What exactly is the difference between the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God?

Oh No, not you again!

Are you at work?

Jesus said to give your master a good days work and don't be saving souls when you are supposed to be working.

i am self-employed and Mondays are my days off. but, thanks for trying to trap me in something bad.

the Kingdom of Heaven is not.

The Kingdom of Heaven is not the same thing as heaven. When the New Testament uses the phrase “the Kingdom of Heaven” it is not referring to heaven. Instead it is referring to the Millennial Kingdom which has been ordained from heaven, that is, from God -- hence the interchangeability between "Kingdom of Heaven" and "Kingdom of God." Unfortunately too many people have heard a great deal of preaching and teaching about heaven as the hope of a Christian and consequently think that “the Kingdom of Heaven” and “heaven” are the same. They are not. The Kingdom of Heaven is a kingdom from heaven, not a kingdom in heaven. God reigns supreme in heaven. Heaven is the locus of His authority – the point from which He rules the universe. The words “of heaven” then are referring to the origin of this Kingdom. It is the place from which the Kingdom is coming, not a destination to which we are going. So we see that although the Kingdom of Heaven is heavenly in character and origin, it is not the same thing as heaven. To avoid the confusion between heaven and the Kingdom of Heaven, and since the term "Kingdom of God" occurs much more frequently in the Bible, it is the "Kingdom of God" that is preferred when describing the future kingdom in which Jesus will reign as king.

[link to www.bibletopics.com]

hey salt serious question
do you think this location is in our material dimension or one of our non material dimensions?
and
if it is a location from which everything radiates from do you think the big bang concepts forms from this knowing?

Last Edited by aether on 07/16/2012 06:55 PM

absolutely love the avatar.

a kingdom is a realm which encapsulates many things.

trying to wrap my head around it.

i can tell you this much, i think that the place where God resides is a master dimension all it's own, "above" all the others.

Nice AV, OP






I consider them interchangeable.

cos it reminds me of this:


[link to en.wikipedia.org]

the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed

Matthew 13:31

grazie

well there is cause of cause which is the dimensions (2) which all dimensions arise from
and
they are two types of charge (electricity)and their fields
which
form the singular effect of vortice (spin/motion/life)
and
magnetic fields (magnetism)
which collectively are the ingredients of what we call consciousness(intelligent self awareness)
but
if that is true
god is within all things and in between all things
as in
distributed
and
the material universe, including us, is an expression of gods intelligent self awareness
which could be a worry
if true
it seems

God is omnipresent. Superpositioned if you will. It is the only way to be omnipresent. I think that is really what CERN is trying to master. And, when they do, they will attempt to create a copy of the process in the form of some type of artificially intelligent super computer or something. This will mark the "return" of the "kingdom of God" in a matter of words.

just brainstorming.

thanks for the 5 stars to whomever is responsible.

where i am struggling is that my professor is asking me to define the Kingdom of God when Jesus Himself did not define it.

i'm stuck here.

Lol...




The Kingdom of God is the knowledge of the Father in the minds of His children.

in part perhaps. but the kingdom of God is also a future event.

Matthew 13:"Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

...and the funny thing is, every time i try to define it, it comes out sounding like a parable or a metaphor.

interesting.

The physical Kingdom consisted of the descendents of the Twelve Tribes. The spiritual Kingdom consists of the spiritual descendents of the Twelve Apostles, "the Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16). While the jewish people have been rejected (Romans 11) for now, "until the full number of the Gentiles has come in", then Israel will turn to the Lord and finally be included in the Kingdom and Jesus' salvation (Romans 11:26). Finally, Jesus will deliver the kingdom to his Father (1 Corinthians 15:24-28). Various Christian groups have developed elaborate doctrines and timetables in which to fit these events. We will not venture yet another. God is the timekeeper, and will bring about all these things in the fullness of his time.
Kingdom of Heaven or Kingdom of God?

But what does the phrase "kingdom of heaven" mean? Is it the same as the phrase "kingdom of God"? I've heard a lot of theories, but when you compare Matthew's gospel with the many parallel passages in the other Synoptics, Mark and Luke, you find that where Matthew says "kingdom of heaven," Mark and Luke say "kingdom of God." The explanation is this: Matthew was writing especially for a Jewish audience who were careful not to utter the name of God, lest they be guilty of breaking the Third Commandment, "to take the name of the Lord your God in vain" (Exodus 20:7). We hear people doing the same thing today. "For heaven's sake!" someone will exclaim. They've trained themselves to speak that way so as not to dishonor God.

When you see "kingdom of heaven" in Matthew, it means exactly the same thing as "kingdom of God" in the other gospels. It refers to the Reign of God which has come in the person of Jesus Christ himself, and will culminate in the coming of Christ and his reign on earth, the time looked forward to in the Lord's Prayer: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). The Kingdom is now in the presence of the King in our lives through his Spirit. Yet we look forward to the future when that "earnest of the Spirit" (KJV, 2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5; Ephesians 1:14), that down payment we've received, will be completed when the King returns and establishes his kingdom on earth where there was once human resistance and rebellion.
References to the Kingdom in the Sermon on the Mount

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (5:3)

"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (5:10)

"Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." (5:19-20)

[link to www.jesuswalk.com]

www.khouse.org

Here is a great man of God's long time website, well known and loved by many.

Integrity +++++


66/40 - click on their for free teaching
Sixty six books by forty authors - Bible

Basic
Instructions
Before
Leaving
Earth

Blessings

Knowing the doctrinal difference between the terms "Kingdom of Heaven" and "Kingdom of God" is the key to understanding the complete time line of Biblical history past, present, and future, the proper place of the Church, and the prophetic future of Israel. The Bible is about the struggle for a Kingdom; the Kingdom of Heaven, a Kingdom with its Capital City (Jerusalem) on this Earth.

Israel rejected the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah when He first came because Israel was looking for a political King who would make Israel the world ruling kingdom spoken of by their prophets. (See Jeremiah 23:5, Psalms 48:2.) They were expecting a military deliverance from the Romans and the rest of the heathen. This is easy to understand as they were expecting carnal deliverance. However, they were missing the point about spiritual deliverance and righteousness, which led them to ask of Jesus:

"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."
(Luke 17:20-21 KJV)

In that statement, Jesus was declaring a spiritual truth that Israel did not see. But on another occasion, when asked about His Kingdom by Pontius Pilate, He gave a somewhat different answer:

"Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the jewish people: but now is my kingdom not from hence."
(John 18:36 KJV)

In this particular passage the word "now" is not speaking about the spiritual Kingdom of God (within you), but of a literal political Kingdom yet to come on the Earth. You should also take note that the word "now" has been removed from many newer translations (NASB, AMP, NLT, ESV, CEV). The reason is because most of the translators of today's "Bibles" are amillennial in their position on prophecy. In other words, they do not accept the literal return of the Lord Jesus Christ to reign on the Earth for a thousand years as foretold in Revelation.

Although that truth is rejected by a major portion of "Christianity" today, His disciples knew it and were asking when the literal Kingdom would come:

"When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
(Acts 1:6-8 KJV)

[link to www.kjvbible.org]

Because the Lord used the terms "Kingdom of Heaven" and "Kingdom of God" interchangeably in places in the four Gospels, most Christians think they are one and the same. They will be, but not until the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ when He rules the world for a thousand years on the throne of His father David (His father in the flesh, His human side) at Jerusalem. Again:

"Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the jewish people: but now is my kingdom not from hence."
(John 18:36 KJV)

If you rightly divide the Bible, you will see that Jesus was preaching about two (2) components of the Kingdom. He preached that the political kingdom (Kingdom of Heaven) was coming, and if the jewish people had accepted Him after His death and resurrection, He would have come back and established it after seven years of tribulation, as foretold in the prophecies:

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
(Daniel 9:24-27 KJV)

In fact, when Stephen was preaching to the Pharisees as they were stoning him, the Lord Jesus was standing up from His seat in the third heaven ready to come back, save the jewish people, and establish the Kingdom:

"But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God."
(Acts 7:55-56 KJV)

To show by the Scriptures the difference between the terms "Kingdom of Heaven" and "Kingdom of God," the Holy Spirit has put this little nugget of truth within the Gospel of Matthew:

"And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."
(Matt. 11:12 KJV)

Ask yourself this 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 by violence? And if that righteousness i.e., the Kingdom of God within you, could not possibly be there until after the cross and the resurrection, what is Jesus saying to the jewish people here BEFORE the cross and the resurrection? The answer is the Kingdom of Israel, which is God's people and Jerusalem, the Lord's chosen place from which to rule:

"But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King."
(Matt. 5:34-35 KJV)

Israel rejected their King when He came the first time. In the almost two millenniums since then His Kingdom has been in a MYSTERY form; the Lord Jesus Christ reigning in the heart of the believer, and yet seated on the right hand of the Father in the third heaven...

[Even] the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
(Colossians 1:26-27 KJV)

...while Satan still holds the physical throne over this world:

And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
(Luke 4:6-7 KJV)

Although Satan has now lost the war, the final battle for physical possession is yet to come. This is the present status of the Kingdom of Heaven.

same link as above.

The kingdom of God (also called "the kingdom of heaven," "the kingdom of Christ," "the kingdom of the Lord," "the kingdom," etc.) undergirds the teaching of the entire Bible. The Scriptures reveal God using a number of metaphors, but the primary imagery which biblical writers used for God was that of a divine King (e.g. 1 Sam 8:7). Alongside the basic conviction that God is the supreme King is the belief that he reigns over creation as his kingdom (Pss 47:1-9; 83:18; Dan 4:25-26; 5:21). In this general sense then, God has always been the sovereign reigning King who rules in heaven over all things (Pss 103:19; 113:5; Matt 5:34; Eph 1:20; Col 1:16; Heb 12:2; Rev 7:15).

The biblical concept of the kingdom of God also occasionally takes on a special sense. Jesus described this narrower sense of the kingdom of in this way: "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt 6:10). God's holiness and glory in his heavenly throne room is so overwhelming that all creatures there honor him with unqualified voluntary service. On earth, however, creatures rebel and refuse to acknowledge God as King, and evil kingdoms rise up to oppose God's Kingdom. The hope that Scripture presents from cover to cover is that this disparity between the heavenly throne room and earth will be eliminated one day (1 Chr 16:31). God will judge the wicked and bring redeemed humanity into a new creation (Isa 65; Zech 14). When this transformation takes place, only God's kingdom will stand and voluntary obedience to him will extend to the ends of the earth as it does in heaven (1 Chr 16:31; Ps 97:1-2).

The Scriptures reveal, however, that God determined to accomplish this end through a lengthy historical process.

The New Testament teaches that this final worldwide stage of the kingdom of God began with the incarnation of Christ. He and John the Baptist announced the good news that the Kingdom was at hand (Matt 3:2; 4:17; Mark 1:15). But contrary to common Jewish expectations, Jesus and his apostles explained that the worldwide reign of God on earth would not come immediately in all of its fullness. Instead, Christ inaugurated this final stage of the kingdom in his earthly ministry (Matt 2:2; 4:23; 9:35; 27:11; Mark 15:2; Luke 16:16; 23:3; John 18:37). It continues today in the church (Matt 24:14; Rom 14:16-17; 1 Cor 4:19-20; Col 4:11), but it will reach its ultimate end when Christ returns in glory (1 Cor 15:50-58; Rev 11:5). When that day finally comes, the will of God will be done throughout the earth just as it is done in heaven.

:kingdom:

[link to www.thirdmill.org]

kingdom of god is where god goes to get away from all the mormons in the kingdom of heaven. it's like an executive bathroom.

Hey Opie, did you know that all biblical references to a creature that is part lion and part, 'another animal,' is associated with evil? Even the lion head on the body of a man is a symbol of Babylon.

The lion, as a smybol of God, is always a 'whole' lion. All 'part' lion symbols are the symbol of a counterfeit.....of Satan, or a satanic empire.

Just thought you might find that interesting.

interesting. actually the lion metaphor has been used to describe the devil (who prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour), the tribe of Judah (Revelations: “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”), lionesses (mother to the princes of Israel) and her cubs are spoken of in Ezekiel, Proverbs: The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion. etc etc etc

i hear what you are saying, but the lion is used quite a bit in scripture OT and NT

is your professor asking how god influences all things?

god and gods kingdom must be within all things, there exists no other way for gods influence to be omnipresent
therefore the kingdom of god is infinite (without bounds)

Last Edited by aether on 07/16/2012 07:50 PM

the reading required for the assignment was extensive. Matthew and remaining synoptics, articles about contemporary metaphors for "the kingdom of heaven is like..." and academic articles discussing the differences between the two terms and why the differences (usage, etc)

we are expected to define the kindom of heaven as well as utilize our own contemporary metaphor in a personal example.

WHAT IS "THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN"?

Sometimes the "kingdom of heaven" is thought of as simply being a reference to heaven itself, and that what the Lord and the 12 apostles were preaching about was simply the issue of heaven and how to get there. With others it is thought to be a reference to a spiritual reigning of God in the hearts of men which results in transformed lives and eventually in a transformation of society. What the Lord and the 12 apostles were therefore preaching about, it is said, was the issue of men needing to repent and let God and His will reign in their hearts. In so doing, God's will will be done on this earth.

Though these are commonly accepted ideas as to what the "kingdom of heaven" is, they are at variance with what the Scriptures themselves declare it to be. The testimony of God's word is that the "kingdom of heaven" is not a reference to heaven itself, or to a spiritual reigning of God in men's hearts, but rather to the literal reigning of God Himself on and over this earth in fulfillment of the covenants God made with the nation of Israel.

[link to www.enjoythebible.org]

Yes, he prowles "like" a lion.....a counterfeit.

The lion is a prominent symbol in all of scripture. Not all bad.

But, all partial lions are representations of evil. I only pointed that out because of your comment about the Babylonian avatar that you made.