Jesus' Gospel was a "Gospel of the Kingdom." That is a "theocracy." There clearly will be an eschatological theocracy under the New Covenant.
You are fighting Christ and the NT Scripture here. You have nothing (nothing!) to support your thesis in the NT. Christ did not teach a literal temporal territorial physical kingdom based in physical Jerusalem. He spiritualized it and showed it was a heavenly eternal kingdom. As Spiritual Israelite and myself have repeatedly showed you, Jesus made it clear that His kingdom "does not come with observation" (Luke 17:20) and "is not of this world" (John 18:36). Can i remind you, that we have left the old covenant arrangement forever, and have entered the new covenant? Why will you not let the old covenant go? You want to define the kingdom of God by its old covenant shadow and type, instead of its New Testament spiritual reality and substance.
Christ came to introduce a spiritual kingdom that was entered not by sight but only by faith. Jesus declared in John 3:3, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
This is expressly a spiritual kingdom as it relates to the spiritual realm. The blessing and rewards of the kingdom are plainly spiritual in nature and pertain exclusively to the repentant sinner. It relates to the unseen realm where the people are governed by their mediator King. A kingdom must have a king to be considered a kingdom. Christ rules this kingdom, not by force, but love. Those that subject to His authority are administered by the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Premil denies Christ His current kingship over His spiritual domain with its constant future focus upon the kinship of Christ. Whilst there is a future aspect to Christ’s kingship, there is also the current reality.
John testified in Revelation 1:9: “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom.”
If Christ’s kingdom is not yet come, then what kingdom was it that John resided in?
Hebrews 12:28: “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”
The error in Premil theology is in their understanding of the actual nature of the kingdom. It has no reference to physical worldly governments but rather God’s spiritual government over His people throughout all nations. Kingdom life pertains to the elect alone.
The kingdom of God in the New Testament does not refer to a political or earthly kingdom. The word kingdom simply means ‘king [with a] domain’. Its meaning includes the territory and the people over whom the King rules and exercises sovereign authority. The term also includes the legislation and laws that administrate that kingdom. The word employed in the New Testament for ‘kingdom’ is the Greek word ‘Basileia’ denoting ‘sovereignty, royal power, kingship and dominion’. A kingdom must therefore have (1) a king – a head, (2) a domain to rule over – subjects and territory, (3) a structure of administration – ethics, rules and laws which govern it.
The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom and incorporates the whole domain over-which the Lord Jesus Christ exercises His Divine kingship, dominion and intimate rule. It includes heaven (and all those who are in heaven) – the place where with the kingdom is centered and administrated.
Romans 14:17 sums it up like this: “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink (or, the kingdom of God is not material things); but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
The kingdom is summed up in 3 words:
· righteousness
· peace
· joy
When you truly enter the kingdom of God on this earth you inherit: “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
Here in this passage again we see that the kingdom of God is not a physical temporal kingdom that can be naturally observed or enjoyed but rather a spiritual kingdom, which is spiritually entered. The peace spoken of here is the peace that pertains to those saved by God’s Sovereign grace, and who belong to the spiritual kingdom of God. Not only would Messiah’s kingdom be characterized by peace, but He also would be “the prince of peace” (Isaiah 9:6). It was also not of this world – it was a heavenly kingdom.
Jesus declared in Matthew 6:31-34, “take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Premils often make the same mistake as the Pharisees did in their interpretation of the Old Testament prophecies. They interpret the Old Testament references to the kingdom in a literal, physical, visible, earthly temporal sense, when Christ demonstrated their fulfilment in a literal, spiritual, invisible, heavenly eternal sense. Many Christians today, like many Jews before them, are mistakenly looking forward to a physical reign of Christ on this sin-cursed earth. Such people, who call themselves Premillennialists, believe that Christ will set up an earthly kingdom, which will be concentrated on the actual city of Jerusalem. They believe that it is only at this stage that He will finally reign over His enemies and rule over the nations. However, Christ is not coming to reign over His enemies; He is coming to destroy them.