What Does “Your Kingdom Come” Mean in “the Lord’s Prayer”?

Last updated on: October 30, 2014 at 2:36 pm by Kermit Zarley

What Does “Your Kingdom Come” Mean in “the Lord’s Prayer”? 2014-10-30T14:36:07-07:00 Kermit Zarley

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According to the gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus taught his disciples how to pray. This model prayer has been popularly called “the Lord’s Prayer,” with “Lord” referring to Jesus. Both Matthew and Luke provide a similar version of it, with Luke’s being shorter (Matthew 6.9-13; Luke 11.2-4). Both prayers begin by addressing God as “Father.” That was Jesus’ favorite way of referring to God. Calling God “Father” obviously is a recognition of an relationship with God similar to what a son or a daughter would have ideally with his or her human father.

Then both Matthew and Luke relate that Jesus next told his disciples to pray to the Father, “hallowed be your name.” (I am using the New Revised Standard Version.) What is God’s name? Many Christians say it is “Father.” But the Old Testament is quite clear that the name of God is the Hebrew word YHWH or yhwh, which scholars usually translate Yahweh, Yehwah/Yehvah, or the like (e.g., Exodus 3.15). This uncertainty is due to ancient Hebrew not having vowels. It’s also because the proper pronunciation of God’s name was lost because for a few centuries Hebrew was sort of a dead language. Thus, Yahweh is God’s name, and “Father” is a title for God.

To say that God’s name is hallowed means it is holy. The word in the Greek text here is hagiazo, the verbal from of hagios, which literally means “set apart.” The meaning is that God’s name is to be reverenced by being set apart from the mundane affairs of humans. It has the same meaning as in the Ten Commandments: “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD [YHWH] your God” (Exodus 20.7).

Both Matthew and Luke then say that Jesus’ next words in this model prayer are, “Your kingdom come.” This translates the Greek text elthato e basileia sou. The verb eltheto is an aorist imperative, so that the phrase means “let your kingdom come.” It is usually assumed that this is a request that God would presently usher in his kingdom upon earth as promised in scripture. Jews have often prayed the Kaddish Prayer which includes, “may his kingdom come speedily and soon.” But what is the kingdom?

The phrase, “kingdom of God,” refers to God’s reign or rule. During at least the past two centuries, New Testament scholars argued about what Jesus meant by “the kingdom of God.” Many of Jesus’ parables about the kingdom of God obviously refer to it being present during that time. But other parables and teachings of Jesus reveal that the kingdom of God is eschatological, meaning that it will come in the future. During the latter half of the twentieth century, scholars came to a consensus about Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom of God. They agreed, and I think they were right, that it has both a present aspect, which they called “the realized kingdom,” and a future aspect, which they called “the eschatological kingdom.” Thus, the realized kingdom is spiritual which occurs in peoples’ hearts, whereas the eschatological kingdom will come with outward glory and be fully consummated at some future date.

Accordingly, Jesus could mean in his Lord’s Prayer that we are to ask God for the realized kingdom to be increasingly manifested now in our hearts. But I don’t think Jesus meant that we are to ask God for the eschatological kingdom to come now because that would conflict with certain gospel teachings of Jesus and many other biblical teachings about the endtimes. For example, Jesus taught concerning his future coming with the eschatological kingdom in great glory, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24.36; cf. Mark 13.32). Thus, Jesus here indicates that that future day is already fixed and only God foreknows it. And when the risen Jesus appeared to his disciples, Luke relates, “they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority'” (Acts 1.7). So, it is God the Father who predetermines such times, including Jesus’ coming with the eschatological kingdom. And the Apostle Paul preached at Athens that God “commands all people every where to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man”–Jesus (Acts 17.31). Thus, we ought not to pray that Jesus will return now with the eschatological kingdom of God, for that would be a failure to recognize that God has already determined when that will happen.

There are other reasons why it is improper to pray for Jesus to return now. To do so would be a failure to recognize, or believe, that the Bible predicts that certain things must happen on earth before Jesus can return with his eschatological kingdom. That things: the temple rebuilt at Jerusalem (2 Thessalonians 2.4; Revelation 11.1), the apostasy (Matthew 24.12; 2 Thess 2.3), the rise of the final Antichrist (“little horn” of Daniel 7.8, 20-22; 8.9-12, 23; 2 Thess 2.3; 1 John 2.18; Rev 13), the regular sacrifice removed and “the abomination of desolation” set up in its place in the Jerusalem temple (Dan 8.11-14; 9.27; 11.31; 12.11; Matt 24.14; Mark 13.14), and the great tribulation that Christians must suffer when the Antichrist declares war on them and conquer them (Dan 7.21, 25; 8.24; 11.32-35; 12.7; Rev 12.17; 13.7). These and many other prophecies must be fulfilled before Jesus can return with his consummated, glorious kingdom.

So, it is right to pray “Your kingdom come” referring to the realized kingdom being manifested more in our lives. And it is right to use that phrase in the Lord’s Prayer as meaning a recognition that the eschatological kingdom will come in the future according to God’s plan, and then God’s will will be done as it is in heaven. But to pray that Jesus comes now with the eschatological kingdom is a failure to understand God’s prophetic word as set forth in scripture.

(For more information, see my website stillherebooks.com and view two lists of such prophecies there.)

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