Preparing for the Miraculous

96 eleven talksevil in a cosmic act of judgment, and establish his utopianKingdom here on earth. And this was to happen within hisown generation. ... Jesus stood within a long line of Jewishprophets who understood that God was soon going tointervene in this world, overthrow the forces of evil thatran it, and bring in a new kingdom in which there wouldbe no more war, disease, catastrophe, despair, hatred, sin,or death.” 4For instance in the gospel of Mark, now generally acceptedas the earliest of the four gospels, we find Jesusquoted as having said: “Truly I tell you, some of you standinghere will not taste death before they have seen the Kingdomof God having come in power.” (9:1) “Truly I tell you,this generation will not pass away before all these thingstake place.” (13:30) “Truly I tell you, you will see the Son ofMan coming on the clouds of heaven.” (14:62) Moreover,the gnostic Paul of Tarsus, considered by many the secondfounder of Christianity, was of the same conviction andwrote in his first letter to the Thessalonians: “We who arealive, we who are left, will be caught up in the clouds togetherwith [the resurrected] to meet the Lord in the air.”(4:15-17)It is hardly an exaggeration to say that, since thosetimes, the end of the world has been foretold at least onceevery other year. At present, however, the imagery of theexpectations has changed considerably. Nobody is comingor going on the clouds any more, and if heaven is aconcrete place, it must be located somewhere beyond thefarthest galaxies and quasars 13.7 billion light years awayinstead of beyond the orbit of the planet Saturn. The fearedcauses of doomsday are now asteroid and comet impacts,4 Bart Ehrman: Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium, pp. 3and 21.