11 Jesus said, "You can know the secret about the kingdom of God. But to other people I tell everything by using stories 12 so that:
'They will look and look, but they will not learn.
They will listen and listen, but they will not understand.
If they did learn and understand,
they would come back to me and be forgiven.'"
Jesus tells stories so people will NOT learn or understand?? That makes it sound like God intends to save after this life on earth since God "Wills that ALL men be saved"
I think Jesus (as YHWH) said much the same in the OT, but I can't put my finger on BCV.
Ded do you think that it is possible to enter the Kingdom of God
Now?
Daj, I can't answer that unless I know EXACTLY what you mean by kingdom of God.
After a man turned away from following Jesus because of His riches...
(Mt 1923-25, CLT)
23 Now Jesus said to His disciples, "Verily, I am saying to you that the rich squeamishly will be entering into the kingdom of the heavens.
24 Yet again, I am saying to you that it is easier for a camel to be entering through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be entering into the kingdom of God."
25 Now, hearing it, the disciples were tremendously astonished, saying, "Who, consequently, can be saved?"
I remember this passage because it uses "the kingdom of the heavens" interchangeably with "the kingdom of God." The Heavens emphasis the realm and God the ruler of the same thing. Here also, entering into one's salvation is equated in the minds of the apostles with this realm wherein God gets His own way. Though dispensationalism contradicts Jesus' saying, "My kingdom is not of this world (Gk: cosmos)..." (Jn 1836) telling us this kingdom is in abeyance and in the future will be in a natural Israel and it will be ruled by the Jews, Salvation and our witness to the kingdom of God are present ongoing experiences of the children of God. Paul spoke of himself as an Ambassador of that kingdom. As Jesus said in another context, "The hour is coming and now is..." so it is with the realm in which God reigns.