Kingdom and Consummation in Revelation

Sanghui Lee

In Revelation 20:2-7, it is observed that the whole scene of how the millennial kingdom

starts and finished. Is this passage showing the consummation of the kingdom of God? Before

getting into the question, the term, ‘kingdom’ should be defined first. What is ‘kingdom’? The

word for ‘kingdom’ is ‫( מַ לְ כּות‬malkuth) in Hebrew and βασιλεία (basileia) in Greek. Both words

often are translated as “kingship,” “realm,” “reign,” and “kingdom.”1 Alva J. McClain

introduces a helpful way to understand ‘kingdom.’ He suggests three essential elements of

‘kingdom’: “first, a ruler with adequate authority and power; second, a realm of subjects to be

ruled; and third, the actual exercise of the function of rulership.”2 J. Dwight Pentecost explains

this in almost the same way. ‘Kingdom’ includes “the right to rule, a realm in which ruling

authority is exercised, and the reality of that authority actually being exercised.”3 He also points

out, “essential to the word kingdom is the actual exercise of authority in a realm over which one

has the sovereign right to rule. If the exercise of authority is not in view, the concept of kingdom

is not present.”4 In light of this word study, McClain defines the kingdom of God as “the rule of

God over His creation.”5

In the Old Testament, the kingdom of God is an overarching concept to understand the

Bible in a wholistic way. Four biblical covenants cohesively attest to the significance of the

1
Ludwig Köhler et al., eds. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden, The
Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1994), 2:592, Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other
Early Christian Literature, ed. Frederick William Danker, trans. William Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, 3rd ed.
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 269, hereafter, BDAG.
2
Alva J. McClain, The Greatness of the Kingdom: An Inductive Study of the Kingdom of God (Winona
Lake, IN: BMH Books, 1959), 17.
3
J. Dwight Pentecost, Thy Kingdom Come: Tracing God’s Kingdom Program and Covenant Promises
Throughout History (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1990), 18.
4
Ibid., 14.
5
McClain, The Greatness of the Kingdom, 18.

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kingdom of God, indicating plans and details of both the kings and King of God’s kingdom. The

Noahic covenant promised stability of nature so God’s kingdom purposes could pan out in

history (Gen 8:21–22). The Abrahamic covenant guaranteed a seed line involving Abraham and

the developing people of Israel, which would be the vehicle and means for blessing the people

groups of the world (Gen 12:2–3). This covenant promised a land for Israel (Gen 12:6–7) that

would serve as the basis for God’s earthly kingdom rule and as a microcosm of what God would

do for all nations (Isa 2:2–4; 27:6). The Davidic covenant directly discussed the role of David

and his descendants in establishing God’s kingdom on earth, which would bless both Israel and

the Gentiles (2 Sam 7:12–19). The new covenant revealed God’s plans to enable his people to

love and serve him through a new heart and the indwelling Holy Spirit (Jer 31:31–34; Ezek

38:26–27). Based on these covenants, the prophets during the captivity, foretold of the kingdom

under the Messiah in the latter days (Isa 2:2–4). These prophecies gave Messianic hope that the

rule of God over His creation is fully reestablished by the Messiah and He would bring physical

and material prosperity for Israel and the nations.

Now, when the era of the New Testament dawned. Jesus started His earthly ministry by

proclaiming the kingdom of heaven, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 4:17).

Did he mean the same kingdom that the Old Testament speaks of, or something different?

There are different views for this question. Two of them will be introduced. The first

view is an ‘already/not yet’ kingdom view. George Eldon Ladd summarizes well this view,

stating, “for Jesus, the Kingdom of God was the dynamic rule of God which had invaded history

in his own person and mission to bring men in the present age the blessings of the messianic age,

and which would manifest itself yet again at the end of the age to bring this same messianic

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salvation to its consummation.”6 In other words, the David/Messianic kingdom is already

inaugurated by Jesus death and resurrection but the full manifestation or consummation of the

kingdom is still in the future with His second coming.

The other view is one-kingdom millennial view. This view holds that “the kingdom

announced by our Lord and offered to the nation of Israel at His first coming was identical with

the Mediatorial Kingdom of Old Testament prophecy, and will be established on earth at the

second coming of the King.”7 In other words, Jesus meant the prophesized kingdom of the Old

Testament in all its dimensions in his proclamation. So, in this view, the kingdom of God is not

consummated in the future as if it was an unfinished work. Rather, the kingdom of God just

comes in its fullness when Jesus returns. This view seems to be the best understanding for the

following reasons.

First, those who advocate the spiritualized kingdom or the ‘already/not yet’ kingdom

seems to indicate that there has been reinterpretation or transcendence of the Old Testament

expectation. N. T. Wright argues, “Jesus spent His whole ministry redefining what the kingdom

meant. He refused to give up the symbolic language of the kingdom, but filled it with such a new

content that, as we have seen, he powerfully subverted Jewish expectations.” The New

Testament never redefines, reinterprets or transcends what the Old Testament already revealed.

Rather, the New Testament should be understood in terms of progressive revelation.

Second, it is noteworthy that Jesus, and John the Baptist for the same matter, did not give

any new details and redefinition of the kingdom. Herman Ridderbos properly points out that “the

kingdom of heaven was not unknown to those to whom this message was addressed, but was

6
George Eldon Ladd, Jesus and the Kingdom: the Eschatology of Biblical Realism (London: S.P.C.K.,
1966), 303.
7
McClain, The Greatness of the Kingdom, 275.

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rather calculated to find an immediate response with them.”8 This should lead readers to

understand the kingdom of heaven as the one proclaimed by the Old Testament prophets.

Otherwise, either John the Baptist or Jesus would have explained something additional that

complements or revises the concept of the kingdom of God. McClain rightly concludes, “the

very lack of any formal definition in the teaching of Christ, instead of raising any conjectures,

should have sent the investigators to the prophets of the Old Testament.”9

Some might still argue that since the saved are having fellowship with God now as the

citizens of the heaven, the kingdom should be at least already inaugurated. However, it is one

thing to say that the kingdom is already inaugurated and another thing to say that Christians are

already experiencing the blessings of the new covenant and the future coming kingdom. The

covenants that God made with Israel had always both physical and spiritual aspects. Now the

spiritual aspect is something that the believers are experiencing. David Farnell states in

explaining Colossians 1:14, “While believers have been transferred to citizenship in the future

kingdom, they also experience spiritual blessings while they await its appearance.”10

Therefore, it is best understood that Revelation 20:2-7 shows the coming kingdom of

God, not the consummation of God. Believers are able to experience the spiritual blessings under

the authority of Jesus now. When the kingdom of God arrives in the future, they will experience

the physical aspect of the kingdom as well.

8
Herman N. Ridderbos, The Coming of the Kingdom (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co.,
1962), 3.
9
McClain, The Greatness of the Kingdom, 280.
10
F. David Farnell, “The Kingdom of God in the New Testament,” in The Master’s Seminary Journal 23
(2012): 206.