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The Daily Word of Righteousness
We Christians Do Not Understand the Gospel!, #9
And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. (Acts 19:8)
Was Paul careful to tell the Jews they would be part of an earthly kingdom and to tell the Gentiles that they would be part of a heavenly kingdom?
Again:
And now, behold, I know ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. (Acts 20:25)
And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. (Acts 28:23)
We might conclude from the above verses that Paul did not preach a new "dispensation" of grace but the one Kingdom of God, the kingdom announced by the Hebrew Prophets. If the Apostle Paul were bringing the good news of a "dispensation of grace," a dispensation not known to the Old Testament, then he would not have taught Jesus and the Kingdom of God from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.
But surely all this changed when Paul began to write his epistles.
Did it?
For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. (Romans 14:17)
Is it your opinion that Paul has changed his message and now is preaching a kingdom different from that "concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets"?
For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. (I Corinthians 4:20)
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (I Corinthians 6:9,10)
"Shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
The goal of redemption is not that of entering Heaven when we die but of inheriting the Kingdom of God. It is not stated that sin will keep us out of Heaven but out of the Kingdom of God. Are Heaven and the Kingdom of God the same place, the same condition, the same realm of authority? Undoubtedly they are not. Heaven is an area of the spirit realm. The Kingdom of God is God in Jesus in the saints ruling and blessing the creation.
We are not born again in order to see or enter Heaven but to see and enter the Kingdom of God. This is because the Kingdom of God is Jesus who is born in us. The Kingdom of God is as a seed that is planted in us. Heaven is a place, not a seed that is planted in us. The Lord never said Heaven is in us, but He did state that the Kingdom is in us. The Lord did not state that when demons are cast out, Heaven has come to us but rather that the Kingdom has come to us. Therefore Heaven and the Kingdom of God are by no means the same place, condition, or realm of authority.
To be continued.