Are There Signs Jesus is Coming Back?

Jesus riding home

When times get rough, religious folks look to the heavens for the return of Jesus.  Yes, that’s the answer to everything.  True believers rewarded; sinners punished forever.

Nothing like a pacifist god to rain down destruction.

How are we to know when Jesus will return?  You can’t trust prophets.  They have been wrong for almost 2,000 years.  You can almost pick a year and find someone has predicted that’s when Jesus will return to destroy the world.

Fortunately, if you go on line, you will find the “signs” to pinpoint Jesus’ ETA.  Let’s look at them so we can be sure to be ready.

Warts are constant.

War 

People have been at war since humans first clustered together for safety.  That’s our nature: hate strangers and try to kill them.  The U.S., for one, has had only a few years of peace in its entire history.

It’s a good bet wars will continue in the future. So, this is one prediction that can’t go wrong, although Jesus seems indifferent to who is killing who, when, where or how.

Drought and Famine

We probably shouldn’t rely too much on this one.  Famine has been a world problem first because of logistics and now because of politics.  Drought is a way of life for many people, just as floods are for others.  Jesus has ignored all of them in the past anyway.

Earthquakes and other Catastrophes

Earthquake damage

Wow.  This is much more difficult than I thought.  After all, meteorites have hit the Earth and caused most life to go extinct, most notably dinosaurs.  Earthquakes continue because the tectonic plates keep colliding.  Just ask the folks in Haiti about the damage they can cause without a heavenly sighting. 

So far, none of that has roused Jesus to saddle up.

Diseases and Epidemics

Let’s see, we endured the Black Death and the loss of estimated 30 to 60 percent of Europeans without Jesus being motivated.  The HIV epidemic has been going on since at least the 1970s.  And SARS, Legionnaire’s Disease and many more. Still, those darn doctors who keep coming up with cures are probably the reason Jesus hasn’t punched his return ticket yet. They cured polio, smallpox and even swine flu. A vaccine against the current corona virus is in the works. It’s their fault Jesus hasn't used his return ticket.

Rise of an Islamic Power

Despite wild ranting, the Bible makes no claim that another religion will challenge Christianity.  In fact, when the New Testament was written, Christianity was a minor player in a sea of paganism.  Nevertheless, the anti-Islamic argument is made based on Daniel, where the “king of the South shall attack … and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through …”
 

Good luck seeing Islam in that.  Is anyone fighting with chariots these days?

Not that it matters.  Somehow, though, Jesus was patient despite the reality of Islam creating a huge empire in the 7^th and 8^th centuries.  The terrorists of today represent only a minor percentage of the faith.  The real terrorists are the folks in this country with easy access to automatics weapons and who are killing children.

EU

European Union Seeking World Dominance

This is really dumb.  The claim is based on a comment in Revelation about 10 nations controlling things.  Just for starters, the EU has 28 members and has a terrible time having any control in those countries.  England has voted to leave the union; several other members are basically bankrupt.

The EU isn’t hoping to monopolize anything, just trying to equalize trade and travel.

A False Prophet Leading a Religious Revival

Since all prophets are false, this one is easy.  However, religious revivals in this country took place in the mid-1700 and 1800s without Jesus showing even the slightest interest. 

There’s a debate whether the false prophet will be male or female.  Whoever better hurry. Statistically, a large chunk of people are moving away from religion, possibly because of nonsense claims like this.

The Gospel Will be Preached Worldwide

That’s happening now, which may explain why so many people are deserting the church.  After all, inundating people with religion has never been shown to be much of a lure to Jesus.  Christianity was extraordinarily dominant in Europe from about the 5^th century into modern times without Jesus stepping down from heaven.

Martyrdom

Jerusalem today

There are martyrs these days: to political ideals for one, such as in restrictive countries like China or North Korea.  However, even the blasphemy laws that once were used like weapons have been forgotten.  There are an estimated 4,600 religions.  You would be hard pressed to find anyone killed these days solely because of belief in any of them.

In the recent past, Jesus apparently stayed home despite the carnage in Cambodia, Rwanda and Germany, to name the most prominent, recent  atrocities.

A Crisis in Jerusalem

That poor city has been the target of so many predictions. Perhaps the only major city not founded near a river or other significant source of water, the Israeli capital has become a religious center after it was rediscovered in the 1800s.  Before that, it was largely ignored once the Crusades ended. 

The truth is, it’s just another city.  It also has its share of traumas.  However, when President Donald Trump allowed the American embassy to move there from Tel Aviv, supposedly an earth-shattering event, opponents merely yawned.  Jesus apparently wasn’t impressed either.

Will there be problems there?  Absolutely, as there will at many cities throughout the world.  That’s reality– lots of bad things can happen in cities.

The Abomination of Desolation

Historically, when the Roman Emperor Caligula ordered his statue placed in the Jewish Temple, the move was labeled the Abomination of Desolation by Jews upset by the profaning of their sacred building.  The statue never went there: the Roman governor delayed so long that Caligula was assassinated.

Nevertheless, fundamentalists have latched onto the phrase as if it refers to the desolation of Jerusalem.  Just a thought: if Jerusalem is ever desolated, we will have a lot more to concern ourselves than an imaginary deity coming down to Earth.

Goodbye St. Lucia

The Collapse of English-Speaking Nations

This is an odd sign since English was unknown in biblical times.  That requires interpreters to take some phrase in the Bible and assign it to countries, like the United States, which sits on a continent unknown for centuries after the Bible was written.

Besides, there are only 18 English-speaking nations among the 195 countries of the world.  Of those, only four – Australia, Canada, United States and United Kingdom – have any size.   

Others like Belize, Bermuda, Grenada, Guyana, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago could vanish overnight without creating much of a ripple in the world fabric.

Jesus isn’t likely to care either, although the residents of those lands would naturally be upset.

Meteor

Heavenly Signs

What could that be? A meteor? They happen all the time.  Exploding stars? Novae.  Monstrous entities that’s wallow everything in their path? Black holes. 

Humans have watched the heavens for millennia in hopes of detecting God’s imprint.  It’s called astrology and has long been discredited.  

Astronomers have already been able to work out much of the reality of the universe, from its first moments and to its last when energy finally dissipates.  We will be long gone by then.

Jesus, too.

Seven Last Plagues

I recall one scholar looking over the 10 plagues that supposedly freed the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.  He said, “Anyone who knows Egypt realizes that 10 plagues is a very small number.  They have a lot more than that normally.”

This last plague claim arises from the outlandish statements in the Book of Revelation.  We don’t have to worry about it.  There’s no reason for extra plagues when the world is already best by Climate Change, super storms, increased flooding and irrational fundamentalists insisting Jesus will return.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history with an occasional foray into American culture.  He holds an ABD in American Studies from Case Western Reserve University.   He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  He is the author of the recently published novel The Great Seer Nostradamus Tells All as well as a variety of nonfiction books, including The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative Religion.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

Bible Won't Fill Empty Pews

A recent Facebook post insisted that people upset about fake news should read the Bible instead.  Bad idea.  Not only has modern research undermined any biblical claim to historical accuracy, but an increasing number of Americans aren’t interested anyway.

A recently published Gallup poll found that about 50 percent of Americans no longer belong to any religious institution.  The statistics reveal a strong movement away from organized faith.  Back in the late 1900s, about 90 percent of Americans belonged to some kind of church or synagogue.  That number has declined to 78 percent by 2018.

The numbers are skewed by age: older people still attend church; younger people do not.

In another generation, if the trend continues, many institutions might as well lock their door.

Churches emptying

Catholics are the biggest losers.  Disgusted with the continual sex abuse scandals and limited institutional response, Catholics are deserting the Church in droves, with membership falling from 76 percent to 63 percent.  Again, the older generation is keeping the membership lists artificially high.  Young people are divorcing themselves from the faith of their parents in astonishing numbers.

Suggesting that they turn to the Bible obviously won’t stem that tide.  Not when the findings of thousands of religious historians starting in the 1700s have underlined cherished beliefs.

Schweitzer

By the way, the scholars didn’t get into the field to disprove anything.  Many were drawn by their faith to find supporting evidence.  One prime example is Dr. Albert Schweitzer. A world-renowned humanitarian, minister and organist, he also wrote the best-known comprehensive look into the life of Jesus, titled Quest for the Historical Jesus.

Nothing, he wrote, “could be more disappointing” than finding how little factual history actually exists.  That didn’t undermine his beliefs.  Instead, he focused on philosophy rather than historical facts.

Young people today, brought up to take tests that demand specific, correct answers, aren’t following his example.  They are looking at the contradictions in the text, such as:

In Matthew, Jesus was born when Herod was king; in Luke, he was born 10 years later when there is a census. In Mark and John, he born in Galilee, in Matthew and Luke, he is born in Bethlehem;

Luke's version of Jesus' birth

Jesus is 30 in Matthew, Mark and Luke; 50 in John;

In Mark, Jesus doesn’t want anyone to know he is the messiah; in Matthew he rides into Jerusalem astride two animals; in Luke, he is greeted by crowds of cheering spectators.

The list could go on to no purpose.  Clearly, the Gospel authors didn’t have a lot of information to work with, so they created their own versions, and all wrote at least two generations after Jesus must have died.

That kind of mishmash won’t convince anyone of biblical truths.

Of course, there will always be believers, just as there were people who believed in Isis, Dionysus, Mithra and other such created deities long after they, too, had been shown to the product of human imagination.

However, as one survey after another demonstrates, they are a dwindling number likely to shrink even more in the coming years. Throwing a Bible at the situation won’t change anything, not when so many people are ducking.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history with an occasional foray into American culture.  He holds an ABD in American Studies from Case Western Reserve University.   He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  You can reach him at wplazarus@aol.com. He is the author of the recently published novel The Great Seer Nostradamus Tells All as well as a variety of nonfiction books, including The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative Religion.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  His website is wlazarus.com, which is still under construction. He can also be followed on Twitter.

Robertson Takes on Age of the Earth

Robertson