This is not an anti-Christian thread, but a debate on how long Christiananity can go on without the return of Christ.
Christians worship and live their life with the belief that Christ will return one day. It’s been 2000 years since his death, and the religion is going strong.
2000 yearsis a long time. How long can it go on before a significant amout of otherwise Christians say “You know what? He ain’t coming back”.??
What about 1000 years from now? 5,000? 10,000?
Christiananity is a huge religion. At what point in human history will it be almost non existant? How long will it take before almost nobody believes in the second coming.
Well, first of all, I think there are Christians who don’t believe in the second coming, but putting that aside it seems to me that you can always say, and people will say, “Well, Jesus hasn’t come yet, but he will someday.” I mean, people have already been saying that for 2000 years. Why would that change?
The mythological concepts of Christianity will still be valid 1000, 5000, even 10000 years from now. It doesn’t matter whether the Christ will physically return or not.
What “Christians” don’t believe in the second coming? That’s the main staple of being Christian is believing Christ was Lord and he shall return. Hayduke is saying, when will the “Jesus hasn’t come yet, but he will someday” explination be unbelievable? He’s been dead for 2000 years. How many will still accept the second coming story after he’s been dead for 5K? “Will time erode the faith”? is what I believe he’s asking, and I believe it’s a good question.
My own personal belief is, the religion will endure until A) Christ shows up, or B) All human life on Earth ends.
Judaism has been around even longer, as have Hinduism and Buddhism. Christianity will be around for a long time, I suspect.
That’s not to say that specificchristian sects will continue. Catholicism has huge numbers so it’ll probably be around for some time. The same can be said for the mainstream Protestant religions. Some of the more extreme ones might not last.
One thing to consider: How much will scientific advancement affect people’s belief in a creator? How much has it already? I suspect there will always be people who believe in a deity and regard physical laws as simply the devices by which the world works, but not the reason for existence.
I agree with this. My take on it is slighty different, though. Eventually there will be a time when the major Christian institutions will realize that the literal truth of their respective doctrines is not as important as the underyling metaphors behind it (I think this is starting to happen now). When this happens, it will no longer matter whether the second coming will occur, or whether the evolutionary theory clashes creationism, or even whether the bible is historical truth. As long as the metaphorical/mythological concepts ring true in the human psyche (resurrection, virgin birth, messiah, martyrdom, persectution, apocolypse), Christianity (hopefully updated and revised in timely fashion) will survive for a very long time.
So far, there have been several reactions. The most common seems to be using the laws as examples of the perfection of a creation that could become such without intervention, just by starting it. That is becoming more common, or at least I thought it was.
Then there is the explaining away these laws as going against the religion, and false, and trying to explain it away. This is continuing to remain, and I see it never really going away. Much as I’d like it too.
I hope more and more people are choosing the former, but the recent events make me wonder…
I suspect that the distant future will be somewhat like Dune. Not that we’ll find drugs that let us see through time, but that our current religions will mutate and evolve into new forms.
Christianity today is extremely dissimilar to the early Church. In another 2000 years, it’ll probably be utterly different from what it is today.
Just for the record, Eucharistic Prayer B in the Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer is based on the Apostolic Liturgy of Hippolytus, c. 110 AD, and in use in various communions ever since. The pertinent line from it is:
For us, the last 2000 years have been “these last days” and we don’t much care whether they last another 2000 years, ten years, or two days – our job is to be doing His will until He returns.
People have believed Jesus will return to earth in their lifetime for 2000 years now…think about it. How do the fundies explain this one? Just curious.
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
wow, this makes twice in a week that I have openly agreed with Polycarp on a religious item. Maybe the end really is near!
God will do things in God’s time and on God’s schedule, not ours. And it makes no difference at all in my faith whether Jesus’s return is tomorrow, or in another 12,000 years. The only material things that really, really matter are a) that he really lived, b) that he really died, c) that he really rose, and d) that he’s really coming back - regardless of when it happens.
And I agree with Joe_Cool, so the Apocalypse must be near! I don’t agree, of course, that with his belief in the reality of Jesus, but I do agree that the reality of Jesus is all that matters. That is, what matters is one’s belief. If one has faith in the divinity of Jesus and His eventual return to judge the living and the dead, then the amount of time lapsed since His (supposed) Resurrection is immaterial.
Christianity, like Buddhism and Judaism, will endure for millennia to come.
For us, the last 2000 years have been “these last days” and we don’t much care whether they last another 2000 years, ten years, or two days – our job is to be doing His will until He returns.
Adventism is for the impatient. **
And both Joe_Cool and Gobear agree with him!
And in all honesty, I agree with the three of them.
Don’t forget that nobody has been waiting for 2000 years. It’s a brand new experience for each individual christian…A 20, or 40 or 60 years long experience, nothing more. How long it has been since the death of Christ is irrelevant. 2000 years is anyway much more than we can understand. It could be as well 5000 years or 15 000 years, it would be the same.
Also, there are plenty of christians who don’t wait at all for Christ’s second coming. They assume he won’t come back during their lifetime, anyway, and don’t really think about it. They expect to live, die, and go (hopefully) to heaven. I know christians are supposed not to be caught off guard, and warned about it in the gospels, but anyway a sudden death or the sudden return of Christ doesn’t make any difference ultimately.
I know some church stress a lot the second coming and their members can well be awaitng it and expecting to see it during their lifetime (some are even certain , for some reason, that it will happen during their lifetime), but it’s not necessarily true for all christians.
As an aside, I have the pleasant belief that christiannism will die out (or more exactly will become irrelevant and marginal) in a not too remote future, but certainly not because christians will feel they’ve been waiting for too long…
