The Kingdom idea

[Vern]

the Thought Adjuster is within you

We are told the greatest pronouncement Jesus made was the kingdom is within you.

This has forever confirmed, between God and man there are no intermediaries.

“The kingdom of God is within you” was probably the greatest pronouncement Jesus ever made, next to the declaration that his Father is a living and loving spirit. ^{[Paper 195:10.4, page 2084:4]}

We have come to a stage where the Father child relationship should replace the Kingdom idea which no longer has symbolic meaning appropriate for modern times. God is not a king, God is our loving Father. After all, the father idea is the highest human concept of God.

…When all is said and done, the Father idea is still the highest human concept of God. ^{[Paper 196:3.35, page 2097:3]}

Christianity has already gone through a lot of trouble when the kingdom concept was seen as a threat to existing rulers. Consider the alternate concepts which were presented to better define the personal religious experience of the believer, the creator creature inner life.

Jesus tried these:

1. family of God
2. Father’s will
3. friends of God
4. fellowship of believers
5. brotherhood of man
6. Father’s fold
7. children of God
8. fellowship of the faithful
9. Father’s service
10. liberated sons of God.

I quite like the liberated sons of God but we all know that in the end he stayed with, what the people at the time could easily relate to, the kingdom idea.

By the time the Apostle John began to write the story of Jesus’ life and teachings, the early Christians had experienced so much trouble with the kingdom-of-God idea as a breeder of persecution that they had largely abandoned the use of the term. John talks much about the “eternal life.” Jesus often spoke of it as the “kingdom of life.” He also frequently referred to “the kingdom of God within you.” He once spoke of such an experience as “family fellowship with God the Father.” Jesus sought to substitute many terms for the kingdom but always without success. Among others, he used: the family of God, the Father’s will, the friends of God, the fellowship of believers, the brotherhood of man, the Father’s fold, the children of God, the fellowship of the faithful, the Father’s service, and the liberated sons of God. ^{[Paper170:2.24, page 1861:6]}

Unfortunately now crystallized within Christianity the kingdom idea has come to signify believers of the congregation as the “cult of eternal life.”

But he could not escape the use of the kingdom idea. It was more than fifty years later, not until after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies, that this concept of the kingdom began to change into the cult of eternal life as its social and institutional aspects were taken over by the rapidly expanding and crystallizing Christian church. ^{[Paper170:2.25, page 1861:7]}

Now times are different and new a new symbolic language is required to thrill us all with the call to adventure.

The call to the adventure of building a new and transformed human society by means of the spiritual rebirth of Jesus’ brotherhood of the kingdom should thrill all who believe in him as men have not been stirred since the days when they walked about on earth as his companions in the flesh. ^{[Paper195:10.6, page 2084:6]}

There must be many creative ways to express the fact of sonship with the Father of all personalities……..faithers one and all.

If Christianity can truly re-invent itself by becoming the proclaimer of the teachings of Jesus, the term Christian could become an identifier of “faith-sons” and “faith-daughters” of the Father as originally intended.

The Father lives in you

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