Nature of the Kingdom

The Kingdom of God has both a future and a present aspect; a now-but-not-yet perspective; a sense in which all are ruled by it and another sense in which only some are in it. 

How and when the Kingdom-package all unwraps now - present, future and past - is what eschatology debate is all about. 

But the underlying truth we know about the the Kingdom is that JESUS came and gave it. 

The Father gave the Kingdom to Israel through the cross of CHRIST, graciously through BELIEVING in JESUS, without the works of the Law - and included Gentiles in it, making one new body.

The Gospel isn't merely a parenthesis before God resumes His Kingdom business with Israel - the Gospel IS the Gospel OF THE KINGDOM.

The Gospel of the Kingdom was presented to Israel first, fulfilling Prophecy - then the Gentiles were included, also fulfilling Promise and Prophecy.

The Church isn't just an unforeseen side-track before God gets back to fulfilling Kingdom-prophecy. The Church IS the very group whom the Prophets foresaw would receive the prophesied Kingdom - and it's the Church alone who possesses the assurance of full participation in future Kingdom-benefits.

Old Testament Prophecy had mainly been concerned simply with the fact that Messiah would come and bring the Kingdom; and they were concerned about events which would accompany it relative to national Israel - and they gave fairly precise timeframes for the fulfilment of those things.

Those given timeframes are why Jesus was able to preach saying, "THE TIME IS FULFILLED, the KINGDOM of heaven is at hand. REPENT and BELIEVE the GOSPEL".

It's why, when describing the imminent destruction of the Temple and the fall of Jerusalem, He was able to say, "Verily I say to you, all these things will come upon THIS generation" - because the Prophets had given a timeframe for the fulfilment of each of those things. 

But the Prophets didn't give a timespan for how and when the Kingdom-scheme would all unwrap after that. That's why Jesus said, speaking of His coming and of the end of the world: "But of THAT day, knoweth no man..."

Jesus came and indeed brought the promised Kingdom, and all the surrounding events indeed happened in Israel - all exactly on time, fulfilling Promise, the Law, and Prophecy. That fact is quite precise and clear.

But now that that's been fulfilled, the precise details of how and when the various components of the Kingdom are all going to be unwrapped, wasn't the essence of Old Testament Prophecy. The essence was mainly simply that the Messiah would come and bring the Kingdom.

Some of the imagery of Kingdom-Prophecy was quite dramatic. It sometimes captured the whole package-deal of the Kingdom in a flash.

Jesus opened the whole deal when He came, as the Prophets foresaw - even though they didn't always focus on dissecting how each component would then transpire after that. They did distinguish it, but that wasn't necessarily always the focus of their imagery.

We know at least that Christ shall come again; that there shall come a resurrection of the dead; eternal judgement; and new heavens and a new earth.

And we know that in the mean-time THIS Gospel of the Kingdom shall continue to be preached in all nations, and then the END shall come.

But the underlying truth we know is that the prophesied Messiah did come and His Name is JESUS - and if we have Him we have everything. 

He did bring the Kingdom-scheme. The Kingdom-way. The Kingdom-life. And the Kingdom-hope. 

Old Testament promises and hopes are demonstrated to be Yes and Amen by our experience. We have the KINGDOM - we are complete just by loving Jesus, without needing to observe modern Judaism.