If Jesus physically came back today would Christians actually accept him?

I think some would and many wouldn’t – same as the first time.

Once they discovered that he would ask for the equal rights of gays, they would call him a hoax lol.

Assuming that Jesus/Yeshua/Joshua was a real, historical person; not assuming at all the he was in any way divine or divinely sent, divinely guided, or divinely annointed, etc. his message would be as dangerous and upsetting to the status quo and the power brokers as it was 2000 years ago. It got him killed then. It would probably get him killed again. Perhaps by assassination rather than a state-sponsored execution, like the first time. Just speculating here, as it an entirely speculative question.

Wow! Great question! @Simone_De_Beauvoir It’s not exactly like it was then. Christianity, which is based totally on the teachings of Jesus, wasn’t around then. People who call themselves Christians today supposedly follow the strict teachings of Jesus…but would they really agree with him if he came back and talked to them directly even though they say they do?

GA @lillycoyote. Man, I wish this was in the social section!

The modern day Christian will miss the second coming of Christ every bit as much as they accuse the Jews of missing the first coming.

They will not recognize him.

i’m guessing some would, just like when he first came it took a long time for them to realize that he was the real son of God. i think it would take time for all of us christians to see that it was really him..

@Dutchess_III I understand what you’re saying but I believe nobody would believe that Jesus was actually Jesus. They’d think he was some other prophet.

@Dutchess_III “Christians today supposedly follow the strict teachings of Jesus”

That’s a laugh. I’m glad you said supposedly. There were no strict teachings of Jesus. The strictness came when The Way turned into the religion of Christianity. Jesus gave one commandment. One that fulfilled the law and encompassed all other commandments.

Jesus told us to “Love one another”. That’s all he commanded us to do. Very few people, including Christians are capable of such a monumental task. I certainly struggle with it.

I agree with most of the opinions on here myself. I do not think many mainstream Christians would accept the second coming of Jesus. He would be considered the antichrist if more than anything. I asked this question on a Christian Q & A forum, the responses to me weren’t pretty.

@Dutchess_III I had a good reason for putting this in the general section. I take this kind of thing very seriously. I also didn’t want to turn this into a “prove he existed” argument as I explained in my question.

Well let’s remember that Jesus consistently told his disciples not to tell anyone who he was. He also told those he healed not to mention what had occurred. He was extremely modest and never once claimed to be God or the Son of. That’s what others said about him. Jesus consistently referred to himself as “I, the Son of Man”.

The AntiChrist will not be so modest. He will supposedly claim to be God and demand our worship, after of course he deceives the masses into believing his divinity.

But I think the AntiChrist will be a woman anyway.

@AmWiser His most likely name was Yeshua Ben Yosef. My computer screen is acting up, turning green. Forgive if I spell something wrong.

Let’s see—“Render unto Caesar’s…” “The last shall be first, and the first shall be last…” “Do unto others…”

I’m thinking at the very least he will not be showing up at any Teabagger events or Christian mega churches?

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Yes…you are right. But what if they had no choice, eventually, than to accept that it really was Jesus. Whatever would they do?? As Lilly said, it’s an entirely speculative question.

@Jabe73 I understand….thanks.

@RealEyes,...yes Jesus WAS strict, but his message was really simple. The words “Jesus told us to Love one another” could be the title of a book, with some really simple examples of how to do that inside. One of those examples is “Don’t get snarky with people for no reason.” I am Born Again, and was very active in the church (Pentecostal) in the 80’s. Since then I’ve wandered away from organized religion because of what I see as utter hypocrisy on the part of the majority of the people, especially those who preached about their Christianity like it…lifted them above everyone else and they could do no wrong. It was so blatant and encompassing and so obvious, I couldn’t take it any more. I couldn’t take the blindness. I couldn’t take the “Well, since I’m a Christian anything I do is OK,” attitude any more. I couldn’t take, “The Lord told me to leave my wife and children for a woman fifteen years younger than my wife,” kind of thing. So many, many things I encountered personally among my fellow Christian.

At those who are arguing the semantics of his name: It doesn’t matter what his name “really” was. It’s his message that mattered.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Yes, “doing unto others as you would have them do unto you” and unconditional love for everyone is alot more difficult than already accepting someone payed the price for your sins so you can go out, be a hypocrite and sin on a regular basis, even harrass or screw other people over because you are already “saved” by your belief or faith because you can never be good enough, we are all sinners in god’s eyes and we all fall short of the glory of god so faith will save us, not works so no one can boast of them. Pretty clever setup by the religious zealots. Now all you have to do is add the threat of an “eternal hell” and bingo, you have your slaves.

@Dutchess_III Yes, didn’t want it to branch off into a “prove god exists” argument. Social questions tend to drift.

@Jabe73 There are some good Christians out there who really aren’t hypocrites. They really do try, and they really do change when they need to. But they’re the ones who recognize themselves as falling short, so they aren’t so vocal and certain in their preaching. They’re more reserved because they recognize that by preaching they’re putting themselves out as emissaries of Jesus, and that’s a huge responsibility. Yes, we all fall short, but the real ones actually understand that and act on that understanding. The hypocrites take that responsibility lightly because…they’re self righteous and can do no wrong. They think everyone but THEMSELVES fall short Those are the ones who drove me away from organized religion.

Also, I’m glad you thought it out when you decided to post it here. I would hate to be looking in on another “prove he exists” argument too. This is working just fine as far as getting into debate mode! :) Said just as she’s getting ready to go to bed, ha ha!! Good work!

At the risk of compromising the boundaries of the question I’d like to note that there have already been many people that have come forward claiming to be Jesus and they have been almost universally ignored. Personally I suspect that when all is said and done claiming to be the reincarnation of a 2000 years dead god-man just isn’t very believable, no matter what your religious belief.

I see Jesus as a man who saw the injustices of his time, and decided to do something about it. His message wasn’t so much about what you should do, it was primarily about what you shouldn’t do. For example “love you neighbour as yourself” uses hyperbole for effect, but essentially means “treat all people ethically.” It is a statement to drive people away from a certain set of ideas, rather than promoting a specific rule of ethics to follow.

If Jesus came back today, he would emphasise other injustices, since our world faces different issues to the primitive times he faced. He seemed to like radical ways of making his point, so today he would probably get into trouble with the law just like he did in his day. Countries with civilised legal systems no longer have the death penalty, so he would probably be faced with lengthy imprisonment following his breach of several gag orders.

@FireMadeFlesh I disagree absolutely. People are not at all different than they were 2000 years ago. What is it in the Gospels, what is it in the message that Jesus preached that wouldn’t serve humanity well today And the message wasn’t about what one shouldn’t do. That is the message that the church preaches, not the message of Jesus. Have you actually read the Gospels or is your knowledge of what Jesus said based mostly on what other people say he said or say he meant? I am not a christian, but if you read the gospels, if you read what, according to the gospels, Jesus said, it was most certainly a message that promoted a very specific set of ethics to follow. People who call themselves Christians have rejected and ignored that set of ethics taught by “Jesus.” And the U.S. is supposed to have one of the most advanced and civilized systems of justice in the world and we just love executing people.

@lillycoyote I have actually read the whole Bible, more than once. Like most people who have struggled with the traditional interpretation offered by traditional Christianity, I have formed my own abstraction that reads beyond the words. It doesn’t really matter though, because Jesus may not have existed, and the stories we do have about him are obviously heavily fictionalised. If people can find good ideas in his teachings, then good. If not, discard them at will.

From the little I know of the US justice system, it sounds more like revenge than justice, with a little soft touch thrown in for minor crimes because the jails are overflowing. But that is another issue for another day.

Considering how many Christians use the No true Scotman fallacy to calim that this or that sect is not actually Christian, I would have to say that many Christians would not accept Jesus if he actually returned.

If nothing else, there is a high probability that he doesn’t match their preconceived notions of him. (That same probability is also why I am a devout Agnostic; I do not beleive us humans can comprehend the true nature of the divine) For instance, if he voted for Obama, many Christians would denounce him and/or claim that he isn’t actually Jesus. The same goes for promoting peace instead of invading the Middle East, tolerating homosexuality, helping the poor, etcetera.

Of course, I think that the US would mount the biggest opposition just on general principle so it’s hard to say for sure how the Christians in more rational parts of the world would react. I mean, it’s hard to draw the line between the stupidity caused by flawed faith and that caused by society. I draw my conclusions based on the Christians I see, and most of them are American.