The Future Has Already Begun

“Has the realization gripped you that the very life of heaven itself dwells within you here and now? Did you ever know that? I am afraid we live most of our lives in terms of promise. We often sing of the future, and so we ought to sing. Our gospel is a gospel of glorious promise and hope. Yes, the best, the glorious best, is yet to be. And yet we are not to live only for the future. The future has already begun. The Age to Come has reached into This Age; the Kingdom of God has come unto you. The eternal life which belongs to tomorrow is here today. The fellowship which we shall know when we see him face to face is already ours, in part but in reality. The transforming life of the Spirit of God which will one day transform our bodies has come to indwell us and to transform our characters and our personalities. This is what eternal life means. This is what it means to be saved."

--George Eldon Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom (1959 A.D.)