I’ve mentioned the problems with the popular Christian view on heaven and the Kingdom of God before. A blog I regularly browse mentions the same topic. The blog is Christswords.com, and I’ve found it very impressive and insightful every time I’ve been there. Here is his post on the Kingdom of Heaven, the emphasis is mine:
Did Christ refer to the the afterlife as “the kingdom of heaven?” Was he describing the community of Christians? Or was he describing our increasing understanding of the natural, social, and personal nature and the healing of the divisions within them?
There are several statements that Christ made that seem to indicate that the “kingdom of heaven” is not merely the afterlife or the Christian community, but the entire social order of the world as established by God. For example, Christ said: Mat 11:12 “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”
He asks,
How does this statement make any sense of the kingdom of heaven is the afterlife or the community of believers?
Also, if Christ was referring to the afterlife, how can the afterlife change in the way that Christ describes the kingdom of heaven? How can it start small and grow like a mustard see? How does it get mixed through everything like the dough?
