{"id":4844,"date":"2025-08-27T08:50:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T12:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4844"},"modified":"2025-08-27T08:50:44","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T12:50:44","slug":"entos-the-kingdom-in-your-midst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/27\/entos-the-kingdom-in-your-midst\/","title":{"rendered":"ENTOS: The Kingdom “In Your Midst”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u00a0Each weekday in the month of August, we will pursue \u201cprepositional truth\u201d by zeroing in on a single Greek preposition in a single verse, noting the theological richness so often embedded in the humble words we so often overlook.\u00a0<\/em>

Actress and entertainer Shirley Maclaine has always followed her own path.

Born in 1934 \u2013 and named for child sensation Shirley Temple \u2013 she is one of the last remaining stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood.\u00a0

Growing up in Virginia, she played on a boys\u2019 baseball team, setting the record for most home runs. At first she wowed audiences with her dancing. Then her acting career \u2013 which now exceeds 70 years \u2013 began piling up awards, including an Oscar, an Emmy, and multiple Golden Globes.

She wrote bestsellers, became a political activist, and fell in love with a number of her leading men.

Along the way, she also became an enthusiastic advocate for alternative spiritualities associated with the New Age movement of the late 20th<\/sup> century.

Maclaine claims multiple reincarnations. She recalls growing up in Atlantis as the sibling of a 35,000-year-old spirit named Ramtha, and (as a Moorish girl) curing the Roman Emperor Constantine of impotence. She has a long-running interest in UFOs, and has reported firsthand encounters with extraterrestrials. \u00a0

Once, as Johnny Carson\u2019s guest on The Tonight Show<\/em>, she acknowledged her divine nature \u2013 a claim consistent with the thinking of many New Agers. In the TV adaptation of her book Out On a Limb<\/em>, she stands on a beach, facing the sea, shouting, \u201cI am God! I am God!\u201d

While it\u2019s hard to pin down what we might call New Age \u201ctheology,\u201d one of the movement\u2019s enduring ideas is the spiritual authority of the self.

You are in God. God is in you<\/em>. You yourself, for all intents and purposes, are God<\/em>. Maclaine ultimately came to peace with the notion that everything that happens \u2013 including earthquakes, plane crashes, and wars \u2013 happens because she personally allows such things to happen. \u00a0

Where do New Agers find support for such ideas?

The short answer is \u201ceverywhere\u201d \u2013 from private visions to organized religion to angelic mentors to personal spirit guides to memories of past lives.

And, of course, from the Bible \u2013 or so they believe. Which brings us to what appears, at first glance, to be a New Age prooftext right in the middle of the Gospel of Luke \u2013 along with what can only be described as the most controversial preposition in the teaching of Jesus.

We read in Luke 17:20-21, \u201cOnce, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come,\u00a0Jesus replied,\u00a0\u2018The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed,\u00a0nor will people say, \u201cHere it is,\u201d or \u201cThere it is,\u201d\u00a0because the kingdom of God is ENTOS<\/strong> you.\u2019\u201d

ENTOS<\/strong> appears only twice in the New Testament. In Matthew 23:26, Jesus rails at the \u201cblind Pharisees\u201d for caring more about what is outside a drinking cup than what is inside<\/u><\/strong><\/em>.

\u201cInside\u201d or \u201cwithin\u201d is, in fact, is the most typical rendering of ENTOS<\/strong>. The King James Version of 1611 \u2013 which quickly became, for many people, \u201cthe real Bible\u201d \u2013 famously rendered Luke 17:21, \u201cthe kingdom of God is within<\/u><\/strong><\/em> you.\u201d

That translation has proved to be a bonanza for New Agers and fans of Eastern spirituality. \u201cYou see, it\u2019s right there: God\u2019s kingdom is a universal internal reality. Jesus himself says so.\u201d

Pantheism<\/em> \u2013 the traditional notion, often associated with Hinduism, that God is everything and everything is God \u2013 as well as panentheism<\/em> \u2013 the more contemporary teaching that God can be found within <\/em>every living thing \u2013 both seem to find support in this text.

But there\u2019s a good reason for rejecting \u201cwithin\u201d as the best translation of ENTOS<\/strong> in Luke 17. \u00a0

Jesus is dialoguing about the kingdom of God with his primary spiritual opponents, the Pharisees. It would be strange indeed if he said \u2013 concerning these self-confident, self-righteous, self-appointed Guardians of God\u2019s Truth \u2013 \u201cBy the way, the kingdom is within you\u201d \u2013 that is, within the very hearts that he routinely judged as seriously distant from the heart of God.

There are other ways to translate ENTOS<\/strong>, however. And one of them seems to fit this context as easily as Cinderella\u2019s foot slid into a certain glass slipper.

The Pharisees were preoccupied with the visible<\/em> inauguration of God\u2019s reign on Earth. \u201cExactly how is the kingdom going to show up?\u201d they ask Jesus.

Jesus replies that the kingdom isn\u2019t going to appear with fireworks and festivities \u2013 despite the fact that a number of rabbis were teaching that God\u2019s rule would suddenly and dramatically break into history, led by a messianic strongman who would set everything right.

\u201cIn fact,\u201d Jesus says, \u201cthe kingdom is already here. You just don\u2019t see it.\u201d

As he puts it, \u201cthe kingdom of God is ENTOS<\/strong> you \u2013 it is in your midst<\/u><\/strong><\/em> or among<\/u><\/strong><\/em> you.\u201d Picture Jesus encircled by Pharisees. Where is this kingdom? they ask. Right here, he replies. When the kingdom comes, everyone will finally see the King, right? Well, take a good, long look. The King you\u2019ve been waiting for all these years is standing right here in front of you.

Yes, we\u2019re putting words into Jesus\u2019 mouth.

But this scenario is not only consistent with everything else we read in the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) but is embraced by the majority of contemporary scholars and translators.

ENTOS<\/strong> reminds us that we can stumble into needless trouble whenever we insist that Greek words have only one meaning.

Shirley Maclaine, meanwhile, continues to pursue her journey of self-discovery at age 91 \u2013 which actually might help us recall a well-worn riddle:

What\u2019s the difference between you and God?

God doesn\u2019t think he\u2019s you.<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here \u00a0Each weekday in the month of August, we will pursue \u201cprepositional truth\u201d by zeroing in on a single Greek preposition in a single verse, noting the theological richness so often embedded in the humble words we so often overlook.\u00a0 Actress and entertainer Shirley Maclaine has always followed her own path. Born… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4845,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[989,990,473],"class_list":["post-4844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-new-age","tag-pantheism","tag-prepositions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4846,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4844\/revisions\/4846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}