Three Great Faiths, One Expectation
Christians have put this second coming of Jesus as one of the articles of their Creed which states: He (Jesus) will come again to judge the living and the dead. Among Catholics in the daily Mass after the so called consecration of the bread and wine, the people acclaim aloud: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.
Muslims have Qur’an 43:61 to affirm that Jesus will come again for the hour of judgment of all mankind. It is believed by them that Jesus will bring a rule of justice and peace when he comes.
The Jews of course through the centuries since the time of the Prophets have expected the coming of their Messiah who for Christians is Jesus. The modern devout Jew prays for the coming of the messiah, a king like David, 3 times a day. Of course, for the Jews it will not be the second coming of their Messiah but his first coming.
Combining the followers of these great religions we have close to 3.5 billion people who expect, at least in their creedal statements and prayers, for the physical coming of Jesus.
So the question “When is he coming again?” has caught the curiosity of many people. In fact a whole new denomination has been founded on the preparation for this second coming of Jesus, the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
In the book of Hal Lindsey and Carole C. Carlson I cited above there are passages which many have interpreted that these authors really believed that Jesus would come again no later than 1988.
But Jesus has not come again. Why?
Three Reasons Given Why Jesus Has Not Yet Come
In the book BEYOND 2000, written by 8 Seventh Day Adventists, there is a box in one of the articles with the title “Why Has He Not Come Yet?” by Jan Paulsen. He gives three reasons why Jesus has not yet come back: 1) The followers of Jesus are not yet ready for this coming; they are not yet so devout and dedicated that they are worthy already of their Master’s return. 2) God is still waiting for more people to be saved, to get into his kingdom. 3) God must allow rebellion to run its course; by letting Satan, the enemy, do what he wants with humanity, he will lose his credibility and thus when Jesus appears he will be unanimously accepted in place of Satan.
Six Legal Requisites for the Coming Again of Jesus
Tim McHyde has given a list of legal prerequisites to Jesus' return which are: 1) the event of the Great Tribulation; 2) the erection of the image of the beast which is termed as the Abomination of Desolation; 3) the cessation of the Temple Mount Sacrifices which have not yet started; 4) the building of the Third Temple; 5) the fulfillment of the Sixth Seal which is entire populations panicking and running for shelter; 6) the destruction of Damascus. Since these prerequisites have not yet been accomplished, Jesus’ return is not yet imminent, according to McHyde.
Two More Fundamental Reasons Why Jesus Has Not Yet Come Back
To these three reasons and 6 legal prerequisites I add two more which so far have not been mentioned by those who predict Jesus’ second coming.
The first is that nations have not yet been immersed or absorbed into the life of the triune but one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You see, the commission given in Matthew 28:19 is to make disciples of nations, not individual persons. Then as these nations are made disciples of Jesus they are going to be baptized, immersed, absorbed into the name, the life, the power of the Father, the Son and the Spirit. We do not see this happening.
So far what we have been trying to do is go and search for individuals who would want to follow Christ and make those individuals his disciples. But the object of the verb “disciple” is nations, not individuals from among all the nations.
The second is that we have not yet preached the Good News to all of creation as this is stated in Mark 16:15. Instead we have been trying to preach to all human beings. The indirect object of the verb to preach or evangelize is all creation, not just human beings. It seems that it is only Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone who has done this. He is the only one on record who has talked to animals and plants about the good news of God’s love.
And why do I mention these conditions? Because they are conditions which we can do. The 6 legal requirements by Tim McHyde are not in our power to accomplish. The requirements of our Adventist friends are too general. But fulfilling these two commands of Jesus which are termed the Great Commission can be done by us and in doing so we will be following the advice of Peter in his second letter to hasten the coming of the day of God which includes the second coming of Jesus.
Disciple the Nations, Preach to the Animals and Plants
So, let us plan on making whole nations, not just individuals, disciples of Jesus. And let us preach the Good News to animals and plants, planets and stars, the elements of this universe. As we do this the day of Jesus’ physical coming for us Christians and Muslims and Jews will come sooner than what is happening now.
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http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities
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