“Problem Passages”
There are a few passages which are wrongly used to teach that the
kingdom has already come. Two of which are frequently summoned. The first is
Matthew 12:27–28:
And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them
out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that
I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Remember that Jesus was responding to the unpardonable sin that the
Pharisees had just committed in attributing his works to Satan (Matt 12:24,
32). The kingdom had come upon them, meaning that it was right next to them
with the presence of the King. It could hardly mean that the Pharisees were
entering the kingdom, for Jesus soon after assured them that they will not be
forgiven in the age to come (Matt 12:32).
The second passage is the related Luke 17:20–21:
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he
answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed,
nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of
God is in the midst of you.”
Some translations read, the kingdom of God is within you. Such
a rendering does not represent the Greek clearly in modern English. In the
midst of you, is accurate and so none should think that the kingdom is
literally inside people. The Pharisees’ question may have been in response to
Jesus’ recent teaching that the kingdom had been postponed (cf. Luke 13:31–35).
Even in answering that the kingdom was in the midst of the Pharisees, in the
form of King Jesus, he still spoke of it as something yet to come. No one will
be able to observe the coming of the kingdom incrementally over an extended
period. For when the kingdom does come, it will do so suddenly. Declarations
that the kingdom has come or that it is somewhere else will be unnecessary. The
inauguration of the kingdom will be a super obvious, world-wide event. The
coming of the Son of Man will be as lightning from the east that
instantaneously shines as far as the west (Matt 24:27). Luke 17:20–21 verifies
Daniel’s prophecy of the immediacy with which the Kingdom of God arrives (Dan
2:34–35, 44).
Some passages which generically teach about a kingdom can cause
confusion, such as Colossians 1:13. The point here is of a legal transfer of
the believer from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of God’s Son. The
teaching was not aimed at establishing an already inaugurated kingdom.
Ephesians, Colossians’ sister epistle, clarifies this matter further. Believers
are seated with Jesus in the heavenly places of Christ (Eph 2:6). This is where
the saint’s citizenship resides even if he or she is not physically present
there. An American citizen would remain as such while he or she sojourned in
another country for a season. Members of the Body are ambassadors for Christ (2
Cor 5:20), representing his kingdom, which is not of this world (John 18:36).
Still other verses can cause confusion because their context is
overlooked; such is the case with Revelation 1:6. This verse too speaks of a
positional place in the coming kingdom. Revelation 5:10 also teaches that the
saints have been made into a kingdom of priests unto God, adding that they will
reign upon the earth. The time of rule within the kingdom is still future.
Passages that are unclear on a subject should be governed by those passages
that speak directly to the topic. This basic rule of hermeneutics is especially
true when applied to the Kingdom of God. The few murky passages are easily
understood in light of the clear ones. And there are many more, not covered
here, that speak of the kingdom as something still to come (e.g., 1 Cor 6:9;
Gal 5:21; Eph 5:5). (Matthew Bryce Ervin, One Thousand Years with Jesus: The
Coming Messianic Kingdom [Eugene, Oreg.: Resource Publications, 2017], 41-42)
