Why do you think God/Jesus chose to live 2000 years ago vs. recently or even today?

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chaz0426

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I always wonder why or what possible benifits if any would happen if Jesus as the messiah was born and lived in a society like today or even 200 years ago. I look at the world today and see so much sin. Although I’m sure the world was the same way sinfully when Jesus was alive 2000 years ago but it just seems so much more sinful and violent today especially today’s secular and growing atheistic societies, terrorism, abortion/contraception, separation of state, and much more. I often wonder what it would have been like if Jesus was born and lived a life within the last 200 years or so.

Also why was he born in the middle east?

I know these are all mysteries and only God knows but I want to hear any interesting speculations or theories as to God’s possible reasons.

Anyone?
 
God has His reasons why Jesus did not come to mankind now, but two thousand years ago.

Pope Benedict XVI highlighted one of those reasons in one of his speeches when he said that the time which God appointed for Jesus was the right time because that was the time of great philosopher and thinking, when people could easily understand Jesus and come to a deeper knowledge of Him using reason and philosphy (he said something to that effect).

Another reason is probably because of the end of the ages which God appointed; He wishes to save as many people as possible, so He set Jesus’ arrival time far back, so that as many people as possible could be converted to Him and come to know Him.

A third reason is probably because of the way the world is now. What with relaitivism (there’s that buzz word again), materialism, and othe like ideologies running rampant, so to speak, I doubt many people would come to Jesus today, and I’m sure the media would be horrible on Him. This is not to say, however, that in these times God is limited or unable to work or that there are no good people, nor am I saying the Roman Empire is better than our time - it is not.

Which brings me to the fourt possible reason for why Jesus came when He did: to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testment and of the Oral Tradition. God is the Lord of History, so He guides all things according to His Will, and He made this in such a way, and permitted so much evil, that Jesus was able to fulfill the prophecies. Not to say Jesus is merely a spectator in events which are beyond His control, but that, as God, He came at the time which the Father had prepared for Him, ever since the beginning of the world. (And I would say that God, foreseeing the future as well, made things the way they were at Jesus’ time for the benefit of all souls in the future).
 
I think he came as early as he could.

Before his church could spread and grow, mankind needed the Roman empire, which provided a [realitively] stable and just government that held a large number of cultures in sway, so that the early disciples could travel freely and present the good news to a very wide variety of people. One of the interesting things about early Christianity is that it was accepted by very diverse cultures-- it seems to have been ‘one size fits all’ in a way that no other faith has been, before or since.

But these diverse cultures also needed a common frame of reference-- the greek language spread coutesy of Alexander-- that difficult philosophical concepts could be understood and debated with relative fluency.

Awful as the Roman persecution was, Christ’s message wouldn’t have spread so far, so quickly if the eastern Mediterranean was still held by the Persians, and the balance by a hundreds of independent city states.
 
chaz0426 said:
…but it just seems so much more sinful and violent today especially today’s secular and growing atheistic societies, terrorism, abortion/contraception, separation of state, and much more.
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I am not a huge defender of modern society, but are we really any worse than we were in the past?

You site sinfulness and violence but certainly society, even 150 years ago was just as full of vice and violence and injustice as it is today.

Atheism is as old as belief in a God, or gods. Let us not forget that the Romans accused Christians of being atheists because they would not sacrifice to the ancient Roman gods and thus were a political as well as a moral threat to the system. We can go back to ancient Athens and find that Socrates was sentenced to poison because of atheism and therefore corrupting the youth of the city.

Contraception and abortion were practised with regularity in every ancient culture from the Sumarians on.

Separation of Church and state is a fairly recent development and a very American one. Up to the time of the constitution of the U.S. established religion was the norm. This often led to persecution and bloodshed.

I guess God felt it was time to intervene 2000 years ago knowing that it would take that much history before people like me would get enough perspective to believe in Christ as Saviour.

On Christ the King;

Harri
 
I think the answer lies in the Christmas proclamation traditionally made from the pulpit on that feast, which I think somebody has already quoted on a recent thread. The time chosen was the perfect time in human history, and in the history of the Covenant people the Jews.
 
According to some, we have just elected him. 2012 is too late.🤷
 
Great responses.
This makes me think of the opening chapter of “The King of Sinners**” by Father Eddie Doherty:
“In the fullness of time God summoned and angel and sent him to earth on the most stupendous errand in eternity or time.”
In the fullness of time.
Only God really knows when the time is right.
Dominus vobiscum, Reg.
 
chaz0426 said:
I always wonder why or what possible benifits if any would happen if Jesus as the messiah was born and lived in a society like today or even 200 years ago. I look at the world today and see so much sin. Although I’m sure the world was the same way sinfully when Jesus was alive 2000 years ago but it just seems so much more sinful and violent today especially today’s secular and growing atheistic societies, terrorism, abortion/contraception, separation of state, and much more. I often wonder what it would have been like if Jesus was born and lived a life within the last 200 years or so.

Also why was he born in the middle east?

I know these are all mysteries and only God knows but I want to hear any interesting speculations or theories as to God’s possible reasons.

Anyone?
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to answer all your questions, the messiah had to be born and live according to the prophecies of the old testament, some of which involved the temple, which was destroyed in 70 a.d.
 
these answers are too simplistic.

The question is probably far deeper than anyone who has commented realizes.

In fact, it calls into question the totality of salvation history, that is, why God did what He did in the biggger ways of the whole of salvation history. For the coming of Messiah both depends on what came before in terms of revelation and intervention, and also influences what goes beyond.

Some fathers delineate five ages to the old law. Which seems to imply that in any world, the Messiah would come after five ages: the first two being the respective falls of the two lies that summarize all iniqutiy, and the subsequent three being the stages of the saint lived out by the prefigured people.

hence, the Messiah comes in the perfect time SPIRITUALLY: for after the prefiguring people have gone through the unitive stage of martyrdom (the OT Antichrist Antiochus), nothing remains spiritually except for the Messiah to come, just as the world must end when the Church enters the martyrdom of the unitive way: For just as Christ could no longer get up in the third fall, so the Gentiles shall be incapable of being raised spiritually in the third manifestation of darkness in the NT walk.

IOW, any salvation history that is to bring the greatest possible spiritual good shall have eight ages, and only eight, no more no less. And as Revelation 17 says that five kings of the beast “have fallen”, so the Messiah would always come after the fall of the fifth king. No sooner, no later.
 
so who do you think the 5th king is or was?

Do you personally think Christ will come this century? I personally think mankind will still live on for hundreds is not thousands of more years and possibly the end will come when mankind threatens to destroy itself or if the Church is destroyed or forgotten about. I hope that never happens though. I guess the 2nd coming isn’t something to fear though but I do fear the wars and turmoils that we are possibly in right now. I don’t know. what do you think?
 
chaz0426 said:
so who do you think the 5th king is or was?

Do you personally think Christ will come this century? I personally think mankind will still live on for hundreds is not thousands of more years and possibly the end will come when mankind threatens to destroy itself or if the Church is destroyed or forgotten about. I hope that never happens though. I guess the 2nd coming isn’t something to fear though but I do fear the wars and turmoils that we are possibly in right now. I don’t know. what do you think?
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too much to respond to. For now, I direct you to the Back Fence forum and look at “End Times Speculation part II”. Much elaboration there. thanks,
scott
 
rwoehmke said:
According to some, we have just elected him. 2012 is too late.🤷
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Give me a break. What we’ve had for the past 8 years was divinely ordained? A particular political party is ordained? geese … as far as I’m concerned, this Congress and President can’t get out of Washington soon enough. What a DIS-GRACE. 🤷

God is “Just In Time” (JIT) to answer the question.
 
As others mentioned the Roman empire was perfect time for the early Christians to spread the faith.

Another reason may be that today technology may make many of the miracles appeear less spectacular or they may be ignored as hoaxes.

And another may be that being tortured and killed in a barbaric manner is much less likely today than it was back then. Not that such things are impossible, but so called civilized societies today are not in the habit of torturing and mutilating it’s citizens, especially not for religious disagreements (well maybe in the middle east it may not be so rare).

I think the biggest reason may be that folks today are much too skeptical, the media would make things look like a circus. Chirstian would appear like more of a cult and probably not taken seriously. Jesus would be like a rock star and maybe fade out like Beatlemania.
 
chaz0426:
Why do you think God/Jesus chose to live 2000 years ago vs. recently or even today?
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Probably because that would bring us too close to end times, and the elect and reprobate who are to be tested under the umbrella of Faith are numbered. So to realize the numbers there would be need for time to accumulate those numbers.

AndyF
 
A really good little book on this topic is The Scandal of Particularity by Emil Brunner. Brunner’s point is that it wouldn’t matter what time Jesus appeared; it still would be a “scandal” or stumbling block because the question would always be the same: “Why that time? Why there? Why the Roman Empire? Why the Jews?”

If Jesus was born in the 1900s in London or New York City or Buenos Aires, we’d still be asking the same questions, just with different times and locations. It is always going to be part of having a God Who moves in actual history.
 
chaz0426 said:
I always wonder why or what possible benifits if any would happen if Jesus as the messiah was born and lived in a society like today or even 200 years ago. I look at the world today and see so much sin. Although I’m sure the world was the same way sinfully when Jesus was alive 2000 years ago but it just seems so much more sinful and violent today especially today’s secular and growing atheistic societies, terrorism, abortion/contraception, separation of state, and much more. I often wonder what it would have been like if Jesus was born and lived a life within the last 200 years or so.

Also why was he born in the middle east?

I know these are all mysteries and only God knows but I want to hear any interesting speculations or theories as to God’s possible reasons.

Anyone?
Click to expand...
By the time Jesus came, the people chosen by God to deliver salvation to the world had had ample time to struggle with the Law and had continuously fallen short in their attempts to fulfill it-proving the Law to be inadequate for the purpose of producing holiness in anyone. Meanwhile, mankind had progressed in their thinking to the point where philosophers had proven by reason- outside of religion- the existence of God.
 
chaz0426 said:
I always wonder why or what possible benifits if any would happen if Jesus as the messiah was born and lived in a society like today or even 200 years ago. I look at the world today and see so much sin. Although I’m sure the world was the same way sinfully when Jesus was alive 2000 years ago but it just seems so much more sinful and violent today especially today’s secular and growing atheistic societies, terrorism, abortion/contraception, separation of state, and much more. I often wonder what it would have been like if Jesus was born and lived a life within the last 200 years or so.

Also why was he born in the middle east?

I know these are all mysteries and only God knows but I want to hear any interesting speculations or theories as to God’s possible reasons.

Anyone?
Click to expand...
The world is no more or less sinful that it has been.

Prophets have appeared throughout history calling us to turn towards God. Jesus comes to us each day, if we choose to see him. The incarnation of God is a daily event. Christians have been waiting (and waiting) for thousands of years for the second coming as though it is an event penciled in for the future. I like to think that the second coming is NOW, and that it is our individual responsibility to bring Christ again to our neighbors.
 
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