the return of Jesus, descending from the clouds, is the ultimate 'deus ex machina'

‘Deus ex machina’, literally ‘god from the machine’, is a concept from ancient Hellenistic theatre. An actor portraying a Greek god (deus) would be lowered by crane (machina) onto the stage, bringing implausible, magical resolution to a play’s hopeless situation. See more discussion HERE.

As such, ‘deus ex machina’ has come to mean a cheap shot, a playwright’s unskillful, out of the blue, non-sequitur attempt to bring veneer of logical conclusion to a literary mess of “writing oneself into a corner.”

It’s like, “I can’t think of a good way to tie all this together, so I’ll resort to fantasy.” Nietzsche put forward that this “metaphysical consolation,” of unwarranted and fantastic answer to earthly problem, constitutes superstitious attempt to find “resolution for tragic dissonance.”

The most skilful playwrights, novelists, movie-scripters, avoid the facile and contrived ‘deus ex machina’. Like a well-written murder mystery, the plot must flow naturally from internal elements. It will unfold by the power of its own rising force. The conclusion is not disjointed from the main but presents itself as logical extension of both the facts and the nature of the case.

the real God does not employ 'deus ex machina’ in the unfolding story of humankind

The great Author of humankind’s story, the complex drama, will not resort to cheap, out-of-the-blue, plot solutions. What does this mean?

Jesus, the ultimate 'deus ex machina'

See the ‘Jesus’ page for much discussion, but, essentially, a returning war-lord to rule with a rod of iron is altogether antithetical to the entire flow of the earlier narrative. It doesn’t fit well with much of the earlier biblical thesis.

Which is to say, too obvious to point out, so much of the message of Jesus and Paul focuses on spiritual growth and development. The Old Testament Proverbs, too, is all about seeking for wisdom, insight, and knowledge – one’s personal path to becoming more like God.

Joe Pesci, lowered from the sky, can really get things done

But there are statements and concepts in the New Testament which do not reflect authentic teachings of Jesus.

The bodily return of a war-lord Christ, “a god lowered from the sky” as solution to a plot’s conundrum, would be tantamount to God saying,

“I’ve had it with all this high-sounding platitude stuff. I’m tired of no results. I want things ship-shape, all ducks in a row, right now. I mean, you gotta bend the rules a little if you finally want some action. It’s time to send in my own version of Joe Pesci, he’ll get things done, but good. No more Mr. Nice Guy now, let’s bring in the Enforcer and go with what works.”

Now, you might think it irreverent to compare Jesus to Joe Pesci, and I would agree, but so many people have no problem, it’s just fine, to have a ‘deus ex machina’ solution to the question of how Evil with be expunged from the Earth.

A vicious Jesus, a slaughter-house Jesus, a blood-thirsty mafia-like Jesus, one who breaks legs, shatters thumbs, bludgeons the rebellious, with that iron rod – this is how many deluded true believers envision “peace” coming to the world.

The problem is, no one would want to live in that world.

Joe Pesci: “Nothing would thrill me more greatly than to shoot you… You're a little confused? Maybe if I stick your ****in' face through this window you'll get unconfused…  Got a lotta holes in the desert and a lotta problems are buried in those holes… If you get outta line again, I'll smash your head so hard you won't be able to get that cowboy hat on, you heard me?”

Well, we can hardly wait for that rod-of-iron world.

I well know of these biblical concepts because I went to bible college and was part of a ministerial teaching team for decades. The rod-of-iron Jesus would turn the world into a concentration camp in which all walk in a straight line, not daring to look left or right.

No one would want to live in that world - except the ruling class overseeing the penal colony. Despotic Ecclesia teaches that a brutality of a war-lord Jesus is a good thing because this is the sort of authority they’d love to possess, the kind they had in the past, and fancy themselves to be wielding in the future. They create Jesus in their own craven image.

All this is an utter distortion of spiritual authority, has no basis in reality, will never happen, is an affront to the real God, a Monty Python farce in three acts, as the real God would never authorize dystopian solution to humankind’s immature phase, what we call evil. Jesus, in bodily form, is never coming back to the Earth. See discussion on the “Word Gems Guide” page.

Footnote: Let’s think about this further. ‘Deus ex machina’ is standard fare today, not just with religion but science and philosophy, too. Materialists regularly resort to ‘deus ex machina’ thinking, an attempt to make sense of the universe.

There is no such thing as parallel universes, no time travel (as Mr. Peabody did it), no natural selection as the author of life (though it’s the editor), no such thing as reincarnation, past lives, karma – these and many more are just ‘deus ex machina’ viewpoints; unfounded, unwarranted, baseless materialistic answers to metaphysical questions.

See the “quantum” and “evolution” and “reincarnation” pages for much discussion.