The Second Coming and Judgment

There are many people who are convinced we are living in the end times.  What is your opinion on this? 

Throughout the centuries there had been popular consensus that they, who preached it, at that point of time, were living in the end times.  Thousands of years later and we are still here and still proclaiming that we are living in the end times.  There are, actually, not many predictions that have come true.  Even our friend, St. Paul, sincerely believed, and taught his congregations that they were living in the end of days.  He believed that those who were alive at that time, including himself, would not physically die, but be raised up in the clouds and taken to be with the Lord.  He regarded that the saints that had already died were simply asleep in Christ and were waiting for a predetermined day of judgment and hellfire, during which time they would awake.  This moment of judgment, they believed,  was reserved for their day.  We all know that St. Paul was not physically lifted up into the clouds but ended up dying quite a miserable physical death.  As did all of Christ's disciples.

Based on my own spiritual experiences I have slight revelations about this teaching "asleep in Christ."  Death is simply a transition from one state of consciousness to the next.  During the transition, yes, a spirit can fall into a state of 'sleep', and remain asleep perhaps for a long time.  But this is not the sleep Paul meant.  I have no idea, where upon his level of spiritual experience, of which he had many, from where he derived this notion of "asleep in Christ."  Remember, God is the god of the living and not of the dead.  He himself refers to a "sacred secret" where, "we will not all die, but at the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet calls, we shall all be changed."  This is what occurs at the moment of death.  He also seems a little confused when he states, "whether in the body or out of the body, I know not.."  I know separation from the physical body can be confusing, caused by the no changing of consciousness, but not confusing to a point where he didn't realize he was actually in spirit.

When we speak of the end times, we should consider the possibility that the Earth has experienced, perhaps, many end times.  You might say that the ground has been ploughed over and re-fertilized many times during its history.  When such ploughing  is going to occur, well, we can only say at the end of the harvest.  The spirits at the "Creation" were told to "Replenish the earth."  Does this not mean to refill what has been emptied?

Popular belief has it that the "Second Coming of Christ" is a result of judgment from above and will carry devastating results.  Consider the devastation that occurred in Jerusalem in 70 A.D.  The city where the actual crucifixion of Christ took place.  Only 20 or 30 years after the event.  What makes us so certain that that period of time was not the promised "Second Coming?"  Those that experienced the terrifying events may well have thought so.

Yes, but isn't the "Second Coming" supposed to be global?

Yes, there is some indication that that is to be the case.  What I am suggesting is that our own time period may not be the "Second Coming", but perhaps the 3rd or the 4th.  I believe that Christ has returned here on various occasions and, like John the Baptist, we didn't recognize him.  We are still expecting him to come as Jesus Christ, which was, in fact, not even his name in that period of time, let alone the "new name" by which he is to appear during each incarnation.