L
Light1111
Guest
Hello,
Thank you to the person who wrote, stating I might just have my head filled with tricks the devil wants to use to mislead me.
I appreciate your concern.
However, I do not view my question in quite that way. My question has nothing whatsoever to do with faith in God, nor faith in Jesus. Rather, it has to do with the (understandable) difficulty man himself will have, in recognizing Jesus – owing to the strange nature of our current culture. I believe some of those who responded, might not have quite understood what I was really asking.
I’ll be a bit more graphic in my explanation, so you can see where my question derives.
We have so many people on television, and so many are making strange claims. There have been a great number of people already who either said they were Jesus, or even who believed they were Jesus. In fact, mental health facilities are filled with such folks. It’s not that uncommon. It’s not to say we believe each of these claims, just – in a world filled with such claims – how would the common man know the difference?
We do have a world driven by the media, and they do hyper-drive news coverage on every story (particularly the bizarre). Unless Jesus returns at a time when the media has been silenced, which is of course possible, there will be media coverage of His return.
For folks the world over who are sincere of heart, why or how would they know to differentiate Him, in His authenticity, from those who have wrongly claimed to be Him? How would the common man be able to make this distinction?
Perhaps some of you are familiar with the Rastafarian faith, native to Jamaica? These folks are not strictly considered “Christians” by Christians, and yet they see themselves as such. In their faith, they do believe in God, and in Jesus as His Son. And they believe He has already Come Again – in the form of King Ras Tafari, from Ethiopia. Some of those I’ve heard speak to this, who follow this religion, stated that as King Ras Tafari was traveling through the land, he would raise his hand to wave to the citizens. The man had holes in his hands, in the palms. Believers of this faith take that to mark Jesus’s return: those holes were the ones driven into the palms at the crucifixion.
Certainly these folks mean no harm, in believing Jesus has already come again, in the form of King Ras Tafari. In fact, no one really has any way of knowing if they’re even right or wrong. I don’t pretend to have access to such important knowledge.
All I’m saying is, people who mean well and who are ardent followers of Christ, might indeed not recognize Him when He returns, or they might accidentally believe one who is not even Jesus, to be Him. And all that would be without them incurring any infraction against God – meaning, I don’t believe in either case, they’d be sinning. It’s just that our modern-day life is a bit of a circus, and things are not as clear cut as they were in the pre-modernistic times described in the NT. I don’t think it will be easy, in the current setting, to tell truth from fiction.
That was the basis of my question. For those familiar with the media’s practices, you might understand where I am coming from. It’s a question that has been on my mind since I was a child, and I recall other children at the Catholic school I attended asking the nuns this same question. I think it’s a fair question, and no, I don’t believe the devil has directed me to wonder this. Rather, my observations of our world has instigated my curiosity and my concern.
Peace to each of you.
Thank you to the person who wrote, stating I might just have my head filled with tricks the devil wants to use to mislead me.
I appreciate your concern.
However, I do not view my question in quite that way. My question has nothing whatsoever to do with faith in God, nor faith in Jesus. Rather, it has to do with the (understandable) difficulty man himself will have, in recognizing Jesus – owing to the strange nature of our current culture. I believe some of those who responded, might not have quite understood what I was really asking.
I’ll be a bit more graphic in my explanation, so you can see where my question derives.
We have so many people on television, and so many are making strange claims. There have been a great number of people already who either said they were Jesus, or even who believed they were Jesus. In fact, mental health facilities are filled with such folks. It’s not that uncommon. It’s not to say we believe each of these claims, just – in a world filled with such claims – how would the common man know the difference?
We do have a world driven by the media, and they do hyper-drive news coverage on every story (particularly the bizarre). Unless Jesus returns at a time when the media has been silenced, which is of course possible, there will be media coverage of His return.
For folks the world over who are sincere of heart, why or how would they know to differentiate Him, in His authenticity, from those who have wrongly claimed to be Him? How would the common man be able to make this distinction?
Perhaps some of you are familiar with the Rastafarian faith, native to Jamaica? These folks are not strictly considered “Christians” by Christians, and yet they see themselves as such. In their faith, they do believe in God, and in Jesus as His Son. And they believe He has already Come Again – in the form of King Ras Tafari, from Ethiopia. Some of those I’ve heard speak to this, who follow this religion, stated that as King Ras Tafari was traveling through the land, he would raise his hand to wave to the citizens. The man had holes in his hands, in the palms. Believers of this faith take that to mark Jesus’s return: those holes were the ones driven into the palms at the crucifixion.
Certainly these folks mean no harm, in believing Jesus has already come again, in the form of King Ras Tafari. In fact, no one really has any way of knowing if they’re even right or wrong. I don’t pretend to have access to such important knowledge.
All I’m saying is, people who mean well and who are ardent followers of Christ, might indeed not recognize Him when He returns, or they might accidentally believe one who is not even Jesus, to be Him. And all that would be without them incurring any infraction against God – meaning, I don’t believe in either case, they’d be sinning. It’s just that our modern-day life is a bit of a circus, and things are not as clear cut as they were in the pre-modernistic times described in the NT. I don’t think it will be easy, in the current setting, to tell truth from fiction.
That was the basis of my question. For those familiar with the media’s practices, you might understand where I am coming from. It’s a question that has been on my mind since I was a child, and I recall other children at the Catholic school I attended asking the nuns this same question. I think it’s a fair question, and no, I don’t believe the devil has directed me to wonder this. Rather, my observations of our world has instigated my curiosity and my concern.
Peace to each of you.