The Kingdom of God is Tomorrow. This is not meant to encourage you to adopt the slogan of the grasshopper as your own: "Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?" Remember our basic description of the Kingdom of God? It is basically the rule of God; or divine sovereignty in action. It is helpful, however, to remember that God's reign is manifested in several realms, and the Gospels speak of entering into the Kingdom of God both today and tomorrow. There is both a future realm and a present realm in which men may experience the blessings of God's reign. For the moment, we are going to focus on the future realm.
It is a clear teaching of the New testament that God's will (and the accompanying enjoyment of blessings) is not to be perfectly realized in this realm. Central to Biblical Theology is the doctrine of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This doctrine, and what Scripture says what must transpire on planet Earth before the Lord's return is central the ministry of Encouragement for End-Times Endurance http://www.endtimesencouragement.com/ Just as there are two advents of Christ, one in the flesh which we call the Incarnation, and the other in glory, which may be called the Parousia, so there are two manifestations of God's Kingdom: one which is present now because God's Son has appeared among men, and one in power and glory when Christ returns. For now we will look at the final realization of God's Kingdom in the realm "beyond history"
Properly understood, the Bible does not present a view of time, and then eternity. The Bible really presents the linear concept of eternity simply as unending time. There are two Greek word in the New Testament translated by the single English word "world." The first is kosmos, which in its most common usage means the world as the sum and total of everything constituting an orderly universe. (Oscar Cullmann, Christ and Time, S.C.M. Press, London, 1951). The other Greek word translated "world" is aion, which is better translated "age" as in a period of time. The entire sweep of man's existence is set forth in terms of this age and the age which is to come.
In Ephesians 1:21, Paul speaks of the exaltation of Christ, not only in this age (aion) but in the age to come. The blessing eternal life Christ speaks of for those who have left earthly comforts for His sake will come in the age to come. Over and over the New Testament speaks of two different ages, separated by the Second Coming of Christ and the First Resurrection. This present age will end with the Parousia and it will be followed by the age to come. In Luke 20:34-36 Jesus speaks of "those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead...." Reading through the passage you discover that in this age, marriage is a necessary (and honorable) institution, but that a different state of affairs will exist in the age to come. The "sons of the resurrection" will be immortal, and thus this present age will be separated from the age to come will be separated by the First Resurrection.
We read that Christ "gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father," (Galatians 1:4). A more detailed presentation to the order of this present evil age is given in Ephesians 2:1-2, and all believers once walked in accordance with this order. The New Testament is full of non-exhaustive lists describing our attitudes and activities as we walked in ways displeasing to God. For example: "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God." (Galatians 5:19-21).
Whew! Is there any hope of inheriting the Kingdom of God; is there any hope of ever entering it? I know this is rather a down place to stop; but I promise you: It is not the end of the story. Please keep in mind that the title of this blog series is "The Gospel (good news) of the Kingdom. So stay tuned..........
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