Kingdom of Heaven

The lesson of this sermon was meant to be that we all need Christ's help to gain access to the kingdom of heaven.

Welles is a defining inspiration for Ridley Scott, who is best known for monumentally scaled historical epics like “Gladiator” and “Kingdom of Heaven.”

But its efforts have also exposed significant cracks on the road to Christian dominion that could derail the goal of building the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

Many who invoke the language of Matthew 11:12, that “the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force,” are wrongly conflating it with the war narrative in the book of Joshua, Gagné says.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” becomes “W to those who catch hands for being valid, for they will not be left on read by God.”