One of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible is Luke 17:21. This
is another example of the mistranslations found in our well loved King James
version. As found in the King James version, Luke 11:20-21 reads as follows:
"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, When the Kingdom of God
should come, He answered them and said, The Kingdom of God cometh not with
observation: Neither shall they say Lo, here, or Lo, there! for behold, the
kingdom of God is within you." This has led many people to consider the
phrase "the kingdom of God" to be a false and mis�leading term,
referring not to a kingdom at all, but just to a mere state of mind. In this,
they are greatly mistaken.
In the first place, the Greek word translated "within" is
"entos" which really means among or "in the midst of".
This same word is correctly translated "among" 115 times in the King
James Version. For example, John 1:26: "John answered them, saying, I
baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not."
Here is the same Greek word: certainly no intelligent man could have said to
the people standing around John the Baptist, "There is a person standing
Inside of you, Whom you know not"---so it was correctly translated
"among you".
Actually, the correct translation of the Greek in Luke 17:21 Is this:
"Nor will they say Lo, here! or Lo there! for the majesty of God is in
the midst of you."(Diaglott) Correctly translated, It makes sense and Is
literally true; as it has been mistranslated, it is false and mis�leading.
Consider for a moment who it was that asked Jesus, "When shall the
Kingdom of God come?" They were the Pharisees. Would Jesus Christ have
told these Pharisees that the Kingdom of God was within them, in their hearts?
Let's see what He really knew and said about them: In the 23rd chapter of
Matthew, Jesus Christ is talking directly to the Pharisees, and eight
different times He denounces them: "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites!" Are these the people who have the Kingdom of God in their
hearts? In the 13th verse,
He tells them, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye
shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves,
neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in." In the 28th verse, He
tells them what is in their hearts: "Even so, ye also outwardly appear
right�eous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."
Is this the Kingdom of God? No; and it never will be "within them".
Then where is the Kingdom of God? Is it a real kingdom:--not a
You may say, What of John 18:36, where Jesus Christ tells Pontius
Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world : if any kingdom were of this
world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the
Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence." Jesus was speaking to a
Roman who represented the fourth and last of the Babylonian Order of Empires
which God prophesied in the second chapter of Daniel. God gave these empires a
charter to rule of 2,520 years, of which seventeen centuries were yet to come
when Jesus spoke. Certainly Jesus' Kingdom was not of this order. The Greek
word wrongly translated "world" is "Kosmos",
meaning
"order" or "system". So Jesus told Pilate: "My
kingdom is not of this order: If my kingdom were of this system, then would my
servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now to my
kingdom not from hence." This did not mean that His kingdom was merely a
state of mind: It meant that He always keeps His word. Having promised the
Babylonian Order of Empires 2,520 years to rule, He would not overthrow them
before the appointed time.
The people knew that the time for the coming of the Messiah was at
hand; but they didn't understand that His first coming was to be as Savior and
Redeemer. They were expecting Him to come as King. Mark 11: 9-10 says that
when Jesus came to Jerusalem just before the crucifixion, the people greeted
Him as King: "And they that went before, and they that followed, cried,
saying Hosannah; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." And
after His resurrection, the apostles asked Him: to Lord, wilt thou at this
time restore the Kingdom to Israel?" They knew that this was God's
Kingdom though their expectation was premature. Jesus told His Disciples, in
the 24th chapter of Matthew and the 21st chapter of Luke, of the signs of the
end of the age and of His second coming, as King of kings, concluding with
these words in Luke 21:31: "So likewise ye, when ye see these things come
to pass, know that the Kingdom of God Is nigh at hand." This couldn't
possibly refer to a mere state of mind, for in that case the prophesied signs
would have nothing to do with it, as some would have had this state of mind
many centuries ear�lier, while to others It would never come. Neither can it
be "spiritual�ized away and transferred to some "churcht --- for
Jesus Christ Himself told the chief priests, who were then ruling In
Jerusalem, "The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a
nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." Matthew 21:43
When Jesus first
came, the church of His day would not receive Him as Savior; they rejected Him
because He didn't then come as king. When He comes the second time, the
churches of our day will again reject Him because they will only accept Him as
Savior, but not as a real and lit�eral King. Yet in spite of them He will
return to reign over a real and tangible Kingdom. It is here on this earth. In
Daniel 2:44, 7:18 and 7:27, we are promised: "And in the days of these
kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed;
and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break In
pieces and con�sume all these kingdoms, and It shall stand forever. But the
saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for
ever, even for ever and ever. And the kingdom and dominion and greatness of
the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints
of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions
shall serve and obey him."
Who are "the saints of the Most High" who shall rule with God
In His kingdom? Are they various people who have been selected by some church
for special honor because of some act of piety? No, indeed! The Bible tells us
who ALL of God's saints are---note that: not just some of them, but ALL of
them. It is in Psalm 148:14, which says: "He also exalteth the horn of
His people, the praise of ALL HIS SAINTS, even of THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, a
people near unto Him.
This is the same
Kingdom of Israel where God's throne has always been; and this throne exists to
this day in England, where the genealogy of the British royal family proves
their direct descent from King David. just as prophecy had foretold. It is the
same Israel, known today as the Anglo-Saxon group of nations, Including the
United States, the white parts of the British Empire, Germany, Holland and the
Scandina�vian nations. All parts of the Bible, when correctly translated, are
consistent; and they all prove that God always keeps His word. His Rromises to
Abraham Isaac and Israel, that their descendants would be a great nation and a
company of nations", and that He would never for�sake them, have been
kept. We Aryans, the Israel of the Bible, are the living proof of this.