Christians talk about Christ returning for the rapture. Taking all those who believe with him and leaving everyone else behind to suffer through seven years before the end. Now I’ve read the bible and the entire Left Behind series and it’s certainly an interesting story.
But my question is this, why doesn’t he come back again to teach? If you believe as Christians do, then it’s been roughly 2000 years since Jesus was last here. That’s a long time and the world has changed a lot since then. Even Christianity has changed a lot. We live in a time of mass communication, space travel, nuclear war and advanced medicine. It seems like a good time for Jesus to come back and teach again with a few updates and actually be recorded on video so people can hear what he says first hand for thousands of years to come.
This is great! And if he’s able to return, we could sure benefit from his teachings, as people of any time and place could.
thats a great question. i’m not sure why he doesn’t do that. i suppose the Bible is STILL Gods way of reaching out to us. and in the Bible when Jesus was resurrected and thomas did not believe it until he saw Jesus himself…Jesus replied…
“Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”. Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. “
maybe that has something to do with it?
i’m not sure. but as a Christian I have to trust that whatever God does. he does for a reason. and he has a plan that i don’t fully understand but it is greater than my own.
interesting post….
The way I see it, it’s all about faith. It’s a lame excuse, sure, but it’s the backbone of every belief.
Anyway, The way you taught about Jesus’ comming is known as pretribulation (you may have known that. I don’t know) This is the one most Christians believe because it is less threatning and more comfortable for Christians to believe. That isn’t what’s taught in the Bible though. I’m convinced that Christians will suffer in that seven years and the surviving Christians will be raptured afterwards. They will then move freely between heaven and earth during the 1000 years of peace. This is known as “posttribulation” if you didn’t know. It is the most consistant with scripture.
Ok… I won’t get side tracked from your point. Anyway, there will be 1000 years of peace, where Christ will be on his throne on Earth. There, he will be teaching, I’m sure… But Satan will come again and mislead others. That is when Satan will be banished to Hell along with death and Earth and all those who have been wrong in the eyes of God.
So I hope that helps you. I believe he will come again… and when he does, he will set things straight. People will believe what he says… then there will be a misleading by Satan again. And then the final battle of Armageddon. Then the destruction of Evil and everything affiliated with it. Make sense?
He would have a heart attack… seeing how the world pregressed…
Because the idea/ls of Christianity were meant to be metaphorical and didactic, not literal and esoteric (which is practically a contradiction, but modern Christian interpretations seem to pull it off somehow). Sola Scriptura is considered to be heresy by millions of people. (And besides, so much of Christianity was borrowed/stolen from other religions and mythologies, anyway… Zoroastranism, Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology, Platonism, and Gnosticism, just to name a few. If only bits and pieces of it are original, and what was chosen to be in the Bible was picked through by (essentially) politicians, why would you assume it’s all going to happen?)
The Left Behind series is nothing but fear-mongering, let’s-all-misinterpret-the-Bible-to-make-it-say-something-that-caters-to-modern-day-closeted-horror-story-and-pretension-loving-Christians-so-it-will-earn-big-bucks fiction. Revelation wasn’t a story about the end of the world. It was about the fall of the Roman Empire.
It really bothers me when Protestants don’t study their own theology and history, so they’re easily swayed by crap and false prophets who dispense that crap. This is exactly why I admire and respect Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians a lot more. They actually have to know about their own religion’s origins and traditions, and Catholic priests have to go through a two year “face the mirror” period before they can become clergy. Many of them drop out because they don’t think they truly know enough or are good enough as people to become a conduit for God. I wish Protestants had to go through something similar in order to become ordained. It would probably weed out a lot of the crazies.
I personally think they’ve all got it wrong, but hey, I guess I can’t know that for certain, eh?
-End Rant-
@methodElevated – You’re perfect. (In your comment, I mean.)
Well, last time Jesus came the whole “nailed him to the cross thing” happened. If I were He I’d be putting off coming back as long as I can.
@anaraug - Thank you.
I don’t think we can really question the motived of God or why he does certain things..I’m sure we all have ideas on how we think the world should go..”I would do it this way,” or “Why doesn’t God do it that way?” God does everything in his own time…
With that being said, many many MANY people still don’t believe in him. If someone came announcing they were Jesus, I’m sure history would repeat itself.
All interesting thoughts, but jmallory said it best it is all about Faith and just believing you can’t see air but you know it is there, my faith is simple I just believe
“why doesnt jesus come back?” – judging by the reactions of some he already has, and he was inaugurated today.
@methodElevated – You can believe what you want. I am not one to stop people from that. I will, however, correct someone if they have their facts misconstrued. I don’t want to do that publicly. Would you mind if I messaged you to tell you what you said that isn’t correct?
@jmallory – Please share with all of us. I’m not so sure about facts and Christianity going together.
I’ve thought the same thing, although I’m not really the religious type.
Interesting post.
@jmallory - Yes, please share with all of us.
People tend not to believe folks who say they were Napoleon or Cleopatra in a past life. So you can imagine the reaction if someone claimed to be Jesus.
But that’s assuming he’s going to be born like he was the first time (to a human mother). The other option is that Jesus is going to float down from the clouds in a pre-made adult body, defying the laws of the known universe.
The first option sucks because nobody would believe he was Jesus. The second option sucks because it’s not physically feasible.
If there is a Jesus, I think he’d probably say, “To hell with it. Let them figure things out on their own.”
@methodElevated – Ok. Just so you know, I am not wanting to start a debate, because this one could be a never ending one. And none of us will really change our minds on what we believe, but there are errors in what you said.
Some- not all- of scripture is meant to be metaphorical. You have to remember that the people who wrote the bible actually practiced what they preached to the best of their abilities. And coming at things being metaphorical- such as the idea of the resurrection of Christ- whether his body was resurrected or if his spirit was- has caused controversy since before Christ actually died. The Pharisees believed in a bodily resurrection, while the Saduccees believed that it would be spiritual. However, scripture tells us that Christ told the Saduccees that that idea is incorrect. And there are many other ideas like this in scripture where some people believe it was to be metaphorical, but is quite clearly- in a Christian worldview- nothing lower than literal. Some may disagree, but history checks within the pages of the New Testament. Now to believe it is literal, takes faith. To believe that these people actually followed what they wrote about takes reason and common sense.
You mentioned that Christianity has borrowed or stolen elements of other beliefs. I can see how it could look like it has. However, if you happened to get this information from Zeitgeist or a movie or book like it, I strongly suggest you check your resources. 90% of what they said was made up. Anyway, people look at what happened in the New testament and they say it was stolen, but we need to remember that a lot of the stuff talked about in the NT was already prophisied about in the OT before these other religions recorded their history. Now my educated opinion on this matter is that there is One God. I believe that that idea of God became misconstrued and torn apart throughout history after the fall of the Tower of Babel. That is when God separated the languages and the people into regions. Over time, these people forgot about God, but remembered some and built their beliefs off of that. That is why every religion teaches elements of truth. It is just skewed. Even C.S. Lewis taught this and he was one of the greatest minds in the 20th century. Now why does that make Christianity check? Because God told the Israelites that they were his chosen people. And out of them would come salvation. Then there were prophesies… these prophesies were recorded to have been fulfilled by Jesus. There is no other man in history that has claimed to have fulfilled all of these. There are no other writtings of anyone doing the same for that matter either. So I believe that Christ is the Son of God and my savior out of this alone and faith.
Now since every religion teaches elements of truth- but the religion itself is skewed, then it makes sense for some things to be the same. And not to mention, you have to really read a lot into these relgions to the point of near fabrication and sometimes complete fabrication (in the case of Zeitgeist) to actually believe that the religions have too much in common for Christianity to be the true religion.
I agree with you on the Left Behind series too. :)
With that aside, I want to mention what you said about Revelation being about the fall of the Roman Empire. It doesn’t check. Some things make sense about it, but then there are too many unanswered questions… like the New Heaven and the New Earth, why Jesus didn’t return yet when the revelation clearly said he would (along with Jesus himself), why there hasn’t been 1,000 years of peace.
Now if a person can believe that this prophised about the fall of the Roman Empire, clearly, that person can believe that it prophisied about the end times. And it makes more sense to be an end times prophesy then a fall or Rome prophesy.
You are going to believe what you want, and I respect that. But to say those things that you have mentioned (in no offense at all) seemed a little ignorant and uneducated. (I’m really sorry if that sounds mean… they are the only words I could think of that seem to fit. I really mean no offense). But again, I can see why you would think that and how you could believe it… but the truth is, those are uneducated conclusions- and I don’t blame you. I blame those who came up with them to begin with.
Oh fine, I’ll be the one to say it: Jesus doesn’t come back because he can’t. He’s dead. He may have been an important leader in his time, but the fact that a religion sprung up around him post-mortem can’t change the laws of nature.
@jmallory – Just out of curiosity, how does revelations fit into space travel and the possibility of mankind evolving into machines? For instance when wormwood falls from space to hit earth, aren’t the people in the ISS safe, and if by then people also living on other space colonies or planets?
@jmallory - No, they’re actually extremely educated and well-informed conclusions. And no, I haven’t seen Zeitgeist (or even know what it is exactly, but I can gather what the idea is from your comment). All of this has been from my own unbiased research from several different venues over many years. I realize my original comment wasn’t thorough, but it wasn’t meant to be. I simply wanted to summarize my thoughts.
@roxics – just because it isn’t explained, it doesn’t mean something won’t happen. That is part of the beauty of prophesy- especially in Revelation. Most of it is written symbolically, so we may never know certain elements that are to happen until they are happening or have happened. Again, it takes faith. There aren’t answers to everything in life… and for good reason too. I really like you. You aren’t very judgmental :).
@methodElevated – Everything is biased, dear. People will find what it is they are looking for. If you want to find truth is scripture, you will find it. If you want to find disproof in scripture, you will find it. Of course, it all depends on how you have interpreted scripture. And again, I am not one for telling people that what they believe is wrong. But as far as the book of Revelation goes, it is very uneducated to say that it was meant for the fall of Rome because only 1/100 of the book fits into that. And as far as the stealing of other sacred texts goes, again, you have to read into them (in the majority of the cases) to actually make it fit in with biblical scripture. That is why I said it’s uneducated… because it really needs to be streatched. I do respect your opinion though… I’m not one of those crazy Christians.
simple: it’s not time yet. our expectations are human and based on human knowledge. God, of course, knows what He has planned–what is going to happen, what we can learn from what will happen, etc.
Hello! My name is Mandy and I saw that you came by my xanga. Thanks for coming by! :) I was just reading your thoughts and everyone’s comments and I’d love to talk with ya’ll more about this subject. I unfortunately do not have the time right now but I wanted to ask one thing. Have you read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis? It is a really good book to read if you want to understand things like you asked in your post. He had an amazing ability to really communicate things reasonably and honestly. I personally LOVE complete honesty so I love C.S. Lewis. :) You should definitely check it out because I think it’ll help you answer a lot of the questions you have. I know it did for me! :)
Also, I hope my xanga name does not freak ya’ll out. haha I am not one of those “crazy christians” either. My xanga name is actually an inside joke between some friends of mine, but now I wish I had never used it because it definitely sounds kinda ridiculous even though I do love Jesus. So just wanted to let everyone know that. :)
Let me know if you have read Mere Christianity and I’d love to talk with you all more later! Have a great day!
~Mandy
P.S.- I also thought of a website that you might be interested in since you seem to love discussing what others believe and why (which I think is very cool). I really like this website because its just people sharing their life stories honestly and openly and even answering questions like the ones you had about Jesus. They also happen to be celebrities which kinda makes it even more interesting. haha I don’t know if you know the band Korn, but Brian Head Welch is on there and you DEFINITELY have to watch his video. Oh man is it amazing! Let me know what you think!
http://www.iamsecond.com
I agree completely! Sometimes I wish they would’ve had cameras back then. Ugh! haha.
Question is abit of absurd because there is no credible historical evidence that Jesus once even existed let alone coming back twice. or maybe even thrice.
@architectofmisery – I know but I have to throw the Christians a bone every so often.