The Kingdom of God Is Within Man is the number one search that brings people to this site. “Van Gogh” and “Thomas Jefferson” are also high on the list but nothing, according to Google Analytics, is more prominent than the search for “The Kingdom Of God is Within Man”.
The above film clip is from The Great Dictator released in 1940. It is from the original motion picture written, directed and starring Charlie Chaplin. The only change from the original is that it has been remixed with a different underscore entitled “Time” written by Hans Zimmer from the motion picture Inception. This new music brings a dramatic and positive effect to the original footage. I thought is was worthy of sharing with you.
In this touching performance, Chaplin, quotes from Luke 17:21. In the NIV version, the verse reads : “Once having been asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied,’ The kingdom of God does not come from your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is’ or “There it is’ because the Kingdom of God is within you.”
Many call this Chaplin soliloquy the greatest movie speech ever made. Chaplin actually says , in the film, “In the 17th chapter of Saint Luke it is written the Kingdom of God in within man, not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men, in you, you the people have the power!”
At the time of the movie’s initial release, the United States was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany. Chaplin’s comic film advanced a stirring, controversial condemnation of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini‘s fascism, antisemitism, and the Nazis, whom he excoriates in the film as “machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts”.
The soliloquy endures today in several mediums and mash-ups.
