Page 85 - TH130 Kingdom of God A4 Final

CH A P T E R 8

Apostolic Proclamation

and the

Kingdom

n the last chapter, we looked at the kingdom of God in the Synoptic
Gospels. In this chapter, we will look at the Kingdom in the Gospel of
IJohn, the book of Acts, the New Testament epistles, and Revelation.
In these writings, there are fewer mentions of the kingdom of God than
in the Synoptics. Some liberal theologians have therefore concluded that
the apostles changed the message of the kingdom of God into a religion
about Jesus. Is it true? Did the early church set aside Jesus’ message of
the Kingdom and replace it with another message? This answer is no, for
the message of the Kingdom still fills these books.

However, there is a subtle change of wording that takes place in some
of the apostles’ writings. To understand the place of the kingdom of God
in the New Testament church, we must examine the kingdom of God in
apostolic proclamation and teaching. In doing this, we make and defend
two statements:

• The apostles proclaimed the kingdom of God.
• The apostles sometimes used different terminology concerning
the Kingdom.

::: 77 :::