Is this an important question and worthy of our study? I believe it is
because there are so many false doctrines that arise out of the belief that the
kingdom has not yet be established. The most prominent of these is the doctrine
of premillennialism.
The key to answering our question lies in the fact that
the
church and the kingdom are the same thing.
No one really doubts that the Lord's
church was established on the first Pentecost after Christ ascended into heaven.
Consequently, if one can prove that the kingdom is the church and that the
church was established on Pentecost, we have the answer to our question.
To prove that the church and the kingdom are the same thing, we need only to
look at Matthew
16. In verse
18, Jesus tells Peter that He will build his
"church" on the rock of fact that He is the Son of God. In the very
next verse (19)
Jesus tells Peter the He will give him the keys of the
"Kingdom." It would be very presumptuous of any one to say that Jesus
is talking of two different institutions here. The context demands that
"church" and "kingdom" are both referring to the same thing.
Also, if the kingdom is not in existence today, there must be some very old
people living somewhere in the world. In Mark
9:1, Jesus said that some that
stood before him would not die before the kingdom had come with power. That
statement was made nearly 2000 years ago.
Finally we can prove that the kingdom
is in existence today by the fact that it is referred to in the Bible as being
in existence. Colossians 1:13 tells us that we have been translated into the
Kingdom of God's dear Son. It has to exist for that to be possible. Hebrews
12:28 tells us that we have received a kingdom which cannot be moved. Also, the
apostle John said that he was in the Kingdom (Rev
1:9).
The Kingdom of God
exists today and we (Christians) are part of it.
Next week we will look at
proofs that the kingdom (church) started on Pentecost.
If you would like to discuss the content of this article, please
send mail to GJCOC@onebox.com.
--
Ralph Price --
