Is that the total Kingdom? In it's entirety? Full-blown, complete, nothing lacking? ~ nobdysfool
In a word: NO! When the Lord returns at the end of this age, He is going to have all things that offend cast into the furnace of fire. Then the righteous will inherit the kingdom of our Father that was prepared for us from the foundation of the world.
Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
And in a word: YES! Right now, I have eternal life. I shall never die. The second death has no power over me.
Jesus said..., "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
I live and reign with Christ right now:
even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
I think you're talking Jesus' words to an extreme here, trying to have Him make an all-inclusive pronouncement when what He was doing was pointing out that by casting out devils, He was bringing the benefit of the Kingdom of God, in His person and authority, to those who experienced and witnessed the event. ~ nobdysfool
Ahem! What does the text literally say?
Mat 12:28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.
Does the verse literally say that if you see this sign then the kingdom of God is come unto us?
Does the verse literally say that if the Lord casts out devils he must first bind the strong man Satan?
Does the verse literally say that if you see this sign then the kingdom of God is come unto us? Does the verse literally say that if the Lord casts out devils he must first bind the strong man Satan?
Yes, they do say that, precisely. But the first one DOES NOT say that ALL of the Kingdom of God has come unto us, and the second DOES NOT say that the binding of the Strong Man is the same as Rev 20:1-3
You base your reading of that solely on the idea of binding. You see "bind the strong man", and you think, "Hmmm..Rev, 20 says that Satan will be bound, so that must be the same thing". Pretty lame if you ask me.
That's the problem here...you are reading into these verses your own view, the same way you accuse me of reading into Rev. 20 what I want to see. I also notice that you tag-team...I started out talking to Jean, and now suddenly I'm talking to CC...Who's next? the _doc? Or maybe jude24?
This is the weak spot in your Amil theology...the idea that the full Kingdom is already come, and that Satan is already bound per Rev. 20, and you have not one shred of real evidence to back that up, other than your myopic reading of Matt. 12:28 and Rev. 20:1-3. You have to go for rather odd interpretations of key words to make it fit, and you try to connect together disparate verses whose only commonality is a few words. You then try to say that they are talking about the same thing, when it is clear from the larger context that they are not.
You try to connect Rev. 20 with Matt 12:28 by pointing to the idea of binding the strong man, but if they truly were connected, then the binding in Rev. 20 happened BEFORE Christ went to the cross. Sorry, I don't think so, and I'll bet you don't either.
And, if the strong man is bound so that one can plunder his house, can the strong man do anything to cause trouble for the plunderer? I would say, NO! However, you say Satan is bound now, yet he still seems to be able to cause quite a bit of trouble even for God's Elect. Some binding!
The binding referred to in Rev 20 goes way beyond just tying up the strong man. It's tying him up, taking him to a maximum security prison, putting him in the Hole, and sealing the door shut, so he is incommunicado with anyone and everyone else. From that place, he can cause NO TROUBLE to those who are plundering his house...