The Kingdom Within

From expectations of an external kingdom to discovering the kingdom within when providential hopes remain unfulfilled

The Kingdom Within

Part 1 of a sermon by Dr. Michael Balcomb, President of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification in Europe and the Middle East, given online at an international Sunday worship service for the Nordic countries on Zoom 20^th September 2026.

See part 2: The Inner Kingdom and the Outer Kingdom

See part 3: Beyond Escapism: Making the Kingdom Real

My topic this morning is “The Kingdom Within”. And my scriptural reference is Luke 17:20, which is a very well-known scripture. There are actually two distinct translations that I will refer to. The first one is the King James Version:

“When he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say see here or see there. For indeed the kingdom of God is within you.”

The New International Version is slightly different:

“Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, the coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say here it is or there it is, because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

Both translations are possible from the Greek, ἐντὸς ὑμῶν, entos hymon. To put it simply, “within you” points to the personal and internal realm, while “among you” (or in your midst) points to the community and social space.

The second reading is from True Father, and he is really talking about this issue of the internal and external:

“The unification of heaven and earth and of the cosmos are not the biggest problems. These are decided by the achievement of mind-body-unification. If my own mind and my body are still fighting, what do I gain by the world becoming one? Where would I go in such a world?”

And finally, a reading from True Mother, from Champumo-ron 2 [The second book of a two-volume series published in 2025, composed of excerpts from True Parents‘ messages and arranged by topic]:

“The people of Israel, who were living in difficult circumstances, expected that the Savior and Messiah promised by heaven would appear in splendor. They believed that when the Messiah appeared, the things they were longing for would happen instantly and the course of history would change. They thought Israel would rise up and Rome would collapse through miraculous events. But things did not unfold that way.”

Now, I was reading this passage from Champumo-ron this week and I suddenly thought to myself,

“Gosh, just change a couple of words here, and this would apply to us today: ‘The people of Unificationism expected that the kingdom would come in splendor, that things would change. But it didn’t work out that way.’”

Looking Back: Providential Deadlines and Crises

On Friday we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Washington Monument rally. I was there, by the way. When we had the Washington campaign, it was very intense. I was just a young member. I’d been a member for about four months, and we met at Belvedere [in Tarrytown, New York] every Sunday morning, and Father gave us really intense speeches.

Father in those days was speaking in very eschatological terms: “The Kingdom is coming now,” “This is the time of transformation.” If you read the Washington Monument speech, you’ll see that Father was speaking about the 200^th birthday of America as being the turning point of the battle between good and evil.

There was no doubt in our minds that the Kingdom of Heaven was coming soon. We had a certain sense of a providential deadline. For me, since that’s when I joined what is now called the Family Federation, I thought that was normal – to work on a strict providential deadline.

Later on, I learned that this mindset was not new. Actually, eight years before, when True Father came to Washington D.C. he met a group of members with a burning question. The first members who joined the Unification Church in America were almost all very spiritual. And they all believed to a man (and woman) that the kingdom of God would be coming in two or three years because one of the first missionaries to America, Lady Young Oon Kim, had told them that.

That time period had already expired. So when they assembled in Washington D.C. to meet True Father for the first time, they were not happy campers. In a meeting before Father arrived, a few of them – we’re talking maybe about 10 or 12 people – cornered Young Oon Kim, and they challenged her,

“Hey, you said the Kingdom of Heaven was coming by 1967. It’s not here. What happened? Have you been lying to us?”

Young Oon Kim (1914-1989), a great theologian in her own right, said,

“Yes, I did tell you that. And I told you that because that’s what Father told me.”

So of course they thought, “Right, we’re going to see where this ends up.” They said, “We want you to ask Father why he told you this when he must have known as the Messiah that it wasn’t true.”

The next day they were meeting and Father gave a talk. And then he asked for questions. And Young Oon Kim stood up and said,

“Yes, Father, I have a question from the American members. They want to know why you were lying when you said the Kingdom of God was coming last year.” (She might not have said exactly those words, but Koreans do speak their mind!)

And Father said:

“Yes, I did tell you that. And I told you that because that’s what God told me. God told me the Kingdom of God was coming last year, and it didn’t. And I’m living with that as well. And I’m asking you to join me, for as long as it takes.”

I mention that story because now, 50 or 60 years later, our movement arguably faces its greatest crisis ever. I hear a lot of members asking candidly,

“What’s going on, Mike? Our movement in Japan is dissolved, and in Korea it is on the brink. True Mother‘s in prison. And our organizational structure seems to be in disarray. Where is the Kingdom? Where is it? Tell us!”

Because we all joined a movement that was promising the Kingdom of Heaven, and we don’t see it, I think that’s a very reasonable question. And True Mother’s confinement – tomorrow marks a full year – makes it even more pertinent.

Continued in part 2: The Inner Kingdom and the Outer Kingdom

See part 3: Beyond Escapism: Making the Kingdom Real

Featured image above: Dr. Michael Balcomb speaking in the River South branch of the Family Federation in London on 20^th September 2026. Screenshot from video by FFWPU.  

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