"Thy Kingdom Come" - Controversial?

Are we in God's promised Kingdom today?
Rejecting their Messiah, ethnic/national Israel have no future in God's plans, right?
Isn't today's believing Church the "true Israel"?
Isn't Jesus reigning today on his father David's throne?
Is teaching something other than "yes" to these questions "controversial"?

"Lord, is at this time you are going to restore the Kingdom to Israel?"  (Acts 1:6)  After 40 days of becoming convinced that their crucified Master, Israel's Messiah, was in fact raised bodily from the dead,  and His teaching about 'the kingdom of God,' it is pretty clear that His disciple/apostles believed -- from what Jesus had said -- that Israel had a future, in a kingdom.

Jesus' reply appears to affirm their expectation.  What he doesn't say is "No, you've got it wrong.  There is no future kingdom to be restored for Israel.  The kingdom is the Church you will be launching when the Spirit comes upon you."

What he says is, "You are not to know the times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority."   Hmmm.

IS THERE A FUTURE EARTHLY KINGDOM FOR ISRAEL AND THE WORLD

I was asked -- after recently teaching from Scripture that a future kingdom for Israel is still in God's plan -- if I were teaching a view that was controversial and out-of-sync with what most Christians today believe.    Here's what I think to be true.

(1)  Most Christians don't have a clue about "what's next" or the possibility of a "future earthly kingdom."  Frankly, most pastors don't either.  The Scripture is not carefully studied about these matters, and it is rarely preached about.

(2) If by "most Christans" we mean the total count in the world today - estimated at just over 2 billion (or  about 30% of the world's population), and 1.2 billion are Roman Catholic, 270 million are Orthodox, 74 million are Lutheran...and on it goes -- you might argue that "most Christians" believe that we are in the promised Kingdom today because the "church is the kingdom."  That is to say, you have a Roman Catholic view on what God's word says about the coming Kingdom.

(3)  When Jesus came the first time, he fulfilled God's Old Testament promises regarding the Person and Coming of the Messiah literally, not figuratively.  He was physically, literally born to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David's lineage.  His conception was in a virgin who had not known a man.  He was literally born in Bethlehem. He literally carried away the physical diseases of Israel in his healing ministry.  He literally rode into Jerusalem on a colt, and the nation watched it (the Zechariah prophesy was not to be figuratively understood that he was simply a humble person...though, of couse, he was).  He literally was disfigured beyond recognition.  He was literally placed in a rich man's tomb (again, it wasn't that he was merely honored by rich or notable people...though he was that too).

Literal promises were fulfilled to Israel in a real-time, real life Messiah.

So what gives us -- who interpret the Old Testament promises regarding a Kingdom era for Israel -- the permission to interpret "figuratively" those promises, and see them (so-called) fulfilled (rather loosely speaking) in today's Church?   Personally, I don't have that permission.  Do you?  Does the Roman Church?  Or the Orthodox Church?  Do the Lutherans have that permisson?  Or perhaps the Presbyterians?

(4)  Finally, while many Christians either don't have a clue about what is coming next or have simply adopted (what may be called) a "majority view" (hmmm, how often is the majority right anyway?), there are millions of Christians who have studied the Scriptures and think otherwise.

What I am teaching is what may be called the "pre-millennial" view of what's next.  Namely, that Jesus will return bodily, and will restore the Kingdom to Israel when His Father's plan calls for it in the timeline of human history, and that the glorious things still spoken of by the Old Testament prophets (cf. Acts 3:17-21) will yet happen.

"Father in Heaven, Let your name be regarded as Holy, Let Your Kingdom come, Let your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven..."