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Course 7 · Lesson 7.1

The kingdom of God and last things in Jesus and the apostles

12 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 7 outline

Module 1: The World of the New Testament

  1. Second Temple Judaism in the time of Jesus
  2. Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and other movements
  3. Rome, the Herods and the province of Judea
  4. Hopes, protest and revolt in Jewish political life

Module 2: Jesus in History

  1. Sources for Jesus: Christian, Jewish and Roman
  2. The quests for the historical Jesus and their methods
  3. Criteria of authenticity and their limits
  4. Historical results and Christian confession

Module 3: The Gospels as Books

  1. The gospels and ancient biography
  2. Traditions of authorship and the arguments about them
  3. The synoptic problem: the evidence of agreement and difference
  4. Solutions: Markan priority, Q, Matthean priority and others
  5. Four portraits of Jesus: the distinct emphasis of each gospel

Module 4: Acts and the Spread of the Church

  1. Pentecost and the Jerusalem church
  2. The mission to the Gentiles and the council at Jerusalem
  3. Paul in Acts and in his own letters
  4. Acts as history and as theology

Module 5: Pauline Theology

  1. Paul and his letters: occasion, authorship and order
  2. Gospel, faith and righteousness in Romans and Galatians
  3. Christ, the Spirit and the body of Christ
  4. Reading Paul: traditional, new perspective and other approaches

Module 6: Johannine Theology

  1. The Gospel, the three letters and Revelation: authorship questions
  2. Word, light, life and love in the Gospel of John
  3. The signs and the I am sayings
  4. The Spirit, the community and the Johannine letters

Module 7: Hope, Authority and Church Order

  1. The kingdom of God and last things in Jesus and the apostles
  2. Ways of reading New Testament eschatology
  3. What an apostle was and how apostolic authority worked
  4. Offices and order in the first churches
  5. How Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches read the evidence

Module 8: The Testaments Together

  1. Fulfilment and continuity: how the New Testament uses the Old
  2. Law and covenant across the Testaments
  3. Comparing Paul and John: a method
  4. Shared convictions and meaningful differences

All courses

Program / Course 7: New Testament Theology and History / Lesson 7.1

What you will learn

  • Describe what Jesus meant by the kingdom of God and how it is both present and future.
  • Summarize the hope of the apostles for Christ’s return, the resurrection of the dead and the new creation.
  • Identify key texts: Mark 13, 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Corinthians 15, 2 Peter 3 and Revelation.
  • Explain the problem of the delay and how the New Testament addresses it.

The big idea

Jesus began his public work by announcing that the kingdom of God had come near. The kingdom means God’s rule, which the prophets had promised, breaking into the world. In the gospels it is both already at work in Jesus’ ministry and still to come in fullness. The apostles carried this hope forward, proclaiming that God had raised Jesus as the first fruits of the resurrection, that he would return, and that creation would be renewed. The New Testament writers speak with urgency and also teach patience.

Key terms

Kingdom of God
God’s kingship or rule. In Jesus’ preaching, the coming of God’s reign to heal and set the world right. Matthew often says kingdom of heaven.
Eschatology
Teaching about the last things: the end of the age, judgment, resurrection and the final state.
Parousia
A Greek word for presence or arrival. It names the return of Christ in glory at the end of the age.
Realized eschatology
The view, associated with C. H. Dodd, that the kingdom has fully come in Jesus’ ministry, and that the future hope is fulfilled in the present.
Already and not yet
A phrase used by many scholars to say that the kingdom has begun in Christ and awaits completion at his return.
Son of Man
A title Jesus uses of himself in the gospels. It draws on Daniel 7, where one like a son of man receives the kingdom from the Ancient of Days.
Resurrection of the dead
The hope that God will raise the dead bodily at the end of the age. Christians hold that Christ’s resurrection is the beginning of this.

Background

Jewish hope in Jesus’ time looked for God to reign visibly: to end exile, defeat evil, raise the dead and judge the nations. Many writings, such as Daniel and the Dead Sea Scrolls, speak of the end in vivid pictures. Jesus and the apostles belong to this world and speak its language, but they also say that something decisive has already happened.

Modern study of this theme began with Johannes Weiss and Albert Schweitzer, who argued that Jesus expected the end of the world soon and was wrong. C. H. Dodd replied that the kingdom had fully arrived in Jesus. Most scholars now follow some form of already and not yet, though they differ on how much emphasis to give each side and on what Jesus expected. This lesson sets out the evidence, and the next explains the main ways of reading it.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The kingdom in the preaching of Jesus

Mark’s summary of Jesus’ message is: ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel’ (Mark 1:15). Jesus’ healings and exorcisms are signs that God’s rule is breaking in: ‘if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you’ (Matthew 12:28). He says the kingdom is among you or within you (Luke 17:21), a phrase whose exact sense is debated.

Yet he also teaches the disciples to pray ‘Thy kingdom come’ (Matthew 6:10), and speaks of a future feast in the kingdom (Matthew 8:11, Mark 14:25). Many parables, such as the mustard seed and the leaven, picture a small beginning with a great outcome. Others, such as the wheat and the weeds, picture a judgment at the end. The kingdom is a gift to the poor and humble, and a demand for repentance.

Step 2: The Son of Man and the end

Mark 13, the Olivet discourse, is the longest teaching about the future in the synoptic gospels. Jesus speaks of the destruction of the Temple, of wars and false messiahs, of persecution, and of the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power (Mark 13:26). He says that no one knows the day or hour, not even the Son (Mark 13:32), and urges watchfulness. He also says that ‘this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done’ (Mark 13:30), and in Mark 9:1 that some standing there will not taste death before they see the kingdom come with power.

These sayings are difficult. Interpreters have understood them to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, to the resurrection and Pentecost, to the transfiguration, or to the final coming with an expectation that was mistaken in timing. Section 7.2 explains these readings.

Step 3: The apostles’ hope

The first Christians proclaimed that God had raised Jesus and that he would return. Paul’s earliest letter comforts the Thessalonians about believers who had died: the Lord himself will descend, the dead in Christ will rise, and the living will be caught up to meet the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:13 to 18). In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul says Christ is the first fruits of those who sleep, that all will be made alive in Christ, and that the dead will be raised with a spiritual body. Romans 8:18 to 25 looks for creation itself to be set free.

Paul sometimes speaks as if the Lord’s return may come in his own lifetime (1 Thessalonians 4:15, 1 Corinthians 15:51) and later seems to expect that he may die first (Philippians 1:23). Scholars debate whether his view developed. 2 Thessalonians 2 warns against saying the day has come and speaks of a rebellion and a lawless one. The Gospel of John emphasizes that those who believe have eternal life now (John 5:24), while also speaking of the last day (6:39, 5:28 to 29).

Step 4: The delay and the final vision

As years passed, some began to ask where the promise of his coming was. 2 Peter 3:3 to 10 answers that scoffers will come, that with the Lord a day is as a thousand years, that the Lord is patient and not willing that any should perish, and that the day of the Lord will come as a thief. The author thus keeps both hope and patience.

Revelation ends the New Testament with a vision of the new heaven and new earth and the holy city coming down from God, where God dwells with his people and there is no more death (Revelation 21 and 22). Its last prayer is ‘Even so, come, Lord Jesus’ (Revelation 22:20). Interpreters have read Revelation in many ways, as the next lesson shows.

  1. In what ways did Jesus’ healings and exorcisms show that the kingdom had come near?
  2. How can the kingdom be both already present and not yet complete?
  3. What do you make of the saying that no one knows the day or hour, not even the Son?
  4. Why might Paul have written to comfort the Thessalonians about those who had died?
  5. How does 2 Peter 3 respond to the delay of Christ’s return?
  6. What picture of the future does Revelation 21 offer, and how does it compare to popular ideas of heaven?

Examples

The mustard seed

Jesus compares the kingdom to a mustard seed, the smallest of seeds that becomes a large plant (Mark 4:30 to 32). The picture suggests a small beginning in Jesus’ ministry and a large outcome. It has been used to support both the present and the future sides of the kingdom.

Comfort at a funeral

Many churches read 1 Thessalonians 4:13 to 18 at funerals. Paul says believers should not grieve as those who have no hope, since God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep. The passage shows eschatology as a pastoral message of hope.

Maranatha

Paul ends 1 Corinthians with the Aramaic word maranatha (1 Corinthians 16:22), which can mean ‘Our Lord, come’ or ‘Our Lord has come.’ The use of an Aramaic prayer in a Greek letter shows that the hope of Christ’s coming was part of the church’s earliest worship.

Different perspectives

Catholic view

The Catholic Church teaches that the kingdom is present in the church and in Christ’s work, and will be fulfilled at his return, when the dead will rise and the final judgment will take place. The Catechism describes the church’s hope in the return of Christ and the renewal of creation. It does not require a particular timetable.

Orthodox view

The Orthodox Church celebrates the kingdom in the liturgy, which begins with the blessing of the kingdom of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It looks to the second coming and the general resurrection, and sees the church as an icon of the kingdom. Orthodox teaching on the end tends toward restraint about details.

Protestant view

Protestants hold a range of views. Reformed, Lutheran and Anglican teaching confesses Christ’s return and the final judgment and generally treats the kingdom as present and to come. Evangelical Protestants often study the timing of events in detail, and hold differing views about the millennium.

Scholarly view

Most scholars hold that the kingdom is central to Jesus’ preaching and that it has both present and future aspects. They debate whether Jesus expected the end soon, what he meant by Son of Man, and which sayings in Mark 13 go back to him.

Why it matters

The kingdom of God is the heart of Jesus’ message, and the hope of Christ’s return is the horizon of the New Testament. How these are understood shapes how Christians pray, act in society, and face death. The topic also invites careful reading, since the texts are rich and sometimes puzzling.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: The kingdom of God means only going to heaven after death.

Correction: In the gospels the kingdom is God’s rule, which touches this world: healing, forgiveness, justice. The New Testament hope also includes the resurrection of the body and a renewed creation.

Misunderstanding: Jesus gave a timetable for the end.

Correction: Jesus says no one knows the day or hour (Mark 13:32). Attempts to calculate the date have repeatedly failed.

Misunderstanding: The first Christians were all sure Christ would return in their lifetime.

Correction: Some texts suggest expectation of a near return, and others suggest delay. Scholars debate how these fit. Paul speaks of both possibilities.

Misunderstanding: Kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God are two different things.

Correction: Matthew uses ‘heaven’ as a respectful way of speaking of God, as Jewish writers often did. The phrases mean the same.

Knowledge check

What did Jesus mean by the kingdom of God?

God’s rule or reign breaking into the world to heal, forgive and set things right, as the prophets had promised. Jesus announced that it had come near, showed it in healings, and taught that it would be completed in the future.

What does already and not yet mean?

That the kingdom has begun in the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus and in the gift of the Spirit, but is not yet complete. Its completion awaits Christ’s return, the resurrection of the dead and the renewal of creation.

What did Paul teach in 1 Thessalonians 4?

That believers should not grieve as those without hope, because Christ died and rose, and God will bring with him those who have died. At the Lord’s coming the dead in Christ will rise first and the living will be caught up to meet him.

How does 2 Peter 3 respond to the delay?

It says that scoffers will ask where the promise is, that the Lord’s time is not like human time, that the delay reflects his patience toward repentance, and that the day will come unexpectedly. It calls for holy living in the meantime.

What is the final picture in Revelation 21?

A new heaven and a new earth, with the holy city coming down from God. God dwells with his people, wipes away every tear, and death, mourning and pain are no more. It is a vision of renewed creation, not escape from it.

Think it through

  1. How does the idea of a kingdom already begun affect how a Christian lives now?
  2. Which is harder for you to hold, the hope of Christ’s return or the call to act in the present?
  3. What do you make of the texts that suggest a near end?
  4. How should churches speak about the end without fear-mongering or silence?

Independent assignment

Kingdom sayings in two columns

In your own notebook, write 300 to 450 words. Make two columns: sayings or parables where the kingdom appears present (for example Matthew 12:28, Luke 17:21, Mark 4:30 to 32) and sayings where it appears future (for example Matthew 6:10, Mark 14:25, Matthew 25:31 to 34). Under the columns, write a paragraph on how the two sets might fit together. Do not send this to anyone.

Further study