Hi, Mike,

Christ was speaking to the Pharisees when he said ‘the kingdom of God is within you’ (Luk17:20-21). You said in the Revelation series that the kingdom is only in his believers. Is this wrong in the King James?

S____

Hi S____,
Thank you for your question. You say:

Christ was speaking to the Pharisees when he said ‘the kingdom of God is within you’ (Luk 17:20-21). You said in the Revelation series that the kingdom is only in his believers. Is this wrong in the King James?

No, the King James is not wrong. The kingdom of God will one day be in all men, but it was not, at that moment in those Pharisees. It was also Christ who said this of those very same people:

Mat 23:25  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Mat 23:26  Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
Mat 23:27  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead [ men’s] bones, and of all uncleanness.
Mat 23:28  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

That is what was within those Pharisees and scribes at that moment in time. So why did Christ answer them as He did? The answer is that Christ was “calling those things that are not as though they were”.

Rom 4:17  (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

“In their own order” the kingdom of God will be in those Christ- rejecting scribes and Pharisees because those scribes and Pharisees are only types and shadows of you and me “in our own order”.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Co 15:24  Then cometh the end [ harvest], when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

Christ was also “calling those things that be not as though they were” when he said this to His Father, the very night of His apprehension by the Jews.

Joh 17:6  I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.

That very night they all forsook their Lord, but later they repented and they did indeed “keep God’s Word”.

Mar 14:50  And they all forsook him, and fled.

So the Kingdom of God is within us at this time only if we are Christ’s elect. But that kingdom is within us and will not be exerting its power over the kingdoms of this world until after “the redemption of the purchased possession”, which “purchased possession” we now have only in down payment form, or “in the earnest of the spirit”.

2Co 1:22  Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
2Co 5:5  Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which [ holy spirit] is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

“We have have obtained an inheritance,” but it will not be ours in its fullness “until the redemption of the purchased possession”, the first resurrection, at the beginning of the millennium. That is when we will receive our inheritance in its fullness if we are God’s elect.
I hope this helps you to see how Christ could say to the Pharisees “The kingdom of God is within you”, even as they were seeking to have Him put to death.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike