The Cult of Paul

And yet the nature of God is not the only heavenly region where the theologies of Paul & Jesus
differ, for indeed they also drastically diverge with regard to the nature of Heaven itself. Essentially,
where Paul believes that Heaven exists elsewhere (see 1 Corinthians 5:19, 1 Corinthians 15:50, 2
Corinthians 12:2-4, & Philippians 1:22-24), Jesus teaches that the Kingdom of God is a Here&Now
state of being that “resides” within us all (see Luke 17:20-21's “The Kingdom of God is not coming with
things that can be observed; nor will they be able to say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘Look, there it is!’ For, in fact,
the Kingdom of God is already within you” 42 – also Matthew 19:13-14 43 , Matthew 22:32, Matthew 24:26-
28 44 , Mark 4:30-32 45 , Luke 11:20, Luke 17:22-24, John 3:3-8 46 , & John 18:36 47 ). And where Paul believes
that access to Heaven is coming at some apocalyptic moment in the future 48 (see Acts 17:31, Romans
8:18, 1 Corinthians 1:7, 1 Corinthians 15:23-26, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, 2 Corinthians 4:14-17, Philippians
3:10-20, 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10, & 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13), Jesus knows that the Kingdom of Heaven
is accessed fully & immediately in every present moment – during every act of selfless kindness (see
Matthew 7:21, Matthew 13:11-23, Matthew 18:3-4, Matthew 19:23-24 49 , John 3:17-21 50 , John 5:25-27, John
7:6, John 12:31, John 13:15-17, John 13:34-35, John 14:4, John 14:11-12+20, & John 15:12-13 et al).
“He is not the God of the dead but of the living … Truly, my
Father's mansion has many rooms … You know the way to the place
where I am going.” ~ Jesus Christ (Matthew 22:32 & John 14:2-4)
42 NOTE that the term commonly translated as “within” in this passage (often incorrectly written as “among”; falsely
implying that Jesus is speaking of his own presence – an idea he expressly denounced throughout the Gospels) is the
Greek word entos (Strong's #1787) – a word that did indeed primarily refer to something that was inside something
else, as further evidenced by it also being used in precisely that context in Matthew 23:26, where Jesus tells the
Pharisees to “first clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside might also become clean.”
43 NOTE that the verbs in this verse are all written in the present tense, denoting not that the Kingdom of Heaven will
belong to very young children someday in the future, but rather that it already does so even now.
44 Please attend here as well to Luke 17:31-37, where Jesus also utters “Where the corpse is found, the vultures will
gather” – a phrase that meant “Where there is smoke, there is fire”; essentially hearkening his listeners back to Luke
17:20-21 where he had just finished explaining to them that the Kingdom of Heaven resides within.
45 Regarding this passage, please NOTE first & foremost that it speaks in the present tense – that the Kingdom of God “is
like a mustard seed”, second that the mustard bush herein mentioned was a thoroughly ubiquitous weed that was found
nearly everywhere in that region of the world at the time, and third that the Kingdom of God here is equated with the
seed – something that must be planted & nurtured within the Earth in order to later sprout and become a bush.
46 This infamous passage – the only time in the entire Bible where Jesus speaks directly to the concept of being “born
again” – seems at first glance to infer that Heaven exists elsewhere (especially in the errant translations that have him
calling for us to be “born from above”). Of course, in harmony with the rest of his teachings, Jesus is saying no such
thing. Rather, he is simply explaining in delightfully cryptic terms that we must not only be born “of water” (i.e.
physically) but also be reborn “of spirit” (i.e. via humble acts of selfless Love). Indeed, his mention of “the wind” in
verse 8 – using exactly the same Greek word used to denote “the spirit” earlier in the same passage – makes it
metaphorically clear that he is speaking of an active dynamic that exists only in the Here&Now.
47 While it is true that Jesus boldly states that “My Kingdom is not from this world” in this verse, it is just as true that the
other Kingdom to which he is referring is not one that exists elsewhere, but rather one that exists internally.
48 While it is admittedly true that Mark 13:34-37 & Luke 19:11-12 both seem to have Jesus espousing a similar belief, in
truth he is simply referring to each person's unknown moment of death in the former passage (and thereby encouraging
them to engage in acts of selfless Love as soon and as courageously as possible in order to frequently enter his
Kingdom of Heaven beforehand – see also the parable of The Ten Bridesmaids in Matthew 25:1-13 & John 9:4 et al)
and reminding his listeners that Heaven cannot be accessed via any external apocalyptic event in the latter.
49 While some Christian theologians make a convenient distinction between “The Kingdom of Heaven” and “The
Kingdom of God”, in this passage Jesus himself essentially equates the two.
50 There are several very important points of interest in this passage. First, the reader would do well to note that the term
commonly translated as “through” in verse 17 is the Greek word dia (Strong's #1223), a term that does not mean “via”
or “due to”, but rather “on account of” or “because of” – definitions far more in harmony with Jesus' teachings in the
Gospel of John, and indeed in all the other Gospels as well. Second, the phrase “condemned already” in verse 18
grounds the described dynamic fully in the present moment. Third, verses 19-21 quite clearly denote that the salvation
intimated comes only to those who actively engage The Way of Christ – those who choose to “do what is true.”
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