[UntoHim]

Hey Bible-believer, if "most Christians" are confounding the two kingdoms, maybe it's because the gospel writers and the Lord Jesus himself confounded the two kingdoms:

In Matthew 19 the terms kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God are used interchangeably WITHIN THE SPAN OF TWO CONSECUTIVE VERSES;

23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

There are quite a number of other places that the terms kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God are used interchangeably:

Matthew 11:11
"Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."
cf:
Luke 7:28
I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matthew 13:11
And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given."
cf:
Mark 4:11
And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables".

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matthew 13:24
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field,"
cf:
Mark 4:26
And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are quite a number of other instances in the canonical gospels in which the terms kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God are used interchangeably.

I, for one, believe that the Millennial Kingdom will be a physical, literal Kingdom where Christ reigns here on earth, I can't see how one could read the first few verses of Revelation 20 and not come to this conclusion. I have views on the "pre-trib" and "post-trib" controversy, but this is probably beyond the purview of our forum. The main thing that I would stress is that according to the Gospels and the writings of the apostles, we are not to be concerned too much with the future coming Kingdom (be it of Heaven or of God), but we should be busy "going about the Father's business". We have the Lord Jesus as our example. We have the early apostles, disciples and believers as our example. We have the early Christians who were persecuted and even martyred as our example. We have countless saints down through the ages who have left us a well-worn path that will lead us straight to the Kingdom of God and of the Heavens. And finally "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Heb 12:1

Brothers, sisters, friends, lurkers...we are in a race. God will not be mocked. If we are disqualified in this race in this age, how could we possibly think that we will be rewarded in the age(s) to come. To be sure, judgement will come, and so will the Kingdom of God and of Heaven. But first, judgment must begin at the house of God today. We cannot serve two masters, for these are masters of two different kingdoms. We can serve and worship the one true God, or we can serve the god of this world who has blinded the eyes of the unbelievers, and also those entrapped within false religion. Many of our dear brothers and sisters in the Local Church of Witness Lee have been blinded. They have been deceived into believing that the kingdom that Witness Lee built is the kingdom of God. They have been deceived into believing that their reward and punishment will be based upon the person and work of a mere man and his so-called ministry of the age. But we know better now, don't we? Maybe if we try a little harder to live within the Kingdom of God today, God may use us to reach those who have been blinded by unbelief and false religion.
-