Many Christians believe Jesus will return to Earth in an event seen as the Second Coming. Strictly speaking, if the resurrection tale was to be believed it ought to be called The Third Coming, as his death on the cross made his return to life pre-Ascension the second coming. (the first being his life from birth (virginal or otherwise) up to his death by crucifixion).
Only the books of Luke and Acts describe the Ascension and promise of another return. In Luke’s account, Jesus departs on the very same day as he is seen resurrected, barely having time to greet and meet the Apostles and few other witnesses who see him. In Acts, he hangs around for 40 Days before departing.
Luke has Jesus tell the Apostles to wait in Jerusalem to receive the Holy spirit. Acts has two angelic figures appear to those who see Jesus literally ascend (fly) off to Heaven like Superman, and these figures tell them that he will return the same way. There is much promise that the return is imminent, and likely to occur suddenly within the lifetime of the Apostles, and later believers in the return likewise believe that it could occur at any time and that they have to be ready. 2,000 plus years on, the promise of an imminent event is still evangelized. The rule for most Christians is to be a/. baptised, b/. believing in and loving Jesus. c/. have repented for all sins and transgressions up to the final breath breathed. Failure to do this before dying or the second coming commencing damns you to Hell. I only qualify on a/. as I was raised Roman Catholic, but my atheism would mean I’m stuffed as far as b/. and c/. go if this Jesus was to show up.
The question then is what exactly happens as and when Jesus returns anyway. Some seem to believe that he will magic away all the World’s wrongs, poverty, war, famine, inhumanity, corruption in politics, heralding in a golden utopian age, though us unbelievers will be annihilated and excluded from the fun.
For others his arrival will instantly trigger the Apocalypse, killing most of the life on Earth quickly, allowing a rapture for a select few, but subjecting the rest of us to judgement at which we are directed into Heaven or Hell, or for the as yet undecided, an intermediary state of Purgatory.
I am an atheistic secularist. I was secretary of the Manchester Humanist from 1992 to 2000. I rejected my Catholicism when I was about ten. I later got sucked into a Hinduism based cult in the early 80’s but escaped in 1985 and reverted to my Humanistic views.
Other key religions don’t always believe in a Messianic arrival or direct intervention by their god(s). Efforts to shoehorn in other religions is a sweeping generalization doomed to fail.
The idea of depending by blind faith in a saviour simply arriving and sorting out the whole mess is rarely going to end well. A pilot in a stricken plane might well pray to the deity or saints of his choice but not at the expense of pulling the throttle, drawing the plane to a lower altitude and calling ground control for advice and support. The blind hope of a hand coming down from the sky to catch you and gently lower you to the ground is likely to end in painful or fatal disappointment.
I’m not too familiar with the Jewish concept of Tilkkun Olam though it reads like ‘putting your own house in order’ rather than leaving it, or hoping it will be sorted by others. There is a need to try to save yourself and help others in need. If a Messianic hero arrives to complete the task, bonus! If your house is not on fire, get out and call the fire brigade, but by all means try to throw a few buckets of water at the flames if safe to do so before the experts arrive too.
Hinduism (known to me from my time in a Hindu cult), has its cycles of Karma, life, and time itself reincarnates, and there are future chances. The monotheistic faiths have a one shot and that’s your lot stance. That is why the arrival of a saviour figure coming at the 11th hour is more important to their doctrines.
With the Christian second coming, the Messiah was promised to be returning in the life times of the Apostles and other immediate followers, and it has been treated as imminent since. The evangelicals have a rather hysterical cry of repent now, or it will be too late. The question is a/. how do they recognise the Messiah if and when he turns up? b/. When should he come? c/. What happens when he does? What exactly is s/he going to do when turning up anyway?
A/. If he literally descends from the sky like Superman with no way of the coverage being faked, there would be little doubt even for dyed in the wool sceptics. Having him simply starting a religious sect who say, this is He, and he just becomes another religious spokesperson. Unless he throws miracles round like confetti he is likely to have a tough time convincing many that this is really it.
b/. The date of his arrival is obviously a hot potato. Many predicted/prophesised dates have passed with an embarrassing lack of divine activity. The Millennium (2000) was a convenient round number favourite until it wasn’t. Some believe he will come in our hour of greatest need, but the World Wars and even the Holocaust sparked no visible holy or godly intervention. The horrors of the trenches created more atheism than the publication of The Origin Of The Species. The shock reality of Belsen, Cambodia’s Killing Fields, Ethiopia’s famine, the Tsunami of 2004, the current wars in the Ukraine and Gaza, all legitimately lead many to ask why God isn’t helping those affected? It might be asked how such tragedies occur at all under the gaze of a God capable of creating a World free of such conflict and disaster. The question amounts validly to ‘How bad does it have to get before God decides enough is enough, and calls a time out? The Jewish concept of Tilkkun Olam calls on the people to put their own house in order rather than depending on direct intervention from outside forces. If help comes, bonus, but best to act as if you are on your own. If you are in a stricken plane, prayer that God saves you from a crash might bring comfort, but the important thing is that the pilot works the throttle, gains a lower safe altitude and contacts ground control for advice, permission for a landing and runway clearance. Better to call the police than just hope for Batman.
A joke goes that a devout religious chap is caught in a flood when a dam breaks. He is on his roof seeing the waters rapidly rise and has a vision that God will save him. Shortly afterwards, volunteers in a dinghy come and offer him a place in the boat. He declines the invitation as he is promised that God is coming to rescue him. The boat crew save dozens of other grateful people. The devout man similarly rejects aid from a small plane and a helicopter rescue squad. He drowns. Arriving in Heaven he asks God why God didn’t rescue him as promised. God says, “But I sent a boat, a plane and a helicopter. Didn’t you see them?” The moral is grab what help there is, don’t wait for someone or something not yet manifesting. Believe God might come to help if you wish, but still behave as if he isn’t coming.
The danger is that in not intervening to prevent the Holocaust, Jesus only returning when things get really awful, or some other messiah coming for the first time when things get ultra-extreme, suggests nukes have to start flying before the space wizard stages an intervention, but I doubt if that might happen even though the mushroom clouds seem more and more increasingly horribly likely.
c/. What exactly happens when a/the Messiah arrives anyway?
There seem to be two schools of thought on what the Messiah will do. 1/. He performs huge miracles to herald in a near instant utopian World of plenty free of war, famine, disease, death and Steps albums. 2/. He destroys the World with fire and armour plated locusts, and wipes out all but a chosen few raptured individuals (if that), and subjects the rest of us to Judgement, sending the worthy to Heaven and the rest to Hell, with no hope of parole.
Judgement Day is when Heaven is expected to open, with only a few saints, and prophets having been granted advance entry. The Near death Experience visions of seeing a Heaven where already dead relatives and friends are already floating around happy is a contradiction to the way the New Testament says it will go. The dead just rot in their graves until woken up on Judgement Day.
If Revelation is right, The Second Coming is not something to look forward to if you like life. It amounts to death and a promise of a new beginning which will only be nice for those who believed in and loved God/Jesus. You can come in, but Mum and Aunt Mary have to burn forever, sorry.
God has form on this disgraceful behaviour. He has already wiped out most life on Earth in the Flood, and yet it is unclear just what triggered his genocidal sociopathy then, and why we haven’t yet matched that now. He trashed Sodom & Gomorrah for being evil places, so how much worse do Las Vegas and Blackpool have to get to match that level of depravity?
The most likely explanation is simply that there won’t be a Messianic intervention at all. Nature and human nature don’t work by the same rules and we ought to fix our own World as if God/s are not coming. For atheists like me, that is easier as we already fully expect no supernatural assistance in our hours of need. Surgeons saved me from cancer. God if existing, would never have given me or anyone else cancer in the first place. I won’t be waiting for the second coming, or the first one either.
We do not need god(s) or religion to be moral or to desire or promote social reform. Pre-18th century, open declaration of secularist, atheistic, Humanistic beliefs could lead to the noose or the bonfire. It was the weakening of dogmatic blind faith by growing non-conformist and experimental churches and sects that paved the way for atheism/agnosticism and freethought. By the 19th century, social reformers were increasingly secular. Bentham and Mill, the founders of Utilitarianism had little truck with religion-driven moralists. They saw the human desire to avoid pain and move towards happiness as the mechanism behind moral behaviour. The Golden Rule of treating others as you would be treated yourself predates religion is quoted in numerous works secular and religious pre-Judaeo-Christianity. Chartism and Marxism grew from class struggle. Feminism, anti-Apartheid, Pride movements, Anti-Fascist movements, etc, grew from good people seeing social injustice and getting together to counter-blast. Many Enlightenment philosophers, Thomas Paine, etc, all took a stand for change. Others have long called for separation of church and state.
Sadly in the UK, media and political debates on issues like A woman’s right to choose abortion, voluntary euthanasia, race relations, immigration, etc, usually involve religious experts and often exclude secular thinkers who are perfectly capable of giving a damn and offering positive policies towards supporting such noble causes.
Religion still has a strangle hold on us. Schools still have to hold religious assemblies etc. We can shake ourselves free from this. If not for George Holyoake we would not have the right to affirm, namely pledging to tell the truth in courts of law without placing our hands on a Bible to show our piety (which can so easily be faked). We are capable of saving ourselves. If Jesus turns up and helps out, yes, we should welcome the extra assistance, but we need to put our own mess right as if we have no back up, because throughout history, we have had to go it alone.
Photos taken by me except where otherwise stated.
Arthur Chappell.
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