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To: imardmd1

No, He said, “The Kingdom of God is in the midst of you


I happen to believe within you makes more sense.

Neither shall they say: Behold here, or behold there. For lo, the kingdom of God is within you.

If it was in your midst it could still have the same meaning, but that is beside the point, it was here then and it is still here.

But those who are not born of the spirit can not see it.


39 posted on 10/16/2014 11:14:33 AM PDT by ravenwolf (` know if an other temple will be built or not but the)
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To: ravenwolf
Jesus said you must be born again to see the kingdom of God and that the kingdom of God is within you. (ravenwolf)

No, He said, “The Kingdom of God is in the midst of you . . ." (imardmd1)

I happen to believe within you makes more sense. (ravenwolf)

Well, your understanding of Jesus' use of the preposition "entos" rather than just "en" (which would have yielded your sense) does not make sense contextually because He was specifically addressing a group of Pharisees, using the second person plural "you"; and for sure, all these "yous" had--both individually and as a group policy--rejected the Kingdom of Heaven as well as the Kingdom of God, of which the Messiach was both King and Ambassador. Therefore, the Kingdom was not within any of the Pharisees in this context. They were in the presence of both the King and the Kingdom which He embodied, so the Kingdom of God was in their midst.

Since this point bears upon the discussion of the thread, I must ask you to give credit to the above, and to that which appears in Vincent's "Word Studies" (a set of 3 volumes discussing the Greek meanings of words as used in particular passages of the NT):

=================

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).

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The Kingdom of God is present amongst worldlings only inasmuch as a regenerated follower and ambassador of Christ is in their presence, be it in a secular setting or a religious one. IMHO

I hope you will find yourself able to modify your belief on this point, through application of the grammar and context of the Scripture.

50 posted on 10/17/2014 1:33:48 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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