Imperishable Inheritance

I was asked recently why the rest of the New Testament utilizes the phrase "kingdom of God" while the Gospel of Matthew alone uses the "kingdom of heaven." It is a good question, and a solution was proposed that "heaven" was utilized instead of "God" due the reverence held to the name of God by ethnic Jews (as Matthew was written to the ethnic Jews as an apologetic for Jesus as the Christ).

First we must establish what this phrase, which is clouded seemingly in much mystery, refers to, and George Eldon Ladd who is famous for his work on this topic elaborates:

When the word [basileia, βασιλεια] refers to God's Kingdom, it always refers to His reign, His rule, His sovereignty, and not to the realm to which it is excercised.
George Eldon Ladd, The Gospel of The Kingdom (Quoted in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, pg. 65)

Establishing that the Kingdom of God refers to Christ's sovereignty and rule is not limited to the earthly realm but over all. Now we move to rationalizing why the terms "kingdom of God" and "kingdom of heaven" are used in different contexts.

Besides the phrase, "the kingdom of God," which is found in all four Gospels (also in Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 2 Timothy) we meet with the phrase η βασιλεια των ουρανων, which is peculiar to Matthew. This phrase has been explained on the basis of the Jewish custom to use "heaven" as a substitute for the name of God, against pronouncing which scruples were entertained, and traces of which custom are found even in the New Testament.

Compare Luke 15:21; 20:4. On this view the two phrases "the kingdom of God" and "the kingdom of heaven" would be entirely equivalent. The explanation is undoubtedly correct insofar as it finds in heaven a circumlocution for God. But it is not likely that the motive which led Jesus to put the one for the other was a desire to avoid the use of the divine name as such. Heaven stands for God not as a mere conventional substitute, but adds a new element to the conception expressed by the latter. Heaven is the center of all supernatural influence that is brought to bear upon the lower world. To say that a work is done by God leaves the mode of its accomplishment undetermined; to say that it is done from heaven is the strongest possible affirmation of its strictly supernatural origin. Heaven means God in a special mode of activity; compare Daniel 2:44, 7:13; Matthew 16:17, 18: 35; Romans 1:10; 1 Corinthians 15:47; 2 Corinthians 5:1, 2. Heaven is also, as the abode of God, in relation to earth the ideal pattern to which all things here below ought to conform. In this sense to say that a thing is "of heaven" means not only that it is "of God" in general, but in that specific sense in which the heavenly realities agree with God's nature (cf. Matt. 6:10).

Finally, heaven is in the consciousness of Jesus the goal towards which every aspiration of the disciple in the kingdom ought to tend (cf. Matt. 6:19-21). It is no longer possible to determine the exact proportion in which the two phrases "kingdom of God" and "kingdom of heaven" were used by our Lord. It seems likely that Matthew most faithfully reflects the original preponderance of the latter name, and that Mark and Luke, writing for Christians from the Gentiles, made freer use of the more intelligible "kingdom of God."
Geerhardus Vos, The Kingdom of God

Do you buy Geerhardus' reasoning?