How long would Jesus’ kingdom last?

No longer do scholars as well as plain Christians need to be puzzled about what Jesus meant when he spoke of the kingdom. Nor must we continue submitting to the ambiguity that “no one knows when the kingdom will come in the full, future sense.” When Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God that “the time is fulfilled [has come] . . . the kingdom of God is at hand “ (Mark 1:15 KJV [NIV]), the “time” He was referring to that He claimed was “fulfilled” was the long-promised and intensely awaited kingdom spoken of by Daniel in Daniel 2:44 and 7:14, 18, 22, 27.

It is a fact of history that Jesus lived and ministered “in the days of those kings”—and those days ended in A.D. 476. It is another fact of Scripture that Jesus ushered into human history the one and only, greatly awaited, “kingdom [that] will never end” (Luke 1:33; Heb.12:27-28; Matt. 28:18). This was precisely what the Messiah was to do—from his birth to his judgment. Once again, all this was to take place “in the days of those kings:”

For to us a child is born
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his
shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and
peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice [judgment] and righteousness [justice]
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.

(Isaiah 9:6-7 – [KJV])

Establishing the non-ending, ever-increasing, eschatological kingdom, “in the days of those kings” and “from that time on and forever” was a major part of the work Jesus did, precisely as prophesied. Literally, God actually kept his word—his “perfect” and “flawless” word (Psa. 18:30).

We submit that Daniel’s two, parallel, and general time prophecies and his time-restrictive words in Daniel 2:44 must be naturally, plainly, and literally understood and fully honored—something the vast majority of Christian commentators, scholars, and lay people alike have not been willing or taught to do. But this straightforward understanding firmly grounds the establishment of the everlasting, ever-increasing, eschatological kingdom of God in human history over nineteen centuries ago.

No other kingdom, form of this kingdom, or ultimate different establishment or fulfillment beyond this one is prophesied in Scripture or yet-to-come. There is no scriptural warrant for conceiving of “a revival of the Roman Empire” to accommodate a yet-future establishment and fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy. Nor do we need to await an unscriptural “end of time” for kingdom’s final establishment, as has been devised by both amillennialists and postmillennialists. These man-made ideas only cause deception and confusion. Why don’t we just believe the Bible and stop trying to stretch prophecy like a rubber band way out into the future?

Interestingly, when Satan tempted Jesus (Matt. 4:1-11), he quoted Scripture out-of-context. We have taken the final establishment of the everlasting kingdom of God on earth out of context as well. The biblical and historical context for the establishment of the one and only everlasting and ever-increasing kingdom was clearly “in the days of those kings” which ended in A.D. 476.

In our opinion, this timely realization is one of “the secrets of the kingdom of God [that] has been given” (Luke 8:10). Sadly, it has been lost in the Church because it has been covered back up by our traditions, with which we “nullify the word of God” (Matt. 15:6; Mark 7:13). Lifting this fulfillment out of its divinely determined time frame in human history has been the most significant factor for disestablishing the kingdom of God and producing what Darrell Guder terms, “the reductionism of the gospel” (Darrell L. Guder, The Continuing Conversion of the Church (Grand Rapids, MI.: Eerdmans, 2000), xiii, 71) and “whose result is a gospel that is too small” (Ibid. 102)—our next topic.

Sources:

1 A Once-Mighty Faith (future book – est. 2014-2015) by John Noe

2 Kingdom Ethics by Glen H. Stassen and David P. Gushee

3 The Continuing Conversion of the Church by Darrell L. Guder