Do we have to wait for some event to happen first before any born again Christian can experience God's Kingdom today?

I thought Jesus invented the whole notion of heaven on earth.

Jesus said pray "thy Kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven" The Church is responsible for bringing the Kingdom to earth. Jesus said "the Kingdom of God is within you" All life begins on the inside, but we want to take something that is in us (the Kingdom), and bring it out of us. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and the evil man brings forth evil things... who do you think is winning?

I thought that when Jesus talked of the kingdom of heaven at hand, he meant that pain and suffering didn't have to be the lot of people on earth waiting for a heavenly reward, that change would bring about a new world of peace and freedom from pain.

People sure do interpret his teachings any way they want, don't they? This is what I think he meant. He as a radical. He saw the suffering at the hands of the Roman soldiers.

As Jesus also said, "in me you shall have peace, in the world you shall have tribulation", We live in two different worlds at the same time if you are a born again Christian. We live in a spiritual world and also in a phsical world. We will suffer pain in this physical world, but not in the spiritual Kingdom of God. As long as evil is free to roam on this earth there will be problems. The Church was given all power and authority over all the power of the devil, I think its time to begin using that power...

Curtis

'The Church?'
I'm no longer interested in this discussion sorry.

Jesus' commandments are to love God and love each other. If you do that, God's kingdom is on earth.

I don't blame you a bit. But he's not using the term in the sense of "homophobic, narrow-minded, misogynistic pedophiles." He's using it in a more arcane sense, as a collective term for anybody and everybody who is a believer. This particular "church" isn't an organized religion, it's just people who believe and follow Christ.

I hope that helps. If the term meant "organized churches/denominations" in that context, I'd be running like a scared rabbit.

The Church is not the organized Church we have today. The Church is body of believers also called the body of Christ. I don not believe in or associated with any religion. I am just a sinner save by grace..

Do we really believe the Bible, or do we just mentally assent to it? Have you ever wondered what Heaven is going to be like? Most if not all Christians have these questions, they ask there pastors and fellow Christians, wanting to know the truth. Yet here we read in the scriptures that God has
Already raised us up, and has made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ! So why are we asking these kinds of questions when we should already know? The Church today has no clue to what our Lord has already given us to enjoy. We are hoping our entire life away, and not having the faith needed
To understand and experience these things today.

Eph 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
The Lord has already given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, and we get these things by knowing what these are. Knowing is everything!! God has already revealed all things that he has already prepared for us from the beginning. How, by His Spirit.

1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1Co 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

You can not have something you don't know you already have! If you had $100.00 in your pocket, and you did not know you had it you can not spend it, even though its yours, and its in your pocket. That's what the promises of God are. Things already given unto us by God, but wrapped up into a form of a promise. It would gruel for someone to promise you something without ever being able to receive the fulfillment of it in this life! That would be like going to a job interview, and the person interviewing you said, “we are not going to pay you for your labor until you die”, I quit, before I even started.
The word promise means to “announce”, but it also has a legal meaning, “to summons”, If we want to experience the promises of God fulfilled in our lives then we must go to the person who promised them, not our pastor, teacher, fedex, ups, mom or dad, but God alone. Contained in them are all things already given unto us from the beginning.

2Peter 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
2Peter 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Truth can not set you free until you know it!

Whose interpretation?

1Jn 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

Thank God we don't have to depend upon our own understanding of scripture. Truth can not be figured out with the physical mind, it has to be revealed to the human heart by God through the Holy Spirit, also known as the anointing!!

Curtis

So then you agree that Leviticus 20:13 is not speaking of homosexuals.

Lev 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. Lev 18:23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.

What do you think it means? There are some who want to believe the Bible, yet they don't see being homosexual as being wrong. We have something inherent in man called a conscience, anybody with a conscience knows homosexuality is wrong. Our conscience does not nor can it reveal truth, it only helps know right from wrong.

Curtis

You haven't studied the historical background of the verse and why God said that?

God was warning the Israelites about the worshipers of Moloch and Baal and other gods and goddesses. One of the common practices was temple prostitution. As part of this, the heterosexual priests of Moloch would dress up as women. Then they would have sex with straight men who came to worship and who would pay money/offerings to the temple for the privilege. Hence, God's prohibited straight men dressing up and lying with straight men, and don't support false gods and temples by doing this. It had nothing to do with homosexuality.

Are you referring to Gen 19:5

Gen 19:5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

I have not studied these passages. The Lord has his curriculum for each of his children. He has not led me to those yet. I study more about the Kingdom of God in which we have been translated into. That is where all the fun is.

Curtis

No.. The Leviticus passage.

The Lot story wasn't about homosexuality either.

If men were dressing up like women and having sex with other men, is that not called homoseuality?
Hey, maybe this is still going on.

May be they only wanted to talk to them.

Curtis

Who wanted to talk to whom?