The Second Coming: A Failed Prophecy??? - Religion -

Being a Christian is really one hell of a job. Aside the Church-bound duties required of "true" Christians (which are often quite inconvenient and demanding), one mustn't ignore the emotional, mental and psychological War that goes on in the mind of those one who are quite knowledgable or well versed with the Bible. Trying hard to resist the doubts they tend to encounter is the order of the day for those who read wide and do lots of research in an aim to either justify or investigate their long-held faith. I was no exception. Ranging from the bloodstained Old Testament to Scientific ludicrosities, Blatant absurdities to historical flaws, authenticities and many many more, I couldn't help giving Doubt a chance. About this time last year, I wrote a piece here on Nairaland: Questions That Baffle Me About God and even though it never made frontpage, I'm glad it had the amount of audience it did. Now I'm here with something quite troubling; something a logical mind should find really really disturbing. I remember having a dialogue with a Pastor friend some weeks ago when he was on an outreach preaching about the Second Coming of Christ and why everyone should "mend their ways". I can't quite remember his reaction when I asked "Don't you think this Jesus is taking too long? Are you sure he's coming at all?" but I do remember him sarcastically replying me by saying "Uhmm.... Our Lord is warming up his whips for strongheads like you, so chill..." Well, I chuckled. But then, I needed him to go into his Bible to see for himself why I asked such a question, so I directed him to Mark 13:30 which states: ". . .this generation will by no means pass away until these things happen. . ." (with "these things" referring to the end time, tribulation and the Second Coming talked about in the preceding verses). He laughed. "Cheap!" He said. "You don't understand Greek so you wouldn't know" (hehehehe does he understand Greek? Well.... I wouldn't know either lol) "The word 'generation' in Greek is 'genea' which Lexicons define as 'people of the same kind' so from Acts 11:26, we can tell whom these people are. They are Christians, which means Christ-like. So Christians will never pass away until the Son comes". He concluded. That was amazing. Perfect wordplay. However, the context of this passage made it clear that it literally referred to those still alive at the time. He refused; holding still to his explanation. Then I took him to Matthew 16:28 which states: "Truly I say to you that there are some ofthose standing herethat will not taste death at all until they see the Son of man coming in His Kingdom." (also found in Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27) His face didn't look so bright afterwards even though he tried making me take his explanation for an answer and how I needed the Holy Spirit to understand certain passages and so on, it was obvious that he was well aware of these passages and the problems the pose and willingly ignored them for fear of doubt (I once did that too). So he never expected it to be used in a dialogue with him. He obviously didn't research on it the way he should have and that's the same thing most Christians do today. Their fear of doubt has amounted to their fear of knowledge and information and honestly, it's really unfortunate. Now, back to the passage, we all know that everyone"standing [t]here"are now dead, buried and forgotten (that's assuming Jesus even existed) So what does that make of the Second Coming? A Failed Prophecy or not? Let's be honest with ourselves. Thank you