Kingdom of God. The eternal rule of God over all His creatures. The kingdom of God includes His rule over angels, but that is not the primary focus of the Bible. The story-line of the Bible is God’s establishment of His Kingdom on Earth through Man. In Genesis 1-2 God assigned man, whom He had just created, to rule over the earth and all its flora and fauna. Man was to be King of the Earth. Because of his fall into sin (Gen. 3), man abdicated his ability to rule the earth benevolently. Through Jesus, God’s ultimate King, God redeemed all who believe in Him. The ultimate destination of the kingdom of God is  New Earth, headquartered in its capital city, New Jerusalem (Rev. 21-22). The citizens of the Kingdom of God will reign with Him forever over New Earth (Rev. 22:5).

Kingdom of the Heavens. Jesus’ designation of the kingdom He was attempting to institute on earth as found in Matthew. His point was that His kingdom originated from above, not from the world, the sphere of Satan. Because the phrase is used exclusively in Matthew, discussion of the Kingdom of the Heavens here is limited to the events which Jesus described in that gospel.  In reality, there is not significant difference between the “Kingdom of God” and the “Kingdom of the Heavens.” Typically translated “kingdom of heaven,” the phrase appears in passages depicting the announcements of John, Jesus, and the twelve concerning the impending kingdom (Matt. 3:2; 4:17; 10:7); in the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3, 10); and in certain parables in which Jesus taught His disciples new truths about His kingdom (Matt. 13:11, 24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47, 52; 25:1). Jesus has begun His kingdom here on earth, but it is presently a spiritual kingdom with its King in absentia as far as the earth is concerned. At Jesus' Second Coming, the spiritual kingdom of the heavens will invade the earth and become a righteous political kingdom. 

Kingdom Theology. "The phrase, 'Kingdom Theology,' has a great variety of meanings. Generally it has to do with the belief that the rule and reign of Christ on the earth through His church is a present reality and that reality should be the focus of our endeavors now. With it comes the tendency to reject a future kingdom on the earth. Thus it is generally opposed to a premillennial interpretation of Scripture and tends to be either amillennial or postmilllennial." (Credit for this definition goes to John Hannah, Th. D., Ph. D., Research Professor of Theological Studies, Distinguished Professor of Historical Theology, Dallas Theological Seminary.) Greg Boyd (The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church) is a proponent of Kingdom Theology. See the article, "Opinion: Kingdom theology makes a comeback" by David Gushee, Associated Baptist Press.

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