What If the Kingdom Is Not the Church?

Introduction

The International Christian Church (ICC) and the Restored Church Worldwide (RCW) both teach that the Kingdom and the church are the same thing. It is part of the First Principles studies taught to every person who becomes a disciple in these churches, and the RCW still teaches it today. The teaching holds that the Kingdom began on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, when the church began. If you have studied the Bible in one of these groups, you were very likely taught this. (The view goes back to the early days of the Churches of Christ, including the International Churches of Christ, though over the years some ICOC teachers have begun to move away from it.)

This matters because the Kingdom was the main thing Jesus preached about. The phrases "Kingdom of God" and "Kingdom of Heaven" mean the same thing, and together they appear about 100 times in the Gospels. If we get the Kingdom wrong, we get Jesus' main message wrong.

This article asks you to test that teaching against the Bible, the way the Bereans did (Acts 17:11). It walks through four questions:

• What does "Kingdom" actually mean?
• When did the Kingdom arrive?
• What about the verses used to teach that it began at Pentecost?
• Why does the difference matter for your life?

What "Kingdom" means: God's reign

When the Bible says "Kingdom," it means God ruling as King. It is less about a place or an organization and more about who is in charge.

The Greek word is basileia. It means "reign" or "rule." So being in the Kingdom means living under God's leadership: the King leads, and his people gladly follow.

The Bible uses "Kingdom" in two ways:

• Everything God owns. God is King over the whole universe, and that never changes (Psalm 10:16).
• God's rule in willing hearts. God only rules a person's heart when that person says yes to him. Wherever someone does God's will, the Kingdom is there.

The Lord's Prayer shows this clearly. Jesus taught us to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10, NIV). The second line explains the first. The Kingdom comes when God's will is done. That is why the Lord's Prayer could just as well be called the Kingdom Prayer.

So the good news of the Kingdom is simple:

• God's reign is here, because the King is here.
• You can live heaven's way right now, on earth.
• It is a call to a new life that shows loyalty to the King.

The Kingdom arrived when the King arrived

When a king shows up, his rule shows up with him. Jesus is the King, so the Kingdom arrived when he did, years before Pentecost.

Jesus said this himself, many times, in the present tense. If the Kingdom only began in Acts 2, none of these statements could have been true when he said them.

Matthew 11:12: the Kingdom was already moving

"From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it." (Matthew 11:12, NIV 1984)

Was the Kingdom advancing because John was announcing a future King, or because the Kingdom had already entered the world? The context points clearly to the second.

• Jesus says "until now." He is describing something happening as he speaks, not something on its way.
• The verse just before says people are already in it. "Whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than [John]" (Matthew 11:11, NIV). You can't be the least in something that doesn't exist yet.
• Luke says it even more plainly. "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it" (Luke 16:16, NIV).

So here is the picture. John was the last of the old prophets, pointing to the King. When Jesus stepped onto the scene, the Kingdom broke in. From that moment people were pushing their way into it, and opponents were fighting against it. Either way, it was already here.

"The Kingdom of heaven has come near"

John and Jesus both preached, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (Matthew 3:2; 4:17, NIV). Many of us were taught that "near" meant "not here yet, but coming soon."

In the Bible, "near" often means "right here with you":

• "It is good to be near God" (Psalm 73:28, NIV).
• "The LORD is near to the brokenhearted" (Psalm 34:18, NASB).
• "The word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart" (Deuteronomy 30:14, NIV).

Jesus' message was urgent: the King is standing in front of you, so turn to him now. He wasn't telling people to wait three years for a future date.

Here now, but not yet complete

The Kingdom is truly here today, but it is not here in its final, complete form. That will come when Jesus returns.

Jesus holds both ideas together in Mark 10:29–30 (NIV). Anyone who gives up home or family for him will receive "a hundred times as much in this present age... and in the age to come eternal life." There are Kingdom blessings now, and more to come.

Think of it as the future breaking into the present. Heaven's way of life has already started showing up on earth. It doesn't arrive all at once on one day. It comes in waves:

• In Jesus' teaching, healing and miracles
• Most powerfully, in his death, burial and resurrection
• At Pentecost, when the Spirit came and the church was born
• Every time a person surrenders to God's will
• Finally and completely, when Jesus returns

A simple test: swap the words

If the Kingdom and the church were the same thing, you could put "church" in place of "Kingdom" and the verse would still make sense. Try it with these verses from the NIV.

The apostles preached the Kingdom, not the church. No verse in the New Testament says the Kingdom is the church.

The verses used to teach that the Kingdom began at Pentecost

The verses used to prove a Pentecost start date describe a season of time, not a single day. None of them says the Kingdom began in Acts 2.

The usual argument goes like this: prophecies said the Kingdom would come with power in Jerusalem, the Spirit came with power in Jerusalem at Pentecost, so the Kingdom must have started that day, and since the church started that day too, the Kingdom must be the church. Let's look at each piece.

Isaiah 2:1–5

This passage is usually used to make four points (quotations from the NIV).

"In the last days." We were taught this meant the last days of the Old Testament law, starting after the resurrection. But the last days started with Jesus himself (Hebrews 1:2). He was already teaching a new way of life in the Sermon on the Mount. Also, Isaiah says "days," not "day." He is describing a period of time, not a date on a calendar.

"All nations will stream to it." This tells us who will come into the Kingdom, not when it starts. People were already streaming to Jesus during his ministry, like the Samaritan woman and her whole town (John 4). That stream became a flood after the resurrection.

"The word of the LORD will go out from Jerusalem." This was taught to mean the Kingdom would start in Jerusalem. But the verse is about God's message spreading out from Jerusalem to the whole world, which is exactly what Jesus describes in Acts 1:8. It tells us where the message goes out from, not when the Kingdom begins.

"The mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as the highest of the mountains." This point usually comes last. In Hebrew prophecy, a mountain often stands for a kingdom, so the argument goes: this is a prophecy about the Kingdom, so it must tell us the Kingdom began in Jerusalem at Pentecost. The first half is fair. This may well be a picture of God's Kingdom. But it changes nothing above. Read what the passage says the Kingdom will do: in the last days it will be raised up, people from all nations will stream to it, and the word of the LORD will go out from Jerusalem. What almost no one stops to ask is the obvious question: where does it say the Kingdom will start there, or on what day? It doesn't. The passage describes God's reign drawing the nations to himself. Reading a starting place and a start date into it adds what the text never says, to support a conclusion that was already decided.

Jesus also said no one would be able to point to the Kingdom's arrival and say, "Here it is!" (Luke 17:20–21, NIV). A teaching that pins the Kingdom to one day does exactly what he said couldn't be done.

Daniel 2:44

"In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed." (Daniel 2:44, NIV)

This is used to show the Kingdom began during the Roman Empire, at Pentecost. But Jesus' whole life, death and resurrection also happened during the Roman Empire. Daniel names an era, not a day, and Jesus' arrival fits it at least as well as Pentecost does.

Mark 9:1

"Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power." (Mark 9:1, NIV)

We were taught this points to the tongues of fire at Pentecost. But Bible teachers have understood this verse in several ways:

• The Transfiguration, which Mark describes in the very next verses (Mark 9:2–8). This is the most common view.
• The resurrection. Paul says Jesus was shown to be "the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4, NIV). It was the most powerful event in history, and it made Pentecost possible. Some disciples would live to see it. Judas would not.
• Pentecost, the view taught in the ICC and RCW.
• The destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, held by some.

You don't have to settle which view is right. The verse never mentions Pentecost, and two of the strongest views point to events before it. A core doctrine shouldn't rest on one possible reading of one verse.

Acts 1:8

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses..." (Acts 1:8, NIV)

This is the strongest piece of the argument: the "power" in Mark 9:1 is matched to the "power" in Acts 1:8. But look at verse 6. The disciples asked, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6, NIV) Jesus didn't say, "Yes, in ten days." He said the timing was the Father's business, and that the power they'd receive was power to be his witnesses. Acts 1:8 is about the church's mission, not the Kingdom's start date.

Matthew 16:18–19

"On this rock I will build my church... I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 16:18–19, NIV)

Because "church" and "Kingdom" appear side by side, this is often used to say they're the same. But the picture actually shows they're different. Jesus builds the church, then gives Peter the keys to the Kingdom. Keys open a door into something else. Peter used those keys at Pentecost (Acts 2) and at Cornelius' house (Acts 10). At Pentecost he didn't announce that the Kingdom had just begun. He showed people how to enter it: how to come under God's reign through repentance and baptism (Acts 2:38). That is what keys do. The church holds the keys to the Kingdom. It isn't the Kingdom itself.

John 3:5

"Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit." (John 3:5, NIV)

This verse is true and important. It tells us how people would enter the Kingdom after the resurrection, which we see in Acts 2:38. It doesn't tell us when the Kingdom began.

• Baptism shares in Jesus' death, burial and resurrection (Romans 6:1–4). When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, he hadn't died yet. A new covenant only takes effect after the death of the one who makes it (Hebrews 9:16–17).
• Before the cross, people entered by faith in Jesus. Jesus forgave the paralyzed man when he saw his friends' faith (Mark 2:5). The thief on the cross was promised paradise (Luke 23:42–43).
• Two verses earlier, Jesus said Nicodemus needed to be born again just to see the Kingdom (John 3:3). If Nicodemus had humbly changed his mind (that's what "repent" means), he would have seen that the King and his Kingdom were standing right in front of him.

What did start at Pentecost: the church

Pentecost is when the church began, not the Kingdom. The Kingdom creates the church, and the church serves the Kingdom.

At Pentecost the Spirit was poured out, the good news was preached, and about 3,000 people repented and were baptized (Acts 2). It was a huge wave of the Kingdom. And it produced the church: the family of people who have said yes to the King.

Think of an embassy. An embassy represents its country in a foreign land. It speaks for that country and works under its authority. But the embassy isn't the country. The country is far bigger. Paul uses this exact picture: "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors" (2 Corinthians 5:20, NIV).

When the early Christians preached "the good news of the kingdom of God" (Acts 8:12; 28:31, NIV), they weren't preaching about the church. They were preaching Jesus: his death, burial and resurrection, which Paul called the message "of first importance" (1 Corinthians 15:1–4, NIV).

Why this matters

This isn't a word game. When a church teaches that it is the Kingdom, it quietly puts itself in the place that belongs to the King. That leads to harmful conclusions.

A Kingdom-centered disciple will love the church as God's family. But their first loyalty is to Jesus. That loyalty gives them the freedom to follow God, ask honest questions, and serve wherever he leads. (For how the same pattern shows up in leadership, see Does the Church Need a Central Leader?)

Conclusion

The gospel of the Kingdom is the good news that God's reign broke into the world through Jesus, especially through his death, burial and resurrection, and that anyone can enter it by surrendering to him.

• What is the Kingdom? God's reign. It isn't the church; it's bigger than the church.
• What is the church? The family of people who have accepted God's reign and are learning to live on earth as it is in heaven.
• What does "seek first the Kingdom" mean? Not putting church meetings first, but putting God's will first in every part of life.
• Should a Kingdom person be committed to the church? Yes. The church is God's family and his hands and feet, showing the Kingdom to the world. But be careful when someone else defines "commitment" for you. You may hear that a committed disciple comes to every meeting, or that "dying to yourself" means sharing your faith with 50 or 100 people every day, and that anyone who falls short isn't really committed. Ask where Scripture says so. Those are human standards added where the Bible is silent. (See When the Bible Is Silent.)

Jesus began his ministry with one call: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (Matthew 4:17, NIV). In plain words: change your mind, surrender, the King is here. He used the picture of a king facing an army of 20,000 to show what total surrender looks like (Luke 14:31–33).

When Jesus came, heaven's way of life broke into this world. Some saw it right away. Some, even among those closest to him, never saw it at all. Let's be people who see it, live heaven's way here and now, and share the good news of the Kingdom.