“Jesus preached an end-times kingdom but one already existing on earth”
Have to admit, I don’t get that one.
It took some thinking on my part too. The modern world moves slowlwy along the road of self-destruction. And Christ was always talking in parables about the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God is like a sower who went out to sow.
Now put that to the modern day and look at the different kind of media, individaul messages (I’m thinking of atheists, here) hurtful words, dissension among nations — all these are seeds being sown right now in our world.
You can also transfer the other parables about the kingdom of God in Christ’s day to what is happening in the modern world.
The kingdom of God is like a farmer who sowed good seed, but someone came and sowed weeds.......
The kingdom of God is like a owner who builds a hedge around the vineyard and then leaves the tenants in charge — are we the current tenants?
The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.......
The analogies are endless.
I thought of another one that perhaps relates more to the end times. They are really all about how we live our daily lives — who knows if we will even wake up in the morning!??
The kingdom of God is like 10 maidens who went out to wait for the bridegroom. Five took oil, five were foolish.
The ones with oil — prayers, attending Mass, going to Reconciliation — are prepared for the coming of the heavenly bridegroom.
The foolish ones — not prepared — denying the truths of the Bible — Annunciation, Resurrection, successors of St. Peter, why have the Sacraments?, etc. (what many threads here on FR are about) are the foolish ones who will not be prepared to enter heaven when Christ comes the seond time.