I've been slowly working on some "credos" for myself, brief statements of belief about particular topics. None of them are set in concrete and I continue to be open to growth and evolution about my beliefs. But here is my current work-in-progress on what I believe about the Kingdom of God. You can find other Credos here.

When most people hear "Kingdom of God" or "Kingdom of Heaven," they think of the afterlife. They think of where you go when you die. They think of clouds, harps, and a gated community in the sky.

That's not what Jesus was talking about. Not even close.

I believe that the Kingdom of God was the central message of Jesus—not a footnote, not a side topic, not a metaphor for heaven after death. When Jesus launched his public ministry, the first thing out of his mouth was an announcement:

"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."—Mark 1:15

That word "good news"—euangelion—wasn't a religious word. It was an empire word. It was the term used to announce a new emperor's ascension to power, or a military victory. Jesus co-opted the propaganda language of Rome to declare that a different kind of power had arrived. A different empire. Not Caesar's reign—God's.

I believe that Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom of God. He didn't just predict it or point to it off in the distance. He brought it. When challenged by the Pharisees about when it would come, he said:

"The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you."—Luke 17:20-21

And when he cast out demons, he said it plainly:

"If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you."—Matthew 12:28

Not will come. Has come. Upon you. Right now.

I believe the Kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God—the range of God's effective will, the place where what God wants done is done. Dallas Willard put it this way:

"The Gospel of Jesus is that life in the Kingdom is available to us now. We can experience the Kingdom and live in it by placing our confidence in Jesus."

This is not about waiting. It's not about evacuation from the earth. It's about a present reality breaking into the world as we know it.

I believe that the Kingdom of God carries a now-and-not-yet quality. Jesus inaugurated it, but it isn't fully consummated. We live in the overlap—the kingdom is here, and it is still coming. George Eldon Ladd's scholarship shaped much of my thinking on this tension, and N.T. Wright has brought it forward into our generation with relentless clarity: the gospels tell the story of God becoming king, not the story of how to leave earth for heaven.

When Jesus sent his disciples out on mission, he didn't tell them to go save souls for the afterlife. He told them to announce what was already happening:

"The kingdom of God has come near to you."—Luke 10:9

When Jesus blessed the poor, he didn't say the kingdom would be theirs someday. He said:

"Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."—Luke 6:20

Present tense.

When he told his followers that some standing before him would see the Kingdom in their lifetime (Luke 9:27), he wasn't lying or mistaken. He was telling the truth. They would—and did—see the in-breaking of God's reign.

I believe that the Kingdom of God is something like a fourth dimension—a reality layered into and over the world we can see and measure. It's not somewhere else. It's here, accessible from wherever you are, if you have eyes to see it. The heavens and the earth are not two separate locations; they overlap and interlock, and Jesus is the one in whom that overlap has become Christ-shaped and Christ-sized.

I believe the prayer Jesus taught us—"thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven"—is not a prayer for escape from the world but a prayer for the transformation of it. It is the most dangerous prayer in history, because it asks God to make this place look like that place. It asks for earth to be renovated by heaven.

I believe the church is meant to be an embassy of the Kingdom of God here on earth—what Eugene Peterson called "a colony of heaven in a country of death." Wright describes the church as a "small working model" of God's rule and reign. To be "citizens of heaven," from a first-century perspective, did not mean we all hope to return to heaven when we die. It meant we are ambassadors of a kingdom, implementing its values and its justice right where we are. The colony doesn't long to go back to the capital. The colony brings the capital's culture to its current location.

This should not be confused with dominionism or Christian nationalism, which attempt to impose God's reign through violence and coercion—the very thing Jesus warned about:

"From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been suffering violence, and the violent have been seizing it by force."—Matthew 11:12

The Kingdom of God is an upside-down kingdom, where the poor and oppressed are lifted up, where violence is eschewed, where swords and spears are turned into plowshares. It is not seized by force. It is entered through trust, humility, and the willingness to have your categories of power completely overturned.

I believe that the Kingdom of God is not only about rule but about kinship. The late Latina theologian María Isasi-Díaz reframed the Kingdom as the "kin-dom" of God—a word that traded the connotations of monarchy and domination for the language of family, mutuality, and liberation. As Melissa Florer-Bixler wrote about Isasi-Díaz's work:

"Liberation is found not in hope deferred to another world, to life after death, but what can be created now."

Isasi-Díaz dedicated her life to mujerista theology, insisting that God's libertad—liberation—emerges from opening up space where love invites us into kinship, where the table grows. The "kin-dom" reminds us that the Kingdom is not a top-down hierarchy but a family-shaped reality where the last are first and everyone has a seat.

I believe the Kingdom of God is a reality we can live in today. Not perfectly. Not fully. But really. It is not a destination after death—it is a way of life before death. It is what happens when people trust Jesus enough to actually do what he said, when communities embody the justice, mercy, and love that characterize God's reign.

I believe the Kingdom of God is good news—the best news—and it is the announcement that Jesus Christ is Lord, and Caesar is not. It is the gospel. Not a gospel of evacuation, but of renovation. Not "God is going to get you out of here," but "God is going to make all things new"—starting now, starting here, starting with me.

Scripture references: Mark 1:15, Matthew 11:12, Matthew 12:28, Luke 6:20, Luke 9:27, Luke 10:9, Luke 11:20, Luke 17:20-21, Matthew 6:10.

My understanding of the Kingdom of God is deeply informed by the work of N.T. Wright, Dallas Willard, and George Eldon Ladd.