Introduction
One of the first questions that is asked when I start to consider taking my notes and making it into a book is “why?” For what reason should I decide to write this out as a book instead of a handful of notes? In this case, the answer is simple. I’ll tell a story as an analogy.
I am one who enjoys physics. I specifically enjoy cosmology – the study of the universe. A few hundred years ago, there was a man by the name of Galileo. One of the reasons that Galileo is so famous is because of the advancements that he made in science. One of those advancements is his discovery in gravity. He discovered that all objects fall at the same rate. The reason that we don’t say the same speed is because they accelerate – continue to pick up speed. Galileo was able to quite accurately measure this rate.
Then Newton came along. When Galileo was accepted as giving one of the most accurate measurements of gravity, Newton expanded upon it. He said that not all objects fall at the same rate. The reason that we find a cannon ball and an apple falling at the same rate is because of the extremely large mass of the Earth. He made the formula that we all have to learn in high school: F=ma. By this formula, Newton was able to figure the orbit of the planets around the sun, the speed of those planets’ motion around the sun, the orbits of moons, and the mass of galaxies.
For a long time Newton was the name in physics. If you wanted to study the world around us, and study beyond our world and into the universe, you would use Newtonian Mechanics. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, there was a problem discovered. Mercury’s orbit around the sun wobbled. Why did it wobble? They didn’t have an answer. So some scientists started speculating that there must be “dark matter.”
Dark matter is basically matter that we cannot see. We do not know if it exists, but we see the effects of it. It was assumed that this dark matter between Mercury and the Sun was the reason behind the wobbling orbit. However, Einstein disproved that. In his General Theory of Relativity, Einstein explained a deeper understanding of how gravity works. Because of this deeper understanding, the need for dark matter vanished. I assume that the same is true today. Modern scientists who discuss dark matter probably are simply misunderstanding the science involved. A new physics is required.
I set my heart to learning about the Kingdom of God. This search and study lead me on a path that called into question almost everything that I had previously held to about the Kingdom of God. With that being said, I in no way want to bash the presence of God in our lives here and now, tangibly. I in no way want to eliminate the understanding of the Kingdom of God within. I in no way want to abolish or discriminate or mock any belief that holds to the Kingdom of God now.
Just as Galileo did not have the full understanding of how gravity worked, I believe that many today do not fully grasp the Kingdom of God. We need an update. These things mentioned previously are not necessarily wrong. They have their place. Since many of us do not understand the Kingdom of God, we place translations upon these verses and teachings that are indeed false. The phrase itself is not wrong. The Kingdom of God is now. It is within. We can experience it tangibly.
What I take fault with is the assumptions and translations that then stem out of that. We then take the assumption that because the Kingdom of God is within that we take the Kingdom of God with us. We assume that we take the presence of God wherever we go. We teach that Jesus returns to judge the world, but neglect that He will establish a Kingdom upon this world. The Kingdom of God is indeed now, but a fuller expression is to come later.
While digging through the Scriptures, I have come to vastly different conclusions than what I had originally thought. I hope that they will alter your perception. I hope that they bring you into closer relationship with Jesus Christ. But most of all, I hope that they work in you a spirit that would rightly cry out, “Even so, come Lord Jesus.”