One hundred twenty-six million American citizens have stated they believe Jesus will return to this earth by 2050. Most of them await his arrival with mental pictures and images obtained from the blockbuster Left Behind series of books of LaHaye and Jenkins, or Hal Lindsey's portrayals in his book The Late Great Planet Earth. Both books are fictional images of the end of the world created from the nightmarish and ghoulish descriptions of the author of the book of Revelation who wrote of events he believed were to occur in the Roman world before the return of Jesus. It was to be a time of unimaginable horrors to come upon the world. We read daily of alleged apocalyptic signs occurring now which individuals believe point to the end of the age of which Jesus spoke.
When one reads in detail the book of Revelation, before the Prince of Peace sets a foot on planet earth, it will be a smoking mess resulting from plague after plague that Jesus heaps upon earth's citizenry before his arrival. Jesus is shown to arrive on earth much like that of the Dragon Lady in the Game of Thrones, heaping fire and brimstone upon the ecology of the earth and its inhabitants. He wears a garment dipped in blood.
This book is a bold walk through the Bible from beginning to end asserting that occupants of our planet are never going to ever see, the arrival of the characters portrayed in the prophetic books of the Old Testament nor John's already outdated visions on the isle of Patmos.
World renowned bible scholars and theologians now tell us that Jesus believed the kingdom of God was to arrive on earth in his day and that the kingdom of God would be ushered into the world through his work and ministry to the nation of Israel.
You will be introduced throughout to the Jesus of the Third Quest-a Jesus who is only understood by understanding the Judaic world in which he lived. Jesus, it will be shown, obtained all his beliefs from his family, his synagogue, his community, and his society. This book will open your eyes to Jesus of the third quest. He was very human, capable of mistakes, and badly mistaken about the arrival of the kingdom of God.
Christians generally think of Jesus being incapable of error, possessing omniscience and omnipotence, and having prior existence as God-wholly man and wholly God, as did the author. Third quest scholars and theologians tell us Jesus didn't see beyond the world in which he lived. Jesus expected to rule on earth in his day along with the twelve apostles.
Most likely Jesus died feeling he was forsaken by God in what he set out to do. Of Jesus disputed last words on the cross, the most reasonable choice may well be those of Matthew's gospel-"Eli Eli lama sabachthani-(My God, my God Why have you forsaken me?")