Orthodoxy: The Church is the Kingdom of God on Earth.

Because she is a reflection of the ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Christ's Church on earth is called the Kingdom of God in the Holy Scriptures. In its regular usage, "kingdom" means a high degree of a society's development, a state with its law-making, legal, executive and all other authorities. A state consists of citizens, government, administration; it has laws, customs, language, army and so on. The Church is also a Kingdom, and a peculiar one as she is filled with grace. She consists of people in the process of moral regeneration. Being a Kingdom, she has her Head, the Heavenly King, Lord Jesus Christ and also her own laws, internal structure, ministers (hierarchy), and citizens — faithful Christians. Without these features she would not be a kingdom, but something shapeless and vague. Christians enjoy all privileges of the spiritual Kingdom that they belong, but not merely as consumers but as active "citizens," co-working for the common good.

The Holy Scripture speaks about the Church as a Kingdom of God in a number of places: Matthew 3:2, Matthew 4:17, Matthew 6:10, Matthew 6:33, Matthew 9:35, Matthew 18:3, Mark 10:14-15, Luke 12:32, Luke 17:21, John 3:5, John 18:36, Romans 14:17, 1 Corinthians 4:20, Colossians 1:12-22.

The Savior often began teaching with the words, "The Kingdom of Heaven is likened..." "Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom," which is the good news that the Kingdom of God is coming (Matthew 9:35). It shows that people shall not be saved individually and solitarily, but jointly, as one family, making use of the graceful means that He lodged His Kingdom.

The conditions for entry to the Kingdom: "Repent (literally, change the way of thinking): for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). This entry is possible only through the Sacrament of Baptism, in which man becomes reborn for spiritual life: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:5-6).

The Church has in her foundation the atoning sacrifice of Christ that allows us, by faith and through new birth, become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). That is why the life of the Church is supernatural in essence, although it flows in quite ordinary circumstances and visible forms. It is also explanatory of the Savior's words (so confusing for non-believers) about the position of the faithful in worldly life: "... and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John 17:14). "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:19). These words of the Savior demonstrate the incompatibility of righteous life with sinful and out-of-Church customs of the secular world. "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36).

Thus, the Church is a graceful, supernatural, unity of born-again people who form the mystical Body of Christ, founded by Christ on Calvary, filled with the Holy Ghost, and headed by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, writes the Apostle John in the Book of Revelation: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away...

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away...

And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city (new Jerusalem) had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb (Son of God) is the light thereof.

And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it... And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations... And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light"

The kingdom of heaven and The Kingdom of God (Messiah) are not the same ewntities, as reference to Matthew 13 illusrtes quite well. The earthly visible churches (there is no such thing as Ons Curc dsusuming all churches on earth).
Jesus plainly, unarguably, and non-negotiably declared to His Disciples (Jn. 18:36).
The visible churches on earth are impure, they contain good seed and bad seed, good fish and bad fish, etc. Minions of Satan can and roost in the structure of the chorch, stealing rh seeds of the heralded gospel, and bring its efforts to naught.,p>
This article is worse than piffle . . . it is misleading, full of bad doctrine, and a waste of bandwidth.

Reedited and resubmitted (lots of tired sloppy initial writing):

======

The kingdom of heaven and The Kingdom of God (Messiah) are not the same entities, as referenced by Matthew 13 illustrates quite well. The earthly visible churches (there is no such thing as One Church subsuming all local churches on earth).

Jesus plainly, unarguably, and non-negotiably declared to His Disciples (Jn. 18:36), " The visible churches on earth are impure, they contain good seed and bad seed, good fish and bad fish, etc. Minions of Satan can and do roost in the structure of the church, stealing the seeds of the heralded gospel, and bring its efforts to naught.p> This article is worse than piffle . . . it is misleading, full of bad doctrine, and a waste of bandwidth.

you then refer to 1 Corinthians 15 - yet in 1 Cor 15:20-26 we read

Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep... as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the Kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until He has put all His enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death

The order is precise

First Christ is raised bodily from the dead

Second Christians will be raised from teh dead

Third, "the end" comes

Paul does not allude to the fake rapturist timeline; moreover his timeline excludes this pre-trib rapture possibility.

There is no mention of a two-stage coming split into secret and then public rapture.

There is ONE resurrection, not two and only ONE comingImmediately after This coming, not 2000 years later, "the end" arrives when Christ "delivers the Kingdom to God"

1 Cor 15:51-54 : I tell you a mystery. We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.. Then shall come to pass the saying that is written "Death is swallowed up in victory"

This is NOT about the rapture but the second coming. The LAST trumpet does not occur 1007 years before the end but is "the last"

Paul says in 15:26 that "the last enemy to be destroyed is death" so we read in 15:54

The fake rapturist seeing of the battle of Armageddon AFTER the last is just scripturally wrong.

>>The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: . . . the kingdom of God is within^{ἐντός} you.. <<

A better, less ambiguous use of the word ἐντός (entos, an adverb) would be "among," or even better "in the midst of." (This Greek word is found only in one other place, in Matthew 23:26.)

Jesus, standing/sitting in their midst, was and is The King of which the Kingdom of God is an extension of His rule. It is inconceivable that any one of the Pharisees were admitting Jesus' Rulership in his heart. And since the pronoun "you" is plural, it means that The Kingdom of God (He personally being the source of it, with his loyal disciple-servants being members of it) was (being distributively represented by Jesus and His Company of the Committed) in the presence of the Jewish Pharisee worldlings, in their midst, and continually (present tense, active voice, indicative mode) mingling among them, but not indwelling the heart of any individual unbelieving Jew.

Marvin Vincent in his "Word Studies" says:

Luke 17:21
Within
Better, in the midst of. Meyer acutely remarks that "you refers to the Pharisees, in whose hearts nothing certainly found a place less than did the ethical kingdom of God." Moreover, Jesus is not speaking of the inwardness of the kingdom, but of its presence. "The whole language of the kingdom of heaven being within men, rather than men being within the kingdom, is modern" (Trench, after Meyer).

The old commentator Albert Varnes speaks of the situation as thus:

Is within you - This is capable of two interpretations.

1. The reign of God is “in the heart.” It does not come with pomp and splendor, like the reign of temporal kings, merely to control the external “actions” and strike the senses of people with awe, but it reigns in the heart by the law of God; it sets up its dominion over the passions, and brings every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

2. It may mean the new dispensation is “even now among you.” The Messiah has come. John has ushered in the kingdom of God, and you are not to expect the appearance of the Messiah with great pomp and splendor, for he is now among you. Most critics at present incline to this latter interpretation. The ancient versions chiefly follow the former.

Obviously, Barnes' first stipulation cannot apply to the Pharisee hearers at that point of Jesus' remark.

So there, in detail, His Kingdom is not present in a worldly sense as would the Roman Empire of kingdoms of provinces. And after His Resurrection and with the members of His Heavenly Church being citizens of that Kingdom not of this world system, but acting as His ambassadors to it, The Kingdom of God is narrowly circumscribed to include only Spirit-indwelt believers, which does exist within the larger circle of the visible church--the kingdom of heaven--that also includes those who profess allegiance to Christ and have been accepted as members, but really have not saving faith in Him.

It is God alone Who eventually judges; but members of the local church may evaluate as to whether another human demonstrates a believable degree of holiness that he/she should be treated as if they were acting as fellow followers.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.