The Kingdom of God is Here and Now, Not Later

Most Christians have been taught that the kingdom of God is heaven when we die or some future paradise on this earth. It is neither. In the Gospel of Luke Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come. He said,

“The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you” (17:20-21, NIV).

We are all in the kingdom, because the kingdom is within us. Many, however, are simply unaware of the Divine Presence within.

In John’s Gospel, when Jesus told Pilate, “My kingdom is not from this world,” he did not mean that it is in heaven or someplace else. He explained,

“If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the religious and political authorities. But my kingdom is not like the kingdoms of this world” (18:36, my translation).

The kingdom of God does not operate like the egoic systems that mark the kingdoms ruled by conventional wisdom. It is not characterized by greed, love of control and power, or peace through violence. Rather, it’s marked by service to all people, care for the poor and oppressed, unconditional love, and peace through forgiveness (Mark 10:35-45, Luke 4:16-19; 6:27-36; 11:2-4).

In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus said,

“If your religious leaders or spiritual guides say to you, ‘Look, the realm of God is in the sky,’ then the birds of the air will get there before you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish already know it. Rather, the realm of Presence is inside you and it is outside you” (Logion 3abc).

The Gospel of Thomas understood Jesus as a mystic and sage, who often taught in riddles, aphorisms, and parables. The Thomistic community understood the kingdom to be the realm of infinite Divine Presence that encompasses everything in our present reality. It cannot be restricted to a particular people or place, nor is it about the future.

The apocalyptic teachings about the end of the age and the coming of the Son of humanity in glory most likely originated not with Jesus, but his followers when they became convinced that Jesus had been raised from the dead (see my book, The Way of the Living Jesus, pp. 83-86).

Our world vibrates with spiritual energy and is saturated with Divine Presence. You just have to learn how to be sensitive to that energy and know how to see through the eye of your heart. This is what The Way of the Living Jesus is about.