by Charles Kluepfel
10/13/. Where Is He?
Biblical non-prophesies
Jesus is way overdue.
Did he lie about his return?
... Or did he get waylaid by the Devil?
Summary
- According to the Bible, Jesus said he'd be returning within the lifetimes of some of his own listeners. He didn't return.
- Biblicists pride themselves as to how the Bible is so harmoniously consistent, and how the New Testament fulfills Old Testament prophecies. One of these prophecies is claimed to be that the savior would be "three days and three nights" before rising again. Late Friday afternoon to early Sunday morning is not "three days and three nights."
- According to the Bible, Jesus said he'd be returning within the lifetimes of some of his own listeners. He didn't return.
Jesus is purported to have said:
Mat 16:27 "For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.
Mat 16:28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."
But, now, where is he?
Almost two thousand years have passed. The most sensible interpretation is that either Jesus was misquoted, or he was wrong. My Baptist neighbor across the street says that the second sentence above is taken out of context — that the correct context is not with the preceding verse, concerning the second coming, but with the beginning of the following chapter, concerning the Transfiguration. Let's look at the five verses together (they follow in sequence, as verse 28 is the last verse of chapter 16):
Mat 16:27 "For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.
Mat 16:28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."
Mat 17:1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves.
Mat 17:2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.
Mat 17:3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.
My neighbor says that the prophesy in verse 28 is fulfilled in the very next verse. That, while Matt 16:27 refers to the second coming, Matt 16:28 - 17:3 refer to the Transfiguration. However, first from a literary point of view, we are expected to tie the verse in question across a chapter boundary in lieu of a statement within the same set of quotation marks, in this "divinely inspired" piece of writing. Secondly, who would ever, in describing something that will take place within a week, say that it is so near at hand that some of the listeners will still be alive when it happens? Furthermore, the "Truly I tell you" is a modifier clearly designed to intensify the preceding sentence.
It is reiterated in
Mat 24:27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Mat 24:28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
Mat 24:29 "Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken.
Mat 24:30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see 'the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven' with power and great glory.
Mat 24:31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Mat 24:32 "From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.
Mat 24:33 So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.
Mat 24:34 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.
The "quotation" could be the incorporation of some wishful thinking on the part of early Christians, or wishful thinking on Jesus's part. It is certainly known that the early Christians thought that the second coming would occur before all the original Christians had died; they were certainly misled by the "inspired" scripture. If they were merely wrong in their interpretation, how can we know when any given interpretation is right? Actually, in all likelihood, saying that the early Christians were misled by the Gospel quotations from Jesus is a little like putting the cart before the horse. The Gospels were written many years after Jesus's death, and do not represent a transcription of dictation given by Jesus, but rather the embodiment of the faith already present among Christians, perhaps inspired by Paul, who, writing to the Corinthians, describes himself and his readers as belonging to the generation of the end of the world (the King James version has "world" where the New Revised Standard version, quoted here, has "ages"):
1 Cor 10:11 These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come.
In the following, Paul urges his readers to live as if the end is going to happen, not only within their lifetimes, but a small fraction of a lifetime away, and, being after Jesus's death, certainly has nothing to do with waiting for the Transfiguration:
1 Cor 7:29 I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none,
1 Cor 7:30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions,
1 Cor 7:31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.
so that in fact, these words attributed to Jesus are a statement of that line of tradition (faith) that already said that the second coming was imminent, and some could expect to see it. (The Pauline letters were written before the Gospels.) So in this case it is not Jesus who was wrong, but Christianity. A good 80 generations has passed, so even if the Second Coming were to happen tomorrow, only 1/81 of the generations following Paul's advice in 1 Cor 7:29-31 on living one's life with an eye toward the "end" would have been following good advice.
If we would like to speculate in the manner of the Bible fundamentalists, we could say that Jesus died and went off to conquer Satan, planning to return upon completion of his supernatural mission, but that Satan won, so that Jesus couldn't make good on his promise to come back.
I think we just ought to attribute the saying to Messianic hopes, that have always sprung eternal, but never lead to fruition. Every so often a different cult will come up with a new date for the second coming / end of the world. Just as often, such hopes lead to a let-down.
How Long Was He Dead?
Mat 12:40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth.
Note that Friday afternoon to Sunday morning is much less than "three days and three nights." If you think otherwise, I'm sure I can get a good fee from a hotel for directing you there so that they may charge you for three nights during such a stay.
Is this a big deal? Of what spiritual significance is the number of nights involved? It illustrates the evangelists' propensity to weave their tales to fit Old-Testament prophesy, just as the evangelists weaved a birth in Bethlehem in order to fulfill Old-Testament prophesy.
If we are to believe in the Church because of Jesus, what sort of commendation can we see in these stories?
Will We Be Resurrected?
While the Church teaches us that Jesus rose from the dead, and in so doing, allows us also to live forever, after we become resurrected also, the Bible, upon which Church teaching is supposedly based, and whose books were placed in the Canon of scriptures by the early Church fathers, tells us:
Isa 26:14 The dead do not live; shades do not rise-- because you have punished and destroyed them, and wiped out all memory of them.
Eccl 3:19 For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity.
Eccl 3:20 All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Eccl 3:21 Who knows whether the human spirit goes upward and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth?
Was Jesus Unique?
I quote from Dennis McKinsey's Encyclopedia of Biblical Errancy:
Christians refer to the following as mythological figures: Hercules, Osiris, Bacchus, Mithra, Hermes, Prometheus, Perseus, and Horus. According to comments by Patrick Campbell on page 41 of The Mythical Jesus, all are pre-Christian sun gods and yet all allegedly had gods for fathers and virgins for mothers; had their births announced by stars and celestial music; were born on the solstice around December 25th; had tyrants who tried to kill them in their infancy; met with violent deaths; and rose from the dead. Moreover, nearly all were worshipped by "wise men" and were alleged to have fasted forty days.
Take this together with the switch of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday to accommodate the followers of Mithra, and we see that "there is nothing new under the Sun," at least in this area of mythology.
