The Gift

[allodial]

Let us not forget that...

"For where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there I am in their midst."

Kind've like saying "its right in your faces"? Interestingly and much related, many have seemed to miss the the point and meaning of Ezekiel 48:35. If I were speaking to the Pharisees, I wouldn't suggest the kingdom to be in them but "in their faces" or the like.

Jesus Christ could not have been telling the Pharisees that God's Kingdom was something that existed within their hearts or minds—after all, these were people who wanted to destroy Him

Perhaps the modern-day legalists are similar to the Pharisees of the day? How can anyone look for an earthly kingdom or seat of governance when:

#1 Ephesians says its heavenly
#2 In the book of John its clear that its "not of this world".

Even modern-day Hindus and African Christians or Hebrews readily accept the idea that India and and the Aryans weren't necessarily statist nations and that they weren't necessarily a "biological race", but were distinct cultures or 'tribes'. You can have the same culture and live hundreds of miles apart and be part of the same tribe or nation. Even the U.S. Government's 14th amendment citizenship seems to me to just be a reiteration of how a king or kingdom can be personal, territorial or both personal and territorial. It seems many Westerners have been too quick to impose statist models on the past and so fail to see how a kingdom doesn't necessarily have to be associated with a crayon-colorable shape on a map. Just say no to Babylonian Kool-Aid--Daniel did.

So whoever has promoted bloodshed, poverty, temple desecration for the deceptive guise of setting up a Jesus Christ's kingdom on earth through the sword might have some 'splainin' to do (not naming any names) AFAIK, Matthew 26:52 isn't an exhortation against self-defense but a warning on the dangers of the use of conventional warfare to prosper or to evangelize. Matthew 26:52 to me is like "LOL put that sword away, you're missing the point. consider the ramifications." Clearly the intent was nothing along the lines of an earthly military campaign. He would have ridden a horse (war sign) instead of a donkey (peace sign) and summoned the might of the many more. Obviously, he wasn't trying to set up an earthly kingdom.

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. Matt. 23:27

How on earth (semi-pun intended) could he be telling them that the kingdom of God was inside of them? Surely dead men's bones and all uncleanness isn't the kingdom of God!

Related:
Luke 17:20-21: Is the Kingdom "Within You" or "In Your Midst"?