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YHWH_Christ
Guest
Many New Testament scholars, including Bart. D. Ehrman, E.P. Sander, and John. P. Meier, consider Jesus to have been an “apocalyptic prophet” and that Christianity essentially began as an apocalyptic sect of Second Temple Judaism. They point to the many instances in the New Testament where the authors seem to believe Jesus would return within their lifetime or shortly after such as the Olivet Discourse in the Synoptic Gospels, the numerous instances in the epistles that speak about the passing away of the world or the fact that it is the last hour or that the end is near, as well as the numerous times in Revelation where Christ says he is coming soon. They also point to the sense of urgency within the early Chrisitian community which is probably the reason why it took so long for the gospels to be written since everyone expected the imminent return of Christ. Obviously I’m just giving a summary here, you can read more about this, but what are we as Christians to think of this? Not only because it’s the most dominate view among contemporary New Testament scholarship, but also because the evidence for it is interesting to say the least.