When Will The Kingdom Of GOD Come?

 "The Pharisees asked JESUS when the kingdom of GOD was to come.  HE answered, 'The kingdom of GOD is not like something you can observe, and say to it, 'Look, here it is!' or 'See, there it is!' for the kingdom of GOD is within you.'

And JESUS said to HIS disciples, 'The time is at hand, when you will long to see one of the glorious days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.  Then people will tell you, 'Look there!  Look here!'  Do not go with them, do not follow them.  As lightning flashes from one end of the sky to the other, so will it be with the Son of Man; but first HE must suffer many things, and be rejected by this generation.'" - Luke 17:20-25

 

(When will the kingdom of GOD come?  It does not come as a revolution or the change of the seasons each year: it is at work in people who have received the Good News.  Those who believe already enjoy the kingdom.

Then come the words of JESUS concerning the end of Jerusalem and HIS second coming [Mark 13:14].  We should not speak about the end of the world in every time of anxiety.  JESUS gives us two comparisons: the lightning [verse 24] which is seen everywhere and the vultures [verse 37] which gather without fail wherever there is a corpse.  In the same way, everyone, without fail, will be aware of CHRIST's return.

Yet HIS return will catch off guard those who are not expecting it [just as in the days of Noah].  Judgment will separate the elect from the condemned--nothing separated them in daily life--from two people working side by side, one will be taken, the other left behind.

In Matthew 24:17 the reference to someone outside HIS house is connected with the end of Jerusalem, and here it means it will be necessary to escape quickly.  In the present text this has another meaning: when the end of  the world comes it will be too late to worry about saving one's life or possessions.)

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