See here for a look at an “eternal eschatology”.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.
Psalm 145:13
God’s Kingdom always has been. In the days of David, God gave David a throne, and some promises, that he would always have someone to sit on it. 2 Samuel 7:11-16 records some of this promise.
Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”
2 Samuel 7:16
Yet, we read, after many years of turning away from God, God took the crown of kingship away from the line of kings, and said that it would not come until Christ.
You profane and wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, whose time of punishment has reached its climax, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Take off the turban, remove the crown. It will not be as it was: The lowly will be exalted and the exalted will be brought low. A ruin! A ruin! I will make it a ruin! The crown will not be restored until he to whom it rightfully belongs shall come; to him I will give it.
Ezekiel 21:25-27
So, the Kingdom was removed from the nation of Israel, hence the question of its restoration in Acts 1:6.
But, this throne that David was given was not just any throne. As we read in the books of Chronicles, God’s Word calls this throne, which was the throne of David, the Throne of the LORD.
Then Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his father, and prospered; and all Israel obeyed him.
1 Chronicles 29:23
Four times in Chronicles, it calls either the throne or the Kingdom the LORD’s (1 Chronicles 28:5, 1 Chronicles 29:23, 2 Chronicles 9:8, 2 Chronicles 13:8). So, in some way, when David sat ruling Israel, God had permitted Him, as a foreshadow of Christ, to sit on His own throne!
God has always had a Kingdom, and He let the nation of Israel into that Kingdom for a period of time, until He cast them out and took it from them. In the time of the second temple, and they did not have their own King. Yet, God had promised David that his seed, Christ, would sit on that throne for ever.
Now, enter Jesus in the Gospels. He announces to the world that the waiting period for the Kingdom of God had transpired, that the Kingdom was now here, and that people should repent and believe the Gospel.
For some, this looked like political takeover, for others, other things. But, the Words and life of Jesus mark something else altogether. While for the Jews who may have been expecting a supernatural takeover of the nation, a casting off of Roman occupation, they received a shepherd who taught them about their own souls.
They were all sinners, and not one of them deserved God’s best. He was their sacrificial lamb to come, and they could not see God in the flesh.
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
John 1:10-11
John the Baptist had come to bring “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers”(Malachi 4:5-6). The way he did this was a message of repentance, turning from sin (Matthew 3:2).
The Kingdom was the same Kingdom spiritual Kingdom that David had sat in in his day, and it was the heavenly one, the invisible domain of authority and power of God’s dominion. The only way one can see or enter this Kingdom is through faith in Jesus (John 3:3-5). God knew that man had severely corrupted his way upon the Earth, and that a corrupt soul cannot see God (Matthew 5:8). So, He sent John to prepare the way through repentance, so that they might receive faith when it came.
But, many still did not believe John of the leaders of the nation, and they did not receive His baptism. As such, they could not see with faith, and they were blind to the Kingdom around them. Still others, in their love for the things of the Earth, were so blinded by unbelief, belief in the things of this life, that they were unprofitable for the Kingdom.
Yet, some did believe, and the seed of Faith, the Word of the Kingdom, sank into the hearts of twelve young men, and began to grow.
As the faith in their hearts took root, it sprouted, grew into a shoot, spread leaves, and produced heads of grain. These disciples followed their master, and while the crowds saw His miracles and at the bread and were satisfied, the disciples came to believe, and understand the deeper things.
Jesus taught them that it was the inner things, the things of the heart that caused men to sin. He told them to “dig deep”, to uncover the roots of sin, anxiety, and to build the house of their life wholly on the Spirit within, that they might not falter nor fail.
Sin, all sin, is deadly (Romans 6:23), and a single sin is worthy of eternal damnation. But, the gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ’s God’s son.
It was only on the inside, the things that made men fall. The corruptions in their own heart, produced the adulteries, murders, fornications, slanders, and whatnot. And, it was only in the losing of one’s earthly life, and learning live wholly by the Spirit within that they could learn to live above sin and the desires of the flesh. They could be free in Him. But, it was only through surrender, by being like a child, and embracing the Kingdom that they could overcome, be free, and have their freedom from the powers of darkness.
And, when He left, He left the deposit of the Holy Spirit, guaranteeing His return. This is that little leaven, that invisible active agent on the inside, God within, that changes us.
Yet, it was this Kingdom that He would come in in the full glory of His Father, and overthrow the wicked, to destroy them forever.
He would stand in His full right, in full purity of heart, with full righteousness in the judgment of the wicked of the Earth, and sentence them to eternal punishment.