the.com/second coming
The ultimate sequel threat: no release date, infinite hype, billions still waiting.
means The prophesied return of Christ to earth at the end of the age, and by extension, any long-awaited, world-changing event whose arrival keeps getting postponed.
from From the New Testament itself — the Gospels and Epistles speak of Christ's parousia, Greek for 'presence' or 'arrival,' promising he will come again to judge the living and the dead. 'Second coming' as the standard English phrase for this doctrine crystallized through centuries of Christian theology and creeds, distinguishing it from the 'first coming' (the Nativity). The phrase later leapt the fence into secular use — Yeats' 1919 poem 'The Second Coming' ('Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold') cemented it as shorthand for any apocalyptic, overdue, or messianic arrival, sacred or not.
- origin
- not in the gospels, mostly Paul's letters
- timing clause
- Jesus himself claimed not to know it
- longest trailer
- nearly 2000 years and counting
- rival claims
- hundreds of people have predicted the exact date wrongly