Second Coming

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Not to be confused with multiple orgasms.

The Second Coming refers to the return of Jesus to Earth after having been crucified roughly two thousand years ago.

Contents

[edit] Long delay

The single biggest question surrounding the Second Coming is: what's the freaking hold-up? The earliest Christians believed that Jesus' second coming was imminent, a view seemingly held by Jesus himself in Mark 9 and Matthew 16: Jesus tells some listeners they will still be living when the event occurs. Paul too seems to think that this will occur when some of his current followers (and himself) are still alive (see 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

Some Christians try and argue that Jesus had limited knowledge in his human form and made a mistake. So how many other teachings of Jesus are mistaken? Complex efforts at apologetics are made which try and explain away this failed prophecy,[1] but, using Occam's Razor, the simplest and most plausible explanation is that Jesus or whoever wrote that account predicted something that failed to happen. Certainly the early disciples expected Jesus to return during their lifetime and Jesus either was not omniscient and overlooked the misunderstanding or knowingly deceived his own disciples.

[edit] Later interpretations

Second Peter (written many years after Paul's epistles) addresses this issue by saying a thousand years is equal to a day to God. So to God we're just starting the third day since the crucifixion. No rush.

[edit] War

Far too many on the American Religious Right want to start war in Arabia, as if that area were not dangerously unstable and prone to war already. Some suspect that Bush started the War in Iraq to hasten the Second Coming. Since there are nuclear weapons in the area war could start a global catastrophe without any supernatural intervention and there will be no divine rescue for Christian fundamentalists either.

[edit] Failed predictions

Some preachers have made startling predictions regarding the second coming. Some notable ones include William Miller's great disappointment of 1844,[2]the Jehovah's Witnesses prediction of 1914 and the most recent prediction of Harold Camping of May 21 2011.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

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