Bart has been excellent (isn’t he always) on the topic of the Spirit in NT times. From a recent post…

“The reason he is writing back to the community in Thessalonica is fundamental to our interests here.  There are hints for why Paul wrote the letter throughout, but the matter comes to a climax in chapter 4.  Members of the Thessalonian community have died since Paul left, and those in the church are very concerned about the fate of the deceased.  Paul had taught his converts that Jesus was soon to return from heaven in judgment on the earth and to bring in God’s great kingdom.  Those who believed in Christ would be given a great reward and would be granted a glorious eternal life in this kingdom.

“But that hasn’t happened.  And now these church members have died in the meantime.  It appears the Thessalonian Christians are upset, thinking that those who have already passed away have missed the boat.  When Christ returns – they will not get their reward.  And members of the community are grieving for their lost ones (** you do not have permission to see this link **).

“Paul responds by assuring his readers that the dead in Christ have not at all lost out.  On the contrary, when Christ returns from heaven on the day of judgment, they, the dead, will be the first to rise from their graves to meet Christ in the air.   Those who are still living will then ascend as well, and they will all be with Christ, then together forever (4:13-18).”

My question: Isn’t this what we see happening again in America with all the conspiracy like QAnon? Trump didn’t prevent the certification on Jan 6, ok, let’s regroup. Trump didn’t prevent the inauguration on January 20. Ok, regroup again. Now, I’ve heard big names in evangelicalism, Paul’s as it were of the day, say things like, Trump is really still president and he holds the keys to the military and he’s just waiting his time to be “resurrected”. 

I don’t mean at all for this to be political, please ignore that part. Just using it as a point of history. Way back 20 years after Jesus died, humans were thinking their world would get better and following leaders that one could argue led them astray. This is happening again today and has happened many, many times between Paul and Trump.

How do we as humans fix this? How do we, like we are beginning to see our biases and calling for a better world, do the same here? How do we learn from things like the Christian scripture to better ourselves as a human race? After all, the new Ford F-150 “Lightening” can power your home for three days! Why can’t we as humans stop ourselves from following leaders that when their teaching doesn’t come true, we allow them to reframe their teaching and we continue to believe them?