The first apostles and early Christians seemed to believe Jesus was coming back in their lifetimes. People believed the end was near during the middle ages and Renaissance as well. Joseph Smith also believed the 2nd coming would happen in his lifetime.

Here we are in 2013 and a billion people on this earth believe Jesus will be returning one day. How much time needs to pass before people admit he's not coming back? 100 years? 500 years? By the year 3000 will there still be people that believe Jesus is coming?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2013 11:20PM by hangar18.

I ask that all the time. I wish I could be here for a few thousand years, so that I could watch as religion evolves and changes over time.

Never.

At the rate Elohim is producing spirit children now that Joseph is there to help him, they've got to keep the "body shop" Earth open for a lot longer.

If my family is any marker, there will always be a core group that never gives up.

So Jesus won't come again until there aren't any spirits left waiting to be born? So we're technically in a race with Elohim/JS, with them producing more, and us pulling them to Earth.
Maybe that's why the brethren counsel members to have as many children as they can!

They have to maintain the fear paradigm so you can bet your sweet booty they will keep programming children to believe in this crap.

All about the control.

That expectation is a new experience for each rising
generation. 99% do not realize that the same unfilled
expectation has been repeated, over and over again,
for many dozens of decades.

Studying past history may be the key that opens some
minds to this fact. Careful reasoning may be the key
for others to come to the same conclusion.

Within Christianity itself there have been those
adherents who understood the problem and tried to
deal with the fact that there would be no second coming.
Realized Eschatology was the doctrinal result.

As for the remainder of Christianity, the communicants
will go though a belief "re-set" with each new generation,
totally unaware that their forebearers lived and died
with the same unrealized expectations.

Don't even get me started on the Jewish expectations for
the return of Elijah; or the Muslims and their Madhi.

UD

Never.

The JW's have mis-called Jesus' return numerous times, and yet still gain membership. Same goes with Christian Scientists. For that matter, same goes for the original Apostles.

People will never leave because of the sunk cost fallacy -- the belief that, because I have expended X amount of effort already, I may as well expend Y more. In Millennialist Christianity, this manifests itself as people believing they're not worthy for Christ's re-appearance, and thus trying harder, often encouraged by their pastors/leadership. In normal human behavior, you'll see this in lots of places. For example, the guy who keeps repairing his car rather than buying a new one, because he just bought a new set of tires or repaired another component. Or the parents who keep paying for their kids' college and credit cards because this time, the kid will crack down and study hard.

The LDS church came about in the Millennialist/Millerist (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millerism) milieu. The only reason it survived where comparable end-of-world branches of Christianity did not was because it moved West, where it could thrive.

Not only the "sunk cost fallacy" but I think the older/longer one is LDS (or any religion for that matter) the less they know what foundation to base their lives upon. An entrenched lifestyle and foundation of being and belief is very difficult to give up or change even if you suspect it might be false. False or not it is SOMETHING to believe in and hang onto.

I tried converting one of my retired school teachers who was in her late 70's. I gave her a BoM and invited her to meet with missionaries and she just responded that she was happy as a Methodist and didn't want to make any changes at this stage of her life. Yet she really liked Mormonism.

Jesus will not return until everyone has made all of the money they can possibly make off of him. When and if that ever happens, the story will then change. Either that or the Earth will spin out of it's orbit and put and end to it for us.

Probably in around 5 billion years when the sun expands into a red giant and destroys the Earth :p

Honestly, I don't see Christianity lasting another 2000 years. It has already hit its peak and now its losing ground. Unfortunately, it seems to be losing ground to the even wackier Muslims. But, I suspect, if the middle-east ever figures out a way out of the pit of theocratic regimes its been mired in for the past several decades, education and critical thinking will start to take its toll on that religion as well.

However, I think there will always be people who believe in silly, unfounded things. Religions, faith-healers, psychics, medium, astrology, UFOs, ect. Some new religion or other hoax will come along and take on the followers once the current major world religions lose popularity. They always have in the past, I see no indication that humanity has gotten any less gullible.

Jesus would have to come for a first time BEFORE He could return for a second appearance, and that first appearance has NOT happened either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihN2iOlyqp4

but you ask a very intriguing question about society at large.

As the story goes, In his own red words, No man knows the day or the hour, not even Jesus himself.

How can a Christian say Jesus is returning soon or--worse even--name a specific date?

I've never understood that.

FINALLY! The truth has been told in song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtiMw0-akAM

To admit that Jesus will never come back is something that shatters the very foundation of organized religions---hence most religious people nor churches admit or even consider the possibility.

anonfornow Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> To admit that Jesus will never come back is
> something that shatters the very foundation of
> organized religions---hence most religious people
> nor churches admit or even consider the
> possibility.


Then again, when I attended a mainstream Christian
theological seminary three and a half decades ago,
every single professor at the school had concluded
not to believe/profess the "second coming."

The Christian elites and intellectuals realize the
problem -- it's mostly the ignorant masses who retain
such indefensible beliefs.

UD

I think it's a no go at this point. But hey, let's ask Harold Camping!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/2013 03:06AM by darksided.

For the last 20 centuries injustices of every type have continued while people continue looking over their shoulders expecting the grand fix-it-all to occur at any minute and save them from looking upon such ugliness that they themselves were commissioned as followers to work against.