"You can sure tell it's almost time for Jesus to return," is a phrase I have heard all my life. During the 1967 Arab Israeli war, when all the forces of Middle Eastern good and evil, depending on who you were rooting for, were coming together for the one big bang before Jesus returned to save us all, I just knew it was the end times. Well that one lasted six days and Jesus, I guess, was recalled. Israel had kicked some serious butt and there would be no need for a Second Coming at that time. In 1973, Egypt and Syria, Kings of the South and North by Bible prophecy buff standards, attacked Israel on Yom Kippur. Jesus, I was told, was in the building and about to come on stage. Alas, Israel kicked some serious butt with the help of those who firmly belief that the Land of Israel is sacred only to them and the source of all true religion. But Jesus was recalled again. In '81 Israel attacked the Iraqi nuclear facilities at Osirak and surely this could be the big one! Again, you could sure tell it was almost time for Jesus to return. He didn't. Well Israel went on to invade Lebanon in '82 for the seventh Israeli war since the founding of the country in '49. Syria got it's butt kicked and though, we could all sure tell Jesus was about to come back, didn't. In '91 the Persian Gulf was just had to be it. Even Jesus was getting nervous and I was told had mounted his white horse along with the Four Horsemen of the Puckerlips. Hmmm, nothing. Just a lot more innocents and the best was yet to come. The Intifada raged and a few thousand more Arab and Israelis murdered each other and continue to do so. Now we are into the Invasion of Iraq to make the world a nicer place and what a mess.
Sometimes I think those in charge are reading their Bibles and trying their best to push nations this way and that in the Middle East to bring about the Second Coming as something they will no doubt want some credit for from Jesus and God himself. I suspect they might bring about a lot of death and carnage, ruin a few economies or even THE economy, throw most nations into chaos, including ours and yet, Jesus just never seems to get to return and set up the one true Taliban/Christian regime where, with a Rod of Iron, oh no, we shall all be beaten into loving every minute of it. How grateful the entire world will be when it forced to become Christian. How much killing do you think that will cause among Christians vying for the positions in the Kingdom of God that they so richly feel they deserve? Wonder how Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism might feel about it? Hmmm, look a lot like today only worse. But no problem as Jesus will have a Rod of Iron to make his point.
In my dear state of South Carolina, there is a movement underway, so they say, of rabid Christians to move here and set up the ideal Christian state. These are the reincarnated spirits of the recently slain Taliban bent on forcing God's great laws upon us. You know, death by stoning to kids who misbehave, death to women who stray, (men get off the hook on that one), death to gays, death to those that refuse to go along, death to ..., well death to everyone who refuses to be happy under Jesus I guess. To date only a few of these sincerely dillusional, self righteous and scary people have moved here, and the leader has yet to move here. I guess he is more of a pusher of people to come here than someone who would lead them. I'm sorry to live in a place where people like this think the people here are just dying, and they might if they don't obey, to reinvent the wheel of shame, guilt and fear based love and compassion. Talk about new wine in old wineskins......pow!
As far as I can tell, Jesus has failed to return 100% of the times I was told that "it won't be long now." It's never long now is it? "Behold I come quickly" as spoken by the cosmic Christ in the Book of Revelation has pretty well proven that "quickly" to Jesus, who said he really didn't know the time he'd be reassigned to planet earth a second time, is rather relative. When I say quickly, it is usually pretty...well...soon after I say it. As time dragged on across the carnage of history when "you can tell Jesus is about to return," quickly evolved to mean that it might be a long time before he returns, but when he does it will be quickly. Duh! That's like saying, "you probably will never get hit by cruise missile, but when you do, it will be quickly. Actually in that context, Jesus is meant to have said "quickly" as in be right back. Of course that was 2000 years ago.
If we don't even wander outside the 20th Century we find 9 MILLION dead in the Russian Civil war of 1917. 15 MILLION dead in WWI and 55 MILLION in WWII. Stalin knocked off 20 MILLION all by himself and Mao knocked off 40 MILLION human beings bringing peace, prosperity and order to the masses. The Congo Free state in Africa disposed of about 8 MILLION at the turn of the century while at the same time, a mere 1 MILLION died the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The Korean war disposed of just under 3 MILLION, Rwanda 1.3 Million, Vietnam 3.5 MILLION, Cambodia another 1.6 MILLION, 1.8 MILLION in Afghanistan, a MILLION more in Iran and Iraq in the '80's. In Sudan, they managed to polish off 1.9 MILLION in the last ten years and in Kinshasa Congo, 3.8 MILLION.
Well I think we get the point. This does not include of course many many more MILLIONS in all the other places on the planet in the past 100 years that have treated each other like vermin to be eradicated in the name of some great leader, no doubt, with a glorious plan, mostly for himself and his friends. We'll have to see about the current Iraq war but don't kid yourself about how many have already died.
An through all this, Jesus must feel it warrants little attention and certainly not worth coming back to end. As someone said, if Jesus hasn't yet returned, what's it going to take? Oh I know some will say, well you see because it will be a time such as has never been seen nor ever will be seen again. Well, for HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS in the past 100 years, and BILLIONS before them, it didn't get any worse for them than it did.
How are sincere, yet misguided Christians always able to motivate others with the "almost time for Jesus to return" line, yet live and die themselves to have others pick up the "behold i come quickly mantra" to keep the masses on their toes? Well, it's easy actually because it is motivated by the hope that certainly Jesus will return in MY life because I am alive now, very sincerely fundamentalist Christian, know my Bible and how it's all going to be, so truly it will come in MY time. Oh and for some real scoundrels, there is a lot of money to be made in keeping this story going.
I always had a problem with the need for Jesus to return to fix up the earth when I was originally told by the Church we all went to heaven, or hell depending, at our individual deaths. If that's the case, then millions have made it, end of topic. But of course we have to deal with many places in the Bible that speak of the coming Kingdom, the Messiah who returns, Jesus who comes quickly and of course, the Four Horsemen of the Puckerlips that visit doom on the inhabitants of the earth. Some how, Earth is special and needs to be restored by the Gods, even though we now know that there are thousands if not billions of earth like planets in all sorts of stages of habitable or inhabitable. The idea that earth, while unique for us, is unique for life or the only place in the universe that counts, is simply wrong. I mean it's a nice place and all, if you can avoid being one of the HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS that get slaughtered by our leaders throughout history not to mention plague and famine.
I personally think the Book of Revelation is undecipherable bunk, written by someone ingesting wild mushrooms and writing about a cosmic Jesus that is unrecognizable from any Jesus of the Gospels, but I spare you. If you wish to control the masses, scare the poop out of them, promote the faith and go after the bad guys, as you see it, that book is for you and your church. Just be warned, some feel it is a modified Jewish writing to fit a Christian agenda and others take it back even further to a cosmic Egyptian document that has evolved into that book that may be the ultimate meme of human miscalculations. I truly believe that a fundamentalist political system can think it is acting out and promoting the events outlined in the Book of Revelation, thinking to provoke some god to send his son back and let the good times roll, and be dead wrong. The dead won't be them however, it will be everyone else,and no Second Coming to boot.
So how might we view the "Jesus has not returned yet" fact of life to date on this planet?
First of all realize that most of the planet is NOT anticipating that event anyway as they are not Christian of any type. I know it's difficult for American's in particular to realize the whole world does not view things as they view them and is not interested in doing so. Most of the planet is not Christian and never will be. All of the Christians are divided and suspicious of each other anyway and have no one set of recognizable beliefs taken from a hard to be understood, pick your interpretation, book we call the Bible. I suspect that there is the same general problem with any people who have a "good book" that causes millions on the planet to fall into the category of unworthy to live, since they don't embrace the book, or don't embrace it with the same rigor that others do.
Secondly realize that the religious Jewish nation, not the secular one, is not looking for a cosmic Jesus either. Those who look are looking for a person who can deliver the nation, not the whole freaking planet. I think they realize that Palestinians and those who embrace Islam will probably not, under any circumstance come to repent and embrace a Jewish leader or leaders of the secular and religious realms. Of course, this is where Fundamentalist Christians say, "well true, and that is why Jesus is coming with a Rod of Iron and why they will try to kill him when he returns" etc... Frankly, any religious solution to the problems of humans getting along and working together for some good is going to have to exclude that Rod of Iron thing. That's just Christian-Isam or Islamic-Christianity, take your pick. Maybe there is is a hint in asking when was the last time Buddhism launched Jihad, genocide or ethnic cleansing upon fellow traveler's on the planet? Hmmm, I realize there are stinkers practicing Buddhism too but that's not what I mean.
Thirdly, maybe the idea of the return of any kind of Messiah or Jesus is just wishful thinking on our terrified of our fellow man part. We all like to think that in a pinch, we'll all be recued somehow by someone but how often does it happen. It did not happen for millions of Jews during WWII and MILLIONS more during the same time. It has not really happened 100% of the time yet and now is all we really have to work with. It would be really scary to think we have to go this alone and work it out among ourselves wouldn't it? I know the Bible says that in the last days will come lustful scoffers who say "where is the promise of his coming?" etc, and I guess that would be me. But where is it??? I mean it was supposed to be "quickly." It was supposed to be during the time of Jesus generation actually as that is what he said, apologetics notwithstanding. The Apostle Paul certainly "knew" he would not die before the Second Coming, even some might. He was going to be alive in this just around the corner time. But as his life wore on and he grew old, he gave up that idea and just concluded that "ok, whatever, I've made whatever it is, see ya." That is what is going to be the final realization of all present day "I just know Jesus is coming soon and we will live to see it," types too.
You learn more when you are wrong than when you are right. Maybe that's how I'll learn about this topic...dunno. Or maybe this his how you will learn about this topic...dunno.
You know, if there was ever a guy who wanted the Bible to be true and for Jesus to return to make Lions and Lambs love each other and get along, it was me. I wanted everyone to stop the killing. Hell, I wanted everyone to just stop being rude! I have a brother who is blind, deaf and cannot speak. We know of each other but we never got to know each other. I read of a time where the deaf would hear, the blind would see and the lame leap as a hart and I wanted a part of that. It's a no brainer that in my youth, 14-22 to be exact, my ideal self took over during the 60's, which if there was ever a time where Jesus was just around the corner, that was it. I found the true church who really understood the whole Bible and joined it. They liked me and said I could teach it, which is what I wanted to do as I believed it with all my heart. It took three decades to beat the mythology out of me. Isn't it usually the other way around? You sow your wild oats when young then realize you are going to die and get religion? I'm always heading into town when everyone else is going home!
Maybe it would be better and "my lord delays his coming" for us to just work it out ourselves. There are many who work for peace on this planet. There are many who strive to preserve the resources, beauty and integrity of the planet. Damn, some in high places, still use the idea of conquer and subdue the earth like some woman to be abused, that we find in Genesis. Hey, if God said to rape the place, then we gotta do it and we may as well make some bucks doing so. Native American's have long noted that everywhere the whiteman, let us say men, touch the earth, it hurts. Maybe "Jesus" would prefer we clean up our own mess and that is why, after having rethought his "quickly" remark, he has not returned.
So while it might be nice to sit around and wait for someone to come and mow my yard, clean my house, paint the garage, pour knowledge into my head with a funnel or just issue instructions that I am to follow or else, which actually I don't think is nice, it's not how life really works. Sometimes, when I read or hear what is going on, maybe be going on, or suspect what I hope is not going on with this planet and those who run it, I wish any god/man who is up, out or in there to show themselves and give us a hand. I don't care if it's Osiris, Mithrus, Shiva and Shakti, Jesus, Buddha or the Father or Mother of All Living. As long as they are verifiably NOT human, what the heck. Oh and they can't be Aliens from another Earth either...purley godlike and benevolent is the criteria. They can't be Democrat or Republican, Jihadist, Islamic, Christian, Hamas, Palestinian or Israeli. They can't be Mulluh's or Televangelists either. Other than that, we just might have to work harder to be kinder, more gentle, less greedy, duplistic and caniving. We are going to need leaders that do not have special interests beyond the average persons wildest comprehension. We can't have leaders who abuse their time leading and leave an average paying job a billionaire along with all their family and friends. We can't have someone person or a few making decisions for the many that will enslave the many for decades to come and we certainly can't have leadership that decides what they want and do not want to hear.
I don't look for any deity to show up "quickly" or soon to bale us out. I can imagine some thinking if they do or that then this deity just has to show up like we read in the Bible. They forget that there was a time when the man Jesus, who did his part, provoked the Romans to arrest him (the Romans killed Jesus, not the Jews. That's Christian propaganda), pushed his idea of a Kingdom of God as far as he humanly could, right up to his execution, was reported to have said, when it was all said and done. "My God, my God, why have your forsaken me," and I know that apologetic too. Jesus deliverer didn't show up either and he felt that deeply. That's how he felt and that's how he died in the story. No deliverance from on High and certainly no idea of what was to follow in his name over the next 2000 years on planet earth, and not in a good way. I believe that for the most part, whoever and whatever Jesus was, AFTER one peels back all the layers added by the Church, he taught precious little of what provokes the kind of hymns like "Onward Christian Soldiers," or the rantings of men like Martin Luther, against the Christ killers and his own hymns of Christian war and dominance. No different from the Islam we vow to never do that to us.
So maybe we should clean our own houses and not just wait to find ourselves knee deep in filth and the roof about about to fall in on us, before we realize neither the maid nor the carpenter is coming today, or even quickly or soon.