THE KINGDOM OF GOD BEGAN THEN AND IS HERE NOW

 

Fr Gresham said, "The single great fact of this world is the reality of the Kingdom of God that underlies everything. It is the most real thing there is."   "Mark uses the term 'Kingdom of God'. Matthew is even more Jewish and so uses the more polite term 'Kingdom of Heaven' to avoid using the name of God. Both refer to the same thing." "In Luke, Jesus' reply to Caiaphas omits the part referring to coming on the clouds of heaven. This may be because Luke is Gentile and didn't understand all this Jewish language about clouds of heaven. More likely it is because he was writing for Theophilus, a Gentile, who just couldn't have understood all the Jewish language." "Mark's report of the reply to Caiaphas is likely to be the most authentic." "The idea of the messiah only became blended with the heavenly figure about 180BC, with the writings of Daniel 7:13.  The idea of the Christ develops. It is also in Jeremiah, 200 years later than Isaiah." "Jesus fused the three:- the Davidic King, which Jesus never made much of, though he didn't deny it if someone called him that. He chose rather to call himself the Son of Man, the Representative Man. He alone saw it was necessary to blend these two figures with the suffering servant of Isaiah 53." "To say that Christ will come to earth again at some future date makes him absent now. Whereas Christ before his  ascension says, ' I will be with you always'.  And he said 'all power in heaven and on earth is given to me'." (from  27/05/05 notes)   "Christ's answer to Caiaphas's question, 'Are you the Son of God?' is 'I am, and from now on you will see me at the right hand of God coming in clouds of glory'. Christ's answer refers to something starting now." "The Roman Catholic Catechism says the Kingdom of God comes at the end of time when Christ returns. It is wrong. How can they explain the already 2000 years delay? They can't. The coming of the Kingdom of God is a process already begun, completed at the end of time." "Keith Ward's book is falsely spiritual. Jurgan Moltmann said the Kingdom of God would include the earth. The earth might be transformed somehow, but the end would include the earth. The destruction of the earth, as part of God's creation, would be blasphemy."