Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Chapter 6 - The "Kingdom" of God - Summary

The poor and the oppressed play a major role in the coming of the kingdom of God. It is early pointed out that the deaf, dumb, blind, lame, poor, broken-hearted, captives, and down trodden are in need of great liberation in the form of healing, restoring sight and hearing, bringing joy, setting free, proclaiming liberty or favor, and bringing of the good news. The "good news", or gospel, that Jesus brought to the poor and oppressed was a prophecy of a future event that would be a blessing to the poor. This prohecy we recognize in the Beatitudes:
  • Blessed are the poor, because yours is the Kingdom of God.
  • Blessed are you who are hungry now, because you shall be satisfied.
  • Blessed are you who weep now, because you shall laugh. Continues (Lk 6:20-21)
Heaven in those times was taken in a literal sense to mean the sky, and figuratively was a synonym for God. People did not understand the concept of going to heaven after death, all that was known was the thought of the sheol , or grave/underworld. The Kingdom of God cannot be found in any one person, but should be thought of as a place in which a person can live. People enter or don' t enter into it, and it is not of this world. The Kingdom was thought to be a politically structured society for people on earth because Jesus condemned all political and social structures of his time and said that they belonged to Satan. It is like a house in the way in which it cannot stand if it divided. With the coming of the Kingdom comes the elimination of evil because God will replace Satan and bring good to all of humanity.
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1 comment:

  1. markpFebruary 25, 2009 at 4:05 PM

    In this chapter Jesus explains how after death you live eternally in heaven with God. It shows how in heaven everyone become perfect and even our biggest flaws are corrected. "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed, the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy." (Isiah 35:5-6). If our faith in God is strong he will reward us strongly in heaven. The former belief was that after death the dead go into sheol, the underworld. But Jesus came and explained that after death you go to heaven or "The Kingdom of God" where God and all rewarded spirits dwell. It helps to explain the true significance and greatness of the afterlife in the Kingdom of God.

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