The.....2nd Coming....of Jesus.....WHEN?

by Terry 19 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Terry

  Concerning the 2nd Coming of Christ I'll say this.

  Nobody understood the first coming. What makes you think those people knew anything AT ALL about a 2nd coming? If any part of the bible messege wasn't garbled it's clear the apostles and 1st Century Christians who should have/might have been privvy to information of this nature didn't know squat! They thought it would happen in THEIR LIFETIME!

  Think about it--all the so-called "signs" making up clues about an advent of a 2nd coming have been misinterpreted by the GREATEST minds of EVERY century since that time!! Every last one of them were DEAD WRONG. (They were wrong and now they are dead.)

  The so-called "signs" are ambiguous for a reason. Nobodyknew what they were talking about when they spoke/wrote them.

  The 2nd coming, I believe, is part of the carrot and stick program of the Christian church. Heaven/Paradise/Reward is the carrot and the 2nd coming/Armageddon is the stick.

  I don't think that the book of Revelation is worthy of attention and neither did Martin Luther! (Until it proved useful to do so). The ravings of obsessive/compulsive religious fanatics were everywhere in the first 3 centuries (as they are today). The fact that this particular lunatic fringe horror story became bible canon is a quirk of history/politics. Like so many other myths, legends, Jesus stories and predictions, the events depicted in Revelation are not a road map to reality. They are more like a bad LSD trip.

  Basing the brief life you have now on tales spun by people without anything better to do who were overwrought by religious indoctrinations is a waste of your time, effort and attention.

  Absolutely NOBODY knows anything at all about the bible, the 2nd coming or anything else related to God. It is all fervent OPINION and nothing more! History consistently proves this over and over and over. You could compile a very long list of sacred pronouncements about End Times that could be flushed down the toilet because they never happened EVEN THOUGH THE AUTHORITY BEHIND THOSE PREDICTION were absolute and convinced.

  When something is true it is verifiable by persons of diverse backgrounds and varied locations. I'm talking facts here. Bigfoot, Elvis sightings, UFO abductions cannot be proved because they are merely CLAIMS. The bible is in this category. It consists of CLAIMS unverifiable and subject to opinion, interpretations and fanaticisms.

  None of the major religions has a unity of agreement among its constituents because no religion is subject to being verified the way FACTS are verified. Opinions differ. Facts are demonstrable.

  Christianity has to have "something" to live for that is in the immediate future or else it would vanish from feckless over-exaggerations like quack medicine that promises cures that never happen.

  The Muslims are waiting for their "hidden Imam". The Jews are waiting for their Messiah. Christians are waiting for Jesus Pt.2, etc. etc. These religions have to have a future event to wait for, pine for, hope for and look forward to.

  Don't fall into this trap and waste your life waiting for Godot!

  Do you know how many faithful kind-hearted and intelligent people have spent their lives in anticipation of such events which did NOT happen? They could have had a more meaninful, full and rich existence, but, they squandered it on false opinion and exaggerated sales pitches.

  Worship God in your mind where he actually lives. Worship God in your heart where he can be felt. But, don't waste your actual moments of existence fretting over an arrival that has been "any minute now" for TWO THOUSAND YEARS!!

  When will we ever learn????
• 

  Finally-Free

  You'll find a similar topic here:

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/126131/1.ashx

  W
• 

  Terry

  Wikipedia:

  Revelation is considered one of the most controversial and difficult books of the Bible, with many diverse interpretations of the meanings of the various names and events in the account. Protestant founder Martin Luther at first considered Revelation to be "neither apostolic nor prophetic" and stated that "Christ is neither taught nor known in it" [1]. However, he later changed his mind. [See Ernest Lee Tuveson, Millennium and Utopia, pp. 24-25.] John Calvin believed the book to be canonical, yet it was the only New Testament book he did not write a commentary on.

  In the 4th century, St. John Chrysostom and other bishops argued against including this book in the New Testament canon, chiefly because of the difficulties of interpreting it and the danger for abuse. Christians in Syria also reject it because of the Montanists' heavy reliance on it. In the 9th century, it was included with the Apocalypse of Peter among "disputed" books in the Stichometry of St. Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople. In the end it was included in the accepted canon, although it remains the only book of the New Testament that is not read within the Divine Liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

  Dionysius of Alexandria (247) rejected it, upon doctrinal rather than critical grounds. Eusebius (315) suspended his judgement, hesitating between the external and internal evidence. Some canons, especially in the Eastern Church, rejected the book, while most others included it.

  Although the traditional view still has many adherents, many modern scholars believe that John the Apostle, John the Evangelist, and John of Patmos refer to three separate individuals. Certain lines of evidence suggest that John of Patmos wrote only Revelation, not the Gospel of John nor the Epistles of John. For one, the author of Revelation identifies himself as "John" several times, but the author of the Gospel of John never identifies himself directly. While both works liken Jesus to a lamb, they consistently use different words for lamb when referring to him — the Gospel uses amnos, Revelation uses arnion. [3] . Lastly, the Gospel is written in nearly flawless Greek, but Revelation contains grammatical errors and stylistic abnormalities which indicate its author may not have been as familiar with the Greek language as the Gospel's author

  There are several schools of thought concerned with how the symbolism, imagery, and contents of the book of Revelation should be interpreted.

  • The Biblical prophecy school of thought holds that the contents of Revelation, especially when interpreted in conjunction with the Book of Daniel and other eschatological sections of the Bible, constitute a prophecy of the end times. This school can be further subdivided into the preterist view, which sees the book concerned with 1st-century events; the futurist view, which applies most of the events in the book into the end times (namely from chapter 6 onwards); and the historicist view, which regards the book as spanning history from the first century through the second coming.
  • A second Biblical Prophecy school of thought exists, believing that Revelation is a rewriting of the various prophetic books of the Old Testament and that it was originally located at the end of the Old Testament with several other, since removed, prophetic books. This school also maintains that many of these same prophetic books are merely different rewrites of each other (in the same way that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are thought to be by some scholars).
  • The historical-critical approach, which became dominant among critical scholars of religion since the end of the 18th century, attempts to understand Revelation within the genre of apocalyptic literature, which was popular in both Jewish and Christian tradition since the Babylonian diaspora, following the pattern of the Book of Daniel. There is further information on these topics in the entries on higher criticism and apocalyptic literature.
  • The long-standing and highly controversial view of the esoteric schools is that Revelation, like all scriptures, bears seven levels of meaning, the lowest being the literal or "dead-letter." Those who are instructed in the esoteric knowledge enter gradually into more subtle levels of understanding. From this perspective, it can be understood that Revelation, as a very difficult scripture to grasp intellectually, is more directly concerned with guiding those who have some degree of esoteric knowledge, which requires going beyond the use of the intellect. The Gnostic Kabbalist believes that Revelation (like Genesis) is a very profound book of Kabbalistic symbolism, written by a Kabbalist, for Kabbalist disciples. With the Kabbalah in hand, the disciple can more easily grasp the simultaneous presence of multiple levels of meaning contained in one symbol or allegory. This view is held by schools related to teachers such as H.P. Blavatsky, Eliphas Levi, Rudolf Steiner and Samael Aun Weor.
  • Recently, aesthetic and literary modes of interpretation focus on Revelation as a work of art and imagination, viewing the imagery as symbolic depictions of timeless truths and the victory of good over evil.
  • Neo-Ebionites and other Neo-Essenes regard Revelation as a description of the Destruction of The Temple in 70 and the subsequent Imperial Roman persecution of Jews and Christians.

  • The "Patristic Interpretation", or the view held by St. Augustine, Jerome, and other early Church Fathers, views Revelation as an attempt to describe a spiritual reality and heavenly worship and compare it to the liturgy of the Christian Church. Although all but forgotten today, this interpretation is alluded to in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and has been avidly promoted by modern theologians such as Scott Hahn.

  These schools of thought are not mutually exclusive, and many Christians adopt a combination of these approaches in the manner they find most meaningful. However, certain tendencies may be observed. The Biblical Prophecy school of thought is popular among Protestantfundamentalists, other evangelicals (many of whom also find value in the other approaches), and amongst Rastafarians, who interpret the book very differently from fundamentalist Christians but definitely belong to the Biblical Prophecy school. (Rastafarians believe Haile Selassie I to be the Messiah and Godincarnate.) Members of more mainline and liberal churches tend to prefer the historical-critical and aesthetic approaches. Moreover, Roman and Orthodox churches have delimited their own specific positions on Revelation.
• 

  AlmostAtheist

  >>There are several schools of thought concerned with how the symbolism, imagery, and contents of the book of Revelation should be interpreted.

  I noticed they left the "Bad Acid Trip" school of thought off the list... gotta go edit Wikipedia again....

  Dave
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  Green Chille

  The Bible is confusing to say the least! I don't atempt to translate any prophecy.

  I want know who the Anti-Christ is as he is going to perform many miracles and fool us poor fools in to thinking he is the Christ. That hasn't happened yet. I haven't seen nor heard of anyone who fits the bill.
• 

  GetBusyLiving

  I haven't seen nor heard of anyone who fits the bill.

  Ever read a post written by Brownboy?

  GBL
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  Will Power

  sounds like a bunch of MISCHIEF!
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  Star Moore

  I hate to be contrary:

  But..the book of Revelation is unfolding as we speak. And IMO, Christ is going to save the world.. Don't you think we need it?
• 

  Green Chille

  Ever read a post written by Brownboy?

  GBL

  Is brown boy the Anti-Christ? Can you give me a link please.
• 

  proplog2

  Terry:

  Don't be so sure. The nay-sayers are all dead too.

  In recorded history man has never been in such great danger.

  The arrival of the nuclear age changed everything.

  The past does not equal the future.

  Revelation talks about a great beast empire that appears to die but is revived. As it reemerges it appears lamb-like but then reverts to its dragon like behavior.

  This particular beast is the seventh in a specific sucession of empires. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Russia/Soviet Union

  The eighth is the revived seventh.

  Babylon the Great , the rich hegemon USA dominates the world.

  The eighth empire destroys the USA.

  Those that recognize this will flee the USA when the disgusting nuclear desolater hits sacred USA ground.

  Don't worry Terry. Those who die during the tribulation will get a resurrection. Only the Wild Beast & False Prophet are thrown into everlasting destruction. The dead will be brought back and judged individually.

  So go back to shelving books and enjoy your life.