sorry the title should read, what would it take?

hi everyone a newbie here
so please be gentle with me

after reading an awful lot of posts,
(i'm not saying they were awful,just there's a lot of them).
i would like to ask everyone here a fairly simple question,
(although i'm not sure if the answer(s) will be)

what would it take YOU to believe that jesus, (or any other prophet you personally believe in*),
had come back to walk on the earth?

john lennon once said
"We're all Christ and we're all Hitler.
We are trying to make Christ's message contemporary.
We want Christ to win.
What would he have done if he had advertisements, TV, records, films and newspapers?
The miracle today is communication, so let's use it."

personally i don't believe that jesus(see above*) would be able to get his/her message across,
even with today's miracle of communication's
as there is a heck of a lot of different beliefs
and unless he/she preached exactly what YOU believe in
would you be able to change those beliefs or just try and debunk what he/she has preached?

When Jesus comes back for round two we are not going to have any doubts...or thats the way I understand it.

He'll come down from the heavens riding a golden chariot, it'll rain wine, and their will be a parade...when Jesus shows up at a party he makes an entrance.

Au contraire Cadetak, most people who claim to be believers wont believe it's him. You think he's going to make it that easy for you.

I'm assuming your talking about the idea that believers will just think Jesus is another false prophet?

According to what I remember, when the real Jesus shows up there won't be any doubts. Skeptics and believers alike will know its him.

I myself believe that any christian who believes in the second coming lacks faith. Because the beautiful message of christ is that He is always in our hearts. There is no need for him to make a "second coming" because spiritually speaking he never left us in the first place.

Some from this will say "well there is a difference between physical and spiritual". What I say to that is "Well show me where the physical ends and the spiritual starts". The whole universe is built of a substance that is beyond both spiritual and physical yet including these. There is no matter, only this substance call it God, Tao, Nirvana, Brahman, Infinite consciousness etc.

Despite the way things appear to our perception all is as it should be. The universe can never be as it shouldnt and the only way to experience this pefection directly is by the grace of God. How does one attain such grace?????
By intense longing for God.

I don't think his message would come across either. The world today has strayed far away from faith as it used to be I would imagine. We have illusionists on the street doing card tricks and other magic, it would certainly take a miracle for us to believe it really was Jesus. Not to mention the chariot that Jesus would be riding in would be labeled as a weather balloon by our governments .

I don't believe in Jesus, so I don't believe he's coming back. But, hypothetically, if he did I think the church (Pope, archbishops, etc) would have the hardest time believing it. They're like God's copyright department, and they'd want absolute proof before they'd let anyone use the Jesus Christ trademark again. Then, as Jesus walking the earth would threaten their livelihoods, they'd most likely have him killed. So, not only would nobody believe him, but he'd have a pretty short time to try to convince them.

Here is a question that has been circling my brain for a couple of days. Forgive me if it seems rambling and disjointed.

In the Bible, it states that god created "the heavens and the earth". Assuming that is correct, that implies that the Abrahamic god created everything, the other stars, solar systems, galaxies, nebulae, the Universe it self, correct?

Then, in the New Testament of the Christians, we are told that this god has sent his "only begotten son" to redeem this world, and "god so loved the world that he sent his only son to die for it".

Now my question(s).

1 - Did this god create the entire cosmos just for this one race, supposedly made in his image?

2 - If so, for what purpose would this being create such an immense environment just for us?

3 - If the answer to #1 is no, are there other sentient life forms somewhere "out there"?

4 - If so, then does that automatically make every other race of intelligent creatures no matter what their shape of form, "second class"? My thinking being that since god so loved THIS world that he would send his ONLY begotten son here, where does that leave all the other worlds?

5 - Is the belief that god would send an aspect of itself here; that somehow, humans are the cause for all creation; thst for some unknown reason humans are gods most favored creation, all just a manifestation and and extension of human ego and pride?


And, in a related vein, WHY do people think that god ( by definition a perfect, complete being) want, need, or desire worship?





editted, because I have yet to learn to wake up and have coffee before typing. &*^%$* typos.

you are absolutely right and Ashley is absolutely wrong...

i'm not sure what Ashley believes, but she should probably familiarize herself with the rest of the Bible...

Matthew 24 makes it clear tht EVERYONE will know when He comes back (technically the 3rd coming if you count the rapture)...

the 2nd time is actually the "ratpuro" the third time... which is what we are referring to here is what is talked about in Matthew 24 and Revelation 19

the sky will be opened... there will be bright lights... 2 huge armies...
according to the Bible... the people on earth (with help from the devil) knows He is coming back... and prepare an army to fight Him...
Jesus has his own army of believers and probably angels... there is a battle... the armies of earth lose (duh)... then the birds are called to feast on their flesh...

on second thought... i don't think it will be to obvious...

no... the Jews rejected the Messiah... as it says they would in the OT...
God made many references that says "through you shall all nations be blessed" and by them rejecting Christ... it made it possible for us all to attain salvation... if you check out the parable of the Kings supper (Luke 14:16) it explains it all...

oh and the race wasn't made in His image... just Adam was... and now that i'm thinking about it... are you talking abou thte Jews or mankind?



now i'm almost sure you are talking about mankind...
nobody said He created it just for us... He pretty much made it because He wanted to...
and we are not the only life forms... the Bible says there are angels, demons, maybe some other stuff we don't know about...
and according to the Bible... there are more angels than possible for humans to ever count... but in short... the universe isn't just for us...



read #2... they are sentient life forms...



that's a good question... but personally, i don't think this was an accident...
so if we are talking about God... then if He only chose to create humans in the physical plain of existance... then there isn't a problem for anything else to need a redeemer...



well, if God made Adam in His image... and some of that was passed on to us... then we can assume that God has EMOTIONS...
and based on what you read in the Bible... He does... jealousy, rage, love, pain, etc...

and we believe that Jesus and God are the same... so God came down to perform the ultimate act of love by sacrificing Himself for all of us...

Jesus made it clear to his disciples that people will hear in the end how the Son of Man has returned and he is in certain places of the world. He stated they they should not go and look for him there. For the Son of Man will return with a great glory from the Heavens- in the eastern corner.

How do you know it would be so easy to kill jesus?

He's coming from the heavens, and not coming to walk on the earth as he did before. I'd like to know how they would battle that one-

Exactly what I was thinking. He would be killed, and the deed would be hidden.

his return will be with wrath not mercy ...

thats interesting...have never heard that before...so if the bible tells me that he will return then in Faith i beleive ...then that is a lack of faith?

I'm not looking forward to it then. I can't be doing with wrath.

no one on earth or in the heavens could kill him again.

See, that is what I was taught. I was also taught God was a vengeful God. It is all open to interpretation. So, who interprets correctly? Everyone or no one? because I can read a passage and get a totally different meaning from it than my friend. Does that mean I am wrong for what i get out of it?

Unless it was God's will.