Has the kingdom of God already come?

Yes — and also not yet. That sounds like a contradiction, but the grammar of the New Testament is remarkably precise about it.

When Jesus announced the kingdom, he used a verb tense that settles the "already" side of the question:

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near." — Matthew 3:2

The verb "has drawn near" (eggiken, ἤγγικεν) is in the perfect tense — a completed action whose results continue into the present. It doesn't mean the kingdom is on its way. It means the kingdom has arrived and the effects of that arrival persist. Mark 1:15 doubles down with two perfects in one sentence: "The time has been fulfilled and the kingdom of God has drawn near." Two accomplished facts.

Jesus confirmed this in other ways too. When he cast out demons, he said: "The kingdom of God has arrived upon you" (Mat 12:28). When the Pharisees asked when the kingdom would come, he answered: "The kingdom of God is in your midst" (Luk 17:21). Where the King stands, the kingdom is present.

Paul states it as a past-tense fact: God "delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love" (Col 1:13). Both verbs — delivered and transferred — are aorist, past tense, completed. For believers, the transfer has already happened.

But Jesus also taught his disciples to pray for the kingdom's coming:

"Let your kingdom come; let your will be done, as in heaven also on earth." — Matthew 6:10

That prayer would make no sense if the kingdom were already fully here. Heaven is where God's will is completely done; earth is where it's arriving. The prayer asks for the gap to close.

Revelation 11:15 puts it in future terms: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign to the ages of the ages." Even from John's visionary vantage point, the final consummation uses the future tense.

Here's what's remarkable: the Old Testament already held both tenses together without any sense of contradiction. The Enthronement Psalms (93, 96, 97, 99) declare "Yahweh reigns" (malak, מָלָךְ) — perfect tense, a present reality. But Psalm 146:10 says "Yahweh will reign forever" — imperfect, future. Same God, same kingdom, two tenses. The New Testament inherits exactly this structure.

So the kingdom has come — genuinely, not metaphorically. And the kingdom is coming — fully, not redundantly. We live in the overlap: transferred into the kingdom already (Col 1:13), praying for its completion still (Mat 6:10).

For the full timeline — from Daniel's vision through the resurrection to Revelation's seventh trumpet — see The Kingdom of Heaven.