vmethot Posted December 2, 2015 Report Share Posted December 2, 2015 While doing a scripture search for the phrase 'kingdom of heaven,' I noticed that it appears 33 times in the Bible. This didn't surprise me, but what did surprise me is that it is only used in the book of Matthew and nowhere else. Any ideas why this is the case? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 2, 2015 Report Share Posted December 2, 2015 Matthew uses Kingdom of Heaven most often whereas other gospel writers use Kingdom of God. Both mean the same thing. Although, some people believe Kingdom of Heaven is the political arm whereas Kingdom of God is the spiritual arm, if you study the gospels in parallel, they really are interchangeable and refers to both political and spiritual. Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience. In Jewish tradition, the name of God is to be used as little as possible for reverence, hence they use substitute words. In the case of Matthew, he uses Kingdom of Heaven more than Kingdom of God (which he uses but only on rare occasions) using Heaven as a substitute for God in deference to Jewish tradition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vort Posted December 2, 2015 Report Share Posted December 2, 2015 I was taught that the kingdom of heaven is the eternal realm of God and those who dwell with him, while the kingdom of God refers to his earthly establishment, today known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Thus, for example, little children, being innocent, are of the kingdom of heaven, but when they are baptized, they are of the kingdom of God. brrgilbert and Crypto 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 3, 2015 Report Share Posted December 3, 2015 (edited) I was taught that the kingdom of heaven is the eternal realm of God and those who dwell with him, while the kingdom of God refers to his earthly establishment, today known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Thus, for example, little children, being innocent, are of the kingdom of heaven, but when they are baptized, they are of the kingdom of God. I was taught the opposite in Catholic School. I was taught that it can be interpreted that the Kingdom of Heaven is the millennial reign - since only Matthew uses it and Jews put a lot of emphasis on the millennial reign centered in Jerusalem, whereas Kingdom of God is the eternal kingdom as the other gospel writers have more of a broad emphasis of eternity that spans beyond the importance of Jerusalem. But, it doesn't matter. Reading parallel events in Matthew in the other gospels show that Matthew uses Kingdom of Heaven in the exact same context as Kingdom of God in the other gospels. Edited December 3, 2015 by anatess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crypto Posted December 4, 2015 Report Share Posted December 4, 2015 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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