The Kingdom of Heaven - Its Significance and Scope #271773

The question has often been raised as to whether or not the two expressions the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God are one and the same. An affirmative answer is the one that is usually given. The fact that the parallel passages in Mark' and Luke employ Kingdom of God where Kingdom of Heaven is given by Matthew appears to be conclusive proof. Yet to be really accurate we do not think it is strictly correct to say that they are ynonomour. Personally, we prefer to express it thus: the Kingdom of God is a generic term which include: in its forceand scope all the other designations of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven mart he the Kingdom of God, but the Kingdom of God is not necessarily always the same as the Kingdom of Heaven, or why are both the terms employed. Bv Matthew? If Matthew had spoken only of the Kingdom of Heaven and Nlark and Luke only of the Kingdom of God there might have been good reason for concluding the two expressions were absolutely identical, but the fact that Matthew five times over refers to the Kingdom of God in abook where the Kingdom of heaven is mentioned thirty-two times surely intimates that the two terms are to be distinguished no matter how closely they may resemble each other in certain respects. That infcertain respects the two expressions are very similar in their scope is clear, and that some of the things predicated of the former are also predicated of the latter cannot be denied, yet the additional fact that the Kingdom of Heaven which occurs so frequently in Matthew's Gospel — the special design of which is to set forth the offer of the Messianic Kingdom to the Jews, their refusal to comply with the terms of its offer, and the consequences ensuing from their refusal — Fir never once med by Mark, Luke or John, ought to show that it doe; bear a different significance from the Kingdom of God which is the phrase invariably employed by the other Evangelists. The method of quoting certain passages in Mark and Luke where the expression Kingdom of God occurs which are parallel with those passages where the Kingdom of Heaven is used by Matthew can only be characterized as superficial, for while such a course shows the two Kingdoms (or rather, the two aspects of the one Kingdom) have certain things in common, it by no means proves they are synonymous terms. The Kingdom of God, as administered in Israel of old, whether in the immediate theocracy or by Saul, or David and his sons, was not the Kingdom of Heaven, for its center of dominion and throne were on the earth.