Why we need the Second Coming right now
No Jesus necessary ...
The 'second coming' of Christ is a transformation of human consciousness, a shift from time to presence, from thinking to pure consciousness, not the arrival of some man or woman.
– Eckhart Tolle
Pray that the Second Coming will be soon, but do not rest with that.
– A Course in Miracles, Chapter 9
As a Southern Baptist child, I was told that the Second Coming of Christ would be a bloody affair. First, all the faithful would be raptured to heaven – snatched up from whatever they were doing in that fateful moment and bodily sucked up into the air toward heaven. There were films about it in my Sunday school classes that featured bewildered bystanders seeing people vanish before their eyes, leaving only a pile of clothing behind. (We’re all nekkid in heaven, apparently, or at least while we’re being fitted for our robes and harps!)
I recall one scene in these awful movies where a reporter is doing a live shot about all of the sudden vanishing going on when the camera drops to the ground. The cameraman had been raptured, leaving behind his poor, sputtering reporter friend. I laughed at this many years later after spending some time working in television. There were no camera operators I knew who would qualify for the rapture!
After all the vanishing was over, the vanquishing would begin. I was taught that Jesus would return for the “tribulation,” which would feature the macho, war-mongering Jesus on a valiant steed, leading the battle to slay the infidels. My strain of evangelicals never did take too kindly to the squishy, gentle shepherd image of Jesus. Ours was more like Rambo.
I quit believing in this version of the “Second Coming” a long time ago – many years before I discovered A Course in Miracles or the writings of Eckhart Tolle. My ideas about it, though, seemed to be similar to A Course and Tolle even back then. When I first moved to South Carolina nearly 20 years ago, a hairdresser I went to at the time asked me what I thought about the rapture and the Second Coming. I replied simply, “I believe Jesus comes back every single day, and every single day we torture and crucify him all over again.”
What I received in reply was a really bad haircut.
A Course and Tolle both are clear, though, that the Second Coming has nothing to do with vanished faithful and vanquished sinners. "The Second Coming," according to A Course in Chapter 9, "is merely the return of sense." It "means nothing more than the end of the ego’s rule and the healing of the mind," A Course states earlier in Chapter 4.
This is the Good News Jesus came to proclaim. The Second Coming is the time that we all realizing who we all truly are – thoughts in the Mind of God that have never left their Divine Home in God. We are to pray that the Second Coming will come soon, not because we'll enjoy seeing those we hate being vanquished, but because it will be a joyful time for everyone. The Second Coming truly means that we realize our unity and the world that ends is this ego world that runs on judgment, hatred, fear, and division.
The world needs this kind of Second Coming right now. We appear to be hopelessly divided in the US, and strongmen are ascending to power or consolidating their power in other nations around the world. Here at home, voter suppression, the stripping away of women's rights to their own bodily autonomy and other looming moves toward autocracy are threatening our democracy and our ability to remember our unity.
If we allow it to, recognizing this division and moving toward unity within our own heart and mind can prepare the way for this Second Coming. I admit I am anxious about the state of the world, but A Course reminds me that I need to be praying and working for the true Second Coming to descend upon us – the event that restores the world to its One Identity as innocent, forgiven, and beloved Children of God.
Lesson 301 in the workbook from A Course reminds us that “God … shall wipe away all tears.” We weep in this moment because “we did not understand,” this lesson says. We believed the lie that the Second Coming was about some person who comes with a sword and vengeance to wipe out the infidels and evil-doers. As Tolle reminds us, no such person exists. The ego wants us to believe that some of us deserve destruction while others deserve redemption. This is the ego’s lie that we have believed. Indeed, this lesson tells us that “God’s world is happy. Those who look on it can only add their joy to it, and bless it as a cause of further joy in them.”
Again, the ego wants to inject what “happy” means, but this word, in the context of Love means a never-ending joy that is not contingent on whatever is happening around us.
The Second Coming is not about vanishing people and vanquishing sinners – it is about the vanishing of fear from our world. It is about the disappearance of our tribalism, division, and separation. In the Second Coming we see clearly that our judgment of ourselves and others has created this illusion of separateness, but in Reality, we are one being having multiple and disparate bodily experiences.
That is why this Lesson 301 invites us to ask God: “Let me see Your world instead of mine. And all the tears I shed will be forgotten.”
Today, and every day, let us not give in to those tears of fear, judgment, or anxiety. Instead, may we embrace the Second Coming that reconciles us all to Love and returns us to our true sanity, which we have never lost.
Your turn: What were you taught about the “Second Coming”? Are you willing to see it as a hopeful event that brings unity to everyone, no matter how we may feel about them?
Catch up with Jubilee! Circle celebrations
Watch the message from Sunday, Sept. 11. We’re nearing the end of our Via Positiva theme of “Oh! The Humanity!” This week, we took a unique look at “The Shame of Humanity.”
If you would like to support my work, please consider making a donation to Jubilee! Circle. It’s easy to give online.
Want to learn more about A Course in Miracles?
NEW DAY AND TIME! Jubilee! Circle hosts an informal discussion group about A Course in Miracles every Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time. If you’re in the Columbia, SC area, you can join us in-person at 6729 Two Notch Road, Ste. 70 in Columbia. If you’re anywhere else in the world, join us by Zoom using the link below. Whether you’re new to ACIM, or have been studying it for years, this is a low-pressure, friendly environment to learn more and grow together! Join us:
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86088245457?pwd=bWd6QzhscGlUYnFnYUU1dy9uTUVMZz09
About the Motley Mystic:
The Motley Mystic is an online community for people who have realized that the truth speaks with many voices. There is no one religion, philosophy, institution or dogma that captures the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth. No one needs to swear allegiance to one line of thought or belief to discern Truth, because Love is the only thing that’s real. That’s what we explore at the Motley Mystic - all the tools and strategies we need to remove our barriers to Love and live fully as our true, Divine Self.
Candace Chellew is the founder of Motley Mystic as well as Jubilee! Circle, an interfaith spiritual community in Columbia, S.C. She is also the author of Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians published in 2008 by Jossey-Bass and the founder and senior editor emeritus of Whosoever: An Online Magazine for LGBTQ People of Faith. She is also a musician and avid animal lover.