Intermediate Period or Kingdom of Heaven?

Dr. Couch, some say that Matthew 13, and the parables of the kingdom, is about the intermediate period between Christ's ascension until the rapture of the church. But I understand you and some other well-thinking Bible scholars point out that Matthew 13 is really about the Kingdom of Heaven and not about anything going on now in the church age. Is this right? ANSWER:  I have argued for years that if we keep our hermeneutics straight, we will not say these parables are having anything to do with the true church age. I am right, and those who take another view "have the right to be wrong!" Matthew 13 is about the kingdom of heaven, not about the church age. So says also the great Dr. William Pettingill who taught years ago at Moody Bible Institute, where I also taught after leaving graduate school.    On Matthew 13 Dr. Pettingill wrote: "It ought to be noted here that the Church is not in view in all this, nor is the Church Dispensation the 'Age' so often referred to. It is the Jewish Age, which has been interrupted by the parenthetical Church Dispensation. The Jewish Age is not yet finished, nor will it be until the Church is removed from the earth."    Matthew 13 is telling us about the preview of things to come in setting up the kingdom period, that is, the Millennial Age, "the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 13 is about a false spiritual period that unfortunately is sometimes labeled "Christian." Sometimes the present days are labeled "Christian civilization, Christian institutions, Christian countries, Christian governments, or simply Christendom."    But actually, Matthew 13 is pointing toward the coming kingdom of heaven, and that is what this chapter is mainly about!    Thanks for asking.    Dr. Mal Couch (Jan., 10)