"His (Jesus) message was ... about the imminent coming of a new era of shalom ... in which the Kingdom is equated with the “good news of God”"

"Jesus cannot be understood, let alone followed, without reference to his own faith. The biblical book of Hebrews refers to him as “the author and pioneer of our faith” (12.2). But the faith of Jesus cannot be understood without recognizing that its focus was the “Reigning of God.” His message was not about himself, and not even about God. It was about the imminent coming of a new era of shalom. This is clear from the opening verses of the Gospel of Mark (oldest of the four canonical gospels) in which the Kingdom is equated with the “good news of God” (1.14). The most explicit expression occurs when, early in his ministry, Jesus returns to his home town of Nazareth and is invited to speak in the synagogue."

"Almost as if to justify the frantic fears of Herod and his imperial cohorts, the moment Jesus reached adulthood, he began to tell people that a new regime—the “Kingdom of God”—was about to replace the existing one, that the insiders could be out and those at the bottom would be on top. Naturally the ruling elites heard this promise of a “regime change” as a threat. But the phrase “Kingdom of God” is one of the most misused and misunderstood in the entire Bible. It is too often thought of as where you may go after you die, or something that begins after the world's history is over, or something that is entirely inward. However, the Hebrew prophets, Jesus himself, and the last pages of Revelation, the final book of the Bible, all teach that the Kingdom of God is something that happens in and to this world. The glimpse the prophets convey about a reign of God's shalom is doggedly earthy...

The biblical idea of the Kingdom of God also includes an essential inward element. As the prophet Ezekiel puts it, "A new heart also I will give you" (36.26). In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that only the “pure in heart” shall see God (Matt. 5.8). It also includes the expectation that death, either of the planet or of an individual, is not their ultimate destiny, and it points to a cosmic fulfillment that transcends human history, encompassing the celestial bodies. This in no way undercuts the fact that the Kingdom of God, as envisioned by Jesus and the prophets, contain an undeniably utopian element, but since this is what Christians have often neglected, this futuristic dimension has frequently migrated into secular movements. It has sometimes been said that while Christians have tried to have God without the Kingdom, secularists have tried to build the Kingdom without God. But this is an oversimplification. It is true that embracing Jesus while ignoring the Kingdom's requirements for justice inevitably results in an individualistic pietism, and that Lenin's mausoleum is not the only monument to the disasters that result when human beings make themselves into the gods of the future. But the yearning for a different world, is thoroughly human. As the Latin American theologian Jon Sobrino writes, “the utopian impulse provides the possibility of a universal human ecumenism of all those who hope and work for a kingdom.”

Still, the word “kingdom” is problematical. It inevitable evokes the static idea of a spatial realm. The Hebrew word, malkuth, however, does not convey this inert feeling, but suggests something actively occurring. For this reason, in my own teaching I prefer to use the phrase “Reigning of God.” It implies something that is going on—not a place, but a “happening.” This is the grammar Jesus used in speaking of it. To be a “follower” of Jesus means to discern and respond to the initial signs of this “happening” and to work to facilitate its coming in its fullness. To follow Jesus, however, does not mean to be a mimic. It means to continue in our times what he did in his. Jesus was a man of faith. Recall how we defined “faith” in a previous chapter. Calling Jesus a man of faith does not suggest that we must somehow uncover Jesus's “beliefs” or his ideas about God. These would be, in any case, matters of speculation, since we cannot know much about his inner life. Rather, by seeing the way he lived his life, we learn what his primal orientation was and see what he trusted and placed his confidence in. These are the components of his faith. Clearly the object of Jesus's own hope and confidence—his faith—was the Kingdom of God...

Jesus cannot be understood, let alone followed, without reference to his own faith. The biblical book of Hebrews refers to him as “the author and pioneer of our faith” (12.2). But the faith of Jesus cannot be understood without recognizing that its focus was the “Reigning of God.” His message was not about himself, and not even about God. It was about the imminent coming of a new era of shalom. This is clear from the opening verses of the Gospel of Mark (oldest of the four canonical gospels) in which the Kingdom is equated with the “good news of God” (1.14). The most explicit expression occurs when, early in his ministry, Jesus returns to his home town of Nazareth and is invited to speak in the synagogue. Clearly wishing to align himself with the prophets before him, he reads from the prophet Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me
To bring good news to the poor
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,
To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. (Luke 4:18-19)

Virtually all of Jesus's parables are about the dawning of this Kingdom and the change of heart people need to notice it and live in it, even though its coming has only just begun. When we try to figure out again today how to describe the relationship between Jesus and God, as the bishops tried to do at Nicaea, we ought to stay away from the mistake they made in completely leaving out any reference to the Kingdom. We should also avoid the archaic language they used about the two being of the “same substance” (homoousios), which means little to anyone today. Rather, we could say that Jesus in his life trajectory completely embodied the purpose and “project” of God."

Harvey Cox, The Future of Faith
HarperOne (September 8, 2009), pages 43-47
ISBN-10: 0061755524
ISBN-13: 978-0061755521

"Central to the synoptic gospels is Jesus' proclamation of the Kingdom of God. Jesus' primary mission to his people was to offer them the possibility of eschatological salvation, which, for the most part, he expressed by the term “Kingdom of God.” (A synonym for the Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of Heaven, found in the Gospel of Matthew.)...

Kingdom of God in the midst of You (Luke 17:20-21)

20 Being asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God was coming, he answered them, “The Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; 21 nor will they say, 'Lo, here it is!' or 'There!' for behold, the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

Luke contains a saying in which Jesus describes the nature of the appearance of the Kingdom of God; in it he connects the Kingdom with himself. The Pharisees ask Jesus when the Kingdom of God will come in 17:20a. Jesus' response in 17:20b-21 is constructed in antithetical parallelism. The negative member of Jesus' response consists of two coordinating clauses joined by “nor,” which describe how the Kingdom of God does not come: “The Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, `Look, here it is!' or, `There it is!'” The first way in which the Kingdom does not come is “with signs to be observed” (meta paratêrêseôs). In the context, the meaning of “signs to be observed” probably describes empirically observable phenomena associated with the inception of eschatological fulfillment. Jesus' questioners hold the view that the coming of the Kingdom of God will be universally recognizable by its accompanying manifestations, and they want to know when Jesus believes these premonitory manifestations will begin to occur, thereby heralding the Kingdom. (On this interpretation “come” has a future meaning since it is referring to the future Kingdom of God.) The second way in which the Kingdom of God does not come is in such a way that someone could say “Look, here it is!” or, “There it is!” The meaning seems to be the same as “with signs to be observed.” In other words, Jesus is saying that, contrary to their expectation, the Kingdom of God will not come in such a way as to be universally recognized as such. He rejects the presupposition behind the question, namely that the Kingdom of God will all at once come as a publicly observable event. In other words, the Kingdom will not come all at once, as full-blown, so that no one could deny that it has come. Rather, Jesus' conception of the Kingdom of God is that it begins inconspicuously, so that it is possible to deny that it has come at the earliest stages of its historical development.

The positive member of Jesus' response is the remarkable statement that the Kingdom of God has already come: “For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst (entos humôn).” Jesus' point is that the Kingdom of God is in the midst of his questioners insofar as he is in their midst, so inseparable is he from the Kingdom. Of course, the Kingdom is in its initial phases and so is still only partially and even ambiguously present. For this reason, the possibility exists to deny that it is present at all, in which case Jesus would be seen as having no salvation-historical significance at all. When it comes to completion, the Kingdom of God will be undeniable, but until then a person will be able to accept or reject Jesus' claim that the Kingdom of God is already present insofar as he is present...

Entering the Kingdom Maimed (Mark 9:43-48 = Matt 18:8-9)

Mark 9:43-48
43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 44 [omitted] 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 46 [omitted] 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

Matt 18:8-9
8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Jesus teaches that a person must remove all impediments in order to to enter the Kingdom of God (eiselthein eis tên basileian tou theou) (Mark 9:47), which is synonymous with to enter into life (eiselthein eis tên zoên) (Mark 9:43, 45), since it is better to do without any so-called advantage than to miss entering the Kingdom of God or into life. (The term “Kingdom of God” is synonymous with “life.”) This is expressed metaphorically as being willing to cut off one's hands and one's feet and being willing to remove one's eye, if necessary. The analogy between sin and a part of one's body is that, like the latter, the former may be a cherished part of one's livelihood and identity, which one may be understandably reluctant to thrust aside since the loss of it would be keenly felt. One's bodily parts represent what is closest and most valuable to a person, which must be given up if it impedes entrance into the Kingdom of God or life. The consequence of not being willing to sacrifice anything to enter the Kingdom of God or life is punishment in Gehenna (or eternal fire). The entrance of which Jesus speaks is a future entrance, coincidental with final judgment; in fact, one must pass through final judgment in order to enter the Kingdom of God as future or life."

www.abu.nb.ca/Courses/NTIntro/KingdGod2.htm

"According to the New Testament, the central message of Jesus was the kingdom of God. He called for repentance in preparation for the kingdom that was “at hand.” The kingdom of God referred to the reign or rule of God, and in Jesus' ministry that reign of God was announced as present. The presence of the kingdom, however, was not full and complete, and, therefore, was often referred to as a future event. Students of the New Testament have argued over whether Jesus and his followers expected the kingdom of God to be fully present in their generation. The unresolved state of that debate is registered in the two expressions often used to characterize the New Testament teaching about the kingdom: “already” and “not yet.”

MSN Encarta Encyclopedia

The Great Adi Shakti Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi
The Paraclete Shri Mataji "The Kingdom of God that we were promised is at hand. This is not a phrase out of a sermon or a lecture, but it is the actualization of the experience of the highest Truth which is Absolute, now manifesting itself in ordinary people at this present moment."

The Paraclete Shri Mataji

"The work is tremendous. It's not for medium, mediocre people to do this job. Frightened, fearful, arrogant, cheeky - they cannot, they have no mettle.... Tell all the nations and tell all the people all over the Great Message that the Time of Resurrection is here. Now! At this time, and that you are capable of doing it."

The Paraclete Shri Mataji
Cowley Manor Seminar, UK - July 31, 1982

"Today, Sahaja Yoga has reached the state of Mahayoga, which is en-masse evolution manifested through it. It is this day's Yuga Dharma. It is the way the Last Judgment is taking place. Announce it to all the seekers of truth, to all the nations of the world, so that nobody misses the blessings of the Divine to achieve their meaning, their absolute, their spirit."

The Paraclete Shri Mataji

"The main thing that one has to understand is that the time has come for you to get all that is promised in the scriptures, not only in the Bible but all the scriptures of the world. The time has come today that you have to become a Christian, a Brahmin, a Pir, through your Kundalini awakening only. There is no other way. And that your Last Judgment is also now."

The Paraclete Shri Mataji

"You have to take a stand in your family, in your surroundings, with your friends, and you have to tell them, “You better all get realized.” The reason for that is that the Christ who crucified Himself is going to come back with His Eleven Forces of Destruction. And when He starts He is not going to ask you to take any Realization. No one is going to be bothered whether you are going to hell. He will just sort out. But those who have got Realization will enter into the Kingdom of God. You have to enter into the Kingdom of God here, as I say, in the Seventh Chakra."

The Paraclete Shri Mataji
The New Age Has Started, Houston, USA — Oct. 6, 1981

"The seventh major chakra is Sahasrara, located on the top of the head. The color is white. Through Sahasrara chakra, we receive universal cosmic energy and energetic information from God or the Divine Center. Sahasrara represents the highest aspect of the Self as a cosmic organism. It is linked to the Absolute body (the conclusion of the development of all seven subtle bodies of a cosmic organism), and it relates to the whole being. Sahasrara chakra is a center of psychic energy. The crown chakra is the most purified and evolved energy level in the bio-energy system, a balanced and perfected universal wisdom.

The goal of a human is to improve one's own karma by living a “good” life, and a healthy Sahasrara chakra regulates human behavior and personal characteristics to live a life in accordance with karmic law. Sahasrara chakra is a center of spirituality, refinement, and magnificence. Through the crown chakra, human spirit connects to Universal Spirit, and the spiritual being moves toward Universal Consciousness-the individual self is fully dissolved here. At the crown chakra level, the cosmic self opens to the Source, unites with cosmic principles, and governs the entire universe within the body. The crown chakra is associated with universal knowledge and spiritual understanding."

Michael Nudel and Eva Nudel, Ph.D.,
Chakras as Psychic and Energetic Centers

"We have reached the top of the horizon, and have come toward the end of our journey. We stand on the threshold of pure thought, pure mind, and enlightenment. We have traveled from the depth of our physical selves, through the body, to the height of consciousness and have come to explore the soul of the universe, the mind. Within each living creature is a brain, one that thinks, feels, and reacts. It comprises thousands of neurons and thousands of electromagnetic pulses that make up who we are.

This is the seventh chakra, Sahasrara, whose symbol is the thousand petalled lotus, which represents infinity. The mind is infinite, encompassing many possibilities, constantly learning, frequently expanding, engaging new insights, new thoughts, and new horizons. The mind is infinite, as is the universe; the universe is conscious, as is the mind. Whatever thoughts we have affect some element of life around us, that is the workings of Karma, cosmic debt. It is important that we learn careful control of our thoughts so that we may acquire a greater sense of balance within ourselves and in the world.

The Seventh chakra is located on top of the head. It is known as the crown chakra, for it is considered the embodiment of all knowing power. The color of this chakra is white, the reflection of all colors, a reflection of the All. The All is mentioned here to represent more than the known universe. The All is in everything, and everything is in the All. We consider that because of our ability to connect on a conscious level with the universe, that there must be something of a higher power, something greater than ourselves. Chakra seven connects us to that higher power, that greater element, and brings us true enlightenment and a unity with GOD."

Czephyra Luna
Sahasrara: The Universal Mind

NOTE: If this page was accessed during a web search you may wish to browse the sites listed below where this topic or related issues are discussed in detail to promote global peace, religious harmony, and spiritual development of humanity:

www.adishakti.org/
www.al-qiyamah.org/
www.adi-shakti.org/  — Divine Feminine (Hinduism)
www.holyspirit-shekinah.org/  — Divine Feminine (Christianity)
www.ruach-elohim.org/  — Divine Feminine (Judaism)
www.ruh-allah.org/  — Divine Feminine (Islam)
www.tao-mother.org/  — Divine Feminine (Taoism)
www.prajnaaparamita.org/  — Divine Feminine (Buddhism)
www.aykaa-mayee.org/  — Divine Feminine (Sikhism)
www.great-spirit-mother.org/  — Divine Feminine (Native Traditions)

"Now, the principle of Mother is in every, every scripture - has to be there." Shri Mataji, Radio Interview 1983 Oct 01, Santa Cruz, USA