| Topic: |
Religions > Bible |
| User: |
"Pastor Dave" |
| Date: |
09 Dec 2007 04:56:40 PM |
| Object: |
Liberals and the Second Coming |
By the unbelieving and liberal skeptic it has been stated
that Jesus "failed" and was "mistaken" in His promises to
return in the lifetime and generation of His contemporaries.
A Hebrew rabbi writes,
"At first, Christians expected that this "second coming"
would come very shortly... in their lifetime. When their
prayer was not answered... ...the early Christians were
forced to radically alter the Jewish concept of the Messiah
in order to explain Jesus’ failure" Pinchas Stolper,.ed. The
Real Messiah (Reprinted from Jewish Youth, June 1973, Union
of Orthodox Jewish Congregation. New York: 1973, pp. 32-33).
The professing ‘atheist’, Bertrand Russell gave the
following reason why he was not a Christian,
"He (Jesus) certainly thought that His second coming
would occur in clouds of glory before the death of all the
people who were living at that time. There are a great many
texts that prove that and there are a lot of places where it
is quite clear that He believed that His coming would happen
during the lifetime of many then living" Bertrand Russell,
Why I Am Not a Christian (New York: Simon and Scheuster,
1957, pp. 16).
"It still looks as though a monstrous illusion lies at
the basis of the whole mission of Jesus, the illusion of
something immediately impending which actually never has
come to passÎ [emphasis MJS] (Martin Debelius, Jesus
(Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1939). Trans. C.B. Hedrich &
F.C. Grant (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1949).
"He (Jesus) also proclaimed the imminent arrival on
earth of the Kingdom of God - a Golden Age for Jews. This
proclamation turned out to be an error" [parentheses &
emphasis MJS] (Clayton Sullivan, Rethinking Realized
Eschatology, p. 118.)
Rudolf Bultmann, a liberal, wrote, "Of course, Jesus was
mistaken in thinking that the world was destined to come to
an end" (Rudolf Bultmann, Primitive Christianity in its
Contemporary Setting. (Trans. by R.H. Fuller). Cleveland,
Ohio: William Collins Publisher, Inc. , 1956, pp. 92). And
"Jesus expectation of the near end of the world turned out
to be an illusion" (Rudolf Bultmann, Theology of the New
Testament, Vol. 1, pp. 22). Dale C. Allison, Jr. commenting
on these texts feels that "conservative critics’ need to
"acknowledge the humiliating discovery that Jesus proclaimed
the divinely wrought near end of the world" [emphasis MJS]
(Allison Dale, Jr., Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. pp.
651).
The Lord has given these men over to their confusion.
Some of these modern liberals still try to hang on to
some kind or form of Christianity while others are
simply but "scholarly" confused and have grown cynical.
For example, Clayton Sullivan believes,
"...Jesus, mistaken proclaimer of the Kingdom of God,
carries a comforting implication: belief accuracy or
doctrinal rectitude is not a prerequisite for divine
approval" (Sullivan, Clayton, Rethinking Realized
Eschatology, Mercer University Press: 1988, p.118)
While others like Dale Allison, Jr., find that "the
eschatological Jesus is theologically troubling" but he
states,
"The truth, however, is like God: we can run from it,
but it is always there. I, myself do not know what to make
of the eschatological Jesus. I am, for theological reasons,
unedified by the thought that, in a matter so seemingly
crucial, a lie has been walking around for two thousand
years while the truth has only recently put on its shoes.
But there it is" (Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. , p.
668).
The "truth" being the alleged discovery that this mistaken
and purely
"...human Jesus, is just like one of us, one who holds
values that are very close to our ideological commitments, a
Jesus who is a social reformer and who attacks patriarchal
orders, a Jesus who, as a real human person, can stand as an
example and inspiration for worthy causes" [emphasis MJS]
(Ibid. Allison quoting Koester in footnote 82 on p. 668).
In other words, Jesus was a good moral teacher and
"inspiration" to us all, but he wasn’t God like he claimed
because He was "mistaken" and failed to usher in the kingdom
when he promised.
This purely "human Jesus" these men claim to trust in
can’t save them from their sins and they won’t find any
"comforting implications" in him in this life or in the
next!
The error in view here is the conclusion that:
1) Christ did not come within the time frame He promised
the apostolic generation.
And...
2) Jesus was just a good moral teacher and not God like
He claimed to be and is. Thus this writer will contend
with the blasphemous statements and vain imaginations
of Christ being a "failure" and "mistaken" in His
promises to return in the lifetime and generation
of the apostles.
http://members.aol.com/healinglvs/healinglvs/pt-05.htm
Of course, as we know, all of these comments from these
people, are based on the Futurist view of the Bible and so,
it is not unreasonable to conclude that it is the Futurists
who help people to remain atheists. In fact, it is not
unreasonable to conclude that Futurism/Dispensationalism
helps to spread atheism, given that the main reason that
people leave the Christian faith, is specifically because of
the Futurist view regarding the return of Christ. And it
is Matthew 24:34 specifically, that causes most people
to leave, including preachers leaving the pulpit.
So I would suggest that you examine what it is you're
trying to sell people, when you claim that Jesus "really
meant...". People know a con job when they see one
even you don't believe what you're selling! It gnaws
at you, just like it did me and just like it does the rest.
But instead of being honest about it, you let your
vanity take over. But the truth is found in honesty.
And questioning a doctrine is not the same thing as
question God and His word. It is merely to question
an interpretation of it. And in this case, a bad one!
--
"If something in science suddenly becomes so sacrosanct
that you can't question it, then it ceases to be science",
he said. "And I really think that's what's become of
Darwinism." - Roger DeHart
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| User: "guardian Snow" |
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| Title: Re: Liberals and the Second Coming |
09 Dec 2007 05:11:05 PM |
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Pastor Dave wrote:
By the unbelieving and liberal skeptic it has been stated
that Jesus "failed" and was "mistaken" in His promises to
return in the lifetime and generation of His contemporaries.
A Hebrew rabbi writes,
No such promise was made.
Luk 21:29 And He spoke a parable to them, "Look at the fig tree, and
all the trees.
Luk 21:30 "When they have already budded, observing it, you shall know
for yourselves that summer is now near.
Luk 21:31 "So you also, when you see these matters take place, know
that the reign of Elohim is near.
Luk 21:32 "Truly, I say to you, this generation shall by no means pass
away till all shall have taken place.
Luk 21:33 "The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but My words
shall by no means pass away.
It is a parable that the generation which saw the fig tree budding
would see the second coming and Dave refuses to acknowledge truth.
Dave is not a pastor.
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