Jesus didn't teach that the kingdom of God was 'long into the future':
But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. (Mt 12:28)
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it. (Mt 21:43)
And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power." (Mk 9:1)
heal the sick in it and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' (Lk 10:9)
nor will they say, 'Lo, here it is!' or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you." (Lk 17:21)
Jesus taught that God's heavenly Kingdom would not become fully operational for a long time after his death, and that is why he gave the illustration about "the man of noble birth" that had to travel to a "distant land to secure kingly power".(Luke 19:12) Otherwise, why were the disciples thinking "that the Kingdom of God was going to appear instantly" if it was already there ?(Luke 19:11)
When the wicked Pharisees asked Jesus concerning God's Kingdom, Jesus responded: "The Kingdom of God is not coming with striking observableness.....For look ! The Kingdom of God is in your midst".(Luke 17:20, 21) Jesus, as King-Designate of God's Kingdom, was right there "in their midst" or in front of them. But Jesus was just the beginning of one's being selected for the privilege of becoming a "king-priest"; 144,000 others were to follow.(Rev 7:4; 14:1)
Hence, it need be understood that Jesus alone does not make up God's Kingdom, but is the primary king-priest of it. Others would also have to be chosen and sealed with holy spirit and prove loyal till death in order to become a member of God's heavenly Kingdom as "kings and priest".(Rev 5:9, 10; Eph 1:13, 14) Jesus was selected as the first member of God's heavenly Kingdom or government when he was baptized by John the Baptist in 29 C.E. and holy spirit identified him as "approved" as a son of God.(Matt 3:16, 17)
Then, at Pentecost 33 C.E., began the selection of the 144,000 (who will be placed along with Jesus) that would comprise God's heavenly Kingdom.(Acts 2:4) This choosing of the 144,000 has come all the way down to our day, who are noted as being "the remaining ones of ("the woman's") offspring, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness concerning Jesus".(Rev 12:17)
When the "great tribulation" begins (Matt 24:21) it will start with the destruction of false religion, called Babylon the Great at Revelation 17:5 that is identified as a "prostitute" and that has ' committed sexual immorality with the kings of the earth'.(Rev 17:1, 2) Then, just before the second phase of the "great tribulation" that will take down all political governments and their supporters, along everyone else who does not fully support God's heavenly Kingdom in destruction (Rev 19:19-21), the resurrection to heaven of the "chosen ones" will occur.(Matt 24:31)
Jesus was not crowned king of God's heavenly Kingdom until 1914, at which time the Kingdom became operational.(Dan 7:13, 14) At Revelation 6, it lays out a time line of events that would follow Jesus installment as king of God's Kingdom (Rev 6:1, 2), in which "a fiery-colored horse, and it was granted to the one seated on it to take peace away from the earth so that they should slaughter one and he was given a great sword".(Rev 6:4)
It does not take much examination of history to find out when peace was taken away from the earth (globally) for the 1st time. On July 28, 1914, World War I began so that by the end of the war in 1918 it had involved some 93 percent of the world's population. Before the arrival of World War II, it was called "the Great War" due to its scope.
This was followed by food shortages due to war (Rev 6:5, 6), which, in turn, next came "deadly plague" that had "authority.....over the fourth part of the earth".(Rev 6:8) In the spring of 1918, an outbreak of the Spanish Flu was noted, but by summer it was thought to have quietened down, but came back with a vengeance by the end of the year, so that when it finally died out, anywhere between 50 to 100 million people had died from it. It was far more catastrophic than World War I, effectively taking down a "fourth part of the earth", so that the rider on the "pale horse" named Death reaped in his victims by the "boatloads".
Thus, with Jesus installation as king of God's Kingdom in 1914, in which his first act was to cleanse the heavens of Satan and his demonic hordes (Rev 12:7-9), began "the Lord's day" or "the last days".(2 Tim 3:1; Rev 1:10) We on the earth are the ones who are having great "woes", because "the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing that he has a short period of time".(Rev 12:12) Satan's "short period time" has almost expired. we are very close to having reached "the end".(Matt 24:14b) But these events spoken of at Revelation 6 were just "a beginning of pangs of distress".(Matt 24:8)