God in Christianity

=== Kingship and Kingdom ===
{{Main article|Kingdom of God (Christianity)}}
[[File:Gottvater thronend Westfalen 15 Jh.jpg|thumb|upright|God the Father on a throne, [[Westphalia]], Germany, late 15th century]]
The Christian characterization of the relationship between God and humanity involves
the notion of the "Kingship of God", whose origins go back to the Old Testament, and may be seen as a consequence of the creation of the world by God.<ref name=Image478/><ref name=Mercer490>''Mercer Dictionary of the Bible'' by Watson E. Mills, Edgar V. McKnight and Roger A. Bullard (1 May 2001) {{ISBN|0865543739}} page 490</ref> The "enthronement psalms" ([[Psalms]] [[wikisource:Bible (American Standard)/Psalms#45|45]], [[wikisource:Bible (American Standard)/Psalms#93|93]], [[wikisource:Bible (American Standard)/Psalms#96|96]],
[[wikisource:Bible (American Standard)/Psalms#97|97–99]]) provide a background for this view with the exclamation "The Lord is King".<ref name=Image478/> However, in later Judaism a more "national" view was assigned to God's Kingship in which the awaited Messiah may be seen as a liberator and the founder of a new state of Israel.<ref>''Encyclopedia of Theology: A Concise Sacramentum Mundi'' by Karl Rahner (28 December 2004) {{ISBN|0860120066}} page 1351</ref>

The term "Kingdom of God" does not appear in the Old Testament, although "his Kingdom" and "your Kingdom" are used in some cases when referring to God.<ref>''Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible'' by Kevin J. Vanhoozer, N. T. Wright, Daniel J. Treier and Craig Bartholomew (20 Jan 2006) {{ISBN|0801026946}} page 420</ref> However, the Kingdom of God (the Matthean equivalent being "[[Kingdom of heaven (Gospel of Matthew)|Kingdom of Heaven]]") is a prominent phrase in the [[Synoptic Gospels]] (appearing 75 times), and there is near unanimous agreement among scholars that it represents a key element of the teachings of Jesus.<ref name=Image478>''Dictionary of Biblical Imagery'' by Leland Ryken, James C. Wilhoit and Tremper Longman III (11 November 1998) {{ISBN|0830814515}} pages 478–479</ref><ref name=FranceK1/> Yet, [[R. T. France]] points out that while the concept of "Kingdom of God" has an intuitive meaning to lay Christians, there is hardly any agreement among scholars about its meaning in the New Testament.<ref name=FranceK1>''Divine Government: God's Kingship in the Gospel of Mark'' by [[R. T. France]] (10 Mar 2003) {{ISBN|1573832448}} pages 1–3</ref> Some scholars see it as a Christian lifestyle, some as a method of world evangelization, some as the rediscovery of charismatic gifts, others relate it to no present or future situation, but the [[world to come]].<ref name=FranceK1/> France states that the phrase Kingdom of God is often interpreted in many ways to fit the theological agenda of those interpreting it.<ref name=FranceK1/>