Still Waiting . . .
By James Donahue
It’s been over 2,000 years since Jesus allegedly ascended into the clouds, leaving a promise among his disciples and the others who happened to be hanging around that he was coming back.
Bible scholars have since been pouring over the scriptures, looking for clues as to just when to expect his return. A lot of them over the years thought they had it pegged. They preached the word, gained a following, and took their flock off onto a hill or mountain in preparation to greet their “savior” as he ascended over them from the sky.
But Jesus never showed up.
If the Bible scholars had been using their noodles they should have realized . . . at least after the disciples were dead (which wasn’t long because they were murdered) . . . that things weren’t going exactly as planned.
Jesus was obviously wrong about his timing if the author of Matthew knew what really happened. He quoted Jesus in verse 16:28: “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
In First Thessalonians the apostle Paul wrote in Chapter 4: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air . . . “
It seems that Paul believed that he and at least a few of the other “followers” of Jesus were still going to be around to witness the Second Coming.
At least that is how the stories in the New Testament say it was supposed to happen.
But then Mark quotes Jesus in Chapter 13 as warning: "Concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" when he is coming back.
And Luke managed to keep everybody on pins and needles when he wrote: "You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."
That was clever manipulation by the writers of the New Testament text. It has kept the Christian world locked in total enslaved confusion for all those years. But we should perhaps question the entire book as an elaborate scam designed to trap believers into a form of life-long enslavement.
Neither Paul nor the writer that penned the Book of Matthew knew Jesus personally. While Paul and Jesus were contemporaries, they were in extreme disagreement about their spiritual beliefs. Paul, who went by the name Saul at that time, devoted his life to attacking the followers of Jesus. He claimed to have been converted in an incident on the road to Damastus after Jesus was no longer around.
The Book of Matthew is believed to have been written about 80 to 90 years after the death of Jesus. This book followed, and probably was an expanded version of the Book of Mark, the shortest and believed to have been the first written Gospel. Scholars date Mark at about the year 70.
There is strong evidence that Paul, whose letters compose most of the New Testament, was a Christian antagonist. He established an original cult of Paulinism that spread throughout the Roman world for the first hundred years at least. And it did not preach the true teaching of Jesus.
If he said it at all, Jesus may not have been the first prophet to promise a return after his death. He certainly hasn’t been the last. It happens more frequently than we might expect. Some contemporary examples:
--Benjamin Burnell, who with his wife, Mary founded the cult known as the House of David in Benton Harbor, Michigan, promised his followers he would return from the grave. When he died in 1927, his body was preserved in a glass coffin that was kept on cult-owned grounds. His followers eventually died off. As far as we know, Ben’s body hasn’t budged.
--More recently, in 1994, Rabbi Sheneerson, grand rebbe of the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitcher sect, was laid to rest in New York after his death at the age of 92. The Rabbi also had prophesized his return and an estimated 1,000 followers gathered to witness the miracle. For if it had happened, Rabbi Schneerson would have revealed himself as Moshiach, the messiah. But it never happened.
Indeed, the Jews also are awaiting a messiah who they say will bring not only salvation to Israel, but peace to the world.
--Marshall Applewhite, the leader of the radical Heaven’s Gate religious cult that committed mass suicide in California in 1997, taught that he was a “higher being” who was living in an adult body so he could be a teacher of humanity. He taught that he and his followers would not die but be transported to a spaceship from where they would enter other bodies.
--Another charismatic cult leader was Cyrus Teed, leader of the Koreshan faith based in Florida at the turn of the century. Before his death in 1908, Teed also promised to return from the grave. He gave specific instructions for his body to be preserved in a zinc coffin. Followers stood by, guarding the body for weeks until a County health inspector ordered the body interred. The remains, which were placed in a tomb at Fort Myers Beach, ironically were washed to sea during a hurricane in 1921.
The problem within the Christian cult is that it has grown into one of the largest and most powerful religions in the world. Theologians have reasoned that the resurrection of Jesus has been the primary power of the Christian faith, and that His promise of a return at the end of times is an important link in God’s promised salvation of humanity.
Because they believe this, and because the writer of the Book of the Revelation links the return of Jesus to a world war, many powerful political leaders who follow this faith appear willing to lead the world into a final conflict. They would allow this in the sheer hope that the Bible is right, and that such a war would bring their “savior” back to fix the mess they have made in the nick of time.
This is extremely dangerous thinking. It marks Christianity as perhaps the most dangerous religion in the world.
By James Donahue
It’s been over 2,000 years since Jesus allegedly ascended into the clouds, leaving a promise among his disciples and the others who happened to be hanging around that he was coming back.
Bible scholars have since been pouring over the scriptures, looking for clues as to just when to expect his return. A lot of them over the years thought they had it pegged. They preached the word, gained a following, and took their flock off onto a hill or mountain in preparation to greet their “savior” as he ascended over them from the sky.
But Jesus never showed up.
If the Bible scholars had been using their noodles they should have realized . . . at least after the disciples were dead (which wasn’t long because they were murdered) . . . that things weren’t going exactly as planned.
Jesus was obviously wrong about his timing if the author of Matthew knew what really happened. He quoted Jesus in verse 16:28: “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
In First Thessalonians the apostle Paul wrote in Chapter 4: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air . . . “
It seems that Paul believed that he and at least a few of the other “followers” of Jesus were still going to be around to witness the Second Coming.
At least that is how the stories in the New Testament say it was supposed to happen.
But then Mark quotes Jesus in Chapter 13 as warning: "Concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" when he is coming back.
And Luke managed to keep everybody on pins and needles when he wrote: "You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."
That was clever manipulation by the writers of the New Testament text. It has kept the Christian world locked in total enslaved confusion for all those years. But we should perhaps question the entire book as an elaborate scam designed to trap believers into a form of life-long enslavement.
Neither Paul nor the writer that penned the Book of Matthew knew Jesus personally. While Paul and Jesus were contemporaries, they were in extreme disagreement about their spiritual beliefs. Paul, who went by the name Saul at that time, devoted his life to attacking the followers of Jesus. He claimed to have been converted in an incident on the road to Damastus after Jesus was no longer around.
The Book of Matthew is believed to have been written about 80 to 90 years after the death of Jesus. This book followed, and probably was an expanded version of the Book of Mark, the shortest and believed to have been the first written Gospel. Scholars date Mark at about the year 70.
There is strong evidence that Paul, whose letters compose most of the New Testament, was a Christian antagonist. He established an original cult of Paulinism that spread throughout the Roman world for the first hundred years at least. And it did not preach the true teaching of Jesus.
If he said it at all, Jesus may not have been the first prophet to promise a return after his death. He certainly hasn’t been the last. It happens more frequently than we might expect. Some contemporary examples:
--Benjamin Burnell, who with his wife, Mary founded the cult known as the House of David in Benton Harbor, Michigan, promised his followers he would return from the grave. When he died in 1927, his body was preserved in a glass coffin that was kept on cult-owned grounds. His followers eventually died off. As far as we know, Ben’s body hasn’t budged.
--More recently, in 1994, Rabbi Sheneerson, grand rebbe of the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitcher sect, was laid to rest in New York after his death at the age of 92. The Rabbi also had prophesized his return and an estimated 1,000 followers gathered to witness the miracle. For if it had happened, Rabbi Schneerson would have revealed himself as Moshiach, the messiah. But it never happened.
Indeed, the Jews also are awaiting a messiah who they say will bring not only salvation to Israel, but peace to the world.
--Marshall Applewhite, the leader of the radical Heaven’s Gate religious cult that committed mass suicide in California in 1997, taught that he was a “higher being” who was living in an adult body so he could be a teacher of humanity. He taught that he and his followers would not die but be transported to a spaceship from where they would enter other bodies.
--Another charismatic cult leader was Cyrus Teed, leader of the Koreshan faith based in Florida at the turn of the century. Before his death in 1908, Teed also promised to return from the grave. He gave specific instructions for his body to be preserved in a zinc coffin. Followers stood by, guarding the body for weeks until a County health inspector ordered the body interred. The remains, which were placed in a tomb at Fort Myers Beach, ironically were washed to sea during a hurricane in 1921.
The problem within the Christian cult is that it has grown into one of the largest and most powerful religions in the world. Theologians have reasoned that the resurrection of Jesus has been the primary power of the Christian faith, and that His promise of a return at the end of times is an important link in God’s promised salvation of humanity.
Because they believe this, and because the writer of the Book of the Revelation links the return of Jesus to a world war, many powerful political leaders who follow this faith appear willing to lead the world into a final conflict. They would allow this in the sheer hope that the Bible is right, and that such a war would bring their “savior” back to fix the mess they have made in the nick of time.
This is extremely dangerous thinking. It marks Christianity as perhaps the most dangerous religion in the world.