Do you ever wonder if Jesus will return in our lifetime? It’s hard not to think about it sometimes, isn’t it? This article gives us some great perspective on the topic.
There is so much to unpack in this. SMH.
I wouldn’t trust that guy to set the time on my watch. KOOKOO.
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I’ll admit to considerable skepticism toward folks who are covered with tattoos and preach from inside of vehicles to cameras on the dashboard. He does bear a striking remblance to a young Chris Cuomo, however.
That seems a little “judgy” based on appearances. Funny, but it’s the same criticism that was leveled against both John the baptizer, and Jesus alike. John, because he dressed funny and ate bugs, Jesus because he didn’t look right either, and hung out with ‘the wrong kind of people.’
So… are you going to unpack it? -or was this a drive-by shooting?
I’d like to but I am a bit swamped today. I wanted to post it here before I forgot it or lost it. If you fancy to take a swing have at it.
I don’t see too many glaring issues. The beginning of the video doesn’t make it clear what he is responding to, as the brief clip of some preacher that he starts with says “You’ve missed the rapture!” The poster doesn’t really ever address the pastor.
Regarding “time” he is directly referencing/quoting scripture. With respect to theology and eschatology he is firmly in the post-trib camp, which is pretty mainstream-- or from a bit of a preterist perspective, which is also considered a viable take by many Christians. His main criticism is of the “Hollywood- Left Behind-Rapture” kit and kaboodle.
Nitpickers unite!
Directed to me? Since my answer to when Jesus is returning is more in the vein of “never,” perhaps I’m not the target audience. I did watch the whole thing, and it’s a solid, articulate example of that particular perspecfive. Slightly off-topic, but I just watched a very scholary presentation that Jesus’ references to the Son of Man were quite possibly not to himself at all but to the heavenly figure in Daniel.
(Edit: I don’t want to seem snarky when I say “never.” “Coming on the clouds” was an ancient way of describing a theophany. I don’t doubt that at some point God may well say “Enough, this creation has served its purpose, time to pull the plug,” but the whole Rapture/Pre-Trib/Post-Trib/Revelation Yada Yada debate just doesn’t resonate with me.)
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Yes-- I was addressing your tattoos, Chris Cuomo comments. I’m still not used to this forum format and the “Reply” system. On the right sidebar there is a reply arrow that appears at the bottom beside the last post… but if you happen to click it your reply appears as a general post, rather than as a reply to that last post. Takes some getting used to. I’m not particularly a fan of the way “Replys” in general appear in the threads as it does make a conversation more difficult to follow than a chronological threading -imo.
“Coming on the clouds” aside-- how would you reconcile the idea of another promised theophany at some future time, with your belief that it will “never” happen?
I agree it does take some getting used to. I find quoting the person by using this method helps:
Also, you can see if someone has replied to a post right below the post as seen here:
Click on that drop down and you get this:
OK, you first highlight what you want to quote, click on Quote, it then appears in the Reply box, then you answer and post your reply. This is just like any other forum. For some reason, quotes were disappearing before. I think perhaps I was hitting Reply first, then trying to insert the quote. If you just click on Quote, it appears in the Reply box and doesn’t disappear when you post. Or something like that.
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I wouldn’t. When you try to reconcile the Ascension, the Rapture and the Second Coming with a first century cosmology, it becomes somewhat comical. (Amazing, I think, how little attention the Ascension gets.) One verse that has always struck me as remarkably modern and more cosmologically plausible is 2 Peter 3:10-12: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” In short, when the End comes, I tend to think it’s just going to be OVER, just like that, followed by Whatever’s Next, just like that.
But, of course, I could be wrong and suddenly find myself at 28,000 feet in the Rapture, hopefully not in my Fruit of the Looms.
I think they call this an annihilist perspective. Are you from any sort of SDA background? Or perhaps you are a Decemberist.
Not an annihilist, never had any association with the SDA, never heard of the Decemberists. What i believe will occur is based on what I believe the nature of reality to be.
It would be cool if you were brave and bold enough to start a thread on what you believe the nature of reality to be. It sounds interestingly like it’s not cut from the whole cloth of orthodoxy. There are only a few of us still to be found in the wild, with most having been tamed, penned in and domesticated under some watchful shepherd somewhere.
I don’t I have any notions that are wildly creative. When the Bible says God created ex hihilo, by speaking reality into existence, this suggests to me that our reality is consciousness-based rather than matter-based (as many in the scientific community increasingly believe). I think of our reality as being fundamentally thin and fragile. When it’s time for it to end, I believe God will simply speak it out of existence. Poof, it’s transformed into a new reality. God could certainly stage a spectacle of Jesus coming on the clouds, but this was an ancient way of speaking of God’s presence and I don’t think it’s to be taken literally any more than I think at the Ascension Jesus went zooming through the atmosphere like an ICBM. The ancient cosmology was so different from what we now know to be true that I believe thinking outside the box of a literalist reading of the Bible is almost mandatory.
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