The Elusive Kingdom of God

I used to think saying the Lord’s Prayer was ludicrous until I realized that we were still praying for God’s kingdom to come. Jesus taught his Jewish followers to pray for God’s kingdom to come and Christians today are still doing the same. Why? Because it has not yet come. Let’s see what scriptures teach us about it.

Acts 1:1-6
The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through (no article the) holy spirit had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with (no article the) holy spirit not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

Until the day Jesus ascended into Heaven his followers wondered when the kingdom was going to be restored to Israel. Obviously it had not been up to that time.

In Acts 14, it is implied that the Kingdom of God is something to be “entered into:” Acts 14:22
Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. KJV
It’s the word eiserchomai, to come or go into. Here it says much tribulation is required to go into the kingdom. In the following verses the kingdom of God is something to be “inherited:” 1 Cor 6:9-10:

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. KJV

1 Cor 15:50 confirms the previous scriptures:
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. KJV

Another verse implying that the kingdom is something to be inherited: Gal 5:19-21
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Here is the next to last usage of the koG: Col 4:11:

And Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me. KJV
“Unto” the kingdom is the same word as “into” in the verses in 1 Cor. 6, come “into,” eis.

I think it is very clear from scripture that the kingdom of God is not something we are in, but something that is still in the future. Jesus came to bring it to Israel, but the promises to Israel are being held in abeyance. We too will share in that promise, in the Millennial Kingdom, after the Rapture of the Church.