Where is the kingdom of God?

Within you or among You?

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Is this where you find the kingdom of God? (Picture: Public domain)

A few days ago my friend James Inman messaged me. This is most of what he wrote (used with permission):

Here’s a funny mysticism vs. church story you might like. I was at a party once talking to this guy about religion and he’s a very devout Christian. He said he’d been going to church all his life and been a believer since he was like five years old. Prays and reads the Bible every day etc etc.

I was telling him I study all the world religions and also read a lot about the history of the early church. Trying to relate to him and talk about the similarities of Buddhism to Christianity.

Somewhere in the conversation I mentioned, “I’d compare that to the Kingdom of God is within.”

Right away he says, “No it’s not.” I’m thinking that’s weird. What the? He sounded really adamant about it, so I said, “Well, it does say in the Gospels the Kingdom of God is within.”

And he says, “No it doesn’t.” I say, “Jesus does literally say the Kingdom of God is within. I’m pretty certain it’s in Luke…