The Puzzle of the Spiritual Kingdom
“The Kingdom of God is in your heart.”
It’s a common phrase in modern Christianity. For many, the Kingdom of God is something abstract, something internal, or something to be experienced only in a far-off, post-death heaven. But when you read the Bible with fresh eyes, especially the words of Jesus and the apostles, another picture emerges: a real, physical Kingdom—on Earth. So why the disconnect?
The answer lies, in part, in the powerful influence of Gnostic and philosophical worldviews that began infiltrating Christian thought in the first few centuries after Christ. These worldviews reshaped the gospel, leading many to interpret the Bible’s concrete promises through a spiritualized, and often distorted, lens.
The Apostolic Expectation—A Kingdom on Earth
The Jewish people in Jesus’ day were waiting for the Messiah to establish God’s Kingdom on Earth. They weren’t imagining a metaphor or a disembodied paradise. They were expecting a King from David’s line to reign in Jerusalem, restore righteousness, and bring peace.
Jesus confirmed these expectations. He preached the gospel of the Kingdom (Mark 1:14-15), taught His disciples to pray for God’s Kingdom to come (Matthew 6:10), and promised the meek would inherit the Earth (Matthew 5:5). After His resurrection, the disciples still asked, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).
They weren’t wrong in their expectation—only in the timing.
Enter Gnosticism—Spirit Good, Body Bad
Gnosticism, a philosophical and religious movement that predates Christianity but gained traction in the first few centuries A.D., taught that the material world was inherently flawed or evil. Salvation, in Gnostic terms, meant escaping the physical body and ascending to a higher, spiritual realm through secret knowledge (gnosis).
This stood in stark contrast to the biblical worldview. In Genesis, God declares the material world “very good.” The God of Scripture is not trying to help us escape creation, but to redeem it. Yet as Gnosticism mingled with early Christian thought, its anti-material assumptions began to distort key doctrines.
The apostle John directly combated this when he warned against those who denied that Jesus came in the flesh (1 John 4:2-3). Paul battled early forms of Gnostic-like asceticism and dualism in his letters (Colossians 2:8-23).
Gnostic Echoes in Christian Theology
Despite the apostles’ warnings, Gnostic ideas filtered into mainstream Christian doctrine, often through philosophical reinterpretations led by early church fathers such as Origen and Augustine. Over time, this led to a reimagining of core biblical concepts:
- The Kingdom of God became primarily a spiritual reality, located in heaven or in the heart, rather than a literal future kingdom on Earth (Daniel 2:44, Revelation 11:15).
- The Resurrection was reinterpreted as purely spiritual, as an ending place for our spirit which Paul contradicts (1 Corinthians 15:1-58).
- Eternal life was framed as escaping the body to live in a non-physical heaven forever, rather than being raised as a renewed creation.
Even the doctrine of Original Sin, as articulated by Augustine, painted humanity as fundamentally depraved and creation itself as tainted—ideas that echoed Gnostic disdain for the physical. This pessimistic anthropology contributed to a gospel focused more on soul-escape than world-redemption.
The Restoration of Biblical Hope
The biblical gospel, however, is clear: Jesus will return to physical Earth to reign as King of Kings. Zechariah 14:1-4 describes His feet standing on the Mount of Olives. Revelation 5:10 declares that the saints will reign on the Earth. Romans 8:18-22 speaks of the creation itself being set free from corruption.
Jesus’ resurrection wasn’t metaphorical. He rose bodily, ate with His disciples, and ascended. Paul calls Him the “firstfruits” of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20), pointing to a future physical, bodily resurrection.
This doesn’t mean we reject the spiritual altogether—far from it. There are deeply spiritual realities at the heart of the gospel, including the present work of the Holy Spirit and the inward transformation of believers. But the spiritual should not override the physical promises that God has made. Though He is now glorified and at the right hand of the Father, the hope of the coming Kingdom of God remains rooted in the reality that our future is embodied and tangible.
This is not a gospel of escape, but of restoration.
Why It Matters
The shift from a concrete Kingdom to a cloudy one has consequences. If God’s Kingdom is only spiritual, then injustice and suffering in this world can seem irrelevant. If the resurrection is merely a formality of destination, then death does not need to be defeated. If salvation is about abandoning creation, then stewardship, justice, and hope for this world are sidelined.
But if the gospel is about God redeeming creation, restoring humanity, and establishing His Kingdom on Earth, then everything changes. The gospel becomes not just hope for our hearts, but hope for the world.
It’s time to recover that hope—and recognize the ancient distortions that blurred it.
Ryan Welsh