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Originally Posted by
Dakkel
In Matt. 16:28 Jesus said, “There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." Yet, they all died and he never came.
St. Ambrose teaches that Christ and His Kingdom are not separated. St. Paul says that "Now you are the body of Christ, and members of member." [1 Corinthians 12:27]. That is to say the faithful are 'The Mystical Body of Christ' which is 'The Kingdom of Heaven'. So we have to ask, when Christ said, "The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you"? What did he mean saying that this generation would not pass? (Cf. Matthew 12:28, Luke 10:9, Luke 17:21, Luke 21:31). Was the shinning Kingdom placed under a basket?
St. Luke's Gospel we read that the Kingdom of God was 'among them':
And being asked by the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come? he answered them, and said: The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Neither shall they say: Behold here, or behold there. For lo, the kingdom of God is within you. [Luke 17:20-22]
And so it was, both Christ and the Twelve was of the Jewish Nation, thus among the Pharisees, Those who stood before Christ in Matthew's Gospel were the Kingdom of God. This is a universal Kingdom, i.e. Church that will be comprised of the faithful on earth, the Church Militant, those suffering in purgatory, the Church suffering, and finally, those in heaven the Church Triumphant.
To begin with, learn, from further testimonies [of Scripture], how that the kingdom of heaven is also the kingdom of the Son: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, that there are some among those which stand here with us, who shall not taste death, until they see the Son of Man coming into His kingdom." (Matthew 16:28) There is therefore no room for doubt that the kingdom appertains to the Son of God. (Ambrose, Christian Faith, III, 12)
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Prophesies said that the Savior was going to be the King of the Jews but Jesus died, never becoming the King. How come no one prophesied that the "kingdom" Was spiritual as some Christians suggest. What implications this have as prophets said the messiah will reign over the LAND not the heaven.
The Old Testament tells of the coming of the Kingdom in the Messianic age. The Kingdom is meant for the sanctification of the twelve tribes as well as the Gentiles, represented in The Twelve. Even kings serve and obey (Psalm 21:28 sq.; 2:7-12; 116:1; Zechariah 9:10). It’s clear that a Catholic (universal) faith and common worship is implied, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared in the top of the mountains, and high above the hills: and people shall flow to it. And many nations shall come in haste, and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth out of Sion, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem.” (Micah 4:1-2) A unified worship, ONE worship under a teaching authority, keeping the Divine Truth for all; “And it shall come to pass in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem: half of them to the east sea, and half of them to the last sea: they shall be in summer and in winter. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name shall be one. “(Zechariah 14:8)
Prophecies in the Old Testament tell of a future Kingdom holding the authority in the rule of the Messiah; Psalms 2 and 71; Isaiah 9:6 sq. We see that authority in the shepherd that leads his sheep between in the pastures of Divine Truth (Ezekiel 34:23; 37:24-28).
Taking the seat of Moses, Christ is the High Priest of the Kingdom of God, “The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech.” (Psalm 109:4) And that priesthood is institutionalized in the Kingdom, “For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 1:11). The priesthood in this Messianic Kingdom is a continuation of the priesthood in the Old Testament with continued sacrificial offerings; “Thus saith the Lord: if my covenant, with the day can be made void, and my covenant with the night, that there should not be day and night in their season" (Jeremiah 33:20)
We take God’s Word as being immutable. God promises Moses a Kingdom; nowhere do we find a verse that terminates the Kingdom of God. Moses is told, “If therefore you will hear my voice, and keep my covenant, you shall be my peculiar possession above all people: for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a priestly kingdom, and a holy nation.” (Ex.19: 5, 6), which is the Old Testament equivalent of Matt 16:18. The promise made to Moses is an integral part of the Old Testament. The Jewish Kingdom was both a spiritual and temporal Kingdom of God with a priestly hierarchy, where the presence of God was veiled and only found in the Tabernacle. Mosses’ sacrifices, different from the Christ’s sacrifice, was given up to be consumed by God. Conversely Christ is sacrificed at the altar continually every day consuming us, bite by bite. (Cf. Tractates on the Gospel of John, CHAPTER 26,) newadvent.org/fathers/1701026.htm
The Kingdom was near as promised in Luke and Matthew and is eternal. You call it the Catholic Church. The Church of God is still within us; a beacon atop a hill.
Christ didn’t overturn this Kingdom by creating a new one; in fact He couldn’t because His ministry was the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, which included the Messianic Kingdom along with the prophecies of His Kingdom. To overthrow this Kingdom would have been to overthrow himself – which of course is nonsense. However what Christ was to do was to turn over the ‘Key’ of the Kingdom to a new tenant, what is today the gentile Kingdom we call the Catholic Church. Which is the reason that in Matthew, we hear Christ say, “I say to you [the Pharisees] that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof.” This too is a pronouncement on Mt. Sinai. It’s here we see Christ conquering the world in the Messianic vision of David; but instead of today’s “nation building” it is called Christ’s “Kingdom” building.
JoeT