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Transcript 265A
The Kingdom of God is With Us [Lu 17:21; 24:26; Heb 1:3]
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: For my Bible Study lesson, I have to prove that Christ's Kingdom is here now. And I have three verses. I have Luke 17:20 & 21: "Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the Kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, 'The Kingdom of God is not coming with signs that can be observed. Nor will they say, Look, it is here, nor There it is. For behold, the Kingdom of God is in your midst.'"
And then I have Luke 24:26: "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and entered into His glory?" And then I have Hebrews 1:3: "Who, being the brightness of His glory and the expression image of His person, and upholding all things by the Word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins sat down on the right hand of God, the Majesty on High."
Now are those correct answers?
HC: Yes, those are good verses. Your question is, "How can we prove that the Kingdom of God is right now?" Remember what Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3?: "You cannot see the Kingdom of God unless you are born from above [or born again]." And then in verse 5 He tells us how we enter that Kingdom. He says, "Verily, verily I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God." And so anyone who is born again, or who is born of water and the Spirit, has entered the Kingdom of God.
Now if we've entered the Kingdom of God, then it must be now. Then also read Colossians 1:13, where God says that we have been transferred from the dominion of darkness into the Kingdom of His dear Son. And then remember that John the Baptist, and also Jesus, said repeatedly, "The Kingdom of Heaven [or the Kingdom of God] is at hand." In other words, it's present right now.
You have a good start. And if you have a concordance, you might look up the word kingdom.
CALLER: This is helpful. Thank you very much.
HC: Well, I hope so. Thank you. Good night.