The Second Coming
The Return of Jesus May Have Logistical Issues
There is a good chance the Son of God may run into a few obstacles.
One of the most brilliant things about humans is our ability to stubbornly believe in a concept regardless of its logic.
Flat-earthers, Scientologists, Eckhart Tolle followers, Computer simulationists, Climate sceptics, Climate believers. The list is endless.
Once we humans wrap our cognitive chops around something, we have more trouble letting go than a pitbull with a scotch fillet.
One example of cognitive stubbornness is the typical insistence of many Christians on the second coming of Jesus.
On the outside, the return of Christ may seem like a basic idea that even fairly intelligent people believe in, including many of the leaders of the free world. And yet, when you look at the idea with even a small degree of cognitive discrimination, it makes no sense at all.
Christians (In general) don’t believe in rebirth, right?
I hate to generalise Christianity because I know that the beliefs of people who follow the teachings of Jesus are incredibly diverse. To categorise them as being the same is nothing short of ignorant.
Still, it does seem that the idea of mainstream Christianity is that if a person believes in Jesus, they will be born in heaven, and the rest of us will burn in hell.
So, for Jesus to return to this world, there must be some thread of consciousness that continues between lives.
Such a belief seems to fit much more with Eastern religion than Western Christianity.
Having said that, I would not put the lack of rebirth (reincarnation) in Christianity down to Jesus. A short search on the internet will reveal many historical notions that ideas of rebirth were removed from the bible by various characters over the years.
Still, that doesn’t matter. Even if there is a continuing thread of consciousness known by the name Jesus, that will cause more trouble than anything.
It seems to me that if he is going to come back to earth, whatever that means, he has two options,
a) He comes back with the same appearance and name as before
OR
b) He comes back with a different appearance and name than before.
Let’s say he comes back with the same appearance and name.
You meet him, and he has a cool beard and long hair, but with the white robe and sandals. He is a cool dude indeed.
What’s yer name Pal? you ask.
Name’s Jesus, he says.
You laugh and say nice one. He laughs with you for a moment, then stops, makes a serious face and says,
No, seriously.
Are you going to believe him? And even if you do, how many others will believe him? But the more important question is, how long will it be before he ends up locked up by the authorities?
Ah, but wait, you say. He will prove he is Jesus by performing miracles.
You are kidding, right?
Have you seen Youtube these days? Miracles are a dime a dozen. And water into wine isn’t gonna cut it. Whatever he does is gonna have to be a whole lot flashier than making the Statue of Liberty disappear.
So he will have to come back with a different name and a different appearance, right?
If this is the case, how will anybody know he is back if his name is Terry — a freshly shaven banker from Connecticut?
And if the point is that nobody is supposed to know, how do we know he hasn’t come and gone already?
Again it seems like a case of transposing our modern Western understanding over Eastern mystical ideas.
In Tibetan Buddhism, for instance, it is said that someone who is realised can come back, again and again, to help others.
The Tibetan Tulku system even forces this idea of the same master coming back by ‘finding’ the incarnation and re-enthroning them back into their old monastery. There definitely seem to be deep problems within this system, as some very well-regarded Tibetan masters have pointed out.
But even if you do believe in the Tulku system, no Buddhist should argue that the tulku is the same as the previous incarnation. They have totally different forms even though the same names are forced on them.
While Buddhists believe in rebirth, they don’t believe in a thread personality like a soul that travels from life to life.
In the same way that a cloud becomes rain and a seed becomes the plant, you can’t say that the plant is the seed or that cloud is the rain.
Each is the cause or result of another, but there is no actual flower or seed that travels from one to the next. The later character can say I was that, but I am no longer.
My wise cousin Mark Latham made me watch the movie Man from Earth— a dialogue sci-fi well worth watching. In it, a man explores his various incarnations with a bunch of university professors. It’s worth a watch as it explores some of these ideas.
Is it rational then to believe that Jesus will return?
What is rational in our world?
There is nothing rational about this spherical planet floating in the middle of space. It’s an irrational, mad world and having wild beliefs only becomes an issue when you start fundamentalising them and thinking they are the only view that matters.
If a person believed in a soul as many Christians do, I suppose they are saying that the soul has the name Jesus and it is that which will reincarnate. But I believe that many are waiting on some version of the historical Jesus, still dressed in the cultural outfit of his time.
Personally, I have no problems whatsoever with Christians or Jesus. But when the leaders of the free world with their fingers on the nuclear button start to believe that Jesus is coming back to save them all simply because they had faith in him, it’s a problem.
A good example is Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
This is a man we trust with the well-being of the Australian people.
Yet, as a member of the Horizon pentecostal church, he is also a man that believes in the rapture. He believes that at some point, Jesus’s followers will ascend into heaven, and the rest of us will burn for our ‘sins’.
Isn’t this a tremendous conflict of interest?
Doesn’t it create a sense of inequality and a proud righteous sense of power, thinking you are right and everyone else is wrong? Doesn’t it affect your decision-making skills in dangerous ways?
It’s alarming that our politicians believe in these whacky ideas.
And don’t get me wrong here. Certain whacky ideas are needed on this earth to stop us from burning in the normality of this capitalist world.
Still, shouldn’t whatever wild ideas we take on at least be all-inclusive and not exclusive and beneficial only to those who believe in the return of a man with a beard that lived two thousand years ago?
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