Over the years conflicting interpretations have been given to the meaning of "your kingdom come." Some have argued this is a prayer for the Second Coming of Christ and that is all -- it has nothing to do with present life. Others have seen "your kingdom come" as a call to social action and nothing else -- a mandate to bring in the kingdom now through good works. And then there are those who have seen "your kingdom come" as spiritually fulfilled in the salvation of souls. And in actuality, my view is the correct interpretation and application contains elements of all these views.
Praying "your kingdom come" does not suggest in any way that God has not been or is not presently sovereign King, that His reign is only future. "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it" [Psalm 24:1]. God is already King, and His kingdom spans the entire universe. "Your kingdom come" is a call for a new and unique manifestation of His kingdom in the future.
Yet though God is already King, His reign is also future. According to Ernst Lohmeyer, the verb "come" refers here to a decisive time in the future when the kingdom will come once and for all -- an event that will happen only once. This event is, of course, the second advent of Christ when He will return, judge the world, and set up His eternal kingdom. And this prayer is at its root a cry from the heart for the final kingdom when, under Christ's rule, our evil hearts will be finally pure, our lying and deceit, distrust and shame banished, our asylums and penitentiaries gone, and all our words and actions done to the glory of God.
In truth, men and women have longed for this since the Fall. We yearn for the time when there will be "righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" as Paul describes the kingdom [Romans 14:17]. Someone on the outside may say that such thinking is utopian, and in the general sense of the word they may be right. But it is not utopian in the strictest sense because the word utopia comes from the Greek ou [not] and topos [place], signifying an impossible dream. Yet the coming advent of the kingdom of God is as sure as any established fact of history, and in it our greatest dreams will come true!
The ultimate perfection of the kingdom can happen universally only in the eternal state, not in this world. In the nineteenth century, many Christians ignored this truth amidst the characteristic optimism of that age, when it was commonly taught that the gospel would keep spreading until the kingdom would be ushered in. But those who taught this neglected the teaching of the Mystery Parables of Matthew 13, including "the Sower" and "the Tares." Those parables demonstrate that the church and its rule will be neither universal nor perfect. But what really put an end to such un-Biblical dreams were the two World Wars and the sins of the so-called "Christian nations." All of which has led many to extreme pessimism. But in actuality, as Helmut Thielicke, the great theologian and preacher at the University of Hamburg cried out in 1945 before his church that had been reduced to ruins by the many Allied air raids, "In the world of death, in this empire of ruins and shell-torn fields we pray: 'Thy kingdom come!' We pray it more fervently than ever!" That is our ultimate hope. The kingdom is coming.
"Your kingdom come" is to be part of the ground and foundation of our prayers. We are to pray for the kingdom and eagerly await it with the same passion as Pastor Thielicke did as he stood in his worn boots amidst the rubble of 1945. The next to last verse in the book of Revelation, the final book of Scripture, says, "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus" [22:20]. This is an incredible prayer if we fully understand its ramifications. Are we bold enough to pray it?
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