The long-awaited Avatar or Messiah who will destroy the evil world-system

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

Chapter 21 of the book WORLD SCRIPTURE is titled Eschatology And

Messianic Hope.

 

" This final chapter contains texts prophesying the coming of what is

variously called the Last Days, End of the World, or Days of the

Messiah. Most religions contain teachings that anticipate a time,

beyond the present era of suffering and injustice, when human

history will be consummated by a decisive act of God. Evil will be

destroyed and goodness will triumph. Typically, the course of events

includes three phases: a time of tribulation and confusion when evil

and suffering grow more and more rampant; the Last Judgment when God

intervenes decisively to destroy all evil; and the coming of a new

age of bliss, often called the Kingdom of Heaven. Furthermore, this

decisive transformation is often said to require a great leader, a

Messiah, who will wield divine authority to destroy evil, establish

the saints, and found a new age of unlimited happiness.

 

Teachings about eschatology are found in most religions, though they

are most characteristic of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic

scriptures. Judaism anticipates the coming of the Messiah who will

inaugurate an age of peace and justice on earth. Christianity

teaches broadly that Christ, the Messiah, has already come to offer

salvation, and he will come again to judge the world. Yet there are

a variety of opinions within the Christian family about the details:

For some, Christ will return to bring judgment (Premillennialism);

for some he will come after the progressive decline of evil to

consummate the Kingdom of Heaven (Postmillennialism); still others

reject millennialism altogether and interpret scriptural passages

about a last judgment as concerning the spiritual fate of the

individual soul. In Islam the Last Judgment is a cardinal doctrine.

While it is sometimes understood as a spiritual judgment of the

individual soul after death, many passages in the Qur'an clearly

describe it as a world-transforming event to occur at the end of

time, when the earth will be destroyed and all people will see their

just reward as they are sorted into groups bound either for Paradise

or hell.

 

Hinduism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism contain teachings that the

world is going through a cosmic cycle in which morals and religion

have gradually decayed and have reached a state of dire corruption

in this present age, identified as the Kali Yuga or Age of

Degeneration of the Dharma. This Kali age will give way to a

renovation of faith as the cycle turns and the earth enters a new

golden age, the Krita age. Some texts predict that this cosmic

change will be initiated by the advent of the new Avatar (Hinduism),

the Maitreya Buddha, or the Saoshyant (Zoroastrianism).

 

Millenarian beliefs are a minor part of the teaching of most

religions. Yet they blossom from time to time in sectarian

movements, and they sometimes produce religious or political

innovation. A number of bloody political revolts, from the Bar

Kochba rebellion in Israel against Roman rule to the T'ai Ping

rebellion in China against British rule, were fueled by messianic

fervor. More significant are the new religions which began with a

fervent belief that the last days had drawn nigh: Christianity

itself began as a messianic sect of Judaism; Muhammad preached

Islam, believing that the Last Judgment was imminent; and the Baha'i

Faith began as a messianic movement within Islam, to cite three

examples. Millenarian movements among the oppressed indigenous

peoples of Africa and the Americas have been significant forces

which have fostered self-respect and encouraged economic and

political independence. Considering the unprecedented pace of social

change in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the

unparalleled social dislocations and cultural challenges which have

resulted from the world wars, liberation movements,

industrialization and technological change, the atomic bomb, the

environmental crisis, and the shrinking Global Village, it is not

surprising that a large number of new religions and new sects of old

religions have arisen which believe that the present is the time of

tribulations preceding the appearance of the Messiah, and that their

leader is either a forerunner of or is himself the long-awaited

Avatar or Messiah who will destroy the evil world-system, establish

true religion, and inaugurate a new age. "

 

So rise up and declare Her Advent to those who are waiting for the

appearence of the Messiah!

 

 

warmest regards,

 

 

 

jagbir