With the cream of the Pounders having joined us here, I’d be most interested in seeing what, exactly, people think about the eschatological doctrines…the Great Tribulation, the Second Coming, the Millennium, and all that jazz.
Suggestion: if you are a non-Christian, while your opinion is welcome, it’s pretty obvious that you don’t expect anything of the sort. I would as much hate for this thread to get bogged down in a series of atheist and Jew posts that “ain’t nothin’ gonna happen” as I would to see one of the reasoned metaphysical threads (e.g., the two Atheist (Non)Religion threads) get submerged in a series of Bible quotes. Fair?
This is little more than my personal opinion, but if any of that apocalyptic, endtime stuff is going to happen, my bet is that it isn’t going to happen very soon.
Of course, nearly three decades of off-and-on listening to people who thought the Tribulation was imminent have somewhat prejudiced me on this score. They’ve cried ‘trib’ a few zillion times, but there’s no trib. Admittedly, the next bunch could have it right, but I doubt it.
I expect to have the opportunity to say the same thing in 2025, only with ‘three decades’ upgraded to ‘five and a half decades’. See you then!
So are you looking for pre, post, or during trib opinions? Or all of them? Personally, I have no real opinion formed. Haven’t done enough research for myself.
Not specifically, Lauralee…just what people think abot the entire idea that at some future point in history God intervenes in a practical, objective manner.
I may as well put in my ten cents.
Back in the first century BC, if you had asked the Jew in the street, you would have gotten one of three answers:
[ul][li]There will arise a wise warrior prince of David’s line who will overcome those pesky Herodians and Romans in battle and establish God’s kingdom here on earth.[]The “messiah” idea is a metaphor for the Jewish people, who are to be the vehicle for bringing God’s salvation to themselves and the rest of the world by right behavior.[]It’s all legend; if anything happens, it won’t be an event in time, but in the afterlife.[/ul][/li]Nobody, AFAIK, had any concept that involved God becoming incarnate and dying to save his people.
Me, I’m becoming more and more convinced that the Second Coming is going to be like the First: an actual event that gives people a choice to believe or not, and which meets every Scriptural prophecy, but which is nothing like anything that people have conceived.
Poly, that’s the most interesting thought I’ve heard about the Second Coming (other than Gaudere’s delightfully off-color comment on another thread, of course). After having been bored with the very thought of end-time stuff for 25 years, it’s good to have a sliver of a reason not to be.
Committing paronomasia on a public bulletin board! What are things coming to?
Nav, thanks for the link. I’d completely forgotten about the Essene approach and the coming-on-the-clouds-of-glory-the-First-time concepts. It’s been quite a while since I did any serious historical/theological studies, sorry!
Gaudere, climb back up in your bunk, and don’t let David bother you; he’s only the Moderator (though sometimes he seems like an Extremerator! ;))
I have always thought of it much like Polycarp eloquently posted. I honestly don’t spend alot of time trying to figure it out, though. I figure if we’re not supposed to know when, how, what, or even exactly why all this is gonna happen (except for some cryptic hints), it’s a pointless exercize. Besides, thinking makes my head hurt.
The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik
