Are We Reigning Now Or Not?

[Godsdrummer]

I don't mean to side track this thread, but it seem to me that all this must be taken together as whether we are reigning with Christ now or not has to do with our understanding of how and when the Kingdom of God came in in what manner.

Many have centered their views around the resurrection, and that the resurrection has not past, and is still to come. The problem as I see it is that too many of us want to put the resurrection of the dead into the exact same happening of what many want to describe as the rapture of the Church.

I used to teach this same way, My hope was in some future rapture of the living and the dead at the same time. My whole life was about not missing this rapture, should it happen in my life time. Wrapped into all that was the coming of some extreme 7 week tribulation that was to come upon the whole earth. Again my life centered around not living in relationship with God in this life, rather getting out of this life into some uphoria in the after life. I stuggled through life trying to keep the commandments of men in order to achieve the after life with Christ never realizing my postion in Christ in this life.

That all changed with the realization that the kingdom of God is here now, and that it is about being reconciled to God in this life. The restoration of the realtionship Adam lost in the garden. Not living in some perfect world percieved by man. This world is perfect, as God created it perfect. Man is what is not perfect. But through the cross we can be made perfect through Christ. This is what the cross was all about. The blood of the perfect sacrifice made us perfect in the eyes of God that we may come to him without fear of our imperfections because God looks at us through the blood of Christ.

Many referance Pauls speaking of Hymenaeus and Philetus who erred concerning the resurrection, saying it is past. Is the view taken by most in Christianity right. Was Paul speaking of the resurrection of the dead or more to the point was it the resurrection of the dead that was past the theme Paul was speaking of. I don't think so, for it should not matter when the resurrection of the dead happens in the scope of things whether it is future or past it is the hope of the saints. If it is past it should strengthen the saints not make our faith fail. So Hymenaeus and Philetus must have been speaking of something different namely salvation is past. That only those that had died up to that point were saved. This can acctualy be true as the meaning of the word resurrection does have that meaning. The word can figurative mean a moral recovery. As I think this fits more in the context of what Paul is speaking of in this letter to Timothy.

For me, it matters not when the resurrection happened whether in the past or even in the future. The fact is it did or will happen, and that is the security I have in Christ. That this life will continue after I die or leave this present world.

[soopy]

And experience seems to bear you out. To be living a life of waiting for some future event, especially in the context of I AM, is a farce and a lie. There is no impediment to your entry into the living kingdom, right now, except your belief and acceptance. It is right beside you.