The Kingdom

Image by Suvendra.nath

They will neither harm nor destroy on
all my holy mountain,

for the earth will be filled with the
knowledge of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

~Isaiah 11:9

People consider the idea of the "Kingdom of God" or the "Kingdom of Heaven" as something very esoteric and unearthly and make-believe. In fact in a sense nothing is easier than the Kingdom of God except for one fact: that humans are adamantly and habitually incapable of it. Nothing is more clear than that power corrupts human beings and they lack the wisdom to govern themselves or anything else.

Imagine that there is a cake on a table, and the table is surrounded by a lot of cranky people who are very hungry and they all want all the cake. Soon they take up fighting and cursing and picking sides, and soon the cake is trampled underfoot and they forget all about it in their pursuit of their anger. That's a lot like what this Earth is like.

A lot of religions, and a lot of forms of Christianity, have a very ethereal view of heaven. We are all sitting around with harps on clouds. In fact Christians often leave off the "Kingdom" part and just talk about heaven. Well the Kingdom part is what makes it heaven. How is the Kingdom different from here and now? Well, God is Lord of all that (reborn) Earth and His spirit reaches all of it. And humans will no longer make war on each other or destroy themselves or destroy other living things or lay waste the Earth because God will be manifestly omnipresent there, as Isaiah says. The knowledge of God will fill the Earth like water fills the sea. Many devout Jews say (and I agree) that the Kingdom will be almost exactly like here and now except that God will be enthroned over it. God's presence will not be a soft whisper that we must struggle to hear over the shouts of the World. Everyone who will be alive to rejoice in that Kingdom will hear it clearly.

Imagine a world where all shortcomings are seen clearly and everyone works to resolve them in a spirit of charity. Everyone has enough and everyone is content, nobody is subservient to another but all bow to God. Lands are not despoiled nor rivers polluted, no bombs or wars or crime. A Sabbath peace rests on the land on the seventh day, and people work in a spirit of joy the rest. That could be this world, but it isn't. What exactly is the difference between that world and this one? The kingship of God. Exactly what Isaiah was saying, that everyone would hear and listen to God. Only God is capable of governing the world wisely and to the general joy and uplift of all creatures.

And while this Kingdom cannot come to fullness now until the proper time (after the human-caused destruction of the Earth most likely,) a little piece of the Kingdom can come anywhere where people love and follow God. Every time that you do what God wills, you are bringing a little shard of paradise into existence. It's the same thing, the Kingship of God is the Kingship of God whether it is here or in that future condition of the righteous. Only then, we will be able to live it more perfectly.

Heaven is not an ethereal realm, it is the rule of God. It exists wherever God informs and oversees life.