Mysteries of the Second Coming

Alternate titles: Radical Second Coming, Second Coming Re-Conceived

The first coming was not what the remnant thought it would be. Why does the second coming have to be what the remnant people are so dead sure it will be? The prophecies were misinterpreted the first time. How can you rule out that the same thing won't happen a second time?

What if Christ comes and, somehow, those who are looking for his coming miss it altogether?

The first time Christ didn't come to free the Jews from Roman bondage, but rather from bondage to sin. What if Christ comes not to Earth, but leaves from Earth? What if Christ has been here living among us for 2,000 years. Then it could be said that he "comes quickly" because he never left us?

When he leaves it will be with those who, mistakenly, have awaited his coming from the skies. The first time he came from the Earth. Why can't he also come from the Earth the second time?

Reinterpret all the prophecies of the last 2,000 years and see how this new way of looking at Christ's second coming fits into the picture.

Disclaimer: This is only meant as a "what if" scenario. I am not suggesting that Christ will not come in the clouds and that every-eye-shall-see-him, will not take place.

The Million-Year Sabbath

As a child I once had a nightmare that all the days of the week were Sabbaths. The Sabbath was not so bad, but it wasn't as fun as, say, Sunday morning. Sundays seemed to last forever.

These days, however, I look forward to the Sabbath and wish that every day was a Sabbath. Yes, there are things I miss doing on the Sabbath, but I'm realizing that they are becoming less and less important.

The only two things that I would miss if the Sabbath were an everyday thing would be working and buying. You can't very well live without those two activities.

During the past four years I have toyed with different names for my interest in a longer Sabbath day. Originally I thought of a conceptual Sabbath which would last from sunset on Friday and not end until Sunday sunrise. The busy nature of living in the material world suggested another approach, the Seven Minute Sabbath which could be observed at any point throughout the week. The Eternal Sabbath was a term for a Sabbath day that never started or ended. It simply was.

Even a good thing has to end sometime so it can begin again. For this reason I've come up with the concept of the million-year Sabbath. The only place we can keep such an impossibly long Sabbath is in the New Earth where, in theory, we wouldn't need to buy or earn a living and no activity would be inappropriate to engage in during the million-year-long Sabbath.

In the meantime enjoy the Sabbath and imagine it's going to last a million years.

The Evolution of God?

My God is not a God of death; he is a God of life. However, since the creators of sophisticated robotic medical equipment are responsible for faulty product if something disastrous should occur, can our God be held liable for the death we see all around us since time began?

Yes, it is true that our God created all things perfect, but since he allows--for a variety of complicated reasons--for things to go on as they do, then, in a way, he has to take responsibility for the imperfections of our otherwise perfect world.

Let's face it, if God wanted to stop all pain and death right now, he could. God's hands are not tied. There must be valid reasons why so many negative realities continue to exist. Let's try to analyze what some of them might be.

Some conservative Christians believe that God allows the controversy between good and evil to continue to protect man's free will. Conservatively speaking, you have to admit that 6,000 years is ample time to show that God offers humankind his way or the other fellow's way.

Progressively speaking, however, we are not talking about 6,000 but millions of years for this cosmic struggle between good and evil to have been resolved.

This brings us to the subject that the title hints at. Does God bring about life, humankind's life specifically, through the death that is essential for natural selection and the survival of the species? It is, after all, only the strong that survive to procreate and pass on their genes to the next generation. How can a God of love possibly be responsible for a system that uses death in order to bring about life and complex organisms?

The Bible account is very simple: God creates all of our reality in six days and rests on the seventh day. For those who have a problem with such simplicity, then the only other option is that God used evolution, and before that--the Big Bang--to create our world and the cosmos. Because this would make God the author of death--and life--such a paradigm is not consistent with a God of love.

The third possibility we will not focus on very much other than to state, for the occasional agnostic who may wander in by chance, that evolution, life, death, etc., have nothing whatsoever to do with God, only with humankind.

So where does that leave us? Perplexed? Frustrated? Despairing? Not at all; there is a fourth explanation. We all think this is all happening to us. This dream called life, death, rebirth. The incredible reality is that we are dreamers twisting and turning--sometimes smiling and laughing--through a long dreamlike state called life and death. One day we will awaken and learn who God really is and why all this death and life and rebirth were necessary.

Until then, look to God and worship him for the hour of his judgment has come.

Mountain-High Christianity and Reality

On my way to prayer meeting last night I claimed my travelling promises. The first was for God's protection. Then I prayed for the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Next I prayed Matthew 6:6 about "seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (by faith) and that God would provide all the other things I needed. Finally, I prayed the prayer of Jabez: "Oh that you would bless me and increase my borders. Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm so that I may be free of pain." And God granted his request.

Usually I turn on the radio, National Public Radio or the classical music station and enjoy the fading light. Last night, however, I started singing hymns but not just cut-and-dry like you sing them in church. I imagined myself a distant descendant of Maria Callas who never sang an aria in concert the same way on any two performances. Each note was lovingly caressed or interpreted. When I felt like inserting a grace note I did. When I wanted to change the key slightly before returning to the familiar key, I went ahead and enjoyed the non-standard approach to singing hymns. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed that first hymn. They were all hymns in Spanish as I was heading to Spanish prayer meeting at my local Adventist church.

It was the first time that I really enjoyed singing hymns as I traveled back to my neck-of-the-woods after having worked my eight hour day. One hymn effortlessly melded into the next and I knew something strange was happening. Singing hymns was what I most wanted to do. It actually produced a pleasant state of awareness. Boredom was the farthest thing from my mind. How easy it was to capture a spiritual high, simply by singing hymns, but singing them with such feeling and awareness.

When I arrived in church I shared my wonderful song fest experience after the officiating elder asked if anyone had a special testimony. Requests for special prayer came and went and I offered my request for difficult neighbors. I, unfortunately, had not thought of whether my neighbors needed God's blessings in spite of their unpleasant behavior. The elder made me realize my one-sided approach to prayer requests. When it came time to pray with my payer partners I remembered my neighbors and asked that God would help them and that he would help me as well as far as the slamming doors and occasional running marathons they seemed to enjoy in the passage just outside my front door. I asked God to take control of the situation and to provide a solution to the noise and bizarre behavior of my young neighbors.

After the evening meditation had come and gone, I was asked to offer the final prayer. Normally, the thought of praying in public, especially in Spanish, unsettles me, but this time I spoke as confidently and as sincerely as I've ever prayed in a long while.

Something was happening that was different from what I normally feel in a prayer meeting or during my ride home. A strange lightness of being, a closeness to God, and something else, a forgetfulness of self, were making themselves felt as never before.

Once home I read the Spirit of Prophecy and just couldn't put it down. When it was finally time to retire, I thanked God for hours of spiritual introspection like nothing I had experienced for many years.

The next day during a staff meeting, something didn't click and I was too facetious with others during the appropriate time in the meeting for informal remarks, but unfortunately my comments were inappropriate and I realized it, but said nothing further in order to save face. The afternoon sun was spilling its cheerfulness on me as I walked to my car and wondered how I could have been so thoughtless to have made such an off-color comment without any premeditation on my part.

Instead of singing more hymns I reached for my electronica CD deep in the glove compartment and let synthesizer rhythms and vague whisperings of "walking on thin ice" transport me to a secularized cinema-like drive home.

What a change from yesterday. How easily a mountain top experience becomes a living-in-the-real world drive home.

Oh well, it was wonderful while it lasted and I look forward to everything falling into place again very soon. Perhaps one day soon I'll sing and pray and read my bible non-stop from morning till evening time and leave everything else behind.

The Gods of the Internet Age

I love reading the Bible, especially the New Testament. However, when I read it I sometimes realize that the only reason I believe in its spiritual realities is because they appear in its pages. Yes, I see a change in my life from when I didn't read the Bible. But it still strikes me as amazing that aside from the Bible there is no accounting for all this talk of God, Christ, and the spiritual life.


Others believe in the realities the Bible speaks of because they heard it from others and were convinced by the account of the people who spoke to them about it.


Of course, other religions, e.g., Hindus, believe their religious tradition because it's mentioned in their religious texts.


The printed word continues to exert influence. Entire movements have begun simply because someone put words on paper.


What kind of movements might yet come into being, not because someone writes about them, but because a computerized program creates that new reality? So many people's lives revolve around the Internet and its labyrinthine realities. What's to stop some of them from choosing a life based on Internet realities?


Welcome to the transcendent worlds and realities of the Internet and their effects on people's lives.

The Best Temptation of All: Eternal Life

The person who is tempted on a daily basis and gives into temptation because it is his daily choice is really not being tempted at all. For the Christian, however, who is tempted from time to time by a specific alluring desire, the concept of temptation is very real.

What's especially difficult to endure is when temptation comes when least expected. Sometimes a Christian does not go looking for temptation; it comes to him or her. At the time the temptation comes the shock value of being tempted by a specific allurement may leave the Christian unprepared. Only through a merciful turn of events can the temptation be sidestepped until there is time to pray and fortify oneself with the word of God.

Perhaps one is tempted to think that one's faith experience is false since temptation almost got one where it would have hurt the most. However, the best solution is to chalk it up to the mysteries of the Christian life and not decide that one's desire to follow Christ is somehow not sincere. Temptations come and go. We need to live through them and not get discouraged.

It also is unrealistic to live in fear of temptation and to lock yourself in your home so as never to be tempted. Christians are not called to be hermits. Of course, depending on your particular set of temptations, you may have to change your daily routine. But, again, don't live in constant fear of running into an old friend, or of accidentally finding yourself in the chocolate aisle at the supermarket when you had purposely avoided that aisle so as not to be tempted with your old chocolate addiction.

Remember that no temptation is worth giving up the hope of eternal life.

The phrase "the best temptation of all" was coined by Richard Baskin in "Welcome to L.A."

Does the Bible lead many astray?

Herold Weiss: The Bible has led many astray.

Ouch! Some things are better thought but not actually written out. The examples you mention are tragedies. To fault the Bible for causing those tragedies seems to express a negative opinion of the Word of God. People lead themselves astray. The Bible is a book of life, and specifically the New Life in Jesus. Your words make it seem more like a book of death. And that sounds very ugly.

While I found your reflections on the Sabbath School lesson challenging, ultimately, I received very little spiritual blessing from your words.

With so many things wrong with the Bible, as you express them, one would wonder why bother reading it at all.

In spite of the problems with the Bible and with its track record of leading "many astray" I intend to continue reading my Bible. I pray it won't lead me astray. In fact, I have found that since I've been reading it during the past four years--in spite of some ugly passages about genocidal massacres and lakes of fire--the effect it has had on my life is far from leading me toward the dark side. Instead, it has lead me toward the light. And for that I am grateful. Peace.

Deep (Invisible) Web & Search Engines

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Living with Jesus

Simple words? Perhaps they are for those who have long enjoyed the experience of focusing on Jesus and not on anyone else or on anything else. However, for most people living with Jesus is either not attractive or if it is something to be desired, it is not as easy as simply saying the words three magical times.

We can only live for or with Jesus if he comes to us and makes his home with us. Day after day I find myself asking him to come and live inside me. I think that's what I want although I'm not sure if once he comes and stays with me, I'll realize it or even if I will find that it's what I thought his constant presence would be like.

The nicest compliment anyone could ever give me would be to say that I reminded them of Christ. I'm not sure I could handle such a compliment. I have a hard enough time handling compliments of any kind. That one in particular would probably break any Christ connection I may someday have.

Now that I think about Christ-like people I've met, my mind comes to one particular pastor who was the kindest and most devout person I ever met. I would mention his name, but I think it best not to do so in case he's reading this and by my stating such an opinion it would either send him to his knees or would sever the Christ connection for a bit until he confessed his sin of spiritual pride.

Perhaps it is better not to think so much about whether or not one is Christlike. Better to think how unChristlike one has been and how we are in dire need of his transforming grace to make us not self-conscious about our Christlikeness, but obsessed with Christ and fellowship with him.

Suddenly I think of Christ on Earth and what he thought of himself. Did he consciously think about wanting to become more Godlike? Did he see God in himself? Did others tell him that he was the most Godlike person they had ever met? I think not. Jesus was probably not self conscious about things like that. He might have lived his life as naturally and as unself-consciously as we live our lives. For him to have lived it otherwise is unrealistic. Jesus was as sane as you or I. He didn't think more of himself than he had to. We should do the same.

(I wonder if the Adventist Review would be interested in an article like this one? It sounds so safe and non-controversial. I've often wanted to write an article for the Review, but I can never quite leave out controversial bits and pieces. Now that I've proofed it I realize that I'm probably incapable of writing an article that would fit the mold. So much for my passing desire to write for the Adventist Review.)

Christianity is mystical, by nature

Other words instead of mystical might be transcendent, otherworldly, mysterious. Ellen White used the word mystic* to describe the ladder in Jacob's dream that reached from Earth to heaven. I feel comfortable then, using a word that some traditional folk might not like to use about Christianity.


What I mean is that it takes a lot to believe in all these non-tactile realities and historical occurrences. Rationally speaking it makes no sense. But reason is not always the most important reality in the world; or it need not be.


This dawned on me as I drove home in a cool afternoon without any cares in the world. This was in spite of the fact that I had just spent $900 to have new wheels put on my car and other automobile expenses. Where was I going to get that money to pay down the credit card bill? I didn't care. I would let God take care of that essential expense. Worrying about it was not going to pay it off any faster. God knows I had to have those tires and the other parts that were defective. He knows, also, that I need to find the funds to pay off this negative cash flow expense.


Back home, I spent what I thought was going to be only 30 minutes reading about the Christian life, but I got so engrossed in the experience that when I looked at the clock, almost two hours had come and gone. I wanted to continue reading more of Steps to Christ, but I realized that I had other things to do before Sunday became Monday morning.


I had been invited to a Christmas party--the only one this year so far. I was unsure of whether to go as there was going to be alcoholic drinks there and other non-Christian influences that may or may not turn out to be deleterious to my experience. I prayed about it and decided that that was one party that I was better off not attending. Now, it might have turned out just fine, but I felt moved not to take a chance. Instead I spent the afternoon reading and meditating about God's amazing grace. That defies reason in most people's minds. I does in mine.


There's no other explanation other than that Christianity is mystical. How else to account for spending good quality time on a Sunday afternoon reading Steps to Christ when so many other things beckoned?


* mysterious: having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding; ". . . someone who believes in the existence of realities beyond human comprehension wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn