The Christian faith began its existence as a first century apocalyptic cult. There were many apocalyptic preachers wandering the cities and countryside of ancient Palestine. Jesus Christ just happens to be the most famous of them. Despite the fact that he is regarded as the founder and central figure of a major world religion now, back then there was hardly any mention of him at all. There are a few mentions of Jesus Christ by contemporary historians, most notably Josephus, but other than that the silence is resounding. This contemporary silence gives people who think Jesus is a myth some ammunition, but no serious biblical scholar doubts that a historical Jesus did exist, and it is a fact of history that he was crucified.
What most people don't realize is how the Christian faith got its start. It began as a sect of Judaism who believed that they had found the Messiah in the apocalyptic preacher Jesus Christ. And it's easy to see in the Gospel of Mark how strongly apocalyptic the early Christian faith was. It's crystal clear from Scripture that the anonymous authors of the Gospels as well as all of the other New Testament authors clearly expected the rapture event and the end of the world to occur during their lifetimes. The apostle Paul speaks of "we who are alive and remain" in 1 Thessalonians 4. And the author of Hebrews asserts that in a "little while" Jesus will return in chapter 10. Jesus tells those who were standing before him that they would not taste death before he returned and the kingdom of God manifested with power (Mark 9:1). And in Matthew 10:23, Jesus tells his disciples that they will not go through all of the cities of Israel before the Son of Man returns. And there are over 100 verses in the New Testament that make it very clear that THE END was supposed to come back then, not thousands of years in the future. I have posted those verses elsewhere on this site.
But as time went on and Jesus didn't return, books such as 2 Peter were written and the apocalyptic message got muted until it was gone by the time that the Gospel of John was written. And over time the message of the Christian faith changed from an imminent apocalypse to a message of eternal salvation by trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus had failed to return within the lifetimes of his disciples and the people of that era, so the message had to change.
There is an excellent YouTube channel that I highly recommend called Escaping Christianity. The author of that channel, Robert Chalmers, does an excellent job of explaining these issues, and I would like to highlight several of his videos that I hope you will find very interesting and informative.
I encourage you to look around Robert's channel. He has lots of very interesting videos and information to share.
The Christian faith managed to survive the non-return of Jesus Christ and become a major world religion because the apocalyptic message got muted and the message changed to one of eternal salvation in Christ instead of an imminent first century apocalypse. Nevertheless, there are many Christians today who believe that the rapture is going to happen in our lifetimes, but they are doomed to disappointment just as the first century Christians were. Christians of every generation want to believe that theirs is the last and Jesus will return, and the apocalyptic message and prophecies get recycled over and over again.
For those interested, I highly recommend this book by Bible scholar Bart Ehrman.
Another great post.
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