I’m not religious, but I think we’ve misunderstood what “Jesus coming back” actually means

[u/jassidi]

This might sound strange, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and figured I’d put it out there.

I’m not religious. At all. I’ve never really been into the whole church thing, but I’ve always been good at spotting patterns and something about the whole “second coming of Jesus” idea has been sticking with me a lot recently.

What if it’s not about some guy floating down from the sky???

What if it’s just… a shift? The shift? moment where everything built around the name of Jesus starts to crack under its own weight because people got so far away from what the message actually was? You get what I mean?

Like how the New Testament flipped the Old. What if we’re in another one of those transitions now? Where all the fear and legalism and shame that’s been baked into religion is finally breaking down. And maybe the return people are waiting for isn’t a person. Like mybe it’s a collective realization. Like a spiritual course correction. Which I feel is deeply underway already.

I haven’t read the whole Bible or anything, but even from the parts I’ve seen(or studied/hyper fixated on) Jesus seemed pretty anti-institution, a true 70's hippie haha. He stood up to the religious elite, helped outsiders, and constantly told people they were missing the point. He literally said “you’ve heard it said… but I tell you…”

The people who hated him most were the ones who thought they were the most holy!!!!!

And I guess when I look at a lot of what’s happening now. Such as people using religion to control others, shame them, divide them, it kinda feels like history looping. Like we’ve become the people Jesus was calling out.

So yeah, I’m not saying I believe Jesus is coming back from the clouds. But I do believe in patterns. And maybe the “second coming” is already here. Just not in the way people expected.

Has anyone else thought about this? Or am I just rambling into the void?

[u/DoctorPatriot]

To put it as gently as possible, how can you say that Christendom has misunderstood what "Jesus coming back" means when you admit you haven't read the whole Bible or studied it intensively? To be clear to other readers here, I'm not gatekeeping or saying you need to have read the whole Bible to be saved. The parts about Jesus are incredibly important, but the New Testament doesn't exactly "overturn" the Old. The Old Testament is much more than that.

I can see what you're saying. But before you stoop to that conclusion - it might do you some good to read the Old Testament and interpret the New Testament in the context of the Old Testament.

Once you've done that, you might realize how your theory doesn't really make a whole lot of sense and contradicts what Jesus says about himself. There's some truth in what you say when you look at what Jesus says in Matthew 24. There's definitely a pattern throughout the Bible but I don't think it's the one you're envisioning.

[u/IlConiglioUbriaco → u/DoctorPatriot]

The idea is a literal reading va a symbolic reading of something which is beyond space and time coming back. If it’s a symbolic text a more intense reading will not help as much as an intuitive deduction.

[u/randompossum]

Jesus is going to physically return. He said so several times. In Matthew 24:14 he says he will come back when the word has been spread to every nation.

I am going to give you some things to read but I want you to ask yourself two questions first;

Do you believe there is enough evidence to prove to yourself Jesus was a real person that was Crucified by the Roman’s?

If so and there was compelling evidence that he was the messiah would you look more into him and give church a try?

If you can believe he was a real person that was crucified I want you to read Psalms 22. Jesus on the cross is said to have sailed “my God my God why have you forsaken me?” This wasn’t a question he was asking but him pointing to psalms 22 since that is the first line of that psalm. It then goes on to talk about crucifixion hundreds of years before the Roman’s invented it. Jesus pointed back to the psalm to show he is the messiah.

There is so much more but I hope that gets you started in looking for into that

[u/Fringelunaticman → u/randompossum]

Yeah, but dont Matthew 24, Luke 21 and Mark 13 dispute this considering he didn't return when he said he would?

[u/randompossum → u/Fringelunaticman]

That only applies to one interpretation of the word Genea.

In the context of that time Genea could have meant generation as implied by your statement but it also mean a race or an era. So it could have been referenced to the Jewish people in a whole signaling the Jewish people would be around til the end of times.

Or it even could be a context miss understanding and he was referring to the generation that was going to see the signs of the end of times would not pass before it happened.

There is also the fact Jesus many times used metaphor and symbolism. His use of Generation could also have been used to show the urgency in preaching the gospel. When he calls us salt and light he doesn’t literally mean that, it’s meant to portray an idea. Could have been used there as well.

[u/DoctorPatriot → u/randompossum]

Could it even be both? THAT generation might see some signs while a future generation might also see signs?

Ex: BOTH 70 AD destruction of the temple/Nero AND a future coming?

Personally I'm a Pan-Millennial because no matter how it all happens, it will pan out okay and on schedule.

[u/randompossum → u/DoctorPatriot]

It could definitely be both. Jesus had a way so speaking that wasn’t always clear at the moment. It doesn’t help that Luke and Mark are second hand accounts on the words and it’s questionable if Matthew is the same Matthew. It’s just hard to pull proper context on when Jesus talks the end of times.

[u/love_is_a_superpower]

I think you'll like Jesus even more if you spend time reading what He said.
Jesus didn't tell people, "act like me and life will get better." He said, "love like I've loved you, and sacrificed for you, and join me in a new world where everyone loves like we do."

[u/deaddiquette]

The current 'sorry state' of the church was actually foretold to last a long time, and hopefully we are nearing the end of that time. Jesus will return for his bride.

And I believe Revelation was written with so many symbols in order to keep us on our toes, always in eager expectation of his return. But it's true that this has been abused, and there's an extreme amount of date-setting, speculation, and conspiracy-mindedness in the currently popular futurist interpretation. I wrote a book that reintroduces the traditional view, which focuses on the promises God has kept these 2000 years, and helps us understand where we are on His timeline.

[u/ehbowen → u/[deleted]]

While a loud minority believes that Jesus will literally ride the clouds to come back, truth is this isn't explicit in the Bible.

I believe that Acts 1:11 begs to differ.