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"Eschatological" is a standard recognition that it has to do with a future Kingdom that is not yet present. The idea that the Kingdom, yet to come, already impacts us presently, is also regularly understood. I don't see where the confusion is?
To me the confusion is a pie in the sky kingdom that undermines the importance of this life here and now.
I understand Akita. However, even Amillennialists have hope in a future Kingdom. After all, that's what prompts us to live good today, so that we will be with Christ forever in his *future* eternal Kingdom.
That is certainly one of the motives. But even that misses the point that we can live good simply out of love for God and it is God's desire for us to do so without anticipating some future reward.
True, people can use the idea of a future reward to do things with ulterior motives, or materialistic motives, or for self-aggrandizement, etc. But the faithful Christian simply needs to know there is hope in a future God so that we try to please Him now. That will ensure we are not expending ourselves for nothing, ie for an empty, meaningless future that renders everything we suffer for now of no consequence.
These sayings of Jesus are best understood through the disruption that occurred in the spirit world when He assumed kingship. From that moment onward, the spirit world was transformed into the kingdom of God, with Jesus enthroned as its sovereign. This represents the metaphysical conception of the kingdom—a view deeply rooted in primitive Christianity.
