The return of Jesus Christ is the climax hoped for by believers in this now dark world. However, the actual belief in the next coming of the Savior seems to have almost disappeared. For the Roman Catholic Church it is already a nightmare and for many theologians it is just an act within a “grand narrative”.
Inhalt / Content
- 1 Second Coming of Jesus Has No Known “Date”
- 2 The real return of Jesus has certain characteristics
- 3 Faith in the return is almost gone
- 4 Postmodern view of “grand narratives”
- 5 It remains the “grand narrative”
- 6 Jesus Christ is even unwanted
- 7 The “truth” of Ratzinger
- 8 And it will still come as described
Second Coming of Jesus Has No Known “Date”
The return of Jesus Christ is certain. However, it is not clear when He will return. A time for this is not mentioned in the Bible, unlike when He first entered this world. While the prophet Isaiah clearly announced in chapter 53 that the Lord would appear and the prophet Daniel even predicted His arrival to the exact year in chapter 9, there is no time given for the second coming.
Nevertheless, Jesus Christ gave people a relatively precise description of the time of His return. Not time-oriented, but event-oriented. Our Savior shared a whole package of information for the signs of His return in His sermon on the Mount of Olives. The details can be read in Matthew 24, Luke 21 und Mark 13. A summary of the signs of the return of Jesus Christ can be found here.
The real return of Jesus has certain characteristics
Here it is particularly important to ensure that these events or circumstances must happen as they are described in the Bible. Any deviation must be viewed with suspicion and can be dismissed from the outset as an error or a deception. So it is written that Jesus Christ will come back with all His glory and all angels and every eye can see Him, then this event will look completely different than, for example, a large army of parachutists with a miner’s lamp stuck on their foreheads and that’s just it presented as a news report on evening television. If hundreds of church and political celebrities also announce their enthusiasm for this event, then this can safely be seen as just another piece of entertainment.
Faith in the return is almost gone
The bigger problem in advance, however, is the belief in the return of Jesus Christ, also known as the parousia, which has now largely disappeared. Only a small minority of people who call themselves Christians believe this prediction. Placed in the same category as the annual Christmas festival, this story about Jesus’ return is just a story from ancient times. A poetry of final rescue that can be experienced hundreds of times in every Hollywood film. “The one with the white hat saves them all.”
Postmodern view of “grand narratives”
For today’s world, the time has arrived that meant the “end of the big narratives” and heralded the beginning of a variety of small narratives, according to the philosopher Jean-Heiner Tück, Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Vienna, Jan-Heiner Tück. Francois Lyotard and his view of postmodernism (Source). Nevertheless, Christianity still offers the great stories, such as creation, the “covenant story with Israel”, the gift of the Holy Spirit and also the coming of Christ. According to the Catholic theologian, the Parousia is an element of these great stories.
Second coming is described in the Eucharist
Even in everyday church life, the second coming occurs in the “Eucharistic liturgy” when it says: “until he comes in glory.” Although the Gospels describe the signs of Christ’s return, the expectation hardly plays a role anymore. Such signs include wars, natural disasters, apostasy, persecutions and false saviors. All events that can be observed today.
Tück objects that we – he does not say whether he means the church or theologians of his ilk – did not view these statements of return as an “anticipatory report of the end”. Many people are of the opinion that things will somehow continue after the crisis. From Johann Baptist Metz’s point of view, the apocalyptic legacy of the Bible fills the memory of a finite time and leads to a sharper view of the suffering of the disenfranchised. This is “an impetus for a solidarity-based succession practice”.
Catholic perspective
The voices that spoke of an imminent return of Christ quickly fell silent after the catastrophes of the 20th century. However, the theologian warns against falling into agnosticism. The “grand narrative” claims that God worked to save people in the past. So God will be able to do this in the future too. Therefore, the story is not heading towards a fiasco, says Tück.
The “vanishing point” described here consists of Jesus Christ, “who will come to judge the living and the dead.” Therefore it doesn’t matter how we live. “We are expected, we are questioned,” said the theologian. Tück emphasizes that fear is unfounded at this point with a quote from Joseph Ratzinger: “The truth that judges us has set out to save us.”
It remains the “grand narrative”
Anyone who had hoped that the systematic theologian would point out the truth of the Gospel with a raised finger was disappointed. If this was even expected. He had presented nothing more than his complete disbelief, which had now been adapted to postmodernism. The gospel is merely a leftover relic of great stories from the past. One or the other context could be used as a guide to a fulfilled life, but the essence of it belongs in the realm of prose texts.
Now the Catholic view of the Gospel has very special characteristics, which are also reflected in this theologian’s view. He addressed one of these himself with the “Eucharistic liturgy”. Anyone who compares the background of the Catholic Eucharist with the Gospel will come to the conclusion that Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God and God himself, who came into this world as a human being, cannot be expected from the Roman Catholic Church. The practiced Eucharist is, by definition, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This is repeated continuously and thousands of times every day.
Jesus Christ is even unwanted
In the spirit of the Eucharist, Jesus Christ is actually killed every time in the ritual and is even kept in a state of death due to the non-stop repetitions (Info).
One reason for this practice is the (supposed) justification of the priesthood in the Catholic Church, as described by Alphonsus Liguori, who was canonized (Info). Another reason is the hatred against Jesus Christ actually stirred up by the Roman Catholic Church and the expectation of their secretly worshiped “God”, the great adversary. Everything nicely packaged as Christianity.
The “truth” of Ratzinger
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who once served as Pope Benedict XVI, expects a “returning truth”. In fact, the Bible describes the return of Jesus Christ and He will have a reward for everyone when He returns. The verdict has already been passed, because how else can it be decided who will be resurrected and who will remain lying? The quote used by Ratzinger also speaks of someone who comes back to save everyone. It is obvious why Ratzinger did not name the true savior. He didn’t mean him at all. However, the hope of these “brothers in faith” is based on fiction. Jesus Christ neither has an older brother who was bullied by him, nor will he bring salvation to all people across the board.
The “truth” that Ratzinger spoke of is neither Jesus Christ, nor the Word of God, nor the law (Info).
And it will still come as described
It will happen as described in the Bible. Neither the Pope nor theologians can do anything about it. It is proven that the events announced in the Bible for the past time have all come to pass. The prophecies that are still open concern the future and are also guaranteed to come true. However, this future has already begun. Whether the doubters, unbelievers and deceptors want to believe it or not doesn’t matter.
But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Matthew 24:37-39
Bible verses from King James Version