Friday, July 30, 2010

Jesus is coming soon!

One of the things I find most perplexing is that although it has been a little over two thousand years, the church continues to wait for the physical return of Jesus Christ! A literal reading of some of the so called sayings attributed to Christ should be sufficient enough to dispel this myth, but history has shown that it is not enough. There are several reasons that I think are directly responsible for the longevity of Christianity as a religion, and don't worry none of them are supernatural.

The main reason I think it has lasted this long is because of its acceptance by the roman emperor Constantine in the year 312 during the battle of Milvian bridge where he claimed to have had a supernatural vision upon looking up to the sky before the battle. He claims to have seen the symbol of the cross and ordered his troops to adorn their shields with the symbol, his subsequent victory he later attributed to the Christian deity. The following year he announced the edict of Milan which basically allowed for religious tolerance of all faiths. It wasn't till February 12 in the year 380 AD that the edict of Thessalonica was announced by Gratian Theodosious 1 and Valentinian 2 that Christianity became the official religion of the state of Rome.

This in my opinion is what gave Christianity it's impetus to move forward as a major religion with the power and force of the state of Rome behind it. By the merging of church and state Rome quickly became a theocracy with the church pulling the strings and the state serving as its enforcers. Through this union the church was able to crush all competing religions and establish itself as the one and only true religion and its deity as the one and only true God.

It is shocking to me even to this day that after all these years you still have Christian sects coming out of the woodwork all claiming to be a return to the original teachings of the early church! Even more shocking is that many of them have been so bold to even predict the date upon which Jesus would return! Even though this in and of itself is contrary to the scriptures which they all profess to read and believe in. Let us take a look at what the scriptures have to say about the return of Christ. As usual I will be quoting from the KJV although many say it is not the most accurate translation out there when it comes to this issue they all pretty much say the same thing.

According to Mark 13:32 it states 32.'But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.' This very same sentiment is expressed in the N.T. in several other places but here is where the story goes awry, this is where Jesus puts his big foot in his mouth after giving a laundry list of signs of his return. The last of those things on the list are found in Mark 13:26,27 26'.And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.27.And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.'

Finally the good lord Christ shoves his foot even further in his mouth by announcing also in Mark 13:30 30.'Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.' And just to make sure that they knew he was talking about them in that generation he gave them this reassurance: Matthew 16:28  28.'Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.'

According to the scriptures Jesus said that no man knows the hour of his return, he clearly stated on more than one occasion that it would happen during the generation in which he lived and died. Yet two thousand plus years later you still have people trying to predict the date of his return and still eagerly awaiting for his return. I think that the bible speaks for itself in the above cited quote and others, and has proven that those prophecies have been shown to be utter failures. If Jesus existed (I personally don't think he did) then he was not the son of God and unfortunately for you Christians that await his return he is not coming back. The early chuch preached the coming of the Lord and they all lived and died and he never returned as will all future generations that await his return. I hate to be the bearer of bad new but Jesus is not coming soon!!

16 comments:

  1. I just feel sorry for the person who was told he wouldn't die till Jesus returned. he must be getting really sick of living by now.

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  2. Chatpilot, friend, yes, indeed. And these certain supernaturalists like Clive Staples Lewis, contend that without His authority we naturalists cannot ground morality without His sanction.They are conflating a physical law with ethics.The shocker is that then they thereby condemn God!So instead of us relying on their morality, they rely on ours covenant morality for humanity- the presumption of humanism.
    They condemn implicitly Him with His atrocities in the Tanakh and His love of Hell.
    "Faith doth that to people!"
    At Thales Ignostic Morgan,I'll further develop this line of thinking.
    Chatpilot writes quite well whilst some find my posting turgid and some love it.
    Please viewers don't just view our blogs but help make them better with your commentary. We, like Socrates know our ignorance but fight for what we do know and fight against woo.

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  3. Lmao spiritual atheist, poor bastards! Ignostic Morgan I left a comment on your blog Carneades. I agree we atheists need to support each other in any way we can, whether it's through commenting on each others blog or even writing as guest on each other blogs. Or even better getting involved in debates with theists on each others blogs. I would like to thank you both for supporting my efforts as well.

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  4. Chatpilot, man, that's great! No ten dollar word from me!
    I would that we three and others would help out each other where possible.Please be my guests! I use permutate, if that is the word, my thoughts from one of my blogs or else where and would so appreciate getting across what I hadn't thought about in order to make my blogs more indpendent of each other. My style enthralls some and irks others as being turgid, my new word.
    Lmao, I'll see you at your blogm friend!

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  5. Sorry for the error. I premutate my argumentation.

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  6. Mark 13:30 ... Check out the Greek. The word generation is more accurately "race" ie. Israel.

    Mark 16:28 must refer to the disciples, since they are the ones mentioned as present. Chapter 17 records three of these disciples seeing Jesus in a transfigured or "coming-kingdom-like" state ... which happened before they died.

    Scratching my head to see where the foot-in-mouth disease is in that . . ?

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  7. Nice try anonymous! Seeing Jesus in a transfigured state is a far cry from him descending from heaven on a cloud in the opposite manner in which he ascended. Taken in context he was speaking of something grand such as his return or second coming to gather up his people. And a word for word break down of the text in Matthew 16:28 with verse 27 refers to the same event. I think the foot in mouth disease here also refers to you. And yes, these words were directed at his disciples. But they are all dead and he has yet to return. Kudos for trying to defend the stupidity contained in your bible.

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  8. Aha ... but Peter actually coroborates this later (2 Peter 1:16-18) by claiming that he was an eyewitness to the coming of Jesus in power and majesty, and pinpoints this to the transfiguration. Align the interpretation of this and Matthew 16:27-28 with a progressive dispensational viewpoint, and you have a consistent argument.

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  9. Wow! Talk about a stretch! You are reading way more into that text than is actually presented there. 2Peter 1:16-18 is obviously a reference to the transfiguration, but they are not saying that they were eyewitnesses to the coming of Jesus in power and majesty but rather that they believed the stories regarding his coming because they had heard the voice of God giving honour to him by stating this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. They were eyewitnesses to his authority and power and believed in his promises based on the vision that they had on the holy mount.

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  10. Matthew 16:27 did not occur during the transfiguration but speaks of the second coming of Christ. 'the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.' This did not happen they did not see angels nor were rewarded for anything. This is clearly not a reference to the transfiguration.

    Also, don't forget that when Jesus was baptized the so called people present also heard a voice from heaven making the exact same statement to confirm Christ authority.

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    1. I think Mat 16:27 here refers to the disciple John who wrote revelation. He sees the second coming, but in his vision. I could be wrong.

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    2. That is impossible for several reasons. Keeping this text in context he speaks of the coming of Christ to redeem his faithful. Then in the following statement he makes it a point to say that some who were present as he spoke those words would not taste death before these events occurred. Also, the book of Revelations wasn't even written at the time. Matthew is believed to have been dated to about 65-80 CE and Revelations wasn't written till around 90-95 CE

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  11. Any such apparitions would be a hallucination. All religious is just ones own mental states at work [Susan Blacmore]. And to argue otherwise, and here Jonathon Harrison,atheolgian errs, as it is the supernaturalist who begs the question of any supernatural influence on our minds when he argues that we beg the question in denying Mother Mary a role in producing them in his worthy " God, Freedom and Immortality."

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  12. I'm also Ignostic Morgan, Thales Naturalist griggs amongst other names.

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  13. Why would anyone care for what that authoritarian cult leader, with silly and dangerous ideas had to say,other than to argue against those ideas? Study what deist, Miklos Jako, says about Yeshua teachings being the scam of the ages in " Confronting Believers."

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  14. Chaptpilot, I now have a network of blogs, where you can shine as the wonderful writer that you are!

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