There Are Present and Future Aspects to Christ’s Kingdom (This Really Matters)

Many believe that Christ’s kingdom is totally in the future. Some believe though that Christ’s kingdom has fully arrived here and now. Others believe that Christ’s kingdom has already come and gone. All of these are dead wrong. There are present and future aspects to the kingdom.

The kingdom of God is defined and identified by the presence of Jesus Christ’s reign. The future aspects of His kingdom are obvious due to how it is obvious that His kingdom has not come in its fullness in terms of His reign over the nations.

That fullness will come when He returns in person- and surely not until then.
The present aspects of Christ’s kingdom are known and displayed through the dissemination of His very own life in this age to those who repent and submit to His Word. Christ thus reigns in the lives of His true disciples through the Holy Spirit though He does not reign over the nations.

Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 16:28: “Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.”

Think of the arrival of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Some standing there with Jesus in His incarnation did indeed see this.

Acts 2:32-40: “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.”

Romans 14:17-18: “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.”

When one really obeys Christ’s Gospel (whether one knows it directly or whether it is only a vague perception), it is done in hope of reigning with Christ during His coming thousand year reign over the nations- and thereafter in eternity. Otherwise, why bother following Him at all? If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable (the Apostle Paul testified that in 1 Corinthians 15:19).

Those who do not turn to be faithful subjects of Christ’s righteous reign, and continue therein in the trial period of this life, will have no part with Him in His coming kingdom and will rather be condemned to hell’s eternal fire as enemies of His righteous reign.

Revelation 11:15-18: “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever (my note- there is the kingdom of God in its fullness). And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshiped God, Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy (that is, morally corrupt) the earth.”

God has a purpose with mankind as a whole which abundantly supersedes the priorities and ways of men.

Proverbs 16:4: “The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.”
It is not that those whom God judges for their wickedness were made wicked nor that they would inevitably be wicked. God is rather even glorified in the condemnation of those who turn away from Him and choose to follow the devil in doing wickedness.

We often see the present and future aspects of the kingdom in the very same Bible passage, including in the following one (my labels of the present and future aspects of the kingdom are the notes in italics).

Acts 3:19-24: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted (my note- present aspect of the kingdom), that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ (my note- future aspect), which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you (my note- present). And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people (my note- future). Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.”

Dispensationalists (and perhaps others) teach a distinction between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. This is a slick method of justifying their lawless gospel, their methods of easy-believe-ism, and their unconditional eternal security doctrines (which are all lies).
However, Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven interchangeably- and even clearly equated them.

Matthew 19:23-24: “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”
Christ will return to reign.

Daniel 7:13-14: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”

He will judge the living and the dead at His appearance and His kingdom (2 Timothy 4:1).
Contrary to what the Dispensationalists and other lawless gospel preachers say, accepting Jesus as one’s “personal savior” will not be sufficient to put one in His good graces then.

Those who love His appearance will be those who have submitted to Him in truth and are governed by the righteous precepts of His Word already.