An interpretation of Matthew 24:27-28

[Armozel]

Greetings to the Faith Community,
I'd like to introduce myself as a Gnostic Christian Buddhist, interested in discussing topics of a spiritual nature.
After struggling to understand the Nag Hammadi Library many years ago, I turned my attention to the Dead Sea Scrolls, and was amazed to learn how deeply they had influenced the writers of the New Testament. I was immediately struck by the synchronicity; the Nag Hammadi Library having been discovered in December of 1945, the Dead Sea Scrolls the following winter. Could this be something other than mere coincidence?
Taken together, these two entirely miraculous discoveries reveal to us the sectarian cradle of Christianity, and the long suppressed Gnostic Wisdom of Jesus. There may even have been a direct link between the Sethians of Nag Hammadi and the Essenes of Qumran. The Sethians may have formed as a splinter movement led by John the Baptist, with a new ritual, the Baptism of the Five Seals, resembling the jar consecrations of an early Buddhist tantra.
Please consider a spiritual interpretation of the synchronicity of Nag Hammadi and Qumran, based on an interpretation of Matthew 24:27-28, offered on this website:
https://secondcoming1945.com





I would be very interested in any comments you may have.
May the Lord be with you.
Eleleth

 

[whirlingmerc]

Greetings to the Faith Community,
I'd like to introduce myself as a Gnostic Christian Buddhist, interested in discussing topics of a spiritual nature.
After struggling to understand the Nag Hammadi Library many years ago, I turned my attention to the Dead Sea Scrolls, and was amazed to learn how deeply they had influenced the writers of the New Testament. I was immediately struck by the synchronicity; the Nag Hammadi Library having been discovered in December of 1945, the Dead Sea Scrolls the following winter. Could this be something other than mere coincidence?
Taken together, these two entirely miraculous discoveries reveal to us the sectarian cradle of Christianity, and the long suppressed Gnostic Wisdom of Jesus. There may even have been a direct link between the Sethians of Nag Hammadi and the Essenes of Qumran. The Sethians may have formed as a splinter movement led by John the Baptist, with a new ritual, the Baptism of the Five Seals, resembling the jar consecrations of an early Buddhist tantra.
Please consider a spiritual interpretation of the synchronicity of Nag Hammadi and Qumran, based on an interpretation of Matthew 24:27-28, offered on this website:
https://secondcoming1945.com





I would be very interested in any comments you may have.
May the Lord be with you.
Eleleth

"knowledge puffs up but love edifies" from Corinthians

I would say knowledge and mere intellectual ascent is not saving faith as "even the demons believe and tremble" according to James half brother of Jesus

 

[Armozel]

Thanks for your input, brother. In this interpretation of Matthew 24:27-28, the lightening out of the east would be the apocalypse of Hiroshima. "...and shineth even unto the west" would be the fireworks yet to come, a far larger blast than over Hiroshima, followed by nuclear winter and human extinction.

 

[Armozel]

However, the Son of Man has revealed himself, and his Gnostic teaching, and fulfilled his promise.

 

[Armozel]

Love and Knowledge are not in opposition.

 

[whirlingmerc]

Love and Knowledge are not in opposition.

Depends... mental ascent alone is one thing, loving the truth and being transformed by it is another

 

[Kenny]

I turned my attention to the Dead Sea Scrolls, and was amazed to learn how deeply they had influenced the writers of the New Testament.

How so?

and the long suppressed Gnostic Wisdom of Jesus.

How so?

Could this be something other than mere coincidence?; There may even have been; may have formed as a splinter movement led by John the Baptist; based on an interpretation

I have difficulty when there are many "could be; may have been; and interpretations " especially when I have records of what Jesus said.

Just my viewpoint.

 

[Deeje]

I would be very interested in any comments you may have.

It is difficult to take one part of the sign that Jesus gave in Matthew 24 without taking it all in context.

The setting for Matthew 24 is the Mount of Olives where Jesus was preparing his apostles for his departure and events that will be seen in connection with his return in the future. He promised that he was going to prepare a place for them in heaven and that he would return to take them "home". They wanted to know when they could expect that to happen.

Matthew 24:3...
"As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (NASB)

The first thing you notice is an error in translation here. The word translated "coming" is actually "parousia" which means "presence" so, unlike "coming" this is not just an arrival but an ongoing "presence" after that arrival. You will also notice the word "sign" in connection with this presence of Jesus in these last days, or what Daniel described as "the time of the end". (Daniel 12:4; 9-10)

Why would Jesus need to give a 'sign of his presence' if it was a visible event? The way I see this scripture is that straight away you have to acknowledge what Jesus actually said, rather than to just skip over these important details.

The "end of the age" would be identified by the sign of Jesus' "presence". This is not to be confused with Jesus' manifestation when he appears to judge the world. At that time, Jesus said that all the tribes of the earth would “see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”? Why have we not seen Christ Jesus in a glorious return? Is that not to be expected in view of the statement at Revelation 1:7
“Look! He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, and those who pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in grief because of him”?

So this sign is the beginning of a period of time when Jesus is present but not yet visible. His response to his apostles' question details the events, occurring on a world scene that would identify this time period like a fingerprint. It ends with his visible manifestation and his judgment on humanity.

War was the first part of the sign, followed by the description of multiple features and details of this composite sign as given by Jesus at Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21 and Revelation 6:1-8, including global wars, widespread food shortages, pestilences, earthquakes in many places, increase of lawlessness, anxiety and fear of the future, and an earthwide preaching of the “good news of the kingdom” by persons who would be persecuted in all nations. That composite sign is not only visible in this generation since 1914; it is clearly discernible to those with eyes of faith.

Even historians agree that the world scene changed in 1914 with the first global war the world had ever seen. It was not expected, but was the result of one obscure event that occurred in Sarajevo with the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand. They called it "the shot that was heard around the world" because the domino effect of that action, plunged the whole world into a war that would come to be called "The Great War"...yet when a Second World War took place, just over 20 years later, it was then called "The First World War". The earth has not known true peace since 1914.

The weaponry became more frighteningly sophisticated in the second global conflict with the use of nuclear bombs, but still within the fingerprint that Jesus gave. Man now possessed the ability to ruin the earth and bring about his own extinction. God promised to deal with that too. (Revelation 11:18)

I believe that we are deep into "the time of the end" and that Matthew 24:14 indicates that in this time period that Jesus would direct a global preaching campaign about his kingdom, so that when this period has run its course, and "the end" comes, the nucleus of those who will be the citizens of his incoming kingdom will have been chosen, based on their response to that message. (Matthew 28:19-20; Revelation 21:2-4)

I am not a fan of mixing true religion with false religion because we are counseled not to do that. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18) There is only one true religion and if we are sincere in our efforts to find it, God will lead us there. (John 6:44; 65) I believe it helps to know that we have a common enemy who masquerades as our best friend, leading us into religious ideas that might appeal to us on various levels, but are contrary to the teachings of God's only instruction manual.

That is how I see things.....

 

[Armozel]

Depends... mental ascent alone is one thing, loving the truth and being transformed by it is another

Knowledge can no doubt be used for good or for evil. Gnosis, knowledge of the divine, is not accessible to the prideful, at least so I'm told. It is the true Knowledge that delivers salvation; in Buddhism they call it "enlightenment."

 

[Armozel]

Ken,
You ask how the Dead Sea Scrolls influenced the writers of the New Testament, there are links on the website exploring those questions. Everyone is free of course to draw their own conclusions.
You ask how the Gnostic Wisdom of Jesus was suppressed? Carrying around documents such as those found at Nag Hammadi could get you executed, back in the day. From the Introduction to the Nag Hammadi ray, 3rd ed:

Early in the fifth century C.E. Shenoute, Abbot of the White Monestary, at the same Panopolis where Pachomius had founded monasteries ...attacked a group at the nearby temple that called itself "kingless," worshipped the "demiurge," and would not accept Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria, as their "illuminator." Those terms, which Shenoute seems to borrow from the group, are so well-know in the Nag Hammadi Librarythat it may have been a Christian Gnostic, perhaps a Sethian group, even though in his polemic Shenoute calls them pagan heretics... Shenoute threatened the heretics "I shall make yo acknowledge the Archbishop Cyril, or else the sword will wipe out most of you, and those of you who are spared will go into exile"

There's those pesky words "may" and "perhaps" again, but the suppression of various heresies, not just Gnosticism, but Arianism Nestorianism, Adoptionism, and the list goes on, is well known in the early Church, especially after Constantine. The Inquisition was established in 1233 the crush the reemergence of Gnostic doctrines among the Cathars of Southern France 800 years later.

As for the timing of the two discoveries right after the apocalypses of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that may have been just a coincidence, you think?

 

[Armozel]

Deeje,
Thank you for your very thoughtful post. I read Matthew 24:29 as a possible description of the night sky during the conditions of a nuclear winter, where the dust in the atmosphere block out the starlight, as was seen after the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. I interpret verses 30 and 31:

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

...as happening on some spiritual plane or dimension. I also believe the larger universe will continue long after we're gone, our story forever lost in time and space. Bear in mind, I'm a heretic!