In the second coming is everyone meant to live on earth forever, with the exception of the Jews, who will live in heaven, or are we made to choose between God and eternal hell? And if the latter, how is that any different to now? Why didn't Jesus do that in the first place or come now and save everyone from the hell he made? Because only an idiot would not believe in Jesus if he met him in person and had empirical evidence. He can come any time, yet he's waiting, causing good people to burn in hell for eternity for choosing to be something that makes more sense: an atheist.

Also, this whole "pick me or eternal hell" thing won't have changed much, will it? The guy comes off as totalitarian... I dunno, I just don't get this whole 2nd coming shtick.

That's because there IS no second coming. Jesus predicted, as said in the bible, that his second coming would happen relatively soon.

quote:

"Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come." Then he says, "There are some standing here which shall not taste death till the Son of Man comes into His kingdom"; and there are a lot of places where it is quite clear that He believed that His second coming would happen during the lifetime of many then living.

-Bertrand Russel, Why I Am Not a Christian

Well I'll be.

Where did all of this 2nd coming crap stem from, then?

religious nuts trying to make a few bucks http://www.totse.com/bbs/wink.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/wink.gif)

quote:Originally posted by Pseud0nym:

religious nuts trying to make a few bucks http://www.totse.com/bbs/wink.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/wink.gif)

im not kidding. my grandpa used to know a catholic priest and he would perform exorcisms for money. anyway, he would go behind peoples houses (or get someone else to) and make noise and hit stuff so people thought their house was demonic. anyway, i believe it was my grandfather or some family friend who caught someone by the side of their house and shot a bullet at them. the next morning they went over to the priest and he couldn't talk to them because he had been shot in the arm http://www.totse.com/bbs/biggrin.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/biggrin.gif) . funny how blindly religious people were back in the day.

I just watched a documentary about the rapture on some offshoot of the Discovery channel called the Discovery Times. It amused me thoroughly.