Return of Christ

Speaker 1

Our next speaker, Lincoln Cannon, is a technologist and philosopher and leading advocate of technological evolution and post-secular religion. He’s a founder, board member, and former president of the Mormon Transhumanist Association. He’s also a founder and board member of the Christian Transhumanist Association. He formulated the New God argument, a logical argument for faith in God that is popular among religious transhumanists. Lincoln is CEO at Thrive Us, a human enhancement company. He’s married with Dorothy Van Cricange, and they have three children. And I also am proud to call him my friend, Lincoln.

Lincoln Cannon

All right, sorry about the delay. We’re going to talk this morning about the return of Christ. I’m going to touch a little bit on how it relates to transhumanism. But my focus is going to be on the foundations, on some foundational theology that leads to what I believe is a more robust Christian and Mormon transhumanism.

Lincoln Cannon

Some thoughts for friends that might not be Christian on why this is still important. As measured by a number of adherents, Christianity is by far the most influential ideology in human history. And the religion, the prophecy of the return of Christ, is the most important prophecy in that religion. It’s had incredible influence on the thoughts of billions of human beings, their words and their actions, and those actions have shaped our world. They continue to shape our world. So even if you’re not a Christian, The effects of the prophecy of the return of Christ may still be momentous in your life. With that in mind, let’s consider how the Bible describes the return of Christ.

Lincoln Cannon

We can read that in the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible, and Jesus introduces the subject By saying, Watch out that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name, claiming I am the Messiah and will deceive many. So, will the return of Christ be in the wilderness, maybe as a return to simplicity? The Luddites would love this, but Jesus actually says, no, that’s not going to be the case. In Matthew, where he describes his prophecy of the return of Christ, he says, if anyone tells you there he is, Out in the wilderness, do not go out, he says.

Lincoln Cannon

How about in the inner rooms? Maybe as some kind of carefully shared secret. Just yesterday, for example, I received a Google Plus message. This is a true story. From somebody who told me that he wanted to invite me to a secret priesthood, and he introduced himself and said, By the way, I am Jesus, literally. And as it turns out, Jesus says no to this one, too. In Matthew 24, he says, If anyone tells you, here he is in the inner rooms. Do not believe it. I pointed this out to my would-be Jesus, and I’ll quote his reply to me. He said, Goodbye, Satan, the Lord rebuke you. And as it turns out, that wasn’t the first time I’ve been called Satan. So I just let it go.

Lincoln Cannon

So, if the return of Christ won’t be in the wilderness and it won’t be in secret rooms. Maybe it will be in great signs and wonders. Maybe we can recognize Christ in some extraordinary, some incomprehensible event. But yet again, Jesus says no. False messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect, he says.

Lincoln Cannon

So, then what’s left? Matthew 24 reads, For as lightning, these are the words of Jesus, for as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west. So will be the coming of the Son of Man on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, one from one end of the heavens. To the other. That’s how Jesus describes the return of Christ. And on its surface, that description can be hard to distinguish, I admit. from great signs and wonders against which he had just warned us. So maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many Christians understand the return of Christ too narrowly.

Lincoln Cannon

I have two questions for you to think about. The first question: why does Jesus speak in the third person? And why does he refer to the Son of Man? The second question, as you look at this picture, an artist’s depiction of what Jesus was describing. Who is Jesus looking at? I’ll return to those questions later on.

Lincoln Cannon

Let’s explore the meaning of the word Christ. The English word Christ comes from the Greek word Christos. The English word Messiah comes from the Hebrew word Mashiach. And as it turns out, both Christos and Mashiach Have the same meaning. Literally, a Christ or a Messiah is somebody who is ritually anointed, or in other words, they’re anointed with oil as part of a ceremony. Figuratively, a Christ or a Messiah is someone who is set apart or designated with a special purpose, and that special purpose is typically one to serve God by helping the people overcome their enemies. Those enemies can be concrete, like say an invading army or an oppressive government. Or those enemies could be abstract, maybe spiritual alienation from God or from each other.

Lincoln Cannon

In the Hebrew Bible, Jesus is not the only person designated as a Christ or as a Messiah. This up here is a picture of King David, or soon to be King David, as it turns out, preparing to be king of Israel and Judah. He’s being anointed with oil, literally making him a Christ. And figuratively, he’s becoming a Christ with responsibility to protect the people and to establish justice. The Hebrew Bible designates David as a Messiah multiple times, and it regularly designates other Jewish kings as Messiahs, including Saul and Solomon.

Lincoln Cannon

The Hebrew Bible doesn’t stop there. It also actually designates a non-Jewish king as a Messiah as well. The prophet Isaiah talks about Cyrus the Great of Persia. Cyrus happened to rule the highest percentage of humanity of any empire in human history. And during his reign, he liberated the Jewish people to establish their religion in Jerusalem. Here are Isaiah’s words. This is what God says to his Messiah, to Cyrus, he says, whose right hand I take hold of, to subdue nations before him, and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him, so that the gates will not be shut. I will go before you and level the mountains. I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am God. Who summons you by name? I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, Messiah or Christ. Though you do not acknowledge me. Cyrus was not a Jew. I find these words from Isaiah fascinating on multiple levels, and I’m going to refer to them again later as we go along.

Lincoln Cannon

The Hebrew Bible also designates Jewish priests as Messiahs. Like Jewish kings, they were literally anointed with oil during a ritual to make them priests. And figuratively, They were Christ’s in their responsibility to the people with God, to help people reconcile with God and with each other. In the King James English Translation of the Bible, all but one of 70 uses of the word atonement are references to ritual sacrifices. Performed by Jewish priests. That might surprise some Christians who look at the word atonement as being associated uniquely with Jesus. So, in other words, many times in the Bible before it designates Jesus as Christ, and many times before it designates his work as atonement, which it only does once. Sixty-nine other times it tells us about other Christs performing other atonements.

Lincoln Cannon

Despite the precedent of many Christs, some Christians seek to raise Jesus exclusively above others. Idolizing him, they exalt him over everything that is called God or is worshipped, which happens to be the way Paul describes the son of perdition. And they do that despite Jesus’ refusal to exalt himself over others.

Lincoln Cannon

In the Gospel of John, who’s there depicted laying on Jesus’ lap. Jesus prays to God, saying, I pray also for those who will believe in me, Christians. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one.

Lincoln Cannon

The Apostle Paul, who actually is riding closer in time to the life of Jesus. Than the Gospels, repeatedly over and over again emphasizes that Christ should be in each of us. To the Romans, he writes, We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. To the Corinthians, he writes, You are the body of Christ, and Christ Jesus is in you. To the Galatians, he writes, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. And to the Colossians, he writes, God has chosen to make known the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you.

Lincoln Cannon

The Apostle Peter, there pictured receiving keys from Christ, from Jesus, adds, Divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life. Through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these, he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith godliness.

Lincoln Cannon

And for centuries following Peter, countless other Christian authorities have repeated, they have elaborated, they’ve celebrated the idea that we should all become one in Christ with Jesus. This is called the doctrine of theosis, or divinization for the Catholics, or apotheosis for the Eastern Orthodox. Some people call it deification, some people have called it Christosis. Pope John Paul II, this might surprise some of you, wrote, God incorporates us into the body of his Christ. Through the anointing of his Spirit, who flows from head to the members, he makes us other Christs. So then you who have become sharers in Christ are appropriately called Christs.

Lincoln Cannon

The Book of Mormon explicitly and repeatedly encourages us to take on the name of Christ. Perhaps most poignantly, King Benjamin says, You should take on the name of Christ. Whoever does this will be found at the right hand of God, for he will know the name by which he is called. For he will be called. By the name of Christ. Benjamin’s words remind me of Isaiah’s words to Cyrus of Persia. As you recall, we mentioned those earlier. I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor. Maybe we should consider Isaiah’s words to Cyrus a prophecy about all who would take on the name of Christ.

Lincoln Cannon

But of course, names aren’t enough. As the Apostle Paul points out in the New Testament, the kingdom of God is not a matter of words, but a matter of power. So in practice then, what does it mean to be Christ? How can we be Christ not only in name, but also in power?

Lincoln Cannon

Jesus says that we should love. He says that we should console. He says that we should forgive. One of my favorite stories about Jesus is when people bring a paralyzed man to him and ask Jesus to heal him. Instead of healing him, though, almost as if it’s kind of a joke, Jesus forgives the paralyzed man. I can imagine his friends looking at their feet, wondering if Jesus actually understood what they were asking him. So Jesus asks them, what’s easier to do? To heal or to forgive? And then he goes on to explain, again using the third person and again using the phrase son of man. He says, the son of man has power to forgive. And then finally, he goes on to heal the paralyzed man. I think this story is teaching that although it may be hard for us to heal each other, we all have the power to forgive each other. All of us are the son of man, or we might say, the children of humanity. And that can inform how we interpret Jesus’ description of the return of Christ when he also uses the third person and references the Son of Man.

Lincoln Cannon

Per the Apostle James, he says that we should feed the hungry and clothe the naked. And it’s not enough, he says. That we simply tell them to be fed and clothed. Rather, we have to actually feed them. We have to actually clothe them. Faith without works is dead, he says. So, like today when James lived, food was generally a product of agriculture, a technology. Clothing was generally a product of manufacturing, more primitive than today, but nonetheless a technology. So when James exhorts us to show our faith through our works, he’s exhorting us to use technology to help each other, and that is power.

Lincoln Cannon

Jesus goes even further. This is a depiction of Lazarus being resurrected. Jesus tells us that we should heal the sick, and he says, To his disciples, raise the dead. That’s a pretty audacious idea. Modern medicine can help us treat each other, help us heal each other. But do we take Jesus seriously when he tells us to raise the dead? How do we do that? I don’t know the answer to that question, of course, otherwise I’d be doing it.

Lincoln Cannon

But the Book of Mormon has some helpful advice for would-be Christs. In its many stories of people finding or making means to live up to the name of Christ, the stories motivated a generation of Mormon pioneers. To cross plains and mountains and to begin to build their vision of Zion here in Utah. The practical attitude behind these stories Is perhaps best expressed by the words of Nephi and Captain Moroni in the Book of Mormon. Nephi says, I will go and do the things that God has commanded, because God gives no commands except he prepares a way to accomplish them. Captain Moroni asks rhetorically, Do you suppose that you could sit on your thrones, and because of the exceeding goodness of God you could do nothing, and God would deliver you? Do you suppose that God will still deliver us while we sit upon our thrones could say sit on our hands and do not make use of the means that God has provided to us? If you suppose this, you have supposed in vain, says Captain Moroni.

Lincoln Cannon

In the same spirit, Joseph Smith wrote, God should not command in all things. People that are compelled in all things are slothful and not wise. Everyone should be anxiously engaged in a good cause and do many things of their own free will, for the power is in them. And then directly on the subject of redeeming the dead, Joseph exemplified faith that we could find a way, that we would find a way. And his claim in the 128th section of the Doctrine and Covenants is that God ordained before the world was that which would enable us to redeem our dead. Out of their prison, for the prisoners will go free.

Lincoln Cannon

In closing, let’s return again to the return of Christ. The Apostle John writes, When Christ appears, we will be like Christ. The Book of Mormon repeats and affirms those words from John. And I think that they are the key to understanding the return of Christ. So let’s hear Jesus again. He says, For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. On the clouds of heaven with great power and great glory.

Lincoln Cannon

So, remember the two questions I asked you to think about earlier. The first one In this description of the return of Christ, why does Jesus speak in the third person? What does he mean by this reference to the Son of Man? Well, as I mentioned before, I think that whenever Jesus talks about the Son of Man, we should understand him to be talking about all of us, the children of humanity. So, re-reading his words with that replaced. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible in the west, so will be the coming of the children of humanity. On the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Lincoln Cannon

And then the second question I asked you to think about was regarding the picture. Who is Jesus looking at? And I’ll suggest to you. That Christ is looking at Christ. Thank you.

Lincoln Cannon

I guess I have a few minutes for QA. Somebody asked a hard question. Come on.

Speaker 2

We’re trying to explain this concept, right? What kinds of reactions do you get from how do you use the question?

Lincoln Cannon

Yeah, the the question was when I explain this conception of the return of Christ or of Christ generally, what kind of reactions do I get? And how do I manage those reactions? Well, the reactions vary quite a bit. There are, of course, many Christian fundamentalists. including among some Mormons who are kind of fundamentalistically inclined, that will react with hostility to this idea because they have Been raised to believe, or been trained to believe, that Jesus somehow wants to be different in kind from the rest of us. And of course they’ve demonized me often. I mentioned when I was talking that this person who was claiming to be Jesus in this particular Case told me I was Satan. He’s not the only person who has ever done that. Some people have called me Satan for claiming that Jesus should not be the only Christ. So how do I deal with it when they respond negatively? Well, I try to help them look at their scriptures that they value. In fact, I think one of the most valuable things about the scriptures is that we can use them to undermine dogmatism. Invariably, because the scriptures are not always internally consistent, for one, right? So they present various views, and we can go between those views and help people see different ways of approaching them and valuing them. So, when I deal with religious dogmatism and general Christian in particular, I try to just go back to the Bible and reason about it with them. I try to reaffirm to them that I value it, that it inspires me, that it motivates me, that I have a great deal of reverence for Jesus. And that reverence is actually what leads me to recognize that what Jesus taught was that you and I. Should be Christ within.

Speaker 1

So, I love your approach of Bible bashing. Is there if you were Say, okay, let’s not talk about scriptures. What’s immoral about idolizing Jesus?

Lincoln Cannon

Yeah, so the question is: what’s immoral about idolizing Jesus? Paul, of course, points out that there are a couple of conceptions of God. One would be the kind of God that would raise itself above others. Declaring itself God. And he associates that with what he calls the son of perdition, or what Christians might call Satan. And then he also depicts another kind of God. and that is a God that would raise each other together as joint heirs in the glory of God. And he associates that with Christ. What’s the moral what’s the morality he’s trying to pull out in this? Well, one is only being concerned with itself and its own glory. Raising itself above others. The other is being concerned with shared glory and shared potential. And I don’t think that we can make any sense out of morality. I think it becomes utterly meaningless. Unless it becomes something about us, about an exchange between people and our values and our desires. And Jesus exemplifies that extraordinarily.

Speaker 3

When he said this, he gave me a different interpretation of the body of Christ as a plural. So what do you think about treating Christ as a plural in the sense that as members the body is distributed, what does that mean in terms of the atonement being?

Lincoln Cannon

Yeah, so Sam’s question is. How does this interpretation of there being multiple Christs fit in with the idea of atonement, where we often think about atonement being between maybe us and God, whereas if we’re all members of the body of Christ, should atonement apply to interactions between us? I think that clearly and repeatedly, Paul in the New Testament actually teaches that atonement, he uses the word reconciliation because the word atonement only appears once in the New Testament. He uses the word reconciliation. We are ambassadors of the reconciliation, and the reconciliation is not intended to be just between us and God, just our spiritual alienation. With the divine. It’s intended to be between each other. And Paul even goes so far as to say that that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ, or that which is yet to be finished of the atonement. Is happening in his own flesh, Paul’s flesh, for the church’s sake, as he works for them and suffers for them. And boy, did he suffer to share the gospel of Christ 2,000 years ago. He and his compatriots. So, yeah, I think the answer to your question is: we should reimagine The concept of atonement to be not only between us and our conception of the divine, but that we are becoming divine, all of us, as a united body of Christ. And that atonement should be happening between each other. Loving, serving, healing, consoling, raising each other from the dead, I think is an expression of atonement between us. I don’t think that detracts from the idea that we ought to be united.

Speaker 3

In a sense, the Bible says there’s one Christ, and yet many Christs, I mean, the Platinists love that idea, right? There’s one form in many instances.