Why do so few focus on this topic? A question with an obvious answer

If you are a local churchgoer and new to this fledgling blog, I'd encourage you to think critically about the content you are being served in the weekly sermons you hear from the pulpit. 

How much of what you hear relates to Christ's second coming? How much of it is focused on what will happen when he returns? How much of it focuses on the earth as the place as the venue for the outworking of the purpose of God through Christ? 

I suspect you'll find that the answer is some version of "not a lot". By and large, the doctrine of Christ's return to this earth is treated as an afterthought, an epilogue, if you will, to the prevailing narrative of "you're going to heaven at death to be with Christ and God".

The logic here isn't hard to understand. If you receive your reward at the moment of your death, you will naturally focus less on another concept which, to you, doesn't seem to really have that much consequence. 

Would you therefore be surprised to see that, the closer you trace back in history to the time of the Apostles, the more widely held the doctrine of Christ's reign on earth appears? Read on to see an extract from Edward Gibbon's book "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" when he talks about the reign of Christ on the earth and the Millennium (His 1,000 year reign).... 

"The ancient and popular doctrine of the Millennium was intimately connected with the second coming of Christ… The assurance of such a Millennium was carefully inculcated by a succession of fathers from Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, who conversed with the immediate disciples of the apostles, down to Lactantius, who was preceptor to the son of Constantine.

Though it might not be universally received, it appears to have been the reigning sentiment of the orthodox believers; and it seems so well adapted to the desires and apprehensions of mankind, that it must have contributed in a very considerable degree to the progress of the Christian faith. But when the edifice of the church was almost completed, the temporary support was laid aside. The doctrine of Christ's reign upon earth was at first treated as a profound allegory, was considered by degrees as a doubtful and useless opinion, and was at length rejected as the absurd invention of heresy and fanaticism."

You'd be hard pressed to find someone today in the established churches who would quote the words of Job "I know my Redeemer lives and will stand at the last day upon earth". Even fewer would add "though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh will I see God". Many of those who hold themselves to be Christians probably would quote from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 but how many of them truly grasp the meaning of chapter 5 v 5...

"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." 

Christ was quoting in the Sermon on the Mount from the writings of the Psalmist who had this to say in Psalm 37 v 11. "But the meek shall inherit the land; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace." 

The bible record has a huge amount of focus on the earth as the venue for God's plan for the earth. yet it's all pretty much forgotten or ignored because of the prevalence of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul and heaven/ hell going at death. These two ideas are in open conflict at their core and the only way most Christians get around this is by ignoring Christ's return to this earth in all practical senses. 

We have to resolve this conflict and absolutely demolish the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Only once this is done can the true nature of the return of Christ to this earth be seen.