"The Kingdom in the Hearts of Men?

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Many choose to believe that the kingdom of God enters into people rather than people entering into the kingdom. We have seen that people must ignore the plain statements of Christ in order to draw this conclusion. They “spiritualize away” the coming very real kingdom of God in order to turn it into an ethereal feeling in the hearts of professing Christians. Deceivers say that to have the Spirit of God is to contain and experience the kingdom within you. Many centuries of outright deception have caused millions to believe nothing more than fiction—instead of the PLAIN TRUTH of the Bible.

Since Christ said the gospel was about the kingdom of God, and men do not know what the kingdom of God is, they have concluded that the kingdom may be a particular church denomination or Christianity collectively. Others reduce it to a “warm feeling” in the “hearts of people.” Still others believe that it is the “Millennium” or even the “British Empire.” Some have even concluded that the gospel of the kingdom of God is not for mankind today!

People need to wake up to the deception—the mass delusion—of a supposed Christianity that denies virtually all the PLAIN TRUTHS of the Bible! God’s plan for mankind is staggering—incomparable to anything human beings have devised to replace what He says. But the world ignores plain, clear, unmistakable scriptures found throughout the Bible about the kingdom of God, to replace the truth with a vastly inferior supposed “salvation” in heaven and a “kingdom” in men’s hearts.

Since it is obvious to many that people can enter into the many modern-day countries of what was once the British Empire and that people can enter into a church, deceived religionists concocted the idea that the kingdom of God rests in the “hearts of men.” I have often heard people express something similar to the following: “The kingdom of God can be established in the hearts of men if all Christians everywhere will just work together in love to bring about world peace and tolerance toward all.”

Where do they get this idea? Generally from a mistranslation of Luke 17:20-21! In this passage, Christ appeared to speak of the kingdom of God “within you.” We need to examine this mistranslation. If this verse actually does say that the kingdom of God is “within” people, then it contradicts all the other scriptures we have examined. And if the Bible contradicts itself in such obvious ways, we can throw it away, for it cannot be the Word of God.

The Kingdom in the Pharisees’ Hearts?

Let’s now examine Luke 17:20-21: “And when He was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God comes not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”

If you do not understand anything else about this passage, get this one point straight! Christ was speaking to carnal-minded, lying, hypocritical Pharisees. Even by the most vague and ethereal idea that the kingdom of God is something in men’s hearts, there is no way Christ could have been referring to it being in the hearts of these people! The Pharisees were self-righteous and unconverted. They sought to tempt and accuse Christ at every turn. It is utterly silly and even ludicrous to say that the kingdom of God was “within” them. Do not lose sight of the fact that, when Christ responded, it states, “He answered them.” He addressed “them”—the Pharisees. Understand that the Pharisees were not in the Church, and the Church of God was certainly NOT in the Pharisees. Actually, the New Testament Church did not yet even exist.

Notice what Christ did NOT state in this verse. He did not say, “The kingdom of God will be set up in the hearts of men” or “in your hearts.” What He did say is, “The kingdom of God IS …” It is important that we understand Christ was not describing, in this one instance, the kingdom of God as something in the future, but rather He spoke of it in the present tense.

Why?

I have said that this is a misrendering of the original Greek. The actual Greek words that Luke used here are much better translated “in the midst of you” or “among you.” A number of other alternate translations read this way, and most Bibles with marginal references include these phrases.

The Revised Standard Version states, “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you,” and the Moffatt translation offers even more insight. He translates these two verses as “He answered them, ‘The REIGN of God is not coming as you hope to catch sight of it; no one will say, “Here it is” or “There it is,” for the REIGN of God is now in your midst.’”

Let’s ask, what—or who—could it have been that Christ was speaking of? What—or who—was it that was “in the midst” of the Pharisees? What—or who—was “among” them?

The Son of God—Jesus Christ Himself!—was standing in the middle of this group of Pharisees. Think of it this way: They were in the presence of a direct representative who will “reign” in the coming kingdom of God. It was Jesus who was standing “among” them. Clearly, Christ was speaking of the kingdom of God, through Himself as its representative, being right where they were standing.

Let’s understand! The Pharisees knew of the many Old Testament prophecies and scriptures describing God’s kingdom. They were well aware of the verses that we have studied from the book of Daniel, and other places. They would have understood why Peter would later say, “all the holy prophets” spoke of the “restitution of all things.” They were familiar with the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and many others. The Pharisees ignored the scriptures about Christ’s First Coming because they wanted to focus almost entirely on the many scriptures describing His Second Coming!

Obviously, the Pharisees did not believe the kingdom of God was a church. They certainly didn’t believe it was the British Empire—which the world was not to see for many centuries. And they did not believe it was more emotional sentiment in men’s hearts. They fully understood that it had to do with government—RULERSHIP!

The problem was that they did not understand WHEN the kingdom was to come or that its purpose was not merely to sweep away the Roman legions from Palestine. Had they understood Christ’s First Coming, they would have better understood the “when” of His Second Coming—and why it had to come much later. So, they were hoping for a conquering Messiah who would aid them in their quest to reverse Roman rule by replacing the Romans with themselves, as masters over Rome.

Jesus explained the fallacy of their thinking. He made it clear that the coming of the kingdom was not a small, local event, merely limited to rulership over where the Jews lived in Palestine.

The Jews were looking for a physical government located in a single nation—their own! This is why Christ told them not to think of it as being “over there” or “right here.”

Christ not only knew He was born to be a King, He recognized this meant that He was destined to be the ultimate King over His Kingdom. (Daniel 7:17-18 and 23 demonstrate that the words for kingdom and king are interchangeable in the Bible.)

By simply continuing to read more of the context in Luke 17:1-37, we are left with no doubt as to what Christ was referring to. Read Lk 17:24, where, like Matthew 24:27, it refers to, “For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in His day” (Luke 17:24). Christ was describing a stunning, world-shaking event that would be as visible as lightning. But, notice the term “in His day,” which shows that it is a yet future event. Take time to read Matthew 24:26-30 and how it describes the “day when Christ will be revealed.”

By no stretch of the imagination did Christ say that the kingdom of God was in the unrighteous, carnal, hateful Pharisees—who continually plotted His death—anymore than He was saying it was a church.

Christ had previously indicted the Pharisees with a terrible warning. No doubt, it had made them angry, and it led them to try to catch Him saying something that was incorrect about either the kingdom of God or any other matter. In Luke 13:28-29, He had warned them, “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.”

Christ was plainly telling the Pharisees that they were not going to be in God’s kingdom. They would not be allowed to enter it, as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would—though these men have not yet entered it (Heb. 11:13, 39-40).

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