Second Thoughts About the Second Coming

Book excerpt: In the book, Second Thoughts About The Second Coming, teacher, author, and systems engineer, Joe Reeves deals with many aspects of the idea of Jesus second coming that are seldom considered by modern Christians; but, he does so from the standpoint of asking several critical questions. The basic questions he asks, and answers, in this book are, can a book of scripture, at some later date, come to mean what it never meant? Can a scriptural text, at a later date, come to mean what the author obviously did not intend it to mean to those of his original envisioned recipients to whom he wrote, and a meaning that the first recipients simply would not have understood? Then based on those answers, he asks and answers several questions about Jesus resurrection, His resurrected nature, and His ascension. Then based on the biblical answers to those questions asks and answers the question about whether or not Jesus and the biblical writers predicted a second coming. Using those questions, and the question of specifically what would those first-century Christians have understood about what modern interpreters call Jesus second coming, as the basis for study, Joe uses his training and experience in systems thinking, Bible, history, cultural anthropology, and logic and philosophical realism to formulate a system of thinking that challenges many of the modern assumptions upon which the four most common doctrines about Jesus second coming are based. For the person who wishes to learn more about how the first Christians would have used, and understood, the writings they received about Jesus and His life after His resurrection, this book is a must read.