5:2 The Kingdom Of God Is Not Now Established

There is a widely held notion that God's Kingdom is now fully in existence, being comprised of present believers - 'the church'. Whilst in prospect the true believers have been 'saved' and given potential places in the Kingdom, there can be no doubt that we cannot now be fully in the Kingdom, seeing that Christ has not yet returned to establish it.

It should be obvious from what we have studied so far "that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 15:50). Our inheritance is our salvation which will be revealed “in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:4,5). We are "heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to them that love him" (James 2:5), seeing that baptism makes us heirs of the promises to Abraham - which promises comprise the basic G ...