I appeal to every brother in Christ Jesus.
Unless I first understand and then develop a model of God’s kingdom in my life as His disciple, I can be sure of two things: 1] I’ll be satisfied believing things about the Bible which are simply not true, and 2] the focus of any hope I might have to live again with Him will be seriously misguided.
The very first words spoken by Jesus after He was tempted in the wilderness for forty days as recorded by Matthew and Mark seemed to amplify the immediacy of God’s plan for the ages:
“From that time [on], Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has come near’” [Matt. 4:17]
“Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time has been fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news.’” [Mk. 1:14-15]
[What does it actually mean to repent? see: Climbing the Ladder of Repentance [1]]
The intended audience of Matthew’s gospel account was largely Jewish. Hence, the phrase “kingdom of the heavens” was recorded instead of “kingdom of God” so as not to offend some of the devout factions of Jews who considered His name so holy that it could not be spoken or written.
However, the desire not to offend has always had a cost. The term “the kingdom of the heavens,” has probably been more misleading than anything over the centuries. For neither Jesus Christ nor any Biblical author ever suggested that resurrected life would exist anywhere outside of God’s kingdom.
The heavens, on the other hand, is a term that defines the unlimited expanse of space in God’s universe and what’s in it. Not only that, the word “Heaven” translated as a proper noun in the Bible is actually recorded in plural form in most instances with an article [i.e., the heavens] in both original languages.
[Greek: οὐρανός: (your-â-nôs) sky, air, firmament; any area above the earth; heaven(s); the place of sun, moon, and stars; heaven in which God dwells.]
[Hebrew: שָׁמַיִם (sha-may-im) from an unused word; heaven, sky]
So Biblical literacy understands “Heaven” or “the heavens” as what exists above us and is somehow able to conceal from us an unseen realm before which the Lord God is currently revealing His purposes. [Eph. 3:10]
His kingdom, though, exists now in a form that is presently being augmented [Lk. 17:21] and will soon be fully inaugurated in glory on the earth [Dan. 12:2; 7:13-14; Rev. 11:15] when Christ Himself returns [1Thes. 4:13-18] to raise the righteous dead! [Ac. 24:14-15; 1Cor. 15:22-23]
I urge Jesus Christ’s disciples to hold teachers and pastors accountable to Biblical accuracy.
[How can I tell what Biblical accuracy is? see: Sharing in the Divine Nature [2]]
His good news calls upon all of us to repent in order to enter into and be partakers of the riches of His inheritance in God’s kingdom [Eph. 1:17-19; Matt. 25:31-34].
[So what’s “inheritance” all about? see: Birthright Through Redemption [3]]
There’s no offer to secure a free ticket to a place called heaven.