Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: smaanian@swift.cs.tcd.ie Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: The second coming Message-ID: Date: 14 Mar 91 08:38:11 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Computer Science Department, Trinity College Dublin Lines: 54 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , billy@tcom.stc.co.uk ( Billy Khan) writes: > > Re : Being open minded. > > I don't think Jesus' coming will be like the first somehow. Jesus > already won the victory two thousand years ago, there is no need to do > so again. Jesus' next coming will mark the 'end of the world'. Meanwhile, > lets pary that the 'end times' are delayed, there is still much work > to be done! > > > Drew. I agree with you. I feel we must not take the words in the Gospel literary but we must try to find what they symbolize. The people believing in Moses they didn't accept Christ because He didn't come as Kings of Kings. But Jesus was a King in the Spiritual Realm. Why God sent His prophets? Why God sent Jesus? Why God will send Prophets? One answer is that God sends Them to guide us to the salvation of our souls. There is an ever advancing civilization, so the needs of mankind are changing from age to age. When Moses came He spoke about laws in society: tooth to tooth etc. The people at that time didn't had the capacity to understand more. But when Jesus came He spoke about love and how to develop the life of an indivi- dual. He said that the people were not ready to understand all that he wanted to say and the Sun of Truth will come to guide them. And when the apostles ask Him how they'll regognize Him, when He will come again He said that from the fruit you understand the Tree. So I think that the second coming doesn't speak about Christ coming in the same form as 2000 years ago. The reason is that we were created to know and worship God. For our soul to progress we have to pass through tests. If Jesus will come on the clouds, as it is literary stated in the Gospel, do you think any human being is going to doubt His Dominion? No never. But this not the purpose underlying the creation of Man. Man has to find God for himself. Otherwise all this suffering would be useless if at the end so evidently is going to show His power. The clouds I feel have more meanings than the physical one. If we take Christ as sun, we could say that at His second coming His physical body will be like the clouds which prevent us from seeing His true Reality. The Sun is His Spiritual existence and the clouds is His physical reality. So people will not believe in Him because the clouds (physical body) will prevent them from seeing His inner reality (the sun). So there is no need for Jesus to come in the same form as 2000 years ago, because anyway there is no evidence how he looked like. We only have paintings. We will recognize him only by His teachings and actions and His life and here comes what He said that you recognize the Tree from its fruits. Lets not forget that He mentions that He will come as a thief in the night. One meaning of that could be that when He will come people will not recogni- ze Him. So maybe He has already come. Socrates Maanian [smaanian@cs.tcd.ie]