"... then I go to the One who sent me ...." (John 7:33-34)

"I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the One who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come." (John 7:33-34)

Who is the 'One who sent me'?

Here Jesus is speaking in a temple court, clarifying that he is a messenger. A messenger is someone who has been sent to relay a message. Who is Jesus a messenger for?

Jesus identifies this clearly by reflecting on, "the One who sent me." Who is the "One who sent me"? It is none other than the Supreme Being. [Capitalization has been added in the verse because the translators must not have realized Jesus is referring to the Supreme Being.]

Jesus also states that he will be returning to the Supreme Being once his physical body dies - "you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come".

Jesus is reflecting that he will soon be arrested and his body be put to death:
The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him. (John 7:32)
One might ask: Why would institutional temple priests and temple officials be sending guards to arrest a person who was preaching about God in the temple courts?

The answer to this is that they were threatened by Jesus. They felt their authority over the people was in jeopardy. They had to remove him because of their desire for authority.

Why did Jesus threaten their authority?

The Temple High Priest and the various Temple Pharisees felt threatened because Jesus had many followers. Whenever he gave a talk, large crowds would gather around him. Jesus' large following was drawing people who normally were attending the Temple. This means that Jesus was drawing down their followers.

Just as Jesus reduced their followings, it reduced their authority. They could not dictate to the people with the same authority.

This desire for authority has continued among many sectarian institutions today. The leaders of these sectarian institutions - despite their premise as representing Jesus - provide a platform for those who desire authority and followers.

This is symptomized by their holding elections and political appointments to elect their priests and ministers. Therefore these teachers do not represent the Supreme Being: They represent the body or council that elected and appointed them. 

They are beholden to the institution rather than the Supreme Being. Their authority comes through politics rather than their relationship with the Supreme Being.

Who is the Messiah and will he come again?

The text also indicates many people were awaiting the appearance of the Messiah:
Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, "When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?" (John 7:31)
Thus it appears that the institutional temple teachers were teaching that a Messiah would come. But they questioned whether it was Jesus.

This tradition amongst many institutions persists today. Yet interestingly enough, some institutions are still awaiting the Messiah, while others are awaiting the second coming.

Both institutions are focused upon some time in the future. What are they doing now? Waiting? Are they following the teachings of Jesus and the Prophets in the meantime?

In other words, they are not interested in learning about the Supreme Being. They just want to be part of their particular club, and feel they will be saved at some point in the future.

Now let’s think about this: Is the Supreme Being so limited that He can only send one "savior" or Messiah throughout the history of humankind? Is the Supreme Being this impotent that He can only have one son, and send only one messiah?

And what about all those people who lived before the Messiah comes or came? Do all the billions of people over the thousands of years before and after the Messiah comes just miss out? Or will they have to wait around for him, in some kind of speculative purgatory?

Is God so weak that He cannot figure out how to save a person who dedicates their life to Him? Does He have to make them wait for thousands of years for that Messiah to come in order to be saved?

As for the premise that Jesus was the one and only Messiah: What about those who were born before or after Jesus? What about those born in other cultures who never got the chance to hear about Jesus? Or were born before the time of Jesus? 

Are they just out of luck? Is the Supreme Being that limited?

And how about those who are still waiting for this one and only "Messiah:" Is there no hope for those who have lived and died before their messiah comes?

And what about any of the other philosophies based upon the teachings of one teacher from the past? Are they now out of luck because they missed this teacher? Or out of luck because they followed that teacher instead of Jesus?

What about the Prophets?

And what about Moses, Abraham, Joshua, Solomon, Jacob, David, Jonah, Job and so many other messengers of God that have been described in the Old Testament and the Hebrew scriptures? Were they simply masquerading as teachers? Why did they bother to teach? Did they have no ability to help their followers? Did they not have the ability to save people?

Or, as considered by some ecclesiastical sectarian teachers, was their only purpose to predict the coming of Jesus? What about their followers, who died thousands of years before Jesus arrived on the scene? Do they have to wait somewhere (like the speculative purgatory state) for Jesus to come one day in the future?

And yet, to some ecclesiastical sectarian teachers, Jesus came, and yet people still have to wait for a second coming. Now they are waiting for Jesus to come again! As if the first time wasn't enough?

Why all the waiting and predicting of some event in the future for these two speculative religious philosophies?

Why are they waiting?

The answer is that because they lack real authority from the Supreme Being, they do not know who the Messiah is. They are not able to recognize the Messiah because they do not represent the Supreme Being: They represent their respective politically interested organizations. 

They are simply elected officials representing their political organization. And the purpose of their political organization: To gain more followers and exert more authority over the population.

It is for this reason that they create these myths about the first coming or second coming of the Messiah. They create these to scare people into coming to their church or temple, because if the people don't attend their church or temple (and give money) then they will miss out on the first or second coming of the Messiah. 

They'll be left in the lurch: they'll be one of those who gets sliced up and burnt in the fires, as the messiah tromps in on in his white horse. It's all very convenient: Come to our church (or temple) or you'll get left behind to be burnt up in the pits of hell.

What is a Messiah?

During Jesus' time, there was a narrative about the coming Messiah - a narrative that Jesus argued against. Today there is another narrative among sectarian institutions about Jesus and the coming Messiah.

There is only one Messiah, and that is the Supreme Being. Since the dawn of time, God has been periodically coming or sending His representatives to the earth in order to bring back those who want to return to Him.

Every generation and every culture has had access to one of God's messengers, and a person who becomes sincerely interested will be connected with this representative of God.

God is not a mean-spirited or small-minded person. He does not give one person a better chance than another. He treats all of us fairly, and each of us has an opportunity right now to approach Him and gain access to Him.

God is also not petty. He accepts our devotion - assuming it is aimed at Him - regardless of whether we call ourselves Christian (whether it be Baptist, Catholic or whatever), Muslim, Jew, Hindu, American Indian or otherwise. If we are worshiping God - or Great Spirit - with devotion,

God does not care what group we have joined. It is the sincerity of our approach towards Him, and our love and devotion that He cares about. He could care less about what group we've joined.

He is therefore constantly offering each of us the opportunity to return to Him.

The reason for the misinterpretation of "Messiah" is because it is a position or post - the position of representative of God. It is not a single person, nor some unknown person who will come in the future.

Anyone whom God authorizes to represent Him becomes a "Messiah," because remember, the Supreme Being is the true Savior or Messiah. This is how the Supreme Being brings us back to Him: He sends His representative to re-introduce us to Him. They also illustrate by their example how to live our lives in such a way that we can return to Him.

Any position or post can be misconstrued as only one person. Let's say that someone says: "The president will protect us." Now when they say this, they could be speaking only of the current president. Or they could be talking about the role or position of president in general. 

Or someone could potentially interpret this to mean a specific president in the future. Again, this due to the fact that those hearing the sentence did not understand the context of the statement.

In fact, the word indicating "messiah" in the Old Testament is based upon the Hebrew word מָשִׁיחַ (mashiyach) - which is translated to "anointed one" - but is the foundation for the word "Messiah."

"Anointing" was described specifically in many verses as a process of initiation for a priest:
[God said to Moses] "Anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them so they may serve Me as priests." (Exodus 30:30)

What about the return of the Messiah?

Faiths based on Abraham's teachings maintain that all of the Prophets and Patriarchs were Messiah, but now they are waiting for the next one. This is contradicted by the above statement as well as others, indicating that those who represent the Supreme Being are Messiahs.

Just as sectarian institutions today harp on Jesus returning again, the Jewish institution of Jesus' time - and even today - taught about the great Messiah coming. They just didn't believe that the Messiah was Jesus.

The concept of a single messiah coming soon is confused by the use of the word מָשִׁיחַ (mashiyach) within the structure of a role rather than a single person, as discussed from a vision of the angel Gabriel by Daniel. Gabriel said to Daniel:
"Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the anointed one, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing [of the temple] he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him." (Dan. 9:24-27)
As indicated in the translation, the meaning of שָׁבוּעַ (shabuwa`) indicates seven days or a week. This means that Gabriel was predicting events that would occur within the next 10 years (70x7 days divided by 365 = 9.4 years), two months (7x7 days), and nine years (62x7 divided by 365), respectively.

There is no indication that Gabriel is speaking of some messiah to come centuries or even thousands of years into the future. Gabriel was speaking to Daniel about events that would unfold in the coming years for him and his people.

As for other Old Testament verses that supposedly indicate some future messiah, all of those also refer to "anointed ones," which, as we see from a number of verses, including Exodus 30:30 mentioned above, refer to priests who were initiated to become God's representatives.

Why hasn't Jesus come again yet?

Sectarian organizations claiming to follow Jesus' teachings have been deceiving their followers about the "second coming" of Christ. Consider, for example, the so-many wrong doomsday predictions given by so many over the centuries:

Hilary of Poitiers: 365 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Martin of Tours: 375 to 400 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Hydatius (Bishop of Aquae) 482 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Sextus Julius Africanus: 500 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Hippolytus of Rome: 500 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Beatus of Leibana: 793 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Gregory of Tours: 799 to 800 AD (predicted doomsday dates)
Thiota: 847 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Pope Sylvester II: 1000 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Gerard of Poehlde: 1147 AD (predicted doomsday date)
John of Toledo: 1179 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Joachim of Fiore: 1205 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Pope Innocent III: 1284 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Joachimites: 1290 and 1335 AD (predicted doomsday dates)
Jean de Roquetaillade: 1368 and 1370 AD (predicted doomsday dates)
Amaldus de Villa Nova: 1378 (predicted doomsday date)
Thomas Muntzer: 1525 AD  (predicted doomsday date)
Johannes Stoffler: 1524 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Hans Hut (Anabaptist): 1528 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Melchior Hoffman (Anabaptist): 1533 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Jan Matthys (Anabaptist): 1534 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Martin Luther (Augustinian monk): 1600 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Christopher Columbus: 1658 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Joseph Mede: 1660 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Sabbatai Zevi: 1648 and 1666 AD (predicted doomsday dates)
Fifth Monarchists: 1666 and 1673 AD (predicted doomsday dates)
Benjamin Keach (Baptist): 1689 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Pierre Jurieu: 1689 AD (predicted doomsday date)
John Mason (Anglican): 1694 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Johan Heinrich Alsted (Calvinist): 1694 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Cotton Mather (Puritan): 1697, 1716 and 1736 AD (predicted doomsday dates)
Henry Archer (Fifth Monarchist): 1700 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa: 1700 to 1734 AD (predicted doomsday dates)
Camisards: 1705 and 1708 AD (predicted doomsday dates)
William Whitson: 1736 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Emanuel Swedenborg (Lutheran): 1757 AD (predicted doomsday date)
The Shakers (Ann Lee): 1792 and 1794 AD (predicted doomsday dates)
Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly: 1789 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Charles Wesley (Methodist): 1794 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Christopher Love (Presbyterian): 1805 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Margaret McDonald: 1830 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Joseph Smith (Mormon): 1832 and 1891 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Johann Albrecht Bengel (Lutheran): 1846 AD (predicted doomsday date)
John Wesley (Methodist founder): 1836 AD (predicted doomsday date)
William Miller (Millerites founder): 1843 and 1844 AD (predicted doomsday dates)
George Rapp (Harmony Society founder): 1847 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Harriet Livermore: 1847 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Ellen White (Seven Day Adventists): 1850, 1856 and "early 1900s" AD (predicted doomsday dates)
John Cumming: 1862 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Joseph Morris (Mormon): 1862 AD (predicted doomsday date)
John Wroe (Christian Israelite Church): 1863 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Jonas Wendell and other Adventist preachers: 1863, 1874, 1870 AD (predicted doomsday dates)
Mother Shipton: 1881 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Wovoka (Ghost Dance): 1890 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Catholic Apostolic Church: 1901 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah's Witnesses): 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975, 1994 and others more recent. (predicted doomsday dates)
Margaret Rowen (Seventh-Day Adventist): 1920 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Spencer Perceval (Catholic Apostolic Church): 1926 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Wilbur Glenn Voliva: 1935 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Herbert Armstrong (Worldwide Church of God founder): 1936 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Florence Houteff (Branch Davidians): 1959 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Johann Bischoff (New Apostolic Church): 1951 and 1960 AD (predicted doomsday dates)
Jim Jones (People's Temple cult): 1967 AD (predicted doomsday date)
George Williams (Church of the Firstborn): 1969 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Herbert Armstrong (Worldwide Church of God): 1972 AD (predicted doomsday date)
John Wroe (Christian Israelite Church): 1977 AD (predicted doomsday date)
William Branham (evangelist): 1977 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Chuck Smith (Calvary Chapel): 1981 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Pat Robertson (evangelist): 1982 and 2007 AD (predicted doomsday dates)
Lester Sumrall (Pentecostal): 1985 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Edgar Whisenant: 1988 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Elizabeth Clare (Summit Lighthouse): 1990 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Rollen Stewart: 1992 AD (predicted doomsday date)
David Berg (The Family): 1993 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Harold Camping: 1994, 1995, 2011 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Ronald Weinland (Church of God): 2011 and 2012 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Aggai: 1997 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Marshall Applewhite (Heavens Gate cult): 1997 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Archbishop James Ussher: 1997 AD (predicted doomsday date)
James Gordon Lindsay (Christ for the Nations): 1999 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Jerry Falwell (evangelist): 2000 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Ed Dobson: 2000 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Lester Sumrall: 2000 AD (predicted doomsday date)
Jonathan Edwards (Congr. Protestant): 2000 AD (predicted doomsday date)
David Meade: 2017 and 2018 AD (predicted doomsday dates)

Yes, these were all dates predicted by these teachers to their followers: False predictions that brought in so many followers due to fear. Their followers were afraid that they would be left behind.

Jesus himself described these charlatans ("prophesy in your name"):
“Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will come to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matt. 7:21-23)
The application here is "‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name..." In other words, Jesus is communicating that these liars are not to be admitted back to the spiritual realm, because they are not focused on doing God's will: their focus is on accumulating followers.

Why are we ignoring the real Messiah?

The only real Messiah (Savior) is the Supreme Being: And the Supreme Being sends His representatives to re-introduce us to Him and bring us back to Him.

Yet we continually ignore the Supreme Being - the real Messiah. We are so busy chasing our quest for power and authority in our work, or our sports, our politics, and our economy that we constantly ignore the Person who made us and made this world.

We forget the very solution to our emptiness, our loneliness and our suffering.

So did Jesus' "dying" on the cross and subsequent "rising" not occur in order to "save" us? Can we not, then, be saved by staring at the cross, or some ritual of eating a cracker and drinking some wine?

God's messengers save us by teaching us about God. They introduce us to God and tell us how we can re-establish our relationship with Him. This is why Jesus came to deliver God's message to us:
“My teaching is not my own. It comes from the One who sent me." (John 7:16)
And what is the teaching that the Supreme Being sent Jesus to teach us? The first and greatest instruction:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt. 22:37-40)
Was Jesus the only person to have given us this instruction? No. In fact, Jesus was quoting Moses when Moses instructed:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'" (Deut. 6:4)
And consider Joshua, Moses' student, who also taught his followers:
“But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to obey His commands, to hold fast to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul." (Joshua 22:5)
So both Jesus and Joshua were quoting Moses when they clarified this most important instruction. Jesus was teaching the same thing as Moses.

This is because both Moses and Joshua were representing God, as was Abraham, Jacob, Eli, David, Solomon, Job, Jeremiah, Jonah, Jacob, John the Baptist, Jesus, Jesus' disciples, and many others. 

They were all representing the Supreme Being, so they were all saviors (or messiahs). They all were representing the One true Savior and Messiah: the Supreme Being.

The Supreme Being has continually sent us His representatives to guide those who are serious about returning to our loving relationship with Him, back to Him. Because He doesn't want us to wait. He wants us to return home to Him now.


*Here is the translation of these statements according to the Lost Gospels of Jesus:

Therefore Jesus said, “For a little while longer I will be with you, then I go to Him who sent me. You will look for me and will not find me; and you cannot come where I will be.” (John 7:33-34)