Entering the Kingdom

 

According to the inmillennial prophetic model, the churches in Paul’s generation were in a unique situation: they were taking part in a New Exodus, a journey to the long-promised messianic (kingdom) age. This pilgrimage was the antitype of Israel’s original Exodus under Moses (cp. 1 Cor 10:1–11).¹ Israel left Egypt and for forty years traveled—as “a kingdom of priests” (Exod 19:6)—to their promised land. In a similar manner, the churches of Paul’s generation had, through Christ, obtained their freedom from bondage to sin and death. They were on their way to the glory of the new age. Because of this, Paul could say to the Thessalonians, “[I am] testifying that ye should walk worthily of God, who is calling you into His own kingdom and glory” (1 Thess 2:12.)² 

In this post, I want to emphasize that God was moving his people into the new messianic (kingdom) age; that Paul’s generation was a period of age transition. The change had begun when John the Baptist announced that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 3:2). It would end when the temple fell, ending the Mosaic age. In the interim, the Apostle could tell the Thessalonians that God was calling them into this kingdom.

This unique situation does not pertain to churches today. However, there are certain lessons we need to learn regarding the kingdom transition that has occurred. I want to show that this is true by examining the robust witness the Scriptures provide regarding the kingdom transition. That testimony occurs in the Prophets, in the Gospels, and in Acts and the other Epistles.

In the Prophets

The prophets had foretold the kingdom entrance Paul mentions in Thessalonians. Daniel, for example, had revealed what God would do in the days of the Roman emperors: “In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever” (Dan 2:44).

God fulfilled this promise. Less than fifty years before Jesus’ birth, the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire, and Julius Caesar became its first “king.” Jesus was born during the reign of his successor, Augustus Caesar (cf. Luke 2:1–7). About thirty years later, Jesus announced that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 4:17). This kingdom would fulfill Daniel’s prophecy.

The prophet had said this kingdom would “not be left to other people.” God had determined that a particular people enter this kingdom once it arrived. Daniel later said more about God’s people obtaining the kingdom:

The saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.… I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.… And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. (Dan 7:18–28)

And this is what Paul is telling the Thessalonians—God was calling them into the kingdom he had established in the days of the Roman kings.

Here are some lessons for us: (1) God has established the messianic-age kingdom; it is a present reality; (2) the saints now possess the kingdom; and (3) this kingdom is everlasting, and all nations will one day worship God in it. God intends to accomplish this result through our obedience to the Great Commission (cp. Matt 28:18–20 NKJV).

In the Gospels

The Gospels also bear abundant testimony regarding kingdom entrance. After Jesus announced the soon coming of the kingdom (Matt 4:17), he sent his disciples on an evangelistic mission to the cities of Israel. They were to follow his lead by preaching that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 10:7). They would experience the “last days” tribulation that we have already seen in Thessalonians (Matt 10:17; cp. 1 Thess 1:6 NASB). He also told them something relevant to our discussion of kingdom entrance in Thessalonians: they would “not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come” (Matt 10:23). This return of the Son of Man is identical to the coming of the “Son from heaven” that Paul mentions. Both Jesus and Paul connect this return to the “wrath to come”/the “great tribulation” (cp. 1 Thess 1:10; Matt 24:21; Luke 21:23).³ 

This “wrath”/“great tribulation” would bring the desolation and destruction of the temple (Matt 24:1–3, 27, 30, 37). That event would simultaneously end the Mosaic age (Matt 24:3 NKJV; cp. 1 Cor 10:11 NKJV; et al) and fully inaugurate the kingdom of God (cp. Matt 16:27–28). All of this would occur in Jesus’ generation (Matt 24:34; Luke 21:32).

These events would consummate the transfer of the kingdom from one nation to another. Jesus told the parable of the householder and his vineyard to illustrate this shift (Matt 21:33–40). The chief priests and Pharisees understood the parable’s meaning (Matt 21:41). Jesus drove home the point by saying that when the householder returned (a picture of his own return in that generation), he would take the kingdom from them and give it to another nation (Matt 21:42–44). 

All of this helps us understand what Paul was telling the Thessalonians: God was calling them into the messianic-age kingdom (1 Thess 2:12). They were part of the holy nation to whom God would soon give the kingdom (cf. 1 Pet 2:9–10). The Son of Man would return to make the Mosaic-age house of God desolate (cf. Matt 23:36–38). The Thessalonians—and other churches like them—would thenceforth possess the kingdom.

The lesson for us is clear: the nation to whom God gave the kingdom will “bring forth the fruits thereof” (Matt 21:43). If we are in God’s present kingdom, we will bear “fruits worthy of repentance” (Luke 3:8). We will be “an holy nation, a peculiar people; that … [shows] forth the praises of him who hath called” us; we will “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having [our] conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against [us] as evildoers, they may by [our] good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Pet 2:9–12). Bearing such fruit will be our greatest joy.

In Acts and the Epistles

The rest of the New Testament shows the kingdom-entrance perspective Paul mentions in Thessalonians. For example, Luke records Paul’s message on his first missionary journey:

When they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation (Gk. polys thlipsis) enter into the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:21–22)

This matches his message to the Thessalonians. They were passing through “much tribulation” (1 Thess 1:6 NASB; Gk. thlipsis polys) as they entered the kingdom (1 Thess 2:12).

The writer of Hebrews writes from the same perspective. He says: 

But now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. (Heb 12:26–29 NKJV)

John Gill explains what “the removal of those things that are being shaken” means:

[It] is to be understood of Christ’s coming to the destruction of Jerusalem; when there was an entire removal of the Jewish state, both political and ecclesiastical; and of the whole Mosaic economy; and of things appertaining to divine worship, which were made with hands, as the temple, and the things in it; and which were made to be removed … and all the legal institutions and ordinances, which were abolished by the death of Christ, were no more performed in Jerusalem; the temple and temple-service perishing together.⁴

The “great tribulation” would bring the temple’s fall, then the churches would receive the kingdom.

Peter says the same thing in his exhortation to believing Jews scattered abroad. In his first epistle, he warned them about the “great tribulation,” the fiery trial which was about to try them (1 Pet 4:12). Like Paul, he associates this trial with the doctrines of election and kingdom-entrance: 

Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (2 Pet 1:10–11)

The New Testament authors write from this perspective: in their generation, the church would experience tribulation as she entered the kingdom.

The lessons for us who are now in that kingdom lie on the surface. We must “continue in the faith” (Acts 14:22) for that is fundamental to the kingdom’s existence. The kingdom now obligates us to “serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Heb 12:28). This kingdom comprises people who obey Peter when he says, “Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity” (2 Pet 1:5–7).

Conclusion

The Christians in Paul’s generation were receiving a kingdom that would produce “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” instead of the “meat and drink” offerings of the Mosaic age (Rom 14:17). Israel after the flesh (1 Cor 10:18) had possessed the former kingdom “until the time of reformation” (Heb 9:10). God would complete that reformation through the fires of the “great tribulation” that would destroy the temple in Jerusalem and end the Mosaic age (Matt 24:1–3, 21 NKJV).

This perspective has changed; the churches of today are no longer entering the kingdom as was the church at Thessalonica. Now, as Abraham Booth says, “particular churches … constitute our Lord’s visible kingdom.”⁵ But the kingdom in which we now live is glorious, and God intends for it to change the course of history. It causes us to “walk worthily of God” (1 Thess 2:12). We get a glimpse of this in Luke’s account of the gospel of the kingdom coming to Thessalonica: 

The Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things. (Acts 17:5–8)

As many people have observed, instead of “turning the world upside down,” the gospel of the kingdom turns it right side up. Christians who live in the kingdom obey its laws and live holy lives in the Holy Spirit’s power. God intends to transform the entire world and every nation in it this way.⁶ I hope to say more about this kingdom’s glory in my next post.

Here, I will show the place Paul’s statement about the Thessalonians entering the kingdom occupies on the inmillennial diagram:

1. For a discussion of typology related to Thessalonians, see Teaching by Typology.
2. This translation is from John Eadie, A Commentary on the Greek Text of the Epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians, ed. William Young (London: Macmillan and Co., 1877), 73.
3. See last week’s post: Two-fold Tribulation in Thessalonica.
4. John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 9 vols. (1809–10; repr., Paris, AR: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989), 9:482 (emphasis added).
5. Abraham Booth, An Essay on the Kingdom of Christ (Paris, AR: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1987), 5.
6. See Michael A. Rogers, Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days (Tullahoma, TN: McGahan Publishing House, 2020), 244–63.