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To: GiovannaNicoletta
While the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God share many features, there are important issues which differentiate them. They are not the same. (imardmd1)

Exactly. There is the current kingdom of God, which is spiritual, and the future, one-thousand year, literal, earthly kingdom of Jesus Christ where He rules the nations from Jerusalem. (GiovannaNicoletta)

Ummm, well, KOH is temporal and mediatorial and exists now. It is those "churches" which say their allegiance is to The Lord Jesus Christ, but do not do accordingly. That is called Christendom and enfolds both regenerated believer-disciples and unregenerated believer-apostates. The Christendom will still be remaining on earth during the Great Tribulation after regenerated souls have been raptured away to join with The Christ as His Bride, according to the paradigm that I understand arises from a literal-historical-grammatical (dispensational) hermeneutic.

Is that also your understanding?

53 posted on 06/20/2012 11:38:45 AM PDT by imardmd1 (The truth shall set you free ----)
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To: imardmd1
Yes, that is also my understanding.

I was differentiating between the current spiritual kingdom and the future, literal, earthly one-thousand year kingdom with Jesus Christ ruling the nations from Jerusalem.

“Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17: 20-21)

The Greek word for "within" is “entos,” which is accurately translated “in the midst of”. It really should be understood as Jesus saying the Kingdom of God is within your midst, or among you. In other words, wherever Jesus is, it accompanies him. What it does NOT mean is that it resides in everyone.

There is no current earthly kingdom of Christ but there will be in the future. What we have now is a "spiritual" kingdom, which certainly does not include everyone who calls himself "Christian", which will cease to exist at the Rapture. There are many who, for various reasons having nothing to do with a genuine salvation experience, consider themselves "Christian", and will be stunned at finding themselves launched into the Tribulation.

I'm in agreement with you.

54 posted on 06/20/2012 12:11:49 PM PDT by GiovannaNicoletta (In the last days, mockers will come with their mocking... (2 Peter 3:3))
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