How many times and years has the "End of the World" been predicted?
About 50 times, going back to the year 500 AD
Second Coming Predictions (note the Thomas Müntzer item and cite Dan Carlin's jaw-dropping podcast about the Munster Rebellion called "Prophets of Doom" / listen here for free ... you'll need 4 hours to finish it!)
Statistically speaking, you have a better chance of seeing Christ after you die than you do seeing him come to earth again
When people pray for the 2nd Coming, what are they really saying? Are they not simply saying "we've given up; it's so bad down here and we've screwed up so much, we need Jesus to come again and make things right."
It is a very "helpless" desire to pray for the Second Coming. Rather, we should pray that we are prepared for our own death. We should view this life, not in the context of the Second Coming, but rather in the context of meeting Christ (when we die).
Parable of the Ten Virgins
The Parable of the 10 Virgins is about the ability to be constant all the time.
Life is not about living the last 10 seconds or 10 minutes or 10 hours or 10 days in perfection; but rather it is about being ready (virtuous) all the time.
To put this idea in another way: which is better; to not live a virtuous life and then go through death-bed repentance or to strive to be better and live more virtuously all the time?
Is this not analogous to brushing your teeth? Someone who thinks they can brush their teeth really, really good on Saturday night and think the dentist won't notice versus someone who constantly brushes their teeth well every day, three times a day.
The five foolish would have been ready had the bridegroom come on time.
The five wise were ready had the bridegroom come on time or had come late or had never come!
How did they know to prepare?
This was not their first wedding nor was it lost on them that the bridegroom might be late.
Is not the arrival of the bridegroom synonymous with death and meeting our maker?
And what is it that God wants of us? Death-bed repentance? Just-in-time virtue? Or does he want us to by fundamentally different (better) than we were before we improved?
Is this life really just a onetime event in which case we have to "hold out" just long enough or does God want us to progress steadily and onward to perfection (perfection of virtues)?
Can We Become Perfect in One Lifetime?
We're about to go really deep here, perhaps into uncharted territory.
Thought experiment: you are immortal; you don't need to eat, your wounds heal, you never grow old. What do you do?
Groundhog Day - a microcosm of what this life is about
Some might "eat, drink and be merry" But to what end? It won't make you content
Pursuit of money?
Pursuit of fame?
Pursuit of pleasure?
After all these failed pursuits, would you not try to escape this purgatory?
Phil, after chasing all of this, decides to shift his focus from himself to others; he pursues a life of virtue in making other people happy and he is no longer damned.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/03/reliving-groundhog-day/309223/
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/01/health/groundhog-day-movie-wisdom-project/
Alternatively, the same idea and concept, can be learned from the much more action-packed movie Edge of Tomorrow.
We are already immortal - today is eternity
Draw timeline on board and the dot that represents this life. We tend to think eternity and immortality is after some designated dot on this timeline. We might think life kinda sucks and if I can just slog through this, and 'pass the test' then I can be immortal and everything just goes my way; I become a God and get all the powers in the universe. But on a line that is infinite, what does eternity really mean? If you are here or here, you are still on the same line, in which case you are already immortal. We are immortal beings who are going through multiple iterations to be a better person. Death is just another event; another experience.
Given the above thought experiments, it is evident that no matter how many iterations or days or weeks or months or lives we've lived, the ultimate pursuit is constantcy in virtue.
And since we don't know when we will die, eternity is now. The only time that really belongs to us is now. The past and the future do not belong to us; we have no control over them.
And assuming we had an infinite amount of days to "get it right" why not use now to start on it?
Eternity is now.
This is where the thought "carpe diem" (Dead Poets Society) comes into play. We must live life - live each day - as if it were our last.
"To perform each of life's actions as if it were the last" means to live the present instant with such intensity and such love that, in a sense, an entire lifetime is contained and completed within it. Most people are not alive, because they do not live in the present, but are always outside themselves, alienated, and dragged backwards and forwards by the past and by the present. They do not know that the present is the only point at which they are truly themselves and free." (The Inner Citadel Pierre Hadot p. 135)
A Machine for the Making of Gods
To summarize, we are not in this world simply to hold on a bit. We are here to progress. The only thing you should focus on is "how do I improve each passing moment? How do I become better in this moment from the previous moment?" "This is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Moses 1:39)
He says, "Men do not sufficiently realize that their future is in their own hands. Theirs is the task of determining, first of all, whether they want to go on living or not. Theirs is the responsibility then for deciding if they want to merely live, or intend to make just the extra effort required for fulfilling even on their refractory planet, the essential function of the universe, which is a machine for the making of Gods." (source)
To flip your paradigm from a life in pursuit of pleasure, ease, fame, excitement, adventure and things going your way, to a paradigm that the world and this life you live in it, is a machine that takes raw material and turns it into something more valuable - this paradigm shift will cause you to fundamentally view your life differently. And to have that realization and to execute that change within you, takes a lifetime and more of present moments. Decide now; take action now.
