Question 37: What form is the kingdom in which Christ reigns?

Question 37: What form is the kingdom (kingship) in which Christ reigns?

Answer: It is spiritual, and that kingdom is composed of the Word and the Holy Spirit, who possess righteousness and life.

John 18:36 "Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have fought to prevent me from being handed over to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not of this world.'"

The kingdom where Jesus reigns is the Kingdom of God within the hearts of the saints. This is Heaven, and Jesus Himself is Heaven. The Millennium Kingdom spoken of in the Book of Revelation is precisely the kingdom within the hearts of the saints.

Revelation 20:4 “Then I saw thrones, and those sitting on them were given authority to judge. And I saw the souls (psychas) of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who lived (ezesan) and reigned with Christ for a thousand years—those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, nor received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands.”

Ezesan signifies dying and living (being born again: one born of resurrected life). In other words, only those who have died and come back to life through spiritual resurrection become the people of the Kingdom of God. Psychas refers not to souls, but to physical beings (fleshly bodies). Those who were beheaded signify those whose former flesh had died—that is, those who received a spiritual body from heaven and were born of resurrected life. They are those who did not worship idols and did not receive the mark of Satan. Therefore, they are the Millennium Kingdom.

The Millennium Kingdom is another name for Heaven. When a saint becomes a citizen of Heaven, he is in the Millennium Kingdom. There is a tendency to equate the Millennium Kingdom or Heaven with the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of Heaven appearing in the Gospel of Matthew is *he basileia ton ouranon* in Greek, which becomes the Kingdom of God within the hearts of the saints. Of course, the Kingdom of God is a concept in a comprehensive sense.
Heaven (the Millennium) is the establishment of the Kingdom of God by the saints while they are alive in the flesh. 

Matthew 3:2 states, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," and Heaven refers to Jesus Christ. A saint is one who believes that they died on the cross and resurrected with Jesus Christ; when the temple (Holy of Holies) is established within their heart and Christ enters into that saint's heart, it becomes Heaven. 

Therefore, one who does not believe in the present resurrection, or who does not believe that Christ has returned and entered into the saint's heart, cannot be considered to have received Heaven.

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