What Is The Kingdom Of God?

What is the Kingdom of God? Is it some spiritual thing we can only imagine in our heads? Or is it something we can see, feel, and experience for ourselves? This is an excerpt from the Extremists Liberty Bootcamp. Take the full course – for FREE – here: https://treeoflibertysociety.com/playlists/extremists-liberty-boot-camp.

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TRANSCRIPT

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What is the kingdom of God? Those are some of the ideas, right? These are the pictures that are in our minds sometimes of this utopia, kind of like the idea of where we're just in heaven for the rest of eternity, just playing harps. But that's a false idea, because it's reality. We need to understand the reality that the kingdom of God is grounded in.

And it's been on Earth throughout time. We have, of course, during the times of Adam. We have the city of Enoch. We have the beginning of the restoration of the gospel during the days of Abraham. And of course, Moses had the kingdom of God as well. And it's not just a Latter-day Saint doctrine. It's a mainstream Christian doctrine that just-- because of the craftiness of men, we've been blinded by the reality of what this is.

We find the kingdom of God mentioned, and the Latter-day Kingdom of God mentioned in the Old Testament, in the book of Daniel. And of course, we all know the story. Daniel was a prisoner. And he was known for being able to interpret dreams. And the king had his own priests that were not able to interpret his dream. And so Daniel was called to interpret the dream. And he was able to not only interpret the dream, but he was able to tell the king his dream before the king told him the dream.

And then he was able to interpret it. So in Moses chapter 2-- I mean, not Moses, Daniel chapter 2-- it says, "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." This kingdom of God shall stand forever.

"For as much as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands--" so that's that stone that we always hear about. And then the Savior himself in the New Testament talks about the kingdom of God. But it is at hand. And we see in the book of Revelation in the New Testament, this scripture in Revelation 12, it says, "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of 12 stars.

And she, being with child, cried, traveling in birth and pained to be delivered. And she brought forth a man-child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron." Again, talking about the political kingdom of God of the last days. This was a pastor and writer, Ron McKenzie, wrote this book, The Government of God, not to be confused with John Taylor's Government of God. But this mainstream Christian pastor said, "In a world where most people are fed up with their government, an announcement of a new government is good news.

The coming of a better government is extremely good news. When we first hear the expression 'government of God,' it seems odd. The thought of the government of God expanding throughout the world sounds strange to our ears. But that was Jesus's message. He announced that the government of God is near and promised that it will expand until it fills the whole earth."

This is not just something that just happens in crisis, like, OK, I'm here now, and I'm here to implement my kingdom. It is something that grows and expands while the other nations of the earth still exist and replaces those nations that do not protect liberty. So here we see the kingdom of God in Mormonism. What is the kingdom of God? The prophet Joseph Smith explained that the two, the church and the kingdom, were distinct organizations.

The church was not designed to govern men in civil matters. And the kingdom was not to affect our salvation hereafter. Two distinct, separate organizations with two distinct jobs, two distinct roles. In another instance, he explained that there is a distinction between the church of God and the kingdom of God. And it is an entire distinct and separate government. The church is a spiritual matter and a spiritual kingdom. But the kingdom which Daniel saw was not a spiritual kingdom, but was designed to be got up for the safety and salvation of the saints by protecting them in their religious rights and worship.

So again, he's distinguishing them. That the kingdom that Daniel saw is not the church, even though that is culturally what we have as a people, as just Christianity in general as well. But the people in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that the church itself is the kingdom of God. But the prophet Joseph, which was called to establish that kingdom, says no, that is not the case. These are two separate organizations.

And that continued to be taught after the death of the prophet Joseph. George Q. Cannon explained, "We have been taught from the beginning this important principle, that the church of God is distinct from the kingdom of God. In the midst of all of us who understand this matter, there is a clear distinction between the church in its ecclesiastical capacity and that which may be termed the government of God in its political capacity."

Again, these ideas have been lost over time. But the people in the early restoration understood this clearly. The kingdom of God is not the church. The kingdom of God is a political organization.