The time
is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe
in the gospel. ~Jesus
Finding alternative meanings for 'the kingdom of God' and 'is at hand' seems challenging regarding spatio-temporal disambiguation. As a partial preterist I believe the Lord's statement applied on more than one level or in one sense. The kingdom of God is within you ,before the arrival of the Holy Spirit (which may be taken to mean that kingdom of God wherein the holy church dwells) meant that within oneself one would discover the Holy Spirit, or God's transcending presence, if one were of faith. Yet I also think that the kingdom of God reference is distinct from referring to Israel as a nation that is the kingdom of God. Perhaps Jesus referred to his crucifixion and consumation of the new covenant as the particular kingdom of God that was at hand then. Plainly one knows that the atoning work of the Lord providing salvation is eternal (at least in one direction since Christians haven't existed for eternity yet will exist in eternity in the future raising a theological question of how one can have a lesser eternity that doesn't include all possible time of the past-rather like Cantor's transfinite series theories-and since the past only exists in temporality does that mean that Christians reaching eternity have awareness of a time when they were not eternal and didn't exist?)
The differences between temporality and eternity have many paradoxes that I won't try to answer here risking trivializing them or just making errors. On preterism and dispensationalism I have you read Gentry's books? Preterism is most post-trib while dispensationalism is generally pre-trib. Grammatico-historical hermenutic is another way to find the truth in scripture. One wants the truth in interpreting historical works generally from Cicero to Livy, Caesar, Tacitus,Josephus, Procopius, Plutarch etc. or philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle,Plutarch or even Kant; the new and old Testament contexts are additionally bettered by learning more of the era, language, social context, historical context and in learning how the books were put together, canonized and so forth. Archaeology informs us of more, and the public knowledge of the truth of scripture advances even with insight into science, metaphysics and quantum cosmology-for God has made a wonderful creation with marvelous capacities for construction and change of matter and energy with fields, membranes and etc that cannot be reduced to simple paradigms that are complete for understanding. Nothing surpasses the truth of Biblical Genesis creation accounts, yet learning more about them historically enhances one's appreciations of them. Gentry's 'He shall Have Dominion' explains the rise of Christians to a majority status over time. There are a billion or so today (at least nominally). At some point in the future they may comprise a majority-Gentry showed that scripture seems to indicate that.
Finding alternative meanings for 'the kingdom of God' and 'is at hand' seems challenging regarding spatio-temporal disambiguation. As a partial preterist I believe the Lord's statement applied on more than one level or in one sense. The kingdom of God is within you ,before the arrival of the Holy Spirit (which may be taken to mean that kingdom of God wherein the holy church dwells) meant that within oneself one would discover the Holy Spirit, or God's transcending presence, if one were of faith. Yet I also think that the kingdom of God reference is distinct from referring to Israel as a nation that is the kingdom of God. Perhaps Jesus referred to his crucifixion and consumation of the new covenant as the particular kingdom of God that was at hand then. Plainly one knows that the atoning work of the Lord providing salvation is eternal (at least in one direction since Christians haven't existed for eternity yet will exist in eternity in the future raising a theological question of how one can have a lesser eternity that doesn't include all possible time of the past-rather like Cantor's transfinite series theories-and since the past only exists in temporality does that mean that Christians reaching eternity have awareness of a time when they were not eternal and didn't exist?)
The differences between temporality and eternity have many paradoxes that I won't try to answer here risking trivializing them or just making errors. On preterism and dispensationalism I have you read Gentry's books? Preterism is most post-trib while dispensationalism is generally pre-trib. Grammatico-historical hermenutic is another way to find the truth in scripture. One wants the truth in interpreting historical works generally from Cicero to Livy, Caesar, Tacitus,Josephus, Procopius, Plutarch etc. or philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle,Plutarch or even Kant; the new and old Testament contexts are additionally bettered by learning more of the era, language, social context, historical context and in learning how the books were put together, canonized and so forth. Archaeology informs us of more, and the public knowledge of the truth of scripture advances even with insight into science, metaphysics and quantum cosmology-for God has made a wonderful creation with marvelous capacities for construction and change of matter and energy with fields, membranes and etc that cannot be reduced to simple paradigms that are complete for understanding. Nothing surpasses the truth of Biblical Genesis creation accounts, yet learning more about them historically enhances one's appreciations of them. Gentry's 'He shall Have Dominion' explains the rise of Christians to a majority status over time. There are a billion or so today (at least nominally). At some point in the future they may comprise a majority-Gentry showed that scripture seems to indicate that.
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