“Catholics and other preterists truly think the thousand year reign is now.
Tell that to the mom that was gunned down last night in front of her kids who will now be orphans.”
As you know, they misinterpret Luke 17:21, which has often been poorly translated as saying that the kingdom is “within you.” But the NASB translation gets it right:
Luke 17 (NASB)
20 Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed;
21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
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Quote from
The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament
by John F. Walvoord, Roy B. Zuck
Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come.
This was a logical question to ask, for He had been preaching for quite some time that the kingdom was at hand.
Jesus responded to the question in two ways.
First, He said that the Pharisees would not be able to tell of the coming of the kingdom through their observations.
Second, He told them that the kingdom was in their midst.
The term “within you” is often misunderstood.
The Pharisees were rejecting Him as the Messiah and were not believers.
(They were distinct from the disciples Jesus addressed beginning in v. 22.)
Thus it would not make sense for Jesus to have told the Pharisees that the kingdom of God was within them as if it were some sort of spiritual kingdom.
It is better to translate the phrase “within you” (entos hymon) as “in your midst.”
Some feel that the force of the expression is “within your possession or within your reach.”
Jesus’ point was that He was standing right in their midst.
All they needed to do was acknowledge that He is indeed the Messiah who could bring in the kingdom - and then the kingdom would come.
I appreciate you taking to the time to spell it out.
They certainly blew that opportunity in time to usher it in.