Elijah

Most Christians may say that most Christians believe in some type of magical battle end times but I don’t think most Christians themselves actually believe in it. I was raised Baptist and it was a metaphor for nuclear war and general downfall and rebirth of mankind, nothing magical about it. Now some Pentecostals I've known are crazy enough to believe that.

I take Revelations as a guy’s vision and nothing more.

I was just saying that it would depend on the circumstance on how he would behave… like everyone else.

sweetpea7

Just curious, what kind of Baptist church was this? I have been to many kinds of Baptist churches, but never one so liberal. I like this idea much better than the teachings of the Baptist churches I have attended.

Depend on the cirucumstance? Isn't the whole thing Jesus's plan to begin with?

Elijah

Southern Baptist.

What plan are you speaking of? Sacrificing his life?

sweetpea7

Wow, Southern Baptist must have changed a bit since I've been gone! At least it's a change for the better.

I was referring to the whole second coming plan.

storytime

How did people believe before nuclear weapons were invented? My baptist ancestors believed Jesus would return and god would rain down fire and brimstone on the earth, just as in the days of Sodom/Gomorrah. Seems the punishment method has evolved to satisfy the doomsday sayers.

Elijah

I don't think anything has changed. Different churches for different kinds of people.

I think resurrection of the dead was a prior Jewish idea. He didn't come up with it.

I think natural disaster would be the main source of scaring the people if world war wasn't threatening enough to mankind. Every storm and dry spell was a sign of the coming natural disaster/s that would destroy this world and allow a new one to be born in its ashes. (For people who would try to rationalize Revelations and not take it at face value of a magical occurrence.)

sweetpea7

I didn't mean resurrection of the dead in general. I meant Jesus's second coming. It doesn't matter if Jesus didn't originate the idea. He actively promoted it.

For example, in Mark 13:26 (NIV):

Also, was the Southern Baptist church you attended part of the Southern Baptist Convention?

Elijah

You lost me sorry. I don't know the point you are trying to make.

Don't know, there is a link to their site on the church's site though.

sweetpea7

Sorry if I was unclear. I was responding to these statements that you made:

If it is Jesus's plan to return in order to gather his followers and judge those who don't accept him, then how is it dependent upon anything else? Jesus has already laid out what he plans to do. He plans to kick ass.

The reason I asked is that the Southern Baptist Convention is pretty clear on their ideas of the end times--and it isn't metaphorical in their eyes. I'm not saying that your church didn't preach a liberal idea about the end times, just that if they did and are a member of the SBC then they are breaking with the stated theology. I think that's a good thing.

Elijah

Maybe there will be conflict but maybe there will have been enough by then.
I don’t think it is unusual and I don’t think beliefs are uniform between churches regardless if they label themselves the same. The beliefs of the church depend too much on who the leaders of the church hire to preach. The same wording can have completely different meanings depending on how you rationalize the words. I think the nutty end time churches are blown out of proportion in the media and are in the minority. Yes I’ve been to some but most churches are usually family social gathering institutions and the end times just doesn’t get much play in those type of settings.