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October 16, 2005

Comments

Anne

I believe that Jesus will come again. Why? Because He promised He would, and I for one believe His promises.

Michael

Jesus does come again - each time someone fully realizes him "in their heart", as we are prone to say. Jesus also said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," and so it is to all who are willing to participate. :-)

BobW

Actually, history does not suggest, it proves that, aside from the Incarnation, Jesus has not come ...yet.
Just as a history written in 1808 would prove that Abe Lincoln had not come yet. Though we are wise to study history as we envision our future, it is a rear-view mirror, not a crystal ball.

D. C.

BobW, as I said in the main posting, we can't rule out that Jesus might return someday. That's why I said only that history, and specifically the repeated failed predictions of his return, suggests that the event is unlikely. On further thought, you're right: Whether Jesus will ever return in the future would seem to be independent of past failed predictions.

While we can't rule out Jesus's return, neither can we rule out, let's say, the existence of an earthlike planet in the Crab Nebula that is ruled by a super-intelligent housecat. Absent at least some supporting evidence, it would not be rational for anyone to insist that we believe in this housecat. If I were to assert it as a fact, and to organize my religious life around it, people would rightly start to wonder about me.

You're a good writer, incidentally; thanks for stopping by.

BobW

Thanks for the kind words.
I'll only add that the difference between your superintelligent housecat (a more dubious idea than intelligent life in the Crab nebula) and the return of Jesus is that the potential impact of the latter, here Earthside, is likely to be a lot greater than anything cooked up by our bewhiskered, tuna-munching and hopefully benevolent despot.
Actually, though, the most important point was made in a post before mine. Though he no longer hangs out in Galilee and Judea, in every important sense Jesus has never left.

bls

But the thing is, the Biblical deities are always coming and going, hither and thither, there and back again. Busy, busy, busy.

F'rinstance, in the Psalm today - #96 - it's made perfectly clear to all that the Lord "cometh, He cometh to judge the earth and with righteousness to judge the world, and the people with his truth."

There's no schedule, I guess. He cometh, and that's all we need to know.

BobW.

Precisely.
The problem I have with all the current fuss about the Second Coming is that it is irrelevant. Positive proof that Jesus was coming tomorrow or a billion years from tomorrow would not change our obligations as Christians today. We do better to try to love our neighbor as ourselves right here, right now than to write or read a series of books that take Revelation for literal truth.

BobW.

We are in the End Times, and have been for some two thousand years. We can debate whether they began in a manger or when a the stone rolled away; but in all essential respects "The strife is o'er, the battle done; now is the Victor's triumph won."

David Huff

Well I for one WELCOME our new bewhiskered, tuna-munching, feline Overlords... ;->

BobW.

Wait til they show up at your place in their intergalactic faster-than-light dematerialization-ray equipped starships amd demand YOUR tuna...and you don't have any.

Redlefty

We have ample supplies of tuna and catnip here. As for me and my house, we will be spared.

Frank

You have to understand that not even Jesus knows when the end will come. No one except the Father knows. So Jesus and Paul were not wrong but did not dnow the time of the end. Furthermore the time of the end is not the end of the world. The world will last for 1000 years after Jesus comes and then the judgement.

When you enter hell the Bible says that you are thrown in which leads me to believe that you do not want to go there at that time. And when you do go in no one will care except you. However your careless remarks do reach some people of tender years and for them I do pray.

toujoursdan

Jesus never left us in the first place.

Secret Rapture

My Inaugural Address at the Great White Throne Judgment of the Dead, after I have raptured out billions!

At: http://www.angelfire.com/crazy/spaceman/


eschatology,End Times,second coming,rapture,secret rapture,Second Resurrection,Great White Throne Judgment of the Dead,
End of days,Day of the Lord,Endtime,Judgment Day

cody trudeau

jesus has not left but is here now in each one of us

www.hablullah.com

Does the majority of Christians today believe in Jesus' return?
Thank you

david

Not even the Son of man knows the excact date of the 2nd coming but all we have to know as sure as we breathe it will happen who knows if it will be in this mortal life time but we must be prepared because when you die in a flash of an eye THY KINGDOM HAS COME for you.

D. C.

David, here's where I trot out my Favorite Theological Question #1: "And you know this, how?"

Tortsein Langesaeter

Greetings from Torstein Langesaeter 5781 LOFTHUS; Norway

[The blog host has deleted an extremely long essay, offering copious citations of various passages from Scripture seeking to "prove" something (it wasn't clear what). Comments are fine, but this blog isn't the Hyde Park Speaker's Corner in London.]

Allan Svensson


Glory to God and his dear Son, Jesus Christ


I found your Website by Search Engine, and I wish you
the best you can get, the peace of God through Jesus Christ.

Welcome to visit my Site.
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/INDEX.HTM
Allan Svensson, Sweden


Restoration of the Body of Christ

The most important prayer request for all Christians must
now be the restoration of God's temple, the Body of Christ.
Nothing on the earth is more important than that the
Assembly of God becomes built up according to the pattern
of God's word, so that we all are ready when Jesus comes.

When God was so strictly with that the tabernacle
(Exodus 25:9) and the temple of the old covenant became
built according to the pattern, so that the workers must get
special education through God's Spirit (Exodus 35:30-35,
36:1-2), then he must be still more strictly with the real
temple, the Assembly of God. All that the Bible teaches
about Assembly of God constitutes the pattern for the
Assembly of God.

Rev.18:4 is an extremely powerful revival message
from the Lord. He commands his people to leave the
great Babylon. This must take place before Jesus comes.
After Jesus has come, then God's people are home at
the Lord, and there is no Babylon.

In the reality, the word "church" occurs not at all in
the Bible. The biblical name of the Church is the
great whore, and Babylon the great.
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/PREPARE.HTM#KJV

We must leave all churches and denominations
before Jesus comes. And those that not want to obey
his word, God comes to count as accessory in the
sins of the great harlot and they get their part of her
plagues. None can say. This does not concern me.

We must humble us before God's word and study
what the Bible teaches about the Assembly of God.
Many Christian confessors become irritated of this
and comprehend it as criticism and condemnation
of their churches. Some become angry and say: let
the one who has no sin cast the first stone! But this
has nothing to do with stone-throwing. This is the
Lord's revival message to his people. The Lord
commands his people to come out from the great
Babylon. Rev. 18:4. This has always been readable
in the Bible. Why has this message not been preached?

As in the days of Lot, it is now. Lot was not interested
to leave Sodom. God sent two angels to rescue him,
and they must persuade him to leave Sodom. When
he yet lingered, they took him at his hand and led him
out of the city. One of the angels said to him: "Flee
for your life sake and do not see you backwards ..."
Genesis 19:15-17.

Just like as Lot, God's people today is not interested
to leave the great Babylon. They are spiritual to sleep
and do not want to be disturbed. In the churches they
never have preached the truth of the Assembly of God.
They do not know that their churches and denominations
are founded on false doctrines, and are false copies of
the Assembly of God. They do not know in what they
are members.

God is the Love
But God's love does not hinder us to study God's word
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/LOVE.HTM

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/PAGE92.HTM

What shall happen before Jesus comes?
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/BEFORE.HTM


Guy Teague

Posted by: Redlefty | October 17, 2005 at 10:47 PM You have to understand that not even Jesus knows when the end will come. No one except the Father knows.
-----------------
so jesus doesn't know what the father knows? i'll tell all the trinity proponents you've dismissed their theory out of hand

tw

Peter told us not to forget that to God 1 day is 1000 years. So in god's eyes it has not been long. He has just been merciful and longsuffereng, so that more people repent and come to him.

D. C. Toedt III

TW, even assuming Peter's premise to be true, we could say what he did about ANY prediction of future divine action.

And in any case, the NT leaves no room for dispute that the early church was predicting that Jesus would be coming back Any Day Now, and it simply didn't happen. Peter's proffered excuse is at best weak, at worst lame.

JLR

Jesus came back in the 1st century like he said he would. There was no CNN, internet, cell phones etc. No one knows exactly what happened or how. He came back, took the disciples who were alive, and the early church, and left. It's over. This is the millenium. The Greek word used for the 1000 years was a plural word, meaning, 2 or more. It's not a literal 1000 years. The next thing anyone sees will be the final war (Gog/Magog) and the end of the world. Then the bride returns to earth, or the new one. There are no more raptures. It happened already.

mitch

What a strange argument. Jesus and the bible writers say over and over that he is coming again to set up a "new heaven and a new earth" but because the early christians thought it would be in their lifetime this somehow negates what Jesus and the bible state clearly? Read this verse over and look in the mirror. "First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised?"

D. C. Toedt

@Mitch, thanks for commenting. You've read it right: The early Christians' prediction was a failure. If Jesus made a similar prediction — as the NT expressly claims he did — then his prediction was a failure too. And yes, that would indeed negate "what Jesus and the bible state clearly," don't you think?

As for the "scoffers" verse you quote: That's the author's feeble attempt to make excuses for the failed prediction, which by then had morphed into a failed promise. Competent people don't make excuses for their failures, they face up to them.

Thanks for stopping by.

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