The kingdom of God is such a big subject that there are multiple ways to consider it.
The Revs. Roy Smith and John McLemore say Heaven is certainly the core of the kingdom, but it also includes the earth, the universe and everything in them.
To the question of whether it contains worlds as yet unknown to mankind, neither minister rejects the idea.
“I think of it in two aspects, the eternal kingdom that will come and the one on earth that’s being developed now,” the Rev. Smith said. “There will be a continued learning, always knowing God better, for those who inherit the kingdom.
“We will see things that our eyes have never seen and hear things that our ears have not heard before.”
True Lite Christian Fellowship pastor in Midland expects an array of colors unlike anything now visible. “I think it will be mind-blowing,” he said.
“We can guess at it as far as our minds can take us, but I think it will go far beyond anything we have ever seen before.”
Asked about other worlds, Smith said, “I can never rule it out because God is the creator of all things.
“I think there will be things that we have no clue about now as we sit on this little planet in the middle of the universe.”
He said another dimension is the kingdom that God can build inside a man’s or woman’s mind through faith in Jesus Christ. “We can expand the idea of who God is more clearly from our hearts than we can from our minds,” Smith said.
The Rev. McLemore, pastor of Belmont Baptist Church in Odessa, agreed that more is unknown about Heaven than is presently known from its descriptions in Revelation and other parts of the Bible.
“I hear people all the time say, ‘When I get to Heaven I will do this or that,’ but they don’t know,” he said. “Show me in the Bible where it says we will get to ask God why people get sick.
“I don’t know the mind of God and I’m not going to get to. Science hasn’t shown me anything yet of other worlds or civilizations, but there could be if God wanted them to be there.”
McLemore said the Bible “is just our basic instructions before leaving earth.
“It lays out the path for becoming citizens of the sinless environment of Heaven,” he said. Asked if people often think they know more about the Bible than they do, McLemore said, “Sure, they like to validate what they believe by saying, ‘This is what the Bible says.’
“But where does it say God helps those who help themselves? It doesn’t.
“The kingdom of Heaven is exclusively for those who believe in Jesus. It’s not for the morally correct or the great folks. There will be a lot of great folks who don’t make it if they have not accepted Jesus Christ by faith in his death, burial and resurrection and have not asked him to be their savior.”
