If the Kingdom of God is
perpetually coming, it is never here; it is never now. No matter how we perceive Jesus, or
interpret His teachings, it is hard to refute that reaching the Kingdom of God
requires a shift in consciousness and demands arrival at a higher level of
awareness. Once,
having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus
replied, "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."
If the Kingdom of God is
within, then it is not physical but spiritual. The Kingdom of God is realized in the awakening of
consciousness, not in the awaiting of a physical return. Many have been anticipating the
physical while negating the spiritual.
How many dates have been set and reset as the appointed time for Christ
to physically return to the earth?
How many times can we predict and then re-predict this long awaited
event? Christianity has been
"stood up" for two thousand years, waiting on a date that has yet to arrive.
It is human nature to
try and make the spiritual . . . physical. If we can touch it or see it, we can sense it and then
understand it. Yet, turning the
spiritual into physical is idolatry.
Moses raged against Aaron for creating a physical image of God because
the basic principle of Judaism was that God was both abstract and unimaginable. God transcends physicality to the point
that in the Hebrew tradition the sacred name of God (Yaweh) could not be
written or spoken. In other words,
it was forbidden to turn the spiritual in to physical.
If the Kingdom of God is within, why are we
searching for it without? If the
Kingdom of God is a spiritual realm of consciousness, why are we waiting for it
physically? If the Kingdom of God
is within, would the Coming Kingdom be anywhere other than within? Even if Christ returned physically, He
would still be endeavoring to set up the Kingdom of God within us!
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Quote of the Week
"The idea of the Second
Coming (of Christ physically) has been especially destructive to Jesus'
intentions, because it postpones what needs to happen now."
-
Deepak Chopra
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