Second Coming in the Sky?

[liamconnor]

Certain biblical authors talk of Christ returning from the sky: Acts and Paul.

Paul tells Christians that they will be caught up to meet him.


There is an obvious imaginative problem here: even if a figure should appear in the sky, that portion of sky will be visible from only so many miles. The number of people who could fly up to surround such a flying figure can only be so many; twenty, thirty?

At any rate, even during Paul's time people in Ephesus could not possibly see clouds in Thessalonia.


Did Paul believe that Jesus would literally return on clouds and therefore in one particular place in space? Or was Paul less interested in such literal details as he was in theological and apocalyptic precedents? Namely, Daniel's apocalypse, where

"I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. (Dan 7:13 NAS)

Daniel clearly uses symbolism throughout much of the book.

Do the early Christians use symbolism also when writing of Jesus' return?

[Benoni]

[Replying to Benoni]

For those who believe that God has no power to save those loss in the ages to here is another example that will benefit all heathen people:

Acts 15: 13-18 (ESV) 16(A) "'After this I will return,and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen;I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it 17that the remnant of mankind(B) may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles(C) who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things 18(D) known from of old.'

[onewithhim]

[Replying to onewithhim]

I did read every line and you're argument gave no reference to fallen angels or angels during the time of Noah. People lived and were part of the Noah story not angels. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah. So where is you're proof besides you're bias tradition?
I posted two verses that shows us people are spirits and people lived during the time of Noah and they were also disobedient and were BIG part of Noah's story. Show me you're angels in reference to Noah?????

You keep spouting forth your ideas and challenging others to prove their points and yet you don't actually read the points of others! You say that there was no reference to fallen angels during the time of Noah and I have shown you plainly that there WERE references to angels. So please don't call MY tradition biased!

"The sons of God [angels] saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves." (Genesis 6:2, NASB) The Great Flood occurred subsequent to this fact. (Verses 3-7.)

"For God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into Tartarus and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly." (2 Peter 2:4,5, NASB)

"And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode , He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day." (Jude 6, NASB)

These scriptures show that angels left heaven---their "proper abode"---to come to earth and have sex with human women. The earth became so bad that God caused the Flood, and these angels that sinned were "cast" into spiritual darkness. These scriptures tie everything together and give meaning to the passage at I Peter 3:18-20, which clearly mentions the disobedient spirits in the days of Noah.

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