Through a Bible Verse

The statement “the Kingdom of God is within you” is a quote a large group of pastors use today to conceal the Kingdom. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not a Bible verse. Rather, it’s a corruption of a Bible verse. We’ll prove it by looking closely at the original Greek words and by examining the passage in context.

Hint: The context was Jesus speaking to the Pharisees, and he actually said ‘the Kingdom of God is among you’ (Luke 17:21), not within you!

Enemies of the Kingdom Hope stand in the pulpits of many Christian churches. They lurk in other parts of the Church too. They're in ministry positions and in Bible studies, ready to contradict the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

These false teachers have a deep disdain for the One Hope of the Kingdom. You'll recognize them because they often quote ‘the Kingdom of God is within you.’ They invest much of their time quoting this supposed saying of Christ not to enlighten others, but to undermine the One Hope.

The expression ‘the Kingdom of God is within you’ (Luke 17:21; KJV) is triply deceptive. Observe that: 1. It is a bad translation. 2. It is taken out of context. And 3. It contradicts a fundamental Truth of Christianity, the One Hope.

Be wary when you hear this phrase. Be alert to why it's being spoken. To the person who quotes it, you do well to ask questions like: "What does that mean?" or "What is your point?" or "What are you trying to say?"

A Short History of the KJV

Today’s haters of the Hope will rush to the King James Version to make Luke 17:21 say “the Kingdom of God is within you” but it's not the best translation of the original Greek. As a reminder: The KJV New Testament was completed in 1611 by Bible scholars in England. They wrote it based on the most popular Greek Bible Text of their time, Erasmus’ 1516 update to the Textus Receptus (that's Latin for "Received Text"--the one believed to be faithfully passed down from the times of the apostles).

The KJV is often called the Authorized Version (AV) because King James authorized it as appropriate for the English-speaking world. The best Bible-language scholars assured him that it was the best translation of the Bible into English, and it was a very good translation!

Erasmus’ update was an improvement on the previous version of the Textus Receptus, but he fell woefully short of perfection in a handful of passages. For example, in his third version (1522), he included the infamous Johannine Comma (1 John 5:7) which Trinitarians pressured him to include in the Bible.

Now, this text, which says "there are three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one," was not found in earlier Greek texts. It was only found in Latin texts--and not even in Jerome's original Latin version, called the Latin Vulgate, which he completed in 384 AD!

The passage we're examining right now is Luke 17:20-21. We'll talk about the Greek of this passage in a minute. The important thing is that you understand that Bible scholars are not perfect.

The Textus Receptus of Erasmus included a few verses which were first added to the Bible in the 15th century, and never found in any text or even commentary on the Bible prior to the 15th century! But we have those texts available to us today. The Aleppo Codex and the Dead Sea Scrolls—Old Testament texts—for example, were not available to Erasmus, but we have them now!

A testimony to the need for using the most ancient Greek texts is the King James 2000 Version, the modern update to the KJV which now presents Luke 17:21 as ‘the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you.’ They finally got it right after 389 years!

Context Context Context

Those who oppose the preaching of a Kingdom to Come have made the “the Kingdom of God is within you” their touchstone text. But it should not be used. It’s a misquote. Not only is it from an outdated translation of a verse from the KJV, but the context itself testifies that it’s impossible Jesus said such a thing.

We cannot ignore the context of Luke 17. It clearly is a passage in which Jesus is reproving the Pharisees by saying ‘the Kingdom of God is in your midst’ [speaking of himself, the Messiah, being among them] and not praising them for their spirituality.

We cannot ignore that Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees. The wrong interpretation necessitates that Jesus was complementing the Pharisees for their spirituality—but the Pharisees were his mortal enemies, men who spent all of their time either plotting how to contradict Jesus or how to kill him! Was the Kingdom of God in their hearts? Of course not! Their hearts were full of hate.

Today’s rejectors of the Hope take the passage, twist it, and then shamelessly ignore the passage that follows (Luke 17:21-30) in which Jesus explains his Coming and the details of the Rapture. In other words, he describes the signs they claim he was denying in the previous verses.

Unbelievably, they think that Jesus was refusing to talk about the signs of his coming just because he told the Pharisees ‘The coming of the Kingdom of God is not with controlled watching' (Luke 17:20) even though he spent the rest of the chapter describing the signs of his return in granular detail.

Pastors are disregarding the overwhelming testimony of Biblical scholars, men who work tirelessly to translate the Bible. Jesus said ‘the Kingdom of God is in your midst’ according to 13 of the top 15 modern English translations [NIV, NLV, ESV, BSB, NASB, NASB1995, NASB1977, AB, CSB, HCSB, CEV, ISV, NET]. These translations either say “the Kingdom of God is in your midst” or “the Kingdom of God is among you.”

The Faithful Translation

Here’s the best translation we can pen according to the best Greek research, textual study, and consideration of the context:

Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the Kingdom of God is not with controlled watching. Nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ for the Kingdom of God is among you" (Luke 17:20-21).

This translation is a mix of the best translations bolstered by Strong’s translation of the word parateresis, “controlled watching.” In case you didn’t know, Strong’s Concordance is the gold standard for the original meaning of Bible words. Another faithful translation of the same word is “close diligent watching as to control.” Let’s insert that into our next version of the same passage. Here it is:

Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the Kingdom of God is not with close diligent watching as to control. Nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ for the Kingdom of God is among you (Luke 17:20-21).

Here I Am

Jesus told the Pharisees that the Kingdom was ‘in their midst’—and what he meant was to say “Here I am, the King of the Kingdom.” He confronted the Pharisees’ mistaken concept of a political movement with his being among them. Their concept was that the Kingdom would be a Jewish religious-political movement, and they wanted to closely track it.

Just a century later, the descendants of the Pharisees would throw their strong support behind the Jewish prince Simon bar Kokhba (132–136 AD), a warrior who led a rebellion against the Romans in Judaea.

Rabbi Akiva, a Pharisee and major contributor to the Oral Law (Hebrew Mishnah) who went down in Jewish history as the “Chief of the Sages” supported Bar Kokhba’s rebellion. But it only resulted in the decimation of the Jews by the Romans—the total defeat of the Jewish people in the Holy Land. Those who did not die were led off to slavery and sold.

The Pharisees didn’t get it when Jesus told them ‘The Kingdom of God is among you.’ They were wrong about the religious-political movement they suspected Jesus was leading. It was a movement they could have joined that day, if they had only recognized to whom they were speaking. It was much closer to them than they thought. It was standing before them, embodied and personified in the Christ they would crucify. Jesus was saying "Here I am."

The Kingdom Is At Hand

To those Pharisees Jesus said ‘the Kingdom is in your midst’—and that perfectly harmonizes with other statements he made. For example, when he started his healing-miracle ministry, to prompt people to notice that he was among them as the anointed King of the Kingdom, he said:

‘The time has come’... ‘The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the Good News!’ (Mark 1:15)

Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand! (Matthew 3:2; NKJV)

Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near’ (Matthew 4:7).

But as people watched him perform miracles and began to notice that he had the Holy Spirit, he made sure that they understood that it meant that they were witnessing the Kingdom among them. His miracles meant “I’m the Messiah, the Anointed One. Here I am.”

… if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you (Matthew 12:28).

Politics and Religion

Some Pharisees supported the political party that supported Herod, the Herodians. Others supported the radical enemies of Rome, the Zealots. The Pharisees tolerated the Romans, but guarded a secret hatred towards them. Whichever group rose to the top politically soon became the Pharisees associates. Why?

The Pharisees kept a close watch on every political development that they might seize control of the Kingdom of God when it came. They oversaw the spiritual dimension of the Kingdom, being stewards and teachers of the Word of God, but the were constantly preparing themselves to gain political control of it as well. They were much like the apostle Judas, who sought out wealth and political power, only the Pharisees were less hypocritical.

Stones Would Cry Out

The Pharisees sought to maintain control of the Jewish people. They were unwilling for Jesus to gain any societal influence or control. Just two chapters after Jesus’ statement that the Kingdom of God was in their midst, he would enter Jerusalem in kingly fashion on the foal of a donkey.

When the people cried out ‘Blessed is the King, the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’ (Luke 19:38), the Pharisees were very upset. They asked Jesus to silence the praises of the people, but he responded that he would not. That made them even more angry.

And some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples!’ And he answered and said, ‘I tell you that if these keep silent, the stones will cry out!’ (Luke 19:39-40; LEB)

Jesus knew that the Jewish people were anxiously awaiting the Kingdom. It says that:

… they thought that the Kingdom of God was going to appear immediately (Luke 19:11; LEB).

So, conscious of the fact that it wasn’t time for him to reign yet, what did Jesus do? He told a parable to clarify what we should do to prepare for the Kingdom. We should not just wait around. Instead, Jesus proved in his parable of the minas (or talents), that we prepare for the Kingdom by serving God now.

The Minas: Invest Now!

The Lord told the parable of the minas to prove that he had to depart from his disciples for a time to receive a Kingdom, and that he would come back to supervise a rendering of accounts.

Therefore he [Jesus] said, “A certain nobleman traveled to a distant country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. And summoning ten of his own slaves, he gave them ten minas and said to them, ‘Do business until I come back.’ But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to be king over us!’

And it happened that when he returned after receiving the kingdom, he ordered these slaves to whom he had given the money to be summoned to him, so that he could know what they had gained by trading.

So the first arrived, saying, ‘Sir, your mina has made ten minas more!’ And he said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because you have been faithful in a very small thing, have authority over ten cities.’ And the second came, saying, ‘Sir, your mina has made five minas.’ So he said to this one also, ‘And you be over five cities.’

And another came, saying, ‘Sir, behold your mina, which I had put away for safekeeping in a piece of cloth. For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man—you withdraw what you did not deposit, and you reap what you did not sow!’

He said to him, ‘By your own words I will judge you, wicked slave! You knew that I am a severe man, withdrawing what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. And why did you not give my money to the bank, and I, when I returned, would have collected it with interest?’

And to the bystanders he said, ‘Take away from him the mina and give it to the one who has the ten minas!’ And they said to him, ‘Sir, he has ten minas.’ ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given. But from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. But these enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and slaughter them in my presence!’” (Luke 19:12-27; LEB)

Jesus taught the parable in response to intense public interest in the Kingdom. Right before he told the parable, it says that ‘the people thought that the Kingdom of God was going to appear at once’ (Luke 19:11).

The people were wrong, of course. The Kingdom wouldn’t appear at once. We're in the 21st century and it still hasn’t appeared. That’s why Jesus spoke the parable: to demonstrate that first we must pass through a time of testing—a time in which we prove ourselves worthy of God’s rewards.

That time of testing is this current period of history leading all the way to the conclusion of the Millennium. Remember: In the story, Jesus speaks of a delegation which revolts against him. That would be Gog and Magog.

... his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to be king over us!’ (Luke 19:14).

We also know that Jesus was speaking of the end of the Millennium because the punishment the king administers, the punishment of casting his enemies into the outer darkness, is a punishment for the conclusion of the Millennium. Matthew’s version of this same parable ends with these words:

… throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 19:30).

Control Freaks

The Greek word for ‘close diligent watching so as to control’ is para-teresis. It’s a word with two parts, a prefix and a root. The first part of the word, the prefix para in Greek means beside. The second part of the word (teresis) means prison/jail. So the word para-teresis describes the person who is beside a jail. Who stands beside the jail? The jailkeeper.

This word parateresis can also be translated as ‘watching like a guard’ and it has the connotation of ‘trying to control something yourself.’ Now, isn’t that exactly what the Pharisees were aiming at? Control of the Kingdom? Yes.

The Rented Vineyard

Jesus rebuked that attitude—the attitude of vying for control of the Kingdom—in another of his parables.

“There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time” (Matthew 21:33-41).

Jesus interpreted the passage just two verses later, saying to the Pharisees:

Therefore I tell you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit (Matthew 21:43).

The Kingdom was taken away from the Pharisees. How so? In that they controlled entry and access to it. They were the gatekeepers. Right now the Gentiles are the gatekeepers. And in that sense, the gatekeeping sense, the entry/entrance sense, the Kingdom of God is near. Yes, it is at hand, just on the other side of the entry gate, who is Christ.

I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved (John 10:9).

Entering the Kingdom

Regarding their obsession with control, Jesus had a stern rebuke for the scribes. Scribes were lawyers, experts in the Law. They had control of the knowledge of God’s Word—the key to knowledge. They were the gatekeepers of understanding, the teachers.

Woe to you experts in the Law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering (Luke 11:52).

Entering? Entering what? The Kingdom. There are people who control entry into the Kingdom today also—pastors of Christian churches. Are they hindering people from entering? Do they themselves enter the Kingdom?

Forcing Our Way In

In another passage Jesus said that people were forcing their way into the Kingdom.

The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the Good News of the Kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it (Luke 16:16).

How do we interpret this? Is anyone entering the Kingdom right now? Yes and no. We’re pushing our way in now, making our way towards a goal, so that on the day when it comes, we’ll be allowed into the gates of the Kingdom.

So, it’s a process that begins now but is only completed when the Kingdom comes. Now is time for hardship, testing, and investing. Here's a verse that describes how we're entering the Kingdom now--through suffering:

We must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22).

And here's a verse that speaks of the very event of entry into the Kingdom. This is the actual "Kingdom come."

Then the King will say to those on his right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World’ (Matthew 25:34; NKJV).

So, no. Nobody is just walking into the Kingdom now. We have to pay a price before we enter first, and that price is bearing the shame, rejection, and suffering of Jesus. Are you willing to pay that price? The way to tell is to honestly assess how you handle rejection for being a Christian today.

Do you avoid rejection by staying silent? Do you cower away from giving your Christian testimony? Are you ashamed of being the person God has called you to be? Are you ashamed that we have been called heirs with Christ of his Kingdom?

If so, then you will not inherit the Kingdom at all. Repent, overcome your fears, and push your way in!