3.5. Judgment Day (What Will Jesus Do in the Future?)


Unfinished Business, Second Coming

Fulfillment of Daniel 7

Glory

Judge

Resurrection of all

Kingdom of God


When will Jesus return?

Paul expected Jesus to return in his lifetime

The earliest gospels interpret the failed Jewish revolt against Rome (66-74) and destruction of temple in Jerusalem (70) as signs of return

Roman persecution of Christianity as a cult interpreted as stirring Christ to vengeance

Different responses to delay

The Simpsons, season 16 episode 19 “Thank God It’s Doomsday” is based partly on the Millerites’ attempt to calculate the second coming. It also reflects popular ideas about the rapture and heaven as a cloud place to which one goes after death.


How or in what way will the world as we know it end? When will it happen?


Reading Responses

General observations

Don't equate second coming with destruction of the ecosystem

Don't equate second coming with rapture

Don't equate apocalypse with end of world

Implications for Human Responsibility

Is hope in a second coming kind of deflecting the reality of our own actions and how awful they are by relying on Jesus to come back and take responsibility of our sins like he did before?

If people believe Jesus is coming and that he will destroy the world, a lot of people will stop caring for the earth

In a world controlled by a "Glorious God", why do people suffer to the point they can't tolerate it anymore?

Wouldn't taking care of the planet if Jesus doesn't come make more sense than not taking care of the planet?

Second Coming, What

How everyone could be so sure that Jesus was the messiah if he did not fulfill all of the scriptures? How was everyone so sure? What led them to have such faith?

How did they know to believe in Jesus if he did not show all the qualifications of being a Son of God a Messiah?

What if Jesus would come back in my life time and I would see Jesus walking around the streets?

What do you think that the rest who didn’t believe that Jesus will come back thought would happen to the world if Jesus wouldn’t destroy it?

Second Coming, When

What gave them the idea that it will be so soon and did this only come about recently?

I don't honestly think Jesus will come during my lifetime unless some kind of nuclear disaster happens.

If god sends for warnings what would they look like?

Purgatory

Does only the Catholic church believe in purgatory? Why do some Catholics believe in purgatory if it is not stated in the scriptures? When are you able to get to heaven if in purgatory?

Rapture

Are The Old Testament and The New Testament similar in that they don't promise that Christians will be immune from suffering?

Where did these pseudo beliefs like the rapture … come from when most of Christian History has been teaching the opposite?

Resurrection of All

When Jesus returns they say all the souls will be resurrected and return to their bodies, what about people that cremate the body?

Later in the course

How will god judge the dead that never got to witness the death of Jesus and his teachings?

Why wouldn't all morally good people be raptured, why only believers?