Is the Millennium the Kingdom of God?

So many teach and believe that when we pray “thy kingdom come”, that we’re referring to the millennial thousand-year reign of Christ. We use phrases like “the soon-coming Kingdom of God” – and to many, that’s referring to the thousand year reign of Christ on the earth. That millennial time is often also called “the world tomorrow”.

The kingdom of God is also called – especially by Matthew’s gospel – “the Kingdom of heaven”.  Keep that in mind as we review this topic.

So IS the “world tomorrow” or the Millennium actually the full kingdom of God on earth finally? Many of you would respond, “Of course it is!”  Well, is it?  It’s important to believe and teach truth. Jesus is truth personified.

Many teach – especially during the Feast of Tabernacles, the many prophetic scriptures of what the earth will be like when God’s Son is ruling: how the desert shall blossom like a rose, and how there will be righteous rulers, and justice will prevail, and every man will sit under his own fig tree, and they will not learn war anymore but will convert their swords and spears into plowshares and agricultural instruments. Nation will not go to war against nation, under Christ … at least not at first.

Those are all wonderful, but do those prophecies necessarily mean the world tomorrow Millennial reign of Christ will be the kingdom of God on earth?

Here are some key points defining the Kingdom of God:

** God’s kingdom has always existed and exists now. We’re not waiting for it to exist. God’s kingdom will come to the new earth eventually but it already exists very well in heaven.

** Because the Kingdom of God is currently in heaven, Matthew especially often calls it “the kingdom of heaven.” It’s called “Heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22), where God’s throne is, and where Yeshua/Jesus is seated on the right hand of God’s majesty (Eph. 1:20;  Hebrews 8:1).

If we study Revelation 4, we can get a very good and colorful portrayal of God’s throne room in heaven – with the thrones of the 24 elders and Four Living Creatures all on the massive “sea of Glass” like crystal before God’s very own throne. Plus there will be hundreds of millions of holy angels – with various appearances. Some will have four or six wings and some without wings. Some angels appear as spirit humans, or as spirit eagles, or horses, or oxen or other creatures we know on earth.

** God the Father is very generous and shares His kingdom also with his Son, so it’s also called “the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Col. 1:13). So it’s not just the kingdom of God the Father, but also of his Son – so it’s also the kingdom of Jesus, the Son of God; same as the kingdom of God.

**  Jesus/Yeshua – like our Father – then also shares that kingdom with His holy ones, the saints. So the kingdom of God really is also OUR kingdom and in fact we are citizens right now of that kingdom (Eph 2:19) and members of the household of God. We are joint heirs with Christ of everything He is given (Rom. 8:16-17).

Luke 22:28-30   "But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials. 29 And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me,  30 that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

Those who overcome will inherit all things (Rev. 21:7) --- which means we should also think of the Kingdom of God, or Kingdom of heaven – as also being OUR kingdom. In the same way that we citizens of the USA, think of the USA is OUR country. So the kingdom of God is also the kingdom of the saints who have God’s spirit.

** “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50). This verse is too often forgotten or ignored. There will still be many millions, maybe billions of physical flesh and blood people living in the millennial times, so how could that be the Kingdom of God? The motif or seal of the lion and the lamb being led by a little child cannot be the picture for the kingdom of God. It’s a great picture of the Millennium, yes, or of “the World Tomorrow,” yes – but not of the Kingdom of God. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God remember.

Think about this! IF flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, then that means that ALL of those in the Kingdom of God, EVERYONE in the Kingdom, are all SPIRIT beings, no longer physical. They are all immortal with spirit bodies, not just glorified physical fleshly bodies.

Be sure to study 1 Corinthians 15:42-50,which explains there are fleshly bodies and there are spiritual or spirit bodies. Those in the kingdom of God no longer can die. They are immortal spirit beings.

ONLY spirit beings make up the Kingdom of God: God, the Son of God and holy angels, whom we’re told are also spirit (Heb 1:7, 14). Then we, once we are changed to spirit at the resurrection, will also be part of that exciting special spirit kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 15:42-49   “So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.”

** ONLY righteousness dwells in the Kingdom of God. There’s no more sin, no more unrighteousness in that kingdom. God’s perfect will is always done in the Kingdom of God. We even pray “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The poor in spirit inherit the Kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:3). But yes, there will still be sin and unrighteousness by some in the millennial kingdom.

2 Peter 3:13  “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells”.

Revelation 21:27  “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.”

** Therefore only obedience to God will prevail in the Kingdom. But this is a central point: but what do we see in the Millennium by contrast? Though much better than the world is now, it is still not perfect. We find much of the world refusing to obey at first. Zechariah 14:16-19 is clear that Egypt and many others “of all the nations” will refuse to come to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles for some years. They refuse! So the Millennium cannot yet be the Kingdom of God.

Zechariah 14:16-19    “And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17 And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. 18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the NATIONS who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.”

And even worse, at the end of 1,000 years of righteous rulership by Christ and the saints, what happens? Read Revelation 20:7-10. Satan is released from the prison abyss and successfully forms a large army to come attack King Jesus and the camp of the saints – perhaps at a Feast of tabernacles going on! That’s after 1,000 years of righteous rulership! That war, and their ugly attitudes, certainly do not represent the Kingdom of God! That would never happen in the full, complete Kingdom of God.

So back to our question: when Jesus returns and sets up his reign on earth for one thousand years, is that the “kingdom of God”?

Answer: NO, the Millennium is RULED by the kingdom of God’s spirit rulers but there’s still too much sin and rebellion that is periodically happening to be able to call the Millennium the Kingdom of God. And remember flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor 15:50). ONLY spirit beings make up the kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God is in heaven at present. It will be the Rock that crushes all the earthly kingdoms when Christ returns, pictured by the Stone smashing the feet and the image of the earthly kingdoms of Daniel 2, and then fills the whole earth. Then God our Father comes down from his third heaven to a new heavens and new earth – and brings the kingdom of heaven down to earth, as described in Revelation 21 and 22. And of his kingdom there shall be no end.

THAT, not the Millennium or “world tomorrow,” is the true, full kingdom of God.