It has been taught by some teachers that the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God are the same. We are going to take a look at these two Kingdoms to see what God's Word says. Before we dive into the specific verses that talk about these two Kingdoms, let's take a cursory glance to see if they offer any clues. Heaven is a physical place. In the Bible, there are three heavens: the sky, space, and where God dwells.
The sky is called a heaven in many places in the Bible. The psalmist said "who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains?" (147:8)
Space is called a heaven as well. Psalm 8:3 says "when I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained".
Heaven is also the place where God resides. "The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in Heaven: His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men" (Psalm 11:4).
This would imply that this Kingdom would also be physical.
God is a spirit. This is found in John 4:24 when Jesus said "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
This would imply that the Kingdom of God is spiritual as well.
The Kingdom of Heaven appears 33 times in the Bible while the Kingdom of God appears 70 times. Additionally, the Kingdom of Heaven is only found in the Gospel of Matthew. The Kingdom of God can be found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Colossians, and 2 Thessalonians. Notice that in the Gospel of Matthew, both Kingdoms are mentioned.
So without exploring any of the verses about the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven, it already appears that there are some differences. However, to truly understand if these two Kingdoms differ, we need to look at the verses to see what they say.
In John 3:3, Jesus said that only a person that is born again can see the Kingdom of God. Two verses later, He said "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God". We know from Hebrews 9:23 and 24 that there is a physical and spiritual parallel. Could it be that the Kingdom of Heaven is the physical and the Kingdom of God is the spiritual? The Apostle Paul explains in his epistles that "the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 14:17) and later he stated "now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 15:50). Finally, look at Luke 17:20-21 "and when He was demanded of the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said, the Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you."
According to the Bible, the Kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom. Also, notice that only people that are saved are in the Kingdom of God. It wasn't until after the cross that the Holy Spirit was given permanently (Acts 2:1-4, 10:44-45; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 1:13, 4:30). No person can enter the Kingdom of God unless they accept Jesus' finished work on the cross (Rom. 10:9-10, 1 Cor. 15:1-4). That is why Jesus said in Luke 7:28 "for I say unto you, among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he". Why? Because "blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity..." (Psalm 32:1-2). When we are saved, God no longer sees our sin! He only sees Jesus' finished work on the cross! Paul wrote "there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus..." (Rom. 8:1) and "for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3). Being born again is spiritual. Being sealed by the Holy Spirit is spiritual.
Again, I want to point out that the Kingdom of Heaven is only found in the Gospel of Matthew. The reason for this is quite simple. Each Gospel focused on a different aspect of Jesus. In the Gospel of Mark, the supernatural power of Jesus was showcased as this book had the most verses about Him healing the sick and casting out demons (23 verses). The Gospel of Luke focused on Jesus being the Son of Man and his teachings (34 verses). The Gospel of John, the Apostle's focus is on His deity; that He is the Son of God (11 verses).
The Gospel of Matthew's primary focus was to show that the King had come. The Messiah was there and could have set up His Kingdom. However, the Jewish leadership did not want to accept Jesus as the Messiah (Matt. 23:13). All four Gospels show that the Jewish leadership was filled with pride. This pride blinded them to the prophecies showing that the Messiah would first come as a lamb before He came as a lion. It blinded them to the fact that He would fulfill the laws and prophecies in the Tanakh before He would reign. The Pharisees taught that the Messiah would free the Jewish people from their Gentile oppression and set up His kingdom, but ignored being freed from their oppression from sin.
The first time that the Kingdom of Heaven is mentioned is in Matthew 3:2. Chapter three starts off with John the Baptist preaching repentance "for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand". He was fulfilling the prophecy given by Isaiah "the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God" (40:3). Later in Matthew 21, Jesus told two of the disciples that they would find a donkey in Bethphage for Him to ride on when they entered into Jerusalem. This would fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 which said "rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass". Once Jesus entered Jerusalem, He went to the Temple and cleared it out. "And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves" (Matt. 21:13). Jesus called the Temple HIS house. He did this to not only show that He is God, but also because He would physically reign in Jerusalem (Jer. 3:17, Zech, 14:16-17).
In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus described the justice system in the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew 5:29 says "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into Hell". Can an eye sin? If so, that would contradict the rest of Scripture that says that sin comes from within (Ecc. 9:3, Jer. 17:9, Matt. 15:18-19). Jesus said that if a man even looks lustfully upon a person that isn't their spouse, that they have committed adultery one verse earlier in Matthew 5:28. Clearly, it isn't the body part that is capable of sinning. Sin is a spiritual act that takes on a physical manifestation. So what is Jesus saying in this verse? We have to read this verse and the next verse carefully.
"And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into Hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into Hell." - Matthew 5:29-30
Let's start with the punishment. Can a person's whole body be cast into Hell? Presently, no. When a person that hasn't accepted Jesus dies, their soul goes to Hell. Their body remains in the ground. Look at Revelation 20:11-15
"And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and Hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
The Great White Throne judgement takes place AFTER the Millennial Kingdom (Rev. 20:5)! So if the Kingdom of Heaven and God are the same thing, then there is a problem because the Bible is clear that an unsaved person's body only goes into the grave and the Lake of Fire. So how could a person be cast fully into Hell since Hell and the Lake of Fire are clearly different? The answer is quite simple: it is the punishment for sin during the Millennial Kingdom. Since Jesus was talking about the Kingdom of Heaven here, and the rest of the New Testament refers to this period as the 1,000 year reign Christ (2 Tim. 4:1, Rev. 20:3-7), it becomes quite evident that the Millennial Kingdom and the Kingdom of Heaven are the same physical kingdom.
Jesus was saying that in His kingdom (The Kingdom of Heaven/Millennial Kingdom) that there will be a short period for repentance. If a person does not repent, they will be cast into Hell alive.
As stated in the introduction, it is commonly taught that the two Kingdoms are the same. As we can see that is definitely not the case.Where the confusion lies is in the following verses:
Matthew 11:11-12 and Luke 7:28
Matthew 13:11 and Mark 4:11 and Luke 8:10
Matthew 13:24 and Mark 4:26
Matthew 13:31 and Mark 4:30 and Luke 13:18
Matthew 13:33 and Luke 13:20-21
If a person only looks at these verses, then yes, the two Kingdoms are interchangeable. However, when "rightly dividing the Word of Truth" (2 Tim. 2:15), the order of events looks like this for a Christian in the Church Age:
A person accepts Jesus (Rom. 10:9-10)
The Holy Spirit dwells within them making them a part of the Kingdom of God (Rom. 8:9)
The Christian returns with Christ and rules with Him in the Kingdom of Heaven (Rev. 20:6)
Because a saved person has the Holy Spirit within them, during the Millennial reign they will be a part of both the Kingdom of God (spiritual) and the Kingdom of Heaven (physical).