Global controversy over second coming of Jesus
A cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church stirred a beehive of controversy last month when he announced that Jesus Christ would not come the second time.
Advertisement
Cardinal Salvador de Giorgio told Waterford Whispers News, an online publication, that this year’s 1981st anniversary would be the last as far as waiting for the return of Jesus to earth was concerned.
“We just feel that Jesus is not coming back by the look of it,” he said.
Cardinal Giorgio added, “It’s been ages and it is like he’s probably flat out doing other good things for people somewhere else.”
“He was probably drinking wine when he made the comment,” the Cardinal said and added: “Having ability to turn water into wine had it’s up and down. We all make promises we cannot keep when we are drunk. Jesus was not different.”
The Cardinal, described as a spokesperson of the Roman Catholic Church, said the Catholic Church had decided rather to now focus on rebuilding the reputation of the church of one billion members worldwide.
According to the Cardinal, the church had not given up hope about Jesus coming a second time and it is keeping an optimistic mind on the matter.
As expected, the pronouncement of Cardinal Giorgio aroused much provocation and anger among Christian believers around the world.
In Nigeria, a spokesperson of the Roman Catholic Church, Rev. Father Ralph, responded by saying the second coming of Jesus might not happen as expected because people have many views about the return of Jesus.
“But if anyone says that Jesus will not come as expected, the person will not be far from the truth because people have their different expectations,” Rev. Father Ralph added.
He said the statement that Jesus was drunk was blasphemous. “The error in that statement is most obvious. To allude that Jesus was perhaps drunk when he was addressing his disciples is to say the least a blasphemy.”
According to the Daily News Watch of Nigeria, non-Catholic Christians in Nigeria were outraged at the pronouncement of Cardinal Giorgio.
The newspaper said non-Catholics in Nigeria found the Catholic faith approach to Christianity uncomfortable.
“I expected it. Roman Catholics were never serving Jesus Christ. Catholicism is not Christianity. The entire world stands for Satan and religious leaders are responsible for major evils around the world,” a gospel artiste, Timi Adegoke, has said.
He added: “They are mere religionists, not followers of Jesus; a lot of them did well for Satan and lost their souls.”
Pastor Tobi Alli of a Pentecostal Church in Nigeria reacted with the following words: “I have read the report online. God is beginning to expose false churches.”
The Chief Responsibility Officer of Christian Entertainment Platform Taked Stand Nigeria Limited, Obus Bezalee Brodoh, has said: “It is a contemporary attempt to dissuade many from the true faith. More of such statements will still come but does not change the ‘end time promises’”.
In Ghana, the reaction of Christians did not produce such provocative and outrageous responses probably because many had not heard or read about Cardinal Giorgio’s pronouncement.
But the spokesman of the Catholic Church in Ghana, Most Rev. Father Joseph Osei-Bonsu, was quick to denounce the reported pronouncement.
According to him, Cardinal Giorgio’s views did not represent the position of the Catholic Church.
Advertisement
“None of the 216 Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church goes by the name Cardinal Giorgio Salvador,” he said and added: “There is, indeed, a Cardinal Emeritus of Palermo. Cardinal Salvador de Giorgio is an 83-year old retired Archbishop who is not the spokesman of the Vatican.
Rev. Father Osei-Bonsu, President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said the official spokesperson of the Roman Catholic Church is called Father Federico Lombardi.
According to him, Cardinal Giorgio’s views “do not come from the Vatican”.
“If a Cardinal from the Catholic Church made such a statement about Jesus, he would be called to order, Rev. Father Osei-Bonsu continued.
Advertisement
“The publication is just malicious and blasphemous and I will edge all Catholics and indeed all Christians to ignore it and treat it with the contempt that it deserved,” he added.
Cardinal Salvador Giorgio’s statement to the media and responses from representatives of the Roman Catholic Church raise many important questions.
Is everything that the Cardinal mentioned in his statement wrong? Has the Vatican decided to let this year’s 1981st anniversary be the last and final in respect of the second coming of Jesus? If that is the case, why?
Reactions from the spokesmen of the Catholic Church indicate that Cardinal Giorgio’s views do not represent those of the Vatican.
Advertisement
However, being an experienced and retired Archbishop of the Catholic Church, it is difficult to dismiss his position on the second coming.
Indeed, Jesus, the Christ, spoke many times in parables. Parables are not drunk statements.
Jesus used parables to give insight and glimpses into the future about the world, the church and God’s Kingdom that is to come on earth.
Jesus’ statement at the last supper could not be alcoholic. Jesus was alert and physically, mentally and spiritually aware of the moment, the past and the future. Hence his foreknowledge about what was to happen to his person.
It is correct that the second coming of the Lord Jesus is pregnant with multiple interpretations.
There have been metaphysical as well as psychic and material explanations in the Holy Bible and in commentaries on the second coming by writers.
The Book of Revelation gives believers glimpses into the future of the earth, the church and humanity.
The picture that the book painted appears more metaphysical than material.
For example, the Holy City or the New Jerusalem, is interpreted to be the return to the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden is not a material concept.
John, the Revelator and one of the most advanced disciples of Jesus, was an initiate and a highly developed spiritual person.
Religion is about spiritual and metaphysical matters. No one can understand the world of the spiritual if that person is not a metaphysician.
Paramahansa Yogananda, founder of Self-Realisation Fellowship based in the United States, was once asked; Will Jesus come again?
The response of Yogananda, author of the book, Second Coming of Jesus, was as follows: “Metaphysically, he is already omnipresent. He smiles in everything you see. In every specks of space is the feeling of the cosmic body of Jesus. In every breath of wind is the breath of Jesus. Through his divine Christ Consciousness he is incarnated in everything that lives. If you have eyes to behold you will see him enthroned throughout creation.”
The view of Paramahansa Yogananda is rooted in principles of the physical and metaphysical sciences. There are the principles of creation, preservation and renewal. Jesus Christ, being the second of the three persons of the Holy Trinity, is the preserver of what God, the creator, makes. To be active, the preserver must be omnipresent.
Email: therson.cofie@yahoo.com