Approximately 600 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, a king of a great empire built a golden statue. Afterward, he passed an edict requiring everyone to bow down to that statue and worship it. Three teenage Hebrews refused to do so. Making good on his promise to punish those who refused his orders, King Nebuchadnezzar had those rascally boys thrown into a fiery furnace. He sought to destroy them.
What this king didn’t count on was that a power mightier than his own would save these three young lads.
The fiery flames of the furnace were so hot that it killed the warriors who tossed these three young men into the fire. Think about that. Standing outside the furnace, the warriors, decked out in their late Iron Age armor, no doubt, died from the heat of the fire into which these three young boys were tossed. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, however, managed to survive the furnace and were removed by the king’s servants without a single hair on their heads singed, no putrid smell of ash on them, and their clothing completely unaffected. King Nebuchadnezzar had witnessed a miracle.
The king then vowed to destroy anyone who spoke ill of the Hebrew God and made this proclamation (bolded emphasis is mine):
I am pleased to declare the signs and wonders the Most High God has performed for me. How great are His signs, how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; His dominion endures from generation to generation.
I don’t think this language is an accident.
King Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful king on earth and ruled over the most powerful earthly kingdom of the time. When his order to the Hebrews living under his authority went challenged by the most faithful servants of God, this wicked earthly king saw the power of the living God and recognized it. He was awestruck. Gobsmacked. And he responded appropriately to the marvelous power with which he had come into contact.
Through the mouth of this evil king, God spoke. Nebuchadnezzar realized that no god could do what the Hebrew God had done unless He was real, all powerful, and above all human authority. Hence, the verbal declaration “His kingdom is an eternal kingdom.”
I don’t know if king Nebuchadnezzar fully realized how profound that statement was, but he said it. I am sure that he realized the Hebrew God was more powerful than any earthly king. Think about that: The most powerful king on earth recognized the supreme authority of the heavenly King!
Shouldn’t you and I do the same?
What Is a Kingdom?
In early November, I wrote a post titled What Is The Kingdom of God? In that post, I introduced the kingdom of God and attempted to give as good a definition of it as a mere human can, but keep in mind that the kingdom is somewhat of a mystery, an enigma. Nevertheless, our Lord proclaimed it.
In this post, I'll explore there whereabouts of the kingdom. Let's dig in.
All kingdoms have three things in common
- First, a kingdom must have a king
- Secondly, there is always a realm over which that king rules
- Thirdly, there are subjects over whom the king reigns
If any one of these ingredients is missing, a kingdom cannot exist. Now, I’d like to explore what it was that King Nebuchadnezzar declared when he proclaimed, “His kingdom is an eternal kingdom.”
Before I do, I want to point out that many Christians believe the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of Heaven, began at some point during Christ’s earthly ministry. They may think that it began with Christ’s birth, or that it began when Jesus introduced his earthly ministry (either at the marriage in Cana, when he stood in the temple and read from the book of Isaiah, or when he delivered the Sermon on the Mount). This view is a fatal mistake. King Nebuchadnezzar proves it.
It is true that Jesus declared the coming of his kingdom during his earthly ministry, but that is not when the Kingdom had its beginning. Keep reading and I’ll tell you when it really began.
Unveiling the Kingdom of God
There is no definition of the kingdom of God anywhere in the Bible. That doesn’t mean it cannot be experienced, entered, or interacted with. But we must understand that there is a mystery surrounding the kingdom. Here, I will attempt to pull back the curtain, just a little, on this profound mystery of God.
Who Is the King?
As stated previously, a kingdom must have a king. So, who is the king of God’s kingdom?
Most of us are familiar with the verses that deal with Jesus’ kingship. There are many. In John 18, Jesus stands before Pilate. He is being accused of some great offense against the people of Israel. Jesus tells this Roman ruler that His kingdom is not of this world. Surprised, Pilate exclaims, “Then you are a king!” Jesus explained that was the very purpose for which he was born.
I doubt that Pilate had any inkling about what our Lord was talking about, but Jesus clearly proclaimed that he was a king.
Of what, exactly, was he the king?
What is the realm of the kingdom of which he spoke?
In John 18:36, Jesus said his kingdom is not of this realm. That does not mean it does not touch this realm or that it has no implications for this realm. While the kingdom of God is not of this world, it is most definitely in this world, and I would dare say for this world. Even still, it does extend beyond this world.
Where is it then?
What is The Nature of God’s Kingdom?
This is a much more difficult question to answer than the first one, but Nebuchadnezzar left us a clue.
God’s kingdom is an eternal kingdom;
What does “eternal” mean?
Typically, we think it means having no beginning or end. Or, we might say that it extends across time, past and future, forever without end. Those are good definitions, but I think that even they do not do the idea of eternity any justice.
The problem with terms like “beginning” and “end” is that they imply that the subjects fitting within those book ends are bound by time. In other words, these concepts imply that whatever is “eternal” did not exist before the beginning and will not exist after the end. This is difficult for us to wrap our heads around, but God, being the creator, does not exist within time and is not subject to time’s constraints. Therefore, any terms, relative or absolute, that imply that He is timebound are not adequate to describe His true nature. By extension, they are not adequate to describe the nature of His kingdom.
John 1:1 indicates that Jesus, the Word, was “in the beginning.” He was with God and was God. Through Him, all things were made.
When, exactly, was “in the beginning?” We tend to think of it as the time of creation, but that’s not what the text says. If that was the intended meaning, then we could say that the Word had a beginning and an end because the point of creation is the point which time itself had a beginning. I believe that “in the beginning” is a reference to eternity past, during a time when there was no time. That is, before time itself had a beginning. It was then, before all creation, before the foundation of the world, when God the father said, “Let there be ….”
Since God’s kingdom is eternal and not of this world, we must conclude that it has its origins in the mind of God before the foundation of the world. That is, before creation itself. Before “in the beginning.” It is not “of this world” because it is of God, who is spirit. The kingdom of God, then, is spiritual.
The kingdom of God is of God’s spirit and extends from God’s spirit dating all the way back to when God Himself began, which is to say "a forever ago".
Who Are the Subjects Over Which the King Rules?
Again, we can turn to the words of King Nebuchadnezzar for the answer to this question:
His dominion endures from generation to generation. (Daniel 4:3)
His dominion, his rule, his power, his authority, his majesty, his empire. Endures. For how long? From generation to generation.
Or, age to age.
The English translation of this phrase does not do the context any justice.
Christ’s reign endures from generation to generation, from age to age. That is, it is perpetual. It never ends. Like Him, it has no beginning or end. He Himself is the alpha and the omega. Not only did He exist in the beginning and create all things in the beginning, but He IS the beginning and the end. And His kingdom is an extension of Him. It has no beginning or end—in time, in substance, or in reality. And that means that He rules over everything.
But how can He rule over everything when there are so many who do not obey Him, live for Him, or recognize that He is king?
That's an excellent question.
Jesus reigns over all that there is because being recognized as king is not one of the three criteria for being a king. A kingdom is not a kingdom once it is recognized as a kingdom. It is a kingdom when it has a king, a defined realm, and subjects who are ruled by the king.
A kingdom does not need recognition to be a kingdom.
The realm over which Jesus rules is everything—everything in the spiritual realm and everything in the physical realm. The subjects over whom He rules is every creature in heaven, on earth, and in hell below. He is king over all creation.
Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon. While there were many who recognized his authority as king of Babylon, there were some who did not. King Nebuchadnezzar ruled over Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but they recognized the power of a higher authority. That authority was the King of Kings, whose rule extended beyond the boundaries of Babylon and its king and whose power was greater than all the kings of earth combined. Someday, all of creation will pay homage to that king. Every knee shall bow.
Until then, let everyone who knows the King proclaim Him and His eternal kingdom have come.
Allen Taylor is the author of I Am Not the King, his personal testimony of growth in Jesus Christ.
First published by Author Allen Taylor at Paragraph. Image from Pexels.