The Kingdom of Heaven and Where God Is

Mat 7:21 Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father in heaven.

We have written before about the mystery of the kingdom of heaven. The term, ouranos, doesn't have the purely spiritual connotation that word has assumed over the centuries. It means literally "the heavens" in the sense of the sky and is used to indicate the universe. I personally like the idea of passing from this worldly realm to "the kingdom of the universe." It is like the idea of becoming a citizen of the world only less provincial.

We should also recognize that the term, en, translated as "in" also have a range of meanings that make the phase more interesting. It does mean "within the limits of some space," but certainly Christ was not saying that God is confined to some restricted region we call "heaven." En also means an intimate connection between things, which more accurately describes God's connection with the universe.

After all, Christ live in a time where gods were connected with specific places and regions. There were the gods of Rome, the gods of Greece, the gods of specific cities and town. In describing our God as the "Father in the universe," Christ was describing his Father as the universal God, and the Father of the universe. God the Father is the creator and sustainer of the universe as a father of the family is the creator and sustainer of the family.