Some say on here that the Kingdom is Spiritual... It is!... Some say on here that the Kingdom is Literal... It is... It is also Militant... Some say that it is coming... And it is... All four are right...
I like Alfred Edersheim on this (no doubt he had never heard of 'Preterism'; I had never read him until I checked out his book 'The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah' from the library at the Lexington Church, now I own the book (I had never heard of 'Preterism', i.e. REALIZED ESCHATOLOGY, either)):
“
Concerning this 'Kingdom of Heaven,' which was the great message of John, and the great work of Christ Himself, [1 Keim beautifully designates it: Das Lieblingswort Jesu.] we may here say, that
it is the whole Old Testament sublimated, and the whole New Testament realised. The idea of it did not lie hidden in the Old, to be opened up in the New Testament, as did the mystery of its realisation. [a Rom. xvi 25, 26; Eph. i. 9; Col. i. 26, 27.] But
this rule of heaven and Kingship of Jehovah was the very substance of the Old Testament; the object of the calling and mission of Israel; the meaning of all its ordinances, whether civil or religious; [2 If, indeed, in the preliminary dispensation these two can be well separated.] the underlying idea of all its institutions. [3 I confess myself utterly unable to understand, how anyone writing a History of the Jewish Church can apparently eliminate from it what even Keim designates as the 'treibenden Gedanken des Alten Testaments', those of the Kingdom and the King. A Kingdom of God without a King; a Theocracy without the rule of God; a perpetual Davidic Kingdom without a 'Son of David', these are antinomies (to borrow the term of Kant) of which neither the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigraphic writings, nor Rabbinism were guility.] It explained alike the history of the people, the dealings of God with them, and the prospects opened up by the prophets. Without it the Old Testament could not be understood; it gave perpetuity to its teaching, and dignity to its representations. This constituted alike the real contrast between Israel and the nations of antiquity, and Israel's real title to distinction.
Thus the whole Old Testament was the preparatory presentation of the rule of heaven and of the Kingship of its Lord.”
Edersheim concerning 'the kingdom':
“......an analysis of
119 passages in the New Testament where the expression 'Kingdom' occurs, shows that:
.........
it means the rule of God; [1 In this view the expression occurs thirty-four times, viz: St. Matt. vi. 33; xii. 28; xiii. 38; xix. 24; xxi. 31; St. Mark i. 14; x. 15, 23, 24, 25; xii. 34; St. Luke i. 33; iv. 43; ix. 11; x. 9, 11; xi. 20; xii. 31; xvii. 20, 21; xviii. 17, 24, 25, 29; St. John iii. 3; Acts i. 3; viii. 12; xx. 25; xxviii. 31; Rom. xiv. 17; 1 Cor. iv. 20; Col. iv. 11; 1 Thess. ii. 12; Rev.i.9
......
which was manifested in and through Christ; [2 As in the following seventeen passages, viz.: St. Matt. iii. 2; iv. 17, 23; v. 3, 10; ix. 35; x. 7; St. Mark i. 15; xi. 10; St. Luke viii. 1; ix. 2; xvi. 16; xix. 12, 15; Acts i. 3; xxviii. 23; Rev. i. 9.]
.......
is apparent in 'the Church; [3 As in the following eleven passages: St. Matt. xi. 11; xiii. 41; xvi. 19; xviii. 1; xxi. 43; xxiii. 13; St. Luke vii. 28; St.John iii. 5; Acts i. 3; Col. i. 13; Rev. i. 9.]
........
gradually develops amidst hindrances; [4 As in the following twenty-four passages: St. Matt. xi. 12; xiii. 11, 19, 24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47, 52; xviii. 23; xx. 1; xxii. 2; xxv. 1, 14; St. Mark iv. 11, 26, 30; St. Luke viii. 10; ix. 62; xiii. 18, 20; Acts i. 3; Rev. i. 9.]
.........is triumphant at the second coming of Christ ('the end') [5 As in the following twelve passages: St. Matthew xvi. 28; St. Mark ix. 1; St. Mark xvi. 28; St. Mark ix. 1; xv. 43; St. Luke ix. 27; xix. 11; xxi. 31; xxii. 16, 18; Acts i. 3; 2 Tim. iv. 1; Heb. xii. 28; Rev. i. 9.] ;
.........
and, finally, perfected in the world to come. [6 As in the following thirty-one passages: St. Matt. v. 19, 20; vii. 21; viii. 11; xiii. 43; xviii. 3; xxv. 34; xxvi. 29; St. Mark ix. 47; x. 14; xiv. 25; St. Luke vi. 20; xii. 32; xiii. 28, 29; xiv. 15; xviii. 16; xxii. 29; Acts i. 3; xiv. 22; 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10; xv. 24, 50; Gal. v. 21; Eph. v. 5; 2 Thess. i. 5; St. James ii. 5; 2 Peter i. 11; Rev. i. 9; xii. 10.]”
Note Edersheim's reference to Mt 16:28 as 'the second coming':
Verily I say unto you,
there are some of them that stand here, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. Mt 16:28
(
1 And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There are some here of them that stand
by, who shall in no wise taste of death,
till they see the kingdom of God come with power. Mk 9)
Edersheim's comments on Mt 16:28:
“But why speak of the future and distant? 'A sign', a terrible sign of it 'from heaven,' a vindication of Christ's 'rejected' claims, a vindication of the Christ, Whom they had slain, invoking His Blood on their City and Nation, a vindication, such as alone these men could understand, of the relity of His Resurrection and Ascension, was in the near future.
The flames of the City and Temple would be the light in that nation's darkness, by which to read the inscription on the Cross. All this not afar off.
Some of those who stood there would not 'taste death,' [1 This is an exact translation of the phrase, which is of such very frequenct occurrence in Rabbinic writings. See our remarks on St. John viii. 52 in Book IV. ch. viii.]
till in those judgments they would see that the Son of Man had come in His Kingdom. [a St. Matt. xvi. 28.]”
From the scripture references he gives for 'the world to come', it's plain that he believes the kingdom is 'now', and that it is a spiritual one.
"We have
the glowing descriptions by all the prophets, but especially in the Book of Isaiah,
of the time of the new covenant, with its blessings to Israel and to mankind. That these
bear reference to a spiritual world-wide dispensation in the Messianic days needs scarcely argument, any more than that
all the conditions of it have been fulfilled in that dispensation which was introduced under the New Testament."
"All that had been national, preparatory, symbolic, typical, would merge into
the spiritual reality of fulfillment."