From the book Thy Kingdom Comes
Is Righteousness
For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Romans 14:17
The phrase “kingdom of God” and the “kingdom of Heaven” are mentioned over one hundred times in the New Testament. They are not found in the Old Testament at all.
Paul tells us that the Kingdom of God is righteousness. Righteousness is translated from the Greek dikaiosune which is defined, “in a broad sense: state of him who is as he ought to be… the doctrine concerning the way in which man may attain a state approved of God … in a narrower sense, justice or the virtue which gives each his due.”
The idea of God’s dominion does begin early in that first Testament. Beginning in Genesis Chapter 1 Verse 26 we see God entrusting Adam with dominion over His creation and later commanding him to “dress it and keep it”.1
This command, to dress it and keep it, is telling us that this man called Adam is being entrusted with the care of God’s dominion or kingdom on earth. The second part of the command, to keep it, infers the possibility that man could loose that dominion granted by God to another who desires that power and right.
The dominion given to Adam was called radah in the Hebrew. It is a root word that does mean dominion but also “scrape out” or “tread upon”.
There are over fifteen other Hebrew words found in the Bible that are translated into or defined as dominion. None of them mean exactly the same thing. English like most languages can have several different definitions for the same word.
Translators are traitors”2
There are many kingdoms mentioned in the Old Testament. The first was Cain’s city state named after his son, Enoch. This institution of iniquity was followed by Nimrod’s civil Kingdoms of benefits, Sodom’s city of sin, Pharaoh’s bondage of Israel and many more.
The whole context of the Bible is centered around men who serve and walk with God or men who establish their own governments with a central leader exercising authority, granted by or taken from the people who become its subjects or servant citizens.
For the LORD [is] our judge, the LORD [is] our lawgiver, the LORD [is] our king; he will save us. Isaiah 33:22
In the Greek the Kingdom of God is “Basileia Theos”. Basileia means “royal power, kingship, dominion, rule” while Theos was a common word used to denote a ruling judge or any judge or magistrate with an exercising authority. The same is true for the Hebrew word ‘elohiym commonly translated god or God. Both terms were used every day to address magistrates and judges in common courts in the respective nations, Greece, Rome and Israel.
When these words are capitalized in the Bible we are to assume that they are referring to the God of the created universe, or Nature’s God, YaHWeH or Jehovah. The God of Creation holds dominion over the universe and all His creation. His dominion is called the Kingdom of God.
God’s kingdom could be considered the vastness of the universe in both a spiritual and physical sense, but His kingdom on this planet was intrusted to Man. As long as some men walked with God, His kingdom was represented by His faithful children or servants.
Possession is, as it were, the position of the foot.3
Jesus gives us some insight into the kingdom of God in Matthew 20 through 25:
For [the kingdom of heaven is] as a man travelling into a far country, [who] called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. Mt 25:14
Some men, like Enos, called upon the name of God and some men like Enoch “walked with God” and some men strayed and disobeyed God becoming like gods of men. Men like Cain and Lemech, who set up their own dominion to oppress men,4 did not call upon God but seduced men to go under their exercising authority.
All men sinned but one man was “perfect in his generations, Noah walked with God”5.
All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. Psalms 145:10-15.
These few men and those who followed their lead were the generations of God’s people on earth. They were the Kingdom of God on earth. God prevailed in their lives and they walked in the ways of the LORD God. We see this idea again described by a king of the earth, Nebuchadnezzar.
And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion [is] an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom [is] from generation to generation: Daniel 4:34:
God’s kingdom was from generation to generation. It was from Adam to Christ. During the lineal consanguinity of the kingdom, Israel became known as God’s kingdom on earth. It was not a kingdom or government like what we commonly see today in most nations, but it was a nation where every man was prince in his own house. Each family shared in the occupying of God’s dominion on earth “under the perfect law of liberty”. His Kingdom had no king or ruling body, but only God the Father living within the tabernacle of each man’s soul and mind. This was Israel, the dominion “Where God Prevails”.
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1Ge 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
2“Il traduttore è traditore” Ancient Roman Proverb
3Possessio est quasi pedis positio. 5 Coke, 42.
4Ge 4:23 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.
5Genesis 6:9 These [are] the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man [and] perfect in his generations, [and] Noah walked with God.