communities faithfully. One more thing the perfect churches have in common they do not exist. Every church is imperfect because it is made up of imperfect people, and they will produce imperfect result. Paul reminded the Ephesians that the church was the bride of Christ, and they needed...
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...Kingdom Essay Taylor Downey Grand Canyon University: BIB 354 1/29/2015 Kingdom Essay Within scripture and the gospels, Jesus was an incredible teacher and preached the good news of the kingdom of God to those around Him in his ministry. In the Gospels, he is called teacher more than 40 times, which proves that he was truly an influential figure and people hung to every word he spoke. Within his words and teachings, he talks about a variety of topics such as love, forgiveness, and purity. However, the big picture for Jesus as a teacher was speaking truth and pointing people towards the coming of the Kingdom of God. The majority of what he spoke on centered on this idea of kingdom, which showed the many characteristics of the Kingdom. How Jesus Taught The material to which Jesus taught was very impactful, but they way he delivered it and taught was truly unlike any other. Jesus was know for using parables within his lessons because of the audience he dealt with and the resistance he might face. The best way to fight the resistance was to teach in a way that broke through potential hostility within listeners while teaching on dangerous topics (Stein, 1996). The beautiful thing about the way that Jesus taught was before his listeners could resist what he was saying, he already got his point across and it was received because of the parables in which he used. An example of this would be in Luke chapter 13 verse 18 and 19 when he uses the phrase “like a mustard seed” and...
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...First the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and All these things shall be added unto you, All these things: " Needs of Life and Not wants What was spoke in previous verses What is First: Priority: Jesus wants the first moments of everyday. Jesus wants the first day of every week. Jesus wants the first part of every paycheck. He wants to be first. God sought us first. The very act of creation is one of pursuit – He created us so that we could know Him. And through Jesus He has sought to restore us to Himself. He has given us an invitation to come to know Him. Jesus told His disciples to ask, seek, and knock; in doing so they would receive God's good provision (Matthew 7:7). Jesus even prayed for future believers that they would be with Him (John 17:20-26). He promised to continue to make Himself known to us. It is clear that God desires relationship with us. He has given us a taste of who He (Psalm 34:8); and we are invited to continue to seek Him to more deeply understand His goodness. Now everything rises and falls right here. If your priorities are not in order, your life will not be in order. If your priorities are not right, you won't be right. You don't have to pray about what your number one priority in life ought to be. You don't have to think about it. You don't have to discuss it. You don't have to look for it. You just have to do it. Because Jesus has already told us what our first priority ought to be, "seek ye first the kingdom of God." What is Kingdom? A kingdom...
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...LEGITIMACY OF THE OFFER OF THE DAVIDIC KINGDOM A PAPER SUBMITTED TO DOCTOR LARRY PETTEGREW IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE COURSE TH706 THEOLOGY III BY ROGER DALEY SUN VALLEY, CA APRIL 1997 TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION WHAT IS THE KINGDOM 3 THE NATURE OF THE KINGDOM 5 THE MESSAGE OF CHRIST 6 REPENT FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND 9 PROPHECY DECLARES THE SUFFERING MESSAIH 12 SUMMARY 15 The Legitimacy of the Offer of the Davidic Kingdom In the gospel of John the Lord Jesus Christ is talking to Nicodemus. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”(3:14-15, NKJ). This conversation occurred before Jesus had even begun His public ministry. Jesus was telling Nicodemus that the Messiah was to be crucified. Also Nicodemus must believe in Him, if he would have eternal life. Jesus also refers to being born again in order to see the kingdom of God. He also equates believing in Christ and eternal life and all four of these terms (kingdom of God, eternal life, born again, believing) are used in a very short passage referring to the same question, “how can a man be born again?” Essentially, Christ is equating eternal life with entering the kingdom of God. This personal visit with a teacher...
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...teachings of jesus regarding the kingdom of god to be consistent with his background? The proclamation of the kingdom is a major feature of the teaching of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels, e.g. Mark 1 : 15, as against the epistles, where Jesus and his return are preached. But is this an already present or future kingdom? What does it mean to say that the Kingdom of God is ‘at hand’? Many scholars, particularly CH Dodd, would argue that in Jesus’ teaching he is showing us that the Kingdom of God has already arrived with no future crisis. This interpretation is called realised or present eschatology. It can be argued that through the gospels Jesus is shown to fulfil (OT)prophecies relating to the coming of the Kingdom of God. “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raise and the poor have good news brought to them.” (Matt. 11 : 5) Here Jesus appears to make a direct reference back to Isaiah 35 which looks forward to the Kingdom of God when “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; the lame shall leap like deer and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy” (vs5-6). It can be seen from this that the Kingdom of God had arrived; Jesus appeared to be saying that these were si gns that the prophecies had been fulfilled and the kingdom was present. The parables, a central source of eschatological teaching, also can interpreted by such scholars to show that the Kingdom had arrived. Many, such as the...
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...In the book, “The Upside-Down Kingdom”, author Donald Kraybill delivers a message about the kingdom of God being upside down compared to the kingdom of this world. I love how he has a lot of scriptures instead of just his opinion. This book started out by describing the traits that make the kingdom of God upside down and about detours people have to make. According to Kraybill we make these detours to get around Jesus and his core message. The kingdom of God is not separate, but in the middle of the world. “God calls us to turn our backs to the kingdoms of this world and embrace an upside down world,” (Kraybill 32). In the next chapter Kraybill describes Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, which brings in three points, political, religious and economic. These are the sub points to Kraybills thesis. According to Kraybill there are five symbols related to the temptation which include: bread, devil, desert, mountain, and temple. “The temptation points to a right-side-up kingdom encompassing the three big social institutions of his day: political (mountain), religious (temple), and economic (bread).” (Kraybill 33). The political temptation goes with the historical context of...
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...KINGDOM PRINCIPLES PREPARING FOR KINGDOM EXPERIENCE AND EXPANSION KINGDOM PRINCIPLES PREPARING FOR KINGDOM EXPERIENCE AND EXPANSION Dr. Myles Munroe © Copyright 2006 — Myles Munroe All rights reserved. This book is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America. This book may not be copied or reprinted for commercial gain or profit. The use of short quotations or occasional page copying for personal or group study is permitted and encouraged. Permission will be granted upon request. Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken form the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Please note that Destiny Image’s publishing style capitalizes certain pronouns in Scripture that refer to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and may differ from some publishers’ styles. Take note that the name satan and related names are not capitalized. We choose not to acknowledge him, even to the point of violating grammatical rules. Cover photography by Andy Adderley, Creative Photography, Nassau, Bahamas Destiny Image® Publishers, Inc. P.O. Box 310 Shippensburg, PA 17257-0310 “Speaking to the Purposes of God for this Generation and for the Generations to Come. ” Bahamas Faith Ministry...
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...LIBERTY UNIVERSITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Journal Article Critique of Mosert, Christiann “The Kingdom Anticipated: The Church and Eschatology” Vol. 13, No 1 (Jan 2011): 25-37 Submitted to Dr. Lee Mitchell in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of THEO 510 Survey of Theology by Willie E. Kilpatrick August 1, 2015 Contents Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………1 Brief Summary…………………………………………………………………………………1 Critical Interaction……………………………………………………………………………..1 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………3 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………….4 Introduction The purpose of this article was to show how the church is an eschatological community that is closely connected to the kingdom of God; however, that understanding of the church’s role hasn’t been prominent in recent ecclesiology. The contents of the article contain the central features that characterize the eschatological concept of ‘anticipation’; the church is seen as an anticipatory symbol of the forth coming kingdom of God. Those characteristics are found in the celebration of the Eucharist, its pastoral services, mission and political associations. Christiaan Mostert argues that “the early Christian community understood its own existence in eschatological terms, as the vestibule of God’s reign.” Brief summary Mosert asserts that the initial development of the Christian...
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...(a) Examine the theology and teaching found in the Parable of the Tenants in the Vineyard. Jesus told the parable of the Tenants in the Vineyard to show that as the Jews have rebelled against God, the kingdom of God will now be open to others as a consequence. The allegorical meaning of the parable is clear; God is represented by the landowner, Israel is represented by the vineyard (likening Israel to a vineyard was common) and the Jewish authorities are represented by the tenants. The servants, sent by the owner, represent the prophets that God had sent to his people, who were then rejected and killed, even by the people who were claiming to be of God and obedient to him. The parable then explains that the landowner sent his ‘beloved son’ (Mark), which is of course Jesus, but ‘they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard’ (Mark 12:8.) The end of the parable states that the owner will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others; Jesus is telling his audience that because of their disobedience, the opportunity to reach the kingdom of God will be given to the Gentiles. Jesus is teaching the Jews about the Kingdom of God and the parable represents God as a calm and patient judge, however the Pharisees saw the parable as something against them and wanted to arrest Jesus. The actual story is not very believable as the owner would certainly not have risked his own son, but instead he would have sent armed men to throw the tenants out. B...
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...Galilee and John the Baptist had baptized him. In Matthew 4:12-17, Matthew noted that Jesus began to preach a message of repentance because the kingdom of heaven was near. Jesus moved to the city of Capernaum from Nazareth to reach a larger audience. Matthew 4:17, “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” The phrase ‘from that time’ refers to the arrest of John the Baptist. From this event, Jesus chose to launch His public ministry. Matthew goes on to talk about the calling of the first disciples, Simon Peter, and his brother Andrew, who were fishing. (Matthew 4:18-20). Jesus promised them that He would make them fishers of men. Jesus was beginning to build His kingdom. Jesus then called James and John fishermen, who were tending to their nets in their boat. (Matthew 4:21-22). In Matthew 4:23-25, Jesus went around the region proclaiming the message of the kingdom. He healed people and the people responded from far away. Matthew 5:1. “Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying...” It was custom that the preacher to sit and the people listening to stand, but I think the people did sit on the mountainside and listened to Jesus. Jesus had been proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, and was calling the people to repent. This sermon was the longest message of Jesus. Jesus’ posture was that of a King sitting...
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