muso wrote on Apr 29^th, 2013 at 10:51am:








Luke 17:21
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

muso,

What do you think that it is, that Luke 17:21 implies ?




muso,

Jesus claimed that the Pharisees had shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, so that men [within their influence] could not enter 'the kingdom of heaven'.

If the kingdom of God is within us [all], how then, could the Pharisees have shut up the 'the kingdom of heaven against men', muso ?

Matthew 23:13
But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.




From the pov of Christianity [i.e. scripturally], where is the kingdom of God/heaven, muso ?


Romans 14:17
For the kingdom of God is....righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.



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muso,

If the kingdom of God is open to every man [and if 'the kingdom of God is within', every man], then what did Jesus mean when he said this in John 8:44, muso ?

What were the implications of Jesus accusations in John 8:44, muso ?

John 8:44
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him......

Was the kingdom of God open to those men, whom Jesus was rebuking, as being the children of the devil ?

Do you think ?




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The kingdom of heaven, is already within us.

Jesus said so!                  Luke 17:21

So are we already forgiven ?

And so, do we all have access to God, and to 'the kingdom' ?
[i.e. access to a God, who we are told again, and again, is a holy and pure entity ??? ]

Even the un-repentant?



2 Samuel 22:4
I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

Joel 2:32
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.

Hmmmm.

Only a remnant, will be redeemed ?



Jeremiah 10:25
Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

I am Jacob too.

Because i call on the name of God.


Galatians 4:29
But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

1 John 3:13
Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.







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muso,


Matthew 6:33
....seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;....


Why do we need to 1/ seek God and, 2/ his righteousness ?

Matthew 5:20
For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Why do we need to seek righteousness, muso ?

And what is the 'righteousness' that God requires of us ?



Matthew 4:17
From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.


Repent, of what ?

Of being 'OK' [of thinking that we are OK], without the spirit of God.

When we are separate from God, we reside with wickedness.
...that is what the spirit of God teaches us.




To enter the kingdom of heaven, our heart must be right with God.

We are afforded redemption [from this world] through repentance [i.e. acknowledging our error, and turning to seek God's righteousness].


Why do men think that [spiritual] repentance is unimportant ?


Psalms 10:3
For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.
4  The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
5  His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
6  He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.
7  His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.

I think it's a residue of Buddhist immanence.  At about that time, there was a significant diaspora of holy men from the Indo Greek Kingdom, which was invaded several times by the Scythians around 10CE.

They obviously had considerable influence during that period. The Buddhist influence in such passages as the Sermon on the Mount provides additional (circumstantial) evidence of this.