The end times | Douglas Wilhelm Hard

To be completed...

We have looked at how the authors of Matthew and Luke copied from Mark, and how both likely copied from a third document or collection of documents mostly listing the alleged sayings of Jesus, a collection described as Q from the German word Quelle or source. We have also seen how when Matthew and Luke did not have a common source from which to refer, such as describing events prior to Jesus's baptism or events after his resurrection, they diverge wildly:

Matthew has Jesus being born before the death of Herod who died in 4 BCE, while Luke has Jesus being born after the deposition of King Herod's successor, Herod Archelaus, who was deposed in 6 CE, a full decade after the death of King Herod.
Matthew has the women at the tomb being told "Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him." after which, they disciples go to Galilee where they see Jesus, while Luke does not have the women being given these instructors, and instead, Jesus subsequently instructs the disciples to remain in Jerusalem ("While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father."), after which, Jesus ascends into heaven, never meeting the disciples in Galilee.

However, equally entertaining concerns the beliefs regarding the end times, culminating in the book of the Revelation of John of Patmos and we will contrast this with other statements about the end times written in previous books. We will look at the teachings of John the Baptist and Jesus, the beliefs of his followers, the teachings of Paul, and then John of Patmos. It must be understood, however, that the Revelation of John of Patmos was written many years after the gospels were written, which themselves were written many years after the authentic letters of Paul. We will contrast what John the Baptist and what Jesus said in relation to the framework of Second Temple Judaism and modern Christian beliefs.

We will begin by describing certain aspects of Judean beliefs at the time, at least for a portion of the population.

The kingdom of Judea rose out of a period during the Bronze Age collapse where imperial control of Canaan ended due to the diminishing power of surrounding Egyptian, Syrian, and Mesopotamian empires. Nomadic pastoral Canaanite herders who relied on imperial trade routes were forced to settle in the less-populated Judean mountains and Samarian highlands. There these cultures established kingdoms, and over time, the cultures in the Samarian highlands were united a single king, and one of these, Omri, managed to expand his suzerainty over an extensive region, including control over Judea. The independence of these cultures soon ended with the start of the gradual rise of the Iron Age and the growing dominance of the neo-Assyrian empire. This led to a significant migration south into Judea, which maintained nominal independence due either to the fact that there was little economic benefit in conquering and occupying the Judean mountains, or due to the protection provided by Yahweh.
This nominal independence lasted until the rise of the neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) empire, which conquered all of Canaan, and exiled the intelligentsia of Judea to Mesopotamia. It is at this time that Judean doctrine and history began to take shape. When the Chaldean empire was conquered by the Achaemenid (Persian) empire, the exiled Judeans were allowed to return to Jerusalem, where they imposed their new doctrines on those Judeans and Samarians who remained.
The Persian empire fell when it was conquered by Alexander the Great, and when he died, his lands were divided into three, and Canaan first was incorporated into the Ptolemaic (Greek) kingdom of Egypt, but then transferred to the Seleucid (also Greek) empire. It was under the Seleucids that Greek culture was imposed on the Judeans, and to this point, there is little clear reference to an afterlife beyond an existance in a place Sheol which would be the eternal home of the souls of both good and bad. The focus of Judean scriptures was that devotion to Yahweh and the keeping of the covenant would result in wealth and blessings in the hear and now, and yet, under the Greeks, those who abstained from eating pork, and those who circumcised their newborn sons were prosecuted, while those who embraced the enlightenment of the Greek culture prospered, and so eschatological ideas begin to be shared among the Judean worshipers of Yahweh. The righteous in Sheol were separated from the wicked, and the name was translated into Hades in Greek.
With the decline of the Seleucid empire, the Judeans initiated by the priest Mattathias ben Johanan and led by his son Judah Maccabee. The second son of Mattathias became the first regent of a semi-independent Judea, and as Mattathias was the great-grandson of Asmon, the rule of this family became known as the Hasmonean dynasty, and while they were of the line of Aaron, they did not have the right to either the position of King (which must go to a descendant of David) or the High Priest (which must go to a descendant of Zadok); however, this dynasty occupied both positions, and there was significant in-fighting between the Hasmoneans rulers. In time, this kingdom gained independence and expanded, conquering numerous surrounding regions including Idumea (Edom) in the south, the people of whom were allegedly descended from Esau. These people and others were forcibly converted to Judaism. This kingdom remained independent until the rise of the Roman empire.
The Roman Empire allowed Judea to remain a client kingdom, but installed a Idumean by the name of Herod on the throne, so not only was Herod not of the line of David, but he was not even of the line of Jacob, but rather the line of Esau. When Herod died in 4 BCE, the Romans divided his lands into three polities, giving each to one of the sons of Herod, including Herod Archelaus, Herod Antipas and Philip. In 6 CE, the Romans deposed Herod Archelaus and imposed direct Roman rule over his polity, establishing in his former lands the Roman province of Iudaea.

Jesus lived in Galilee under the non-Davidian and non-Judean ruler Herod Antipas most if not all of his life, while to the south, John the Baptist lived in a Judea occupied by the Romans for likely his entire adult life. Stories of an independent Judea were now only that: stories told of David and Solomon and the first Temple, and Cyrus the righteous, the Maccabean revolt and the second Temple. The harsh daily reality Jesus likely saw was the poverty of his village of Nazareth contrasted with the opulence of Sepphoris only five miles away, and John the Baptist no doubt witnessed the heavy-handed Roman occupation, with executions, punishments and burdensome taxes. In this setting, there are many possible choices for the beliefs of John the Baptist and Jesus as well as their followers, for it isn't difficult when one considers the myriad of early Christianities that followed: one need only look at Gnostic Christianity as well as the Ebionites while contrasting these with contemporary beliefs. However, we will only look at two possible frameworks for the beliefs of these two and their followers, and try to determine which is more reasonable given what is recorded in the Christian scriptures:

John the Baptist was an itinerant apocalyptic preacher in Iudaea who believed that the Kingdom of Yahweh was coming soon, certainly within his lifetime, and perhaps very soon. His message was to prepare Judeans for the coming kingdom, which would be ushered in by an anointed individual. This coming would see the vanquishing of the ruling Romans and other wicked and sinful people; while all the righteous worshipers of Yahweh would enter this kingdom together with the resurrected bodies of those righteous who had died and were in Sheol. When John the Baptist was arrested, one of those he baptized by the name of Jesus continued preaching his message, and Jesus himself gathered a following in Galilee separate from those who followed John the Baptist. At some point, Jesus became convinced that he was this anointed one who would usher in the Kingdom of Yahweh, and therefore had himself anointed. When the Romans were told of Jesus's anointing, they arrested him, changed him with sedition, and had him executed. His followers continued to believe that the Kingdom of Yahweh was coming, and some believed that Jesus had gone to Sheol but was resurrected to lead the entry of this kingdom: Jesus was the first of many who would be resurrected, and in time, after all the righteous in Sheol were returned to Earth, the kingdom would come and they all would enter. However, then weeks, and months, and years, and decades passed, and nothing happened, and the teachings and beliefs of the followers began to change to reflect this new reality.
John the Baptist was Elijah incarnate, and he was sent to Earth to announce the coming of the incarnation of one third of Yahweh (the "Son") who was never-the-less also all of Yahweh himself. This incarnation would have a message to tell people, but the message would not be written down for another fifty years. The purpose of Yahweh coming down would be to set the stage for an ultimate human sacrifice that would replace the animal sacrifices that the Judean people have had to perform for the past millennium, so this one-third part of Yahweh set the stage so that he would be executed by the Roman occupiers the day after the Passover meal. With this ultimate human sacrifice, the requirement to sacrifice animals was no longer necessary, and it was no longer required that priests mediate on behalf of the Judean people. Immediate passage to Heaven at death was now guaranteed simply by believing that this human sacrifice of Yahweh himself is indeed the ultimate sacrifice, and this offer of a passage to Heaven through belief was also made available to all other humans, as well as the Judeans. Jesus returned with a human body to Heaven but will at some point come back to Earth and establish the Kingdom of Yahweh at that point, when all the unrighteous will be vanquished. However, in the mean time, Judea continued to be occupied by the Romans, with Jerusalem and the Temple being razed 40 years later, and Judea being purged of all Judeans 100 years later, and Jesus still not returning after two thousand years, and Satan has been given authority on Earth during that period, feeding lies so that not only are his teachings misunderstood and misinterpreted, but his teachings would not even be adopted by the majority of Judeans. For over 1900 years, Yahweh's Chosen People would live throughout the world, often persecuted by the followers of Jesus, until finally they re-established a state in the middle 20th century.

We will refer to these two as the Second Temple Framework and the Christian Framework, respectively.

Apocalyptic teachings of John the Baptist

Now, John the Baptist taught that the end of the world was coming, and that this end would see the coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh being established on Earth. Words recorded concerning what was said by John the Baptist include those recorded in Matthew and Luke:

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

The coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh would also see an end to the Roman occupation of Judean mountains and Samarian highlands, the homeland of the nomadic pastoral Canaanite herders who settled in these more remote regions at the time of the Bronze Age collapse. Yahweh would establish his kingdom on Earth, and all faithful Judeans would enter while all others, especially the Romans, would be vanquished.

It is unclear how long John the Baptist was preaching his message, but he appeared to be a charismatic preacher and an outspoken one, seeing that he was ultimately killed for bringing attention to the forbidden marriage between Herod Antipas (who was divorced) and Herodias, the divorced wife of Herod II, the half brother of Herod Antipas. Suppose that John the Baptist has been engaged in his ministry for five years, in which case, the majority of those he is teaching would be expected to be alive by the time the Kingdom of Yahweh was coming. We will first look at how John the Baptist's teachings align with these two models.

If we take the Jesus-as-god model, where Jesus was an ultimate sacrifice replacing the endless parade of animal sacrifices occurring in Jerusalem, then nothing significant happened at the time of Jesus's execution, except for the ripping of the curtain in the Temple. There was no real need for repentance for this event: people continued to live their lives, only now, the followers of Jesus today claim that after Jesus's "sacrifice," it was "belief" in Jesus that was necessary to enter into Heaven upon death, and failing to do so would result in one being sent to Hell. Yet John the Baptist "proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." Is it not belief that Jesus's execution was a substitute for the animal sacrifices that would, within a few years, be the message that was required? Why did John not describe something even similar to this line of reasoning? The authors of the gospels likely were faithful in recording John the Baptist's messages and teachings, but nowhere does John the Baptist say anything about an upcoming substitutional sacrifice, one that would replace the continual animal sacrifices made at the Temple; nowhere does John the Baptist suggest that there would soon be a spreading of the message of Yahweh to not only the Judeans, but to all people; and nowhere does John the Baptist even hint that Yahweh himself was coming to Earth in human form. He could easily have said:

For those of you who have ears, listen, for Yahweh himself stands amongst you, and soon Yahweh will offer a sacrificial lamb so perfect that it shall cleanse not only the sins of all children of Abraham, but also for all gentiles to the four corners of the earth, and this sacrifice will not only cleanse those sins of today, but will cleanse all sins from now until the ultimate establishment of the Kingdom of Yahweh in the time of your children to the hundredth generation, long after this empire, and many empires thereafter are long gone.

John the Baptist, however, did not have any such message.

However, if we return to the beliefs of at least some of the Judean people, and likely the teachings of John the Baptist, they were anticipating that the Kingdom of Yahweh would come to Earth, and that with this coming, all the Romans would be vanquished and the Judean people would enter this kingdom. If this kingdom was coming soon, then repentance would be necessary, or at least, desirable. Recall that later, Jesus would still tell Pharisees that they would still enter the Kingdom of Yahweh, only after the poor and destitute. Also, John the Baptist believed that this Kingdom of Yahweh would be ushered in by some person who had been anointed by oil. However, the Kingdom of Yahweh foretold by John the Baptist never came, and Judea remained within the Roman Empire, with that control continuing under the Byzantine Empire (the eastern successor), until just before 600 CE when it fell to Shahrbaraz of the Sassanid empire, soon after which it absorbed into the Islamic Califate until the early twentieth century, with a century-or-so hiatus under the Christian crusaders.

Some apologists will claim that the Kingdom of Yahweh already came with Jesus's execution, but only in a metaphorical understanding. This idea, that the Kingdom of Yahweh began in 33 CE, however, seems to be questionable at best: not one verse in any of the Christian scriptures suggests that the Kingdom of Yahweh came with Jesus's execution, and Paul, many years thereafter (as we will see below), continued to proclaim that the Kingdom of Yahweh was still coming. One apologetic excuse that I have not yet heard was that the Kingdom of Yahweh was established when the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE. Perhaps up to this point, Judeans who sacrificed at the Temple could still seek entrance into Heaven, but with the destruction of the Temple, the only path into Heaven was the belief that Jesus's execution was the ultimate sacrifice to Yahweh. However, the destruction of the Temple and razing of Jerusalem saw a continuation of the occupation of Judea, so the Romans were not vanquished. Also, the Revelation of John of Patmos, written over a decade after the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, also maintains that the coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh is still an event in the future.

There are other claims associated with John the Baptist:

“Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.”

None of the gospels claim he actually said this, but rather, they all suggest that this was the intent of his message. Regardless of the message of John the Baptist, a charismatic preacher would not be worth his salt if he was not aware of these claims in Judean scriptures and repeated them.

After Jesus is baptized, we have:

And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

If Jesus was a human being, and the Spirit of Yahweh was

Consequently, with the current understanding of the role of Jesus as a sacrifice, what was the pressing need for John the Baptist's baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins? Why was John the Baptist preaching about the coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh, with no hint about the sacrificial role of the one who would follow him? However, if the Kingdom of Yahweh's coming was imminent (within a few years or perhaps a decade), repentance seems to be a reasonable requisite for entering this kingdom.

Apocalyptic teachings of Jesus

Before we begin with Jesus's teachings, let us consider who he was:

Under the Jesus-is-human model, Jesus was a human, born to human parents, and who believed that he was adopted the "Son of Yahweh" at his baptism by John the Baptist. At that time, a divine entity, the "Spirit of Yahweh" entered into Jesus the human being, and that spirit left him at his execution, saying "My god, my god, why have you forsaken me?"

Under the Jesus-is-god model, one third of Yahweh sends another third of Yahweh to Earth, but this is not enough, so at the second third's baptism, the third third comes down from heaven in the form of a dove to enter into himself. That third, however, leaves the second third when the second third is executed. Remember that the three parts of Yahweh are one and yet the one is three. Thus, Yahweh sent himself down to Earth and he himself, now incarnated, is baptized, at which point, he comes down from heaven in the form of a dove to enter himself, but while being executed, he yells "Me, me, why have I forsaken myself?"

Immediately after his baptism, in all three synoptic gospels (but definitely not in the gospel of John), Jesus goes into the desert to be tempted for forty days.

Under the Jesus-is-human model, this makes sense: Jesus was fallible and needed to be tested to see if he was fit to be the adopted Son of Yahweh. The forty days, no doubt, parallels the forty years of the children of Israel in the desert. In Matthew and Luke, it tells that Jesus was explicitly tempted by Satan offering him suzerainty over all the kingdoms of the world, and asking Jesus to test his new father by throwing himself off of the Temple. If Jesus was a human, such overlordship would certainly be tempting, and to be able to resist such a temptation would demonstrate a quality of such a person.

Under the Jesus-is-god model, this makes no sense: why is Satan even trying to tempt the person who created him? And what is there that could possibly tempt someone who is already god? Jesus is one third of god, and created the world, was there when the waters were parted, and was there when one of the three gods spoke through the burning bush. What did Satan actually think he could accomplish by offering Jesus, who has and controls everything, anything at all? It is a scenario that makes no sense, and while the authors of Matthew and Luke may have envisioned Jesus as having been "born" the Son of Yahweh (Yahweh being the father, and Jesus not pre-existing his own birth), the author of John already envisioned a Jesus who was the "Word of Yahweh" sent to Earth, and thus does not even include this forty days of temptation and instead immediately has Jesus gather his disciples and goes to Galilee to show his first sign: the turning of water into wine at a wedding to absolutely ensure that all guests present were totally drunk by the end of the evening.

In Mark and Matthew, Jesus begins his ministry upon hearing that his teacher, John the Baptist, is arrested:

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, ... . From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

In Luke, however, this is omitted:

Under the Jesus-is-human model, this makes sense: Jesus hears that his master had been arrested and decides to take up the mantel of his master, and so Jesus goes forth and continues to teach his master's message, but it seems that Jesus was even more charismatic than his master, and thus developed a following of his own in Galilee. Remember that John the Baptist taught in Judea, while Jesus was from Galilee, and it was in Galilee that Jesus continued teaching John's message.

Under the Jesus-is-god model, this makes no sense: why would Jesus need to wait for John the Baptist's arrest to begin his own ministry; after all, he is god, and thus, should he not have an agenda that does not depend on the person who baptized him being arrested? The author of Luke recognized this problem, and although he was copying from Mark, he left this passage explaining why Jesus began his ministry out of his gospel. Instead, the author of Luke took a story elsewhere in Mark that has Jesus being chased out of of Nazareth.

Let us now take a look at the story in Luke that sees Jesus start his ministry: he is chased out of Nazareth after reading the Judean scriptures during a Sabbath.

Under the Jesus-is-human model, this is still reasonable: Jesus was fallible and all of his neighbors and fellow denizens of Nazareth would have been aware of all of his weaknesses and issues and ego. If Jesus believed that he had suddenly been adopted the Son of Yahweh, such an inflated ego might have left his neighbors and fellow denizens of Nazareth more than a little frustrated with this egocentric upstart. If they didn't explicitly chase him out, they obviously didn't make Nazareth a welcoming place for this upstart to stay.

Under the Jesus-is-god model, this scenario makes no sense what-so-ever. Only a few passages earlier, on a visit to Jerusalem, Jesus as a youth is amazing the priests and scribes in Jerusalem. Would he not have performed similar demonstrations of wisdom and understanding in the village he called home for over twenty years? Would not every denizen of Nazareth, and perhaps from even further surroundings, have heard of this young prodigy so well versed in an understanding and interpretation of the Torah? Would not every denizen of Nazareth be aware of this person who, in the over twenty years that he lived in Nazareth, never once committed even one sin? Each denizen must have been aware of both of these aspects about this young god-like character within their midst, so why would they ask, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” Again, the gospel of John omits any such stories about Jesus.

During Jesus's ministry, Jesus allegedly healed many people, but the manner in which he healed people changed: for some, Jesus needed to touch the person, or the person had to touch the body (or clothing) of Jesus, in others, it was faith that healed the person who was ill, and in one funny story (John 9:1-12) in Jerusalem, Jesus spat on some dirt and put the resulting mud on the eyes of one who was blind, and then after the blind man washed his eyes in the Pool of Siloam, he could see; and (Mark 8:22-26) near Bethsaida (a small village near Capernaum that rejected Jesus's message), Jesus put his spit on the blind man's eyes, and at first the blind man sees trees walking, and then Jesus puts his hands over they eyes again and the man's sight is restored. In Mark 3:7-10, we have the following:

Jesus departed with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him; hearing all that he was doing, they came to him in great numbers from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and the region around Tyre and Sidon. He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him, for he had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him.

Huge crowds of people from all around Canaan are coming to see Jesus, but only for this one short window of time? These are regions that hare a hundred miles away from Galilee, and there was no public transportation at that time. If Jesus's fame was so widespread, would people not continually be coming from even further, such as Egypt or further north in Syria in continual caravans of sick and diseased? And why is Jesus only healing these people if they touch him?

Under the Jesus-is-human model, the last story likely never happened: if people were indeed coming from a hundred miles away, someone somewhere would have recorded this independent of a narrative written by a follower of Jesus forty years after Jesus's execution. However, forty years after Jesus's execution, someone could easily make up a story that people were actually travelling from throughout Canaan, from Phoenician cities in the north to Beersheba in the south and from even further including from the Negev desert even further south. As for the healings that Jesus performed, he would have been no more or less a charlatan as any faith healer today. The tricks used today would have worked back then: human psychology has not changed significantly in the intervening two millennia.

Under the Jesus-is-god model, this mish-mash of ways of healing seems absurd. If faith alone is enough to heal individuals under certain circumstances, would not making a 100-mile journey from the Negev desert to Galilee be a sufficient demonstration of faith? Why would an all-knowing, all-loving god play such games with those who are suffering? The Centurion's slave didn't even require faith, it was the faith of his owner that healed the slave.

When Jesus calls his disciples, he gives four of the twelve nicknames: Simon is called "cephas" or "rock" (which translates to "petra" in Greek), but Jesus would never have called him "petra" as Jesus and the disciples spoke Aramaic. The sons of Zebedee and Salome are called boanerges or "sons of thunder," which is a poor transliteration of the Aramaic bnē r‘am. Another disciple is called "the twin," so tōmā in Aramaic, transliterated to Thōmâs in Greek, and also called Didymus which is the Greek word for "twin." It says in John 11:16 that

Thomas, who was called the Didymus, said ...

and yet Thomas is the word "twin" and no Aramaic speaker would call him Didymus: they'd call him tōmā.

Under the Jesus-is-human model, giving nicknames to your followers would be useful for group cohesion and inclusion.

Under the Jesus-is-god model, what is the point of giving nicknames to your followers? Jesus came to Earth primarily to act as a some sort of substitutional sacrifice.

In Mark, a full story is told that is only abbreviated in Matthew and Luke, because in these, the mother and brothers of Jesus are saying that he has gone insane:

Then he went home, and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21 When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” ... Then his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

It seems that no one who Jesus is actually living actually sees anything significant about this person. Jesus is rejected at Nazareth, and we'll see that he is rejected at Capernaum, Bethsaida and Chorazin. Here, we have Jesus's own mother and brothers seeking to restrain him. These are the same people who have known Jesus for thirty years, have seen him grow up, and live as a young adult, and they, like so many others who are familiar with him, do not think of him in any way being special:

Under the Jesus-is-god model, this is awkward at best: remember, in just a few hours, Jesus as a twelve-year old was in such command of scriptures that "all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers" at the Temple in Jerusalem, and allegedly Mary and Joseph saw this, and yet, this event (together with the virgin birth, the gold, frankincense and myrrh) seem to have been forgotten.

Under the Jesus-is-human model, it seems that Jesus's ego and sense of self importance has begun to increase already at this point, and his family is legitimately concerned about his well being.

When the people of Capernaum--the town where Jesus apparently based most of his ministry--and two neighboring villages rejected his message, he condemned them starting in Matthew 11:21:

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.”

Remember, it was in Bethsaida where Jesus spat on the eyes of a blind man, who first saw walking trees, and then finally saw again; would not this entire village celebrate such a miracle? Why, after seeing such a miracle would they reject Jesus's message? Today, both Capernaum and Bethsaida are ruins and open to tourists. It was the people of Capernaum and its surroundings who refused to repent, not the buildings or the ruins thereof. Jesus meant for the people of these places to be punished, and they would be punished at the time of the coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh.

Jesus's message is rejected at Bethsaida, and yet only a few miles south, the following happened, according to Mark 6:53-56:

When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

If such great miracles were occurring in such close vicinity to Capernaum, would those of that town not have heard of this?

As described before, under the Jesus-as-human model, he seems no doubt to have been a charlatan healer, for if he was indeed performing the healings so described, he would have been recognized for such incredible miracles. Instead, this was just another part of Jesus's show.

Under the Jesus-as-god model, why not just heal the people, and more? Why did the sick wait in the market place and "beg" to touch the cloak of Jesus so that they might be healed. What happened to those unfortunate enough to not have the opportunity to do so, and why would Jesus not actively go out to ensure that all were healed, and not just wait for the ill to "beg."

We have the following story in Mark 6:7-13:

He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Again, examining this: What is this great concern with repentance? Jesus was there to be a substitutional sacrifice, and it was no longer necessary for persons to repent, but rather, believe.

Under the Jesus-as-human model, this makes sense: Jesus believed the kingdom of Yahweh was coming soon, and that it was necessary for people to repent to prepare for the coming of this kingdom. In this kingdom, there would be no sickness, and Jesus's disciples allegedly healed individuals who were sick and cast out demons; that is, attempted to heal the mentally ill. Those who rejected Jesus's apocalyptic message were rejected by the disciples.

Under the Jesus-as-god model, most of the people present here would still be alive when Jesus was executed: these people should have been told about this upcoming sacrifice. Why would Jesus reject those who refuse to repent, as there was no real need for such repentance: the people needed to understand that Jesus was to become a substitutional sacrifice.

In Mark 7:1-8, we have Jesus attacking the teachings of the Pharisees:

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders, and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash, and there are also many other traditions that they observe: the washing of cups and pots and bronze kettles and beds.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

The verses are from Isaiah 29:13. Let us consider our two models:

Under the Jesus-as-god model, Jesus would have known exactly why these rules were in place, and he would have known each and every discussion and debate that had been going on for the past hundred years, for after all, it was paramount that Jews obeyed the covenant with Yahweh, and this meant not transgressing on any of the laws set forth in the Torah. Washing of the hands prior to eating was just one simple rule that all Jews could easily follow to ensure that they did not transgress on a number of dietary laws under the assumption that the food that they were consuming was prepared correctly. With clean hands, there would not be contamination from anything unclean. As god, Jesus would have known this, and Jesus could have easily "amazed" the Pharisees with his knowledge and understanding. He could have then proceeded to explain how there would soon be a substitutional sacrifice that would end the need for such rituals, as the obligations of the covenant would be ended. He could easily have come up with an appropriate parable to tell this story.

Under the Jesus-as-man model, Jesus was sure the kingdom of Yahweh was coming soon, within a few years if not a few months or days. He had already simplified the message, for it was now necessary for all Judeans to repent and to prepare for the coming of this kingdom. There was no longer a purpose in keeping the entire covenant, and it was more important to follow the simplified version that Jesus taught, and thus, these Pharisees simply did not realize that the Kingdom of Yahweh was coming so soon, and so he attacked them. For a Jesus who was convinced that the Kingdom of Yahweh was coming, these Pharisees were impeding and hindering their flock: they were still focused on the covenant, but the covenant would soon be gone, instead, what was now that people repented and prepared for the imminent coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh.

To be fair, Jesus does actually call out the Pharisees regarding specific teachings regarding helping one's parents versus giving to the Temple. Jesus does continue on and explain that what comes out of a person makes that person unclean, not what goes in, and once again, in Jesus's simplified interpretation of the Torah, this makes sense; however, if Jesus was indeed god, he authored the original covenant, ensuring that it was ambiguous and the penalties for transgressing it could be severe, so why did he not instead clarify these rules when he originally authored these a millennium beforehand? What is interesting is that this is interpreted as Jesus making all foods clean, but this only makes sense under the current situation where Jesus is god and its been two thousand years since he was executed and resurrected. For Judeans, they were used to dietary restrictions, and their dietary restrictions matched the flocks they raised. This liberalization of the Torah was for the Greeks who eat pork, and to be fair, pork does taste better than mutton, but if Jesus was god, he could have been more clear about this, perhaps in a parable?

Next comes one of the sickest stories if Jesus was actually Yahweh in Mark 7:24-30:

From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” And when she went home, she found the child lying on the bed and the demon gone.

It is odd that Jesus would make such a long journey with no goal in mind what-so-ever, for the only story associated with this journey was one where the woman sought out Jesus. Nothing as to the purpose of this journey or what Jesus accomplished was recorded anywhere. Let us look through our two models:

Under the Jesus-as-human model, this is already the charismatic and growingly egocentric Jesus who already had his family so concerned about his behavior that they were trying to restrain him. For Jesus, this Phoenician woman was not of the tribes of Israel, and thus considered her a dog. Given that Jesus as a human was not a miraculous healer, nothing probably happened, and he was just getting rid of the woman.

Under the Jesus-as-god model, Jesus knew that he would soon be executed as a substitutional sacrifice, and that this message would be spread to the entire world for thousands of years: why not start now and why would a benevolent and all-loving god cause such a desperate woman to grovel before him. The entire purpose for him to come to Earth was to open the redemption of Yahweh for all humans, not just the people of Judea.

In Matthew, again, we see a pericope that suggests that Jesus was expecting the coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh. According to Christian doctrine, when you die, you are judged as to whether or not you go to Heaven or Hell, and perhaps you may go to Purgatory for a while. When Jesus is speaking to priests and elders (likely members the Sanhedrin) in the Temple in Matthew 21:23-32:

When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”

Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?”

And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why, then, did you not believe him?’

But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for all regard John as a prophet.”

So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.”

And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not,’ but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same, and he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?”

They said, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him, and even after you saw it you did not change your minds and believe him.

This is a week before Jesus is executed and resurrected, so if Jesus was aware that his death would be the necessary sacrifice and that people entered Heaven or Hell (or Purgatory) when they die, then the statement that tax collectors and prostitutes who believed him would enter the Kingdom of Yahweh first makes no sense: if they die without "believing" in Jesus's sacrifice, then they would enter Hell. However, if Jesus believed the coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh was imminent (within the lifetime of many who were present), then this makes perfect sense: the Kingdom of Yahweh was for the Judeans, and that would still include the priests and elders who did not believe Jesus and repent. Jesus believed that that kingdom was coming soon, and that his followers would enter that paradise first.

Jesus was a follower of John the Baptist, and when John was arrested, Jesus felt compelled to continue teaching John's message. Perhaps because of Jesus's charisma and his simplification of the requirements of the covenant, he gained a significant following, all of whom believed, as he did, that the Kingdom of Yahweh was indeed coming soon. At some point in his ministry, however, he seems to have become convinced that he would be the one leading the coming of this new kingdom, and thus had himself anointed. In Judean culture, the kings of Judea were anointed, and thus Jesus having himself anointed could be interpreted as having himself declare himself to be the King of Judea or the Son of God, either being in opposition to the Roman imperial rule. This would have been interpreted as sedition, and the punishment for sedition was execution by crucifixion. When Jesus travelled to Jerusalem during the Passover, it was his intention to announce this coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh, and he did so by, for example, upsetting the market at the Temple, an action that likely angered the Judean priests and aristocracy who benefitted most from a smooth Passover event satisfying the needs of the pilgrims and the Roman overlords. For some reason, one of the disciples (most likely Judas) became disillusioned with Jesus's teachings or actions and thus chose to inform the priests of Jesus's anointing. This information was all that was required for the priests to go to the Romans to have Jesus arrested and executed, which he was. His crime, declaring himself to be "King of the Jews" was written on a plaque over his head on the cross.

That should have been it for this person; however, he had gathered a significant group of followers, not only twelve disciples, but many others as well, and many had likely made a significant number of personal sacrifices to follow Jesus: after all, Jesus appears to have said “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple” and “So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” They believed the Kingdom of Yahweh was coming, that Jesus was the anointed one, and that Jesus would be the one who would lead the coming of this kingdom, but instead, he was now arrested and executed.

One idea behind the coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh is that all the dead would be brought back to life, so some seem to have believed that Jesus was brought back to life, and that he was the first of many to be resurrected as part of the coming of this kingdom. The author of Matthew even embellished this beginning of the end: "The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many." A wild story oddly missing from the other gospel accounts.

Mark 13:1-31

13 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”

2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”

5 Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. 7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

9 “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. 10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. 11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

12 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13 Everyone will hate you because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

14 “When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let no one on the housetop go down or enter the house to take anything out. 16 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 17 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 18 Pray that this will not take place in winter, 19 because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.

20 “If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them. 21 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.

24 “But in those days, following that distress,

“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
25 the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

26 “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

28 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 29 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Apocalyptic beliefs of his followers

Next, why do we require a resurrection of Jesus? According to modern interpretations, Jesus was in some awkward manner the incarnation of one third of Yahweh, while also being the incarnation of Yahweh. This was necessary, as Yahweh required blood sacrifices, and Yahweh also enjoys the smell of burning animals: “[Yahweh] smelled the pleasing odor.” Consequently, after thousands of years of animals being sacrificed, at great personal expense to those who worshiped him, and at great benefit for his priests who eat that meat, Yahweh finally had enough and comes down and sets up a situation where he is executed at Passover, so that he will become the last and ultimate Passover sacrifice. It was the death of Jesus that was the sacrifice, so why was it necessary to be resurrected? If Jesus was Yahweh before he was "conceived", then would he just not continue to be Yahweh after his body dies? What is the need for a resurrection, and then, why would Yahweh have to ascend back into Heaven with his cells and proteins and bones and nerves restored to the state that they were in when he was about thirty years old? Is Jesus, even today, in Heaven with a body that requires sugars and nutrients to survive? Does he continue to eat and excrete in Heaven? This narrative is absurd, at best: if Jesus simply had to die, there was no real need for him to be dead for one-and-a-half days or 36 hours (not three days and three nights) and then become resurrected: it was the execution that was necessary, not the resurrection. If Jesus had been executed and went to Heaven, that would have been all that was necessary. Instead, in addition to "dying" (it was only his earthly body that died, after all, he is omnipresent god), there is also this bizarre belief that Jesus went to "Hell" while his body was dead. This, too, makes no sense if Jesus is Yahweh, the all-powerful, omni-present, all-knowing god that created the universe together with Hell. Was Jesus's soul for those few days suddenly also constrained to a single entity that descended to Hell, the same way that Jesus was constrained to a "body" while on Earth?

However, if, instead, we consider this within the context of certain first-century Judean beliefs, including the apocalyptic beliefs espoused by Jesus: when Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph, adopted the Son of God at his baptism, died, his soul went to Sheol, This was not "Hell" as understood by contemporary followers of Jesus, but rather, a place of darkness into which souls entered after death. Jesus stayed in Sheol for 36 hours spanning three days, but definitely not three days and three nights, and then was resurrected to lead the coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh: he was to be the first of all souls of all Judeans who would enter into the Kingdom of Yahweh when it came, and Jesus was just the first to leave his tomb. In Matthew 27:52, it says

52 The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many.

These souls were, no doubt, the vanguard of all others whose souls would be raised from Sheol and who would enter the Kingdom of Yahweh with Jesus. Jesus himself, however, first ascended into Heaven so that he could be that individual who usher in the coming Kingdom of Yahweh to Earth, as Jesus had taught.

However, days turned to months, and months turned to years, and with the destruction of Jerusalem, one had to continue to answer the question: when was the Kingdom of Yahweh coming to Earth? When would the Roman occupiers be vanquished?

Let us look at a letter by Paul to his church in Thessaloniki 1:10:

...to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

The emphasis here is that Jesus was raised from the dead, with no reference to Jesus being a god who existed before Jesus was born nor that Jesus was the same as Yahweh, just somehow different. Instead, Jesus was dead and resurrected by Yahweh. What does it mean for an all-powerful god dying and then he himself raising himself from the dead? This, however, is more in line with Paul's understanding that Jesus was in some way an incarnation of a divine being, perhaps an angel or messenger of Yahweh, perhaps even the Word of Yahweh.

To continue in the letter, however, the first four chapters are simply platitudes and flattery heaped upon the recipients providing reasons and excuses for their suffering. Thus, we get to 4:13

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever.

First, we note that Paul does not take the opportunity to describe contemporary beliefs about souls going to Heaven to be judged, with those who believe entering the "Pearly Gates" while all others being sent to Hell. Instead, the focus is on the coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh, something that Paul seems to continue to believe to be imminent, and not an event waiting to happen after two thousand years. Paul is still referring to a resurrection and it does not seem that the souls are returning from Heaven, where they are with Yahweh, to be resurrected on Earth. Instead, the understanding that souls go to a place like Sheol, waiting for the resurrection, seems more in line with what Paul is explaining. Jesus was resurrected, and all those others who have died will also be resurrected, and then "we who are alive, who are left" will also ascend, like Jesus after his resurrection, to enter the Kingdom of Yahweh. If souls go to Heaven upon death, none of this makes any sense, and Paul could have more easily said:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will welcome into Heaven those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will follow into Heaven those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air together with all those who have already entered Heaven, and so we will be with the Lord forever.

But the current understanding of Heaven, souls, and the afterlife were not Paul's understanding. At that time, it was understood that souls went to Sheol, and that there would come a time, very soon, where the Kingdom of Yahweh would come, and those who had died would be resurrected, and enter the Kingdom of Yahweh, and so too would those followers who were still alive.

Unfortunately, to have souls existing Sheol after hundreds of years, patiently waiting to be resurrected, is not that enticing, and thus followers began to change their understanding of the afterlife, and instead, reformulated their understanding to be one where the soul immediately, upon death, enters either Heaven or Hell. This idea, however, cannot be reconciled with the beliefs and teachings of Paul.

The balance of the letter to the church at Thessaloniki again, as is consistent with the teachings of Jesus, suggest that the coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh is imminent, and not an event that would occur two thousand years and perhaps a hundred generations into the future. He refers to

For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation...so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.

Here, again, Paul refers to those who are "awake or asleep," meaning, those who are alive or dead, so again, reinforcing the belief that some will still be alive at the coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh.

Years passed and the Kingdom of Yahweh did not come, despite

Jesus saying that the Kingdom of Yahweh will come in the lifetime of at least some to whom he was speaking, and
Paul suggesting that at least some of those who are alive, including himself, will enter into the Kingdom of Yahweh when it finally comes.

Thus, someone forged a second letter from Paul allegedly written to the same church. This shorter letter is a summary of Paul's letter, but has a completely different approach. First, it begins with revenge porn: the followers of Jesus are being prosecuted and are enduring afflictions at the hands of those who do not follow Jesus. Thus, the forger begins with a description of what will happen to those who persecute Jesus's followers:

For it is indeed just of God to repay with affliction those who afflict you...
when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in a fiery flame, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might...

If one is being persecuted, nothing is more joyous to hear but that those who are doing the persecution will subsequently be persecuted. Does not Jesus say to turn the other cheek? Should not this forger, instead, be insisting that the followers of Jesus love those who persecute them? Should not the followers of Jesus be encouraged to spread the gospel to those who persecute them, hoping to save at least one soul?

The forger then, in the second chapter, reinterprets the understanding of the coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh:

As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction.

The forger is here referring to a "letter, as though from us" possibly referring to the known letter of Paul to that church. The forger then introduces the need for a "rebellion" and a new figure, the "lawless one." This figure is not described by Jesus or by Paul in any of his authentic letters, but the forger needs to explain why, many years after Jesus died and was resurrected, that the Kingdom of Yahweh has still not come. Thus, this suggests that despite the situation being bad, it must first become worse before the Kingdom of Yahweh will come. There is, however, an assurance that this "lawless one" will be defeated and destroyed.

Let us see how the forger describes this new figure:

He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God. Do you not remember that I told you these things when I was still with you?

Such a figure has not occurred, but note how the forger suggests that Paul has previously described this figure? In all the authentic letters of Paul, and in all the teachings of Jesus, this figure is never mentioned, but the forger is trying to impose a memory on his audience.

Next, the forger suggests that this figure is already at work, but is still being "restrained," and only once those restraints are removed will this figure be revealed. This is, of course, immediately followed with a reassurance that this figure will, never-the-less be destroyed:

And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed when his time comes. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming.

The forger then continues to describe the actions of this figure, associating it with Satan:

The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned.

We are now back to revenge porn: Yahweh and Jesus are explicitly deluding those who follow this figure, and Yahweh and Jesus are leading those to believe this figure, and thus, they will be condemned. No doubt, the followers of Jesus are trying to spread their message to their persecutors, and yet, the persecutors are not accepting this message of Jesus. This reassures the followers that the reason that the persecutors are not accepting the message is not because it is false, but because they are being deluded and being led to believe what is false.

Thus, this forger of this second letter to the followers at Thessaloniki has introduced a new idea into the narrative: the Kingdom of Yahweh is still coming, but not before this "lawless one" appears. Jesus taught that at least some of those to whom he was speaking would still be alive when the Kingdom of Yahweh comes, yet a half-century has passed and all the earliest followers are now dead or in old age.

Interestingly, while this letter written by the forger contains many of the teachings of Paul's authentic letter to Thessaloniki, it does not include any of the discussion contrasting those who are alive and those who have already died, and how those who have already died will be raised and enter the Kingdom of Yahweh first. This is likely a consequence that most of those who Paul first converted are now dead. The emphasis of the forgery is not the imminent coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh, but rather it delays that coming by introducing a new figure, this "lawless one" and the need for the situation to deteriorate even more for the followers, with, of course, the necessary reassurances that all this is so that the followers will subsequently be made worthy of the coming reward: "This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God and is intended to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering."

As more time passes, and the Kingdom of Yahweh does not come, it now becomes necessary to introduce an even more radical description of what must first occur before the Kingdom of Yahweh comes, and that is authored by one John of Patmos, but before we go there, it is necessary to emphasize that the understanding of Jesus by his followers and Paul, and how this understanding evolved, and how changes resulted in re-interpretations of narratives that fit into the old understanding.

The original understanding was that Jesus was a human, perhaps adopted the Son of Yahweh at his baptism, and who was then executed for sedition by the Roman state. Also, the understanding at the time was that souls went to Sheol, and waited there for a time of resurrection, and this was to coincide with the coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh on Earth. At the end, Jesus saw himself as being the one who would usher in the Kingdom of Yahweh on Earth.
1. Under this interpretation, Jesus dying and being resurrected makes sense, as he went to Sheol and his resurrection and subsequent ascension into Heaven makes sense.
2. Under this interpretation, the raising of the dead together with the living entering the Kingdom of Yahweh makes sense, and the additional details in the letter by Paul to his congregation in Thessaloniki just suggests that this will be through ascension and not just through entering into that kingdom. However, nothing suggests that there is a change to the narrative or understanding that the Kingdom of Yahweh was coming to Earth.
The contemporary understanding is that Jesus is Yahweh and has existed for all time in Heaven, and that Jesus came to Earth and intentionally came here to be a sacrifice. Upon death, souls either go to Heaven or Hell, and for some reason, Jesus went to Hell while his body was dead. Jesus then returns to his body, and then ascends back to Heaven.
1. Under this new understanding, the purpose of going to Hell is not well explained. This is, after all, Yahweh, the creator of everything, so how going to Hell could be anything significant is beyond my understanding. Certainly no one benefits, and there is no theological reason to require this trip: it is his execution that caused the curtain in the Temple to be torn. Also, if Jesus is Yahweh, what is the purpose of returning to a physical body of proteins and calcium, and to then have that physical body ascend into Heaven?
2. Similarly, as every soul enters Heaven or Hell upon death, the narratives throughout Christian scriptures make less sense: if souls are already in Heaven, and some souls have already been there for two thousand years, what is the purpose of the resurrection of bodies? Do all souls after two thousand years return to gain back their protein and calcium bodies, together with their original DNA, just to return to Heaven? One American preacher, John Nelson Darby around 1833, thus reinterpreted Paul's teachings (likely in light of what is written in the Revelation of John of Patmos), suggesting that all believers will ascend into Heaven at some point called the Rapture. Instead of having this ascension coincide with the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven, this ascension now has all others who are not followers of Jesus remain on Earth.

The description of the end times makes so much more sense and are much more harmonious with the idea that souls go to Sheol, and at some point, there is an event that sees both the coming of the Kingdom of Yahweh and the resurrection of the dead. As the interpretation of Jesus changed so that ultimately he was Yahweh himself (although still the same entity to maintain the illusion of monotheism), stories and narratives no longer made sense: of course souls immediately go to Heaven or Hell, it would be absurd for followers to wait in Sheol for hundreds if not thousands of years. It is much less rewarding if you are told you will die, and then your soul will go to some dark area below the surface of the Earth, and there you will wait, along with billions of other souls, for the Kingdom of Yahweh to finally come to Earth. Early followers of Jesus realized it is much more of a carrot if you promise immediate paradise upon death: if you die for Jesus, you are immediately rewarded in Heaven.

Thus, on to John of Patmos.