Download: Kingdom Inauguration

Mark 1:14-15 (REV)

After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the good news of God, 15saying, “The time has been fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has drawn near. Repent and believe the good news.”

Modern understanding of “kingdom” is a fixed, geographical territory ruled by a king, queen, or monarch.

Example: The Roman Empire (show map)

The “kingdom” of God in the Bible is not focused on territorial borders, but on the authority, rule, and reign of God. An associated word that might help get the nuance right is the word “dominion.” The “dominion” of God is less about a place and more about God’s power and authority at work within a certain context or sphere of influence.

·         Realized Eschatology

·         Futurist Eschatology

·         Inaugurated Eschatology

George Ladd defines the “kingdom of God” as:

“…the redemptive reign of God dynamically active to establish his rule among men, and that this Kingdom, which will appear as an apocalyptic act at the end of the age, has already come into human history in the person and mission of Jesus to overcome evil, to deliver men from its power, and to bring them into the blessings of God’s reign. The Kingdom of God involves two great moments: fulfillment within history, and consummation at the end of history.”1

France comments, “The idea is not simply that an allotted time has elapsed (that would have been better expressed by chronos, as in Acts 7:23), but that the decisive moment (kairos) has now arrived.”2

To reiterate more fully, as Ladd eloquently states:

“Exegesis can do justice to this saying only when the Kingdom of God is interpreted in terms of its dynamic meaning: the reign or rule of God. God’s Kingdom, his reign, will come at the end of the age in a mighty irruption into history inaugurating the perfect order of the age to come. But God’s Kingdom, his reign, has already come into history in the person and mission of Jesus. The presence of God’s Kingdom means the dynamic presence of his reign. It means that God is no longer waiting for men to submit to his reign but has taken the initiative and has invaded history in a new and unexpected way. The Kingdom of God is not merely an abstract concept that God is the eternal King and rules over all; it is also a dynamic concept of the acting of God. God’s reign which will come at the end of the age to accomplish God’s redemptive purpose in the world has also come into the midst of human history in the person and mission of Jesus. God the heavenly King, who will act mightily tomorrow is also acting today in Jesus. It is the same God, the same rule, the same Kingdom dynamically at work among men.”3

1. George E. Ladd, The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism (2nd ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 218.
2. R. T. France, Divine Government: God’s Kingship in the Gospel of Mark (London: SPCK, 1990), 91.
3. Ladd, The Presence of the Future, 144.