The Second Coming Essentially Renders the First Nugatory
When you ask: "So why would an omni-everything God who created ex nihilo just create the world in that way? Why all the business with free will, evil, the Fall, hell, and all the rest of it? Why not just create God-aligned beings from the get-go—God-aligned beings who are free of the temptation to choose evil over good?"
This is - for me - a very significant question. It is part of a variety of questions that arise from attributing great powers to God of the "doing Good" kind - I mean, the idea of God imposing Good. If God can do such things, why hasn't He done them?
The one that I have been brooding on lately, is the whole second coming/ millennialism tradition - which assumes that God/ Jesus *can* make Men good, and earth into Heaven; God Will do this at some point In The Future.
Which always leads on to the question - "why are we waiting?"; why hasn't this already happened; or, as you say, why didn't it happen in the first place? Because if Men and Earth really Can be re-made Good (top-down, by divine intervention and/or creation), then why wasn't this done in the first place? Why make an interim/ temporary/ imperfect Mankind/ earth - a planet full of death and wickedness and populated by people who mostly incline to oppose God and divine creation - at least for much of the time?
The above comes from an excellent comment Dr. Charlton left on this post.
Personally, I regard Jesus's incarnation on earth, his life and death here, his subsequent resurrection, his creation of heaven, and the offer of everlasting life to those who follow him to be of immense, if not ultimate, cosmological and spiritual significance.
Jesus did not just alter the fabric of Creation forever—he introduced something new and wonderful into it. Something that had not been there before. Something that could never have manifested had it not been for his alignment and co-creation with the Divine. Something God the Father could not have introduced on his own. Something that provided a meaningful solution to an ongoing problem inherent in the First Creation.
I believe Jesus completed his mission on earth during his time here. He accomplished what he aimed to accomplish. Like Bruce, I do not believe in Jesus's prophesied return; in his so-called Second Coming.
I reject the Second Coming for the simple reason that it renders the First nugatory.
Jesus returning and restoring the whole of Creation by essentially creating heaven on earth makes his Second Creation of Heaven rather inconsequential.
If Jesus can restore the whole of Creation to its pre-fall condition (free of death, sin, and evil), then why did he not do so during his First Coming?
Freedom sheds some light on the question above. More on that in a future post.
This is - for me - a very significant question. It is part of a variety of questions that arise from attributing great powers to God of the "doing Good" kind - I mean, the idea of God imposing Good. If God can do such things, why hasn't He done them?
The one that I have been brooding on lately, is the whole second coming/ millennialism tradition - which assumes that God/ Jesus *can* make Men good, and earth into Heaven; God Will do this at some point In The Future.
Which always leads on to the question - "why are we waiting?"; why hasn't this already happened; or, as you say, why didn't it happen in the first place? Because if Men and Earth really Can be re-made Good (top-down, by divine intervention and/or creation), then why wasn't this done in the first place? Why make an interim/ temporary/ imperfect Mankind/ earth - a planet full of death and wickedness and populated by people who mostly incline to oppose God and divine creation - at least for much of the time?
The above comes from an excellent comment Dr. Charlton left on this post.
Personally, I regard Jesus's incarnation on earth, his life and death here, his subsequent resurrection, his creation of heaven, and the offer of everlasting life to those who follow him to be of immense, if not ultimate, cosmological and spiritual significance.
Jesus did not just alter the fabric of Creation forever—he introduced something new and wonderful into it. Something that had not been there before. Something that could never have manifested had it not been for his alignment and co-creation with the Divine. Something God the Father could not have introduced on his own. Something that provided a meaningful solution to an ongoing problem inherent in the First Creation.
I believe Jesus completed his mission on earth during his time here. He accomplished what he aimed to accomplish. Like Bruce, I do not believe in Jesus's prophesied return; in his so-called Second Coming.
I reject the Second Coming for the simple reason that it renders the First nugatory.
Jesus returning and restoring the whole of Creation by essentially creating heaven on earth makes his Second Creation of Heaven rather inconsequential.
If Jesus can restore the whole of Creation to its pre-fall condition (free of death, sin, and evil), then why did he not do so during his First Coming?
Freedom sheds some light on the question above. More on that in a future post.
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