Of course God reigns in heaven. The idea is, as Jesus said, 'Your kingdom come' so that He will also rule here. The way the goats are separated when Jesus returns is that they die. The only ones left will be those who chose Jesus. That includes Israel who will, in the end (those left alive) all be saved.
Matthew 6:10 says,
“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven”
Some Premillennialists try to employ the Lord’s prayer in
Matthew 6:9-13 as support for their belief that the kingdom is to be a future physical temporal kingdom that will be set up on this sin-cursed earth for 1000 years. However, they do err in their basic understanding of the character of the kingdom AND do wrongly interpret this familiar prayer, misapplying the meaning of its wording.
Firstly, we must realise that every other request in this prayer is
immediate and
current in that it relates to the ‘here and now’. It is also
personal and
particular in that it has an intimate effect upon the actual individual making the petition. It is therefore a cohesive prayer that is totally and fully achievable in the life of the disciple making it. This prayer in full is therefore evidently answerable and realisable to the child of God in this life.
· “Give us this day our daily bread” (v11).
· “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (v12).
· “Lead us not into temptation” (v13).
· “Deliver us from evil” (v13).
There is no contextual warrant then to divorce “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” from the undoubted harmony and overall make-up of the rest of the prayer. Unfortunately, some premillennialists manipulate the passage to make it sound as if it reads ‘Thy kingdom come…in earth, as it is in heaven’ thus conveniently omitting or glossing over the inspired and vital words “Thy will be done” as if they are not in it. The passages reads:
· “Thy kingdom come” (v10a).
· “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (v10b).
It is thus a harmonious interrelated petition which is fully realized in the life of the Church generally and the believer individually in which they see the will of God manifested and performed on this earth “as it is in heaven.” It is also a request to see the Kingdom of God (which is everywhere else described as a spiritual eternal kingdom) manifested in and through the believers’ life experientially. It is NOT a detached distant request to see a future temporal earthly millennial kingdom manifested after Christ’s Second Coming.
N. T. Wright writes in The Lord’s Prayer as a Paradigm of Christian Prayer: “The presence of the kingdom meant that God’s anointed Messiah was here and was at work — that he was, in fact, accomplishing, as events soon to take place would show, the sovereign and saving rule of God. The future of the kingdom was the time when justice and peace would embrace one another and the whole world — the time from which perspective one could look back and see that the work had, indeed, begun with the presence and work of the anointed leader.”
“To pray ‘your kingdom come’ at Jesus’ bidding, therefore, meant to align oneself with his kingdom movement and to seek God’s power in furthering its ultimate fulfillment. It meant adding one’s own prayer to the total performance of Jesus’ agenda. It meant celebrating in the presence of God the fact that the kingdom was already breaking in, and looking eagerly for its consummation. From the centrality of the kingdom in his public proclamation and the centrality of prayer in his private practice, we must conclude that this kingdom prayer grew directly out of and echoed Jesus’ own regular praying.”
This is simply an individual’s petition. The kingdom God can be manifested through us as individuals because the kingdom of God is within. I see this as a request for the power of God to be displayed through us – nothing more, nothing less.
The simple import of this much-misinterpreted aspect of this prayer is that God would make His Kingdom manifest in all its power and glory in the life of the supplicant and that God’s Sovereign will would be manifested on this earth as in heaven through His praying people. In fact, the parallel reading in
Luke 11:2 declares, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.”
The Greek tense in both texts reinforces the fact that this relates to the ongoing manifestation of the kingdom on this earth. It is written in the aorist active imperative – in the present tense. So it cannot just be limited to a future happening but rather a continuous progression.
This thinking simply emanates out of a flawed notion of the kingdom; a view nowhere expounded by Christ in Scripture. In fact, the part of this petition that some Bible students selectively use in support of the idea of a literal thousand-year reign on earth after the second coming of Christ, simply says, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Thus, fitting in beautifully with the immediate nature of the overall prayer petition and its personal significance to the one making the petition.
Entering in to that spiritual kingdom in this life brings an immediate realisation in the ‘here and now’ and on this earth of true “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (
Romans 14:17) and is decisively personal to the recipient. Many Premillennialists, every time they see the term kingdom, automatically think ‘future, temporal and visible’ whereas the kingdom exists NOW and is current, eternal and spiritual. During His earthly ministry, Christ addressed the fallacy of a literal earthly kingdom, saying,
“The kingdom of God cometh not with observation” (
Luke 17:20).
The subject of Christ’s (example) prayer and the specific reference to “kingdom” in that prayer relates to the same spiritual kingdom about which He continually referred to in His earthly ministry.
That kingdom was not physical as many Jews envisaged but spiritual. It could only be entered in spiritually through the Christian new birth.
When we pray “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” we are praying that “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” would be manifested in us and around us; that God would be given His place and that unrighteousness would be banished. When we pray “Thy kingdom come” we are praying for heaven to come down in supernatural power in our midst – just like at Pentecost. This is a petition for the glory of God to be seen in our world.