Click here to listen to an AI podcast discussion of this blog post. I was recently listening to a debate between Steve Gregg and Joel Richardson on the question: will Jesus reestablish a Davidic kingdom of Israel when he returns? As I listened, one issue stood out almost immediately. A number of New Testament passages were being cited with futurist assumptions already built into them, and those assumptions were never actually challenged. The case was not simply argued; it was, at key points, presupposed. The central claim being advanced was straightforward. Christ is not yet reigning in any meaningful sense because the world is still filled with evil, disorder, and rebellion. Therefore, He must return in the future to establish His kingdom, understood as a visible, earthly Davidic reign in which such conditions no longer exist. That argument has an intuitive appeal. But it rests on a definition of “reign” that Scripture itself does not use. The pushbac...