This Article: (5 Pages)
1) Jesus' View of the Kingdom
For any Christian the the most well known prayer is that of Jesus, the Messiah, when he taught his disciples to pray. This prayer, so familiar to adults and taught to very young children, can easily lose its significance when it is repeated without conscious thought being given to the words being uttered. Take a very close look at the opening phrases.
“Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
There are two very significant statements related to the beliefs of those who follow Jesus in the opening of this prayer.
Firstly, the actions of those who follow Jesus actively “hallow” or make holy the Name of the Creator, which is 'Yahweh' (Refer to Names Divinely Appointed.)
The second concept, is that a kingdom must yet come, and, in that Kingdom, God will have absolute power on Earth, as He has now in Heaven. This prayer admits that at the time Jesus prayed, God did not have absolute power on Earth, as people had free will to disobey God. The Kingdom Jesus followers are to pray for has not yet come as still today people can disobey God. We are yet to see the time when God's intent and laws are carried out on Earth perfectly by all humans. Jesus asks his disciples to pray for God's total active control of the political and religious society of this Earth. This is what Jesus means when he refers to the Kingdom of God.
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