{"id":35868,"date":"2021-06-18T11:31:51","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T16:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=35868"},"modified":"2021-06-18T11:48:19","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T16:48:19","slug":"what-is-the-difference-between-seeing-the-kingdom-and-entering-the-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-seeing-the-kingdom-and-entering-the-kingdom\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the difference between seeing the kingdom and entering the kingdom?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>In John 3:3-5 Jesus first answered Nicodemus by saying no one could not <strong>see<\/strong> the kingdom unless being born in John 3:4. In John 3:5 Jesus said one could not <strong>enter<\/strong> the kingdom unless being born again. I understand what &#8220;enter the kingdom&#8221; means. I do not understand what &#8220;see the kingdom&#8221; means. How does one see the kingdom?<\/p>\n<p>Thank you always for the great work you do.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>While the word &#8220;see&#8221; (in Greek it is\u00a0<em>eidon<\/em>) predominately means to visually perceive something, it can also mean to discern, to understand, or to experience something. For example, we often say in English, &#8220;I see&#8221; to mean &#8220;I understand.&#8221; This meaning is seen in Matthew 2:16 when Herod realized he had been tricked.<\/p>\n<p>Simeon was told &#8220;<em>that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord&#8217;s Christ<\/em>&#8221; (Luke 2:26). Here &#8220;see&#8221; means that he would not experience death until he had physically seen the Christ. In I Peter 3:10, &#8220;to see good days,&#8221; also means to experience good days.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, when Jesus said, &#8220;<em>Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God<\/em>&#8221; (John 3:3). It means he will not experience the kingdom.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: In John 3:3-5 Jesus first answered Nicodemus by saying no one could not see the kingdom unless being born in John 3:4. In John 3:5 Jesus said one could not enter the kingdom unless being born again. I understand what &#8220;enter the kingdom&#8221; means. I do not understand what &#8220;see the kingdom&#8221; means. How&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[959,345,76],"class_list":["post-35868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-john","tag-kingdom","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12167,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-new-birth-of-water\/","url_meta":{"origin":35868,"position":0},"title":"The New Birth of Water","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 6, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by James E. Cooper in\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 5, No. 2, Feb. 2005 Question: \u00a0\"Does 'born of water' in John 3:3,5 refer to baptism? Answer: \u00a0Jesus said to Nicodemus, \"Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,\" and \"Unless one is born of water and the Spirit,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Baptism.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11649,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-regeneration-and-being-born-again-mean-the-same-thing\/","url_meta":{"origin":35868,"position":1},"title":"Does regeneration and being born again mean the same thing?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does regeneration and being born again mean the same thing? Answer: \"But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28068,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/born-again-into-the-kingdom\/","url_meta":{"origin":35868,"position":2},"title":"Born Again Into The Kingdom","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by H.E. Phillips via\u00a0Searching the Scriptures, February 1992, Volume 33, Number 2 The church is the people who are \"a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25414,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-an-israelite-have-to-be-born-again-under-the-old-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":35868,"position":3},"title":"Did an Israelite have to be born again under the Old Law?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have two questions: Did the Old Testament believers' experience being \"born again\" or \"regeneration\" as experienced with the New Testament believers through Jesus Christ? Are born again believers still considered to be \"sinners\" or \"saints\" and why? Answer: There are several passages that use the allegory of birth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94982,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-not-sure-jesus-is-talking-about-actual-water-in-john-35\/","url_meta":{"origin":35868,"position":4},"title":"I&#8217;m not sure Jesus is talking about actual water in John 3:5","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 9, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I just had some questions about John 3:5. I am not sure whether Jesus is referring to literal water here. The reason I say that is that later in the book of John, Jesus attributes the Holy Spirit and calls it \"Living Water\" when talking to the woman\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5310,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-must-be-born-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":35868,"position":5},"title":"You Must Be Born Again","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: John 3:1-22 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I had a fellow ask me if I had been born again. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In particular, he wanted to know how I came to believe such a thing. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When I replied with I John 2:3-6; 4:6; 5:2-3, he became quite upset \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He wanted to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Audio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}