The tension between the Kingdom of God as present reality and future hope runs throughout the New Testament and the church's theological tradition. Aquinas articulated a fourfold meaning of the Kingdom — internal in believers, scriptural, ecclesial, and heavenly — that distinguishes its present and future dimensions within a single coherent whole. Augustine interpreted Satan's binding as limiting his power now to enable conversions, while anticipating a final loosing before Christ's end-time victory. Calvin described the church militant as an "inferior yet real" form of Christ's reign through Word and Spirit until the visible consummation at the Second Coming.
Augustine interprets Satan's binding as limiting his power in the present age to enable the conversion of nations, while the final loosing before Christ's return marks the transition from the Kingdom's "already" to its consummated "not yet" — the most influential patristic framework for understanding how present restraint and future victory cohere in the one Kingdom.
On Christ's threefold office as prophet, priest, and king — the present spiritual reign of Christ as the Kingdom's "already," exercised through Word, Spirit, and Church as the church militant contends until peace comes at the visible consummation of the Second Coming.
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