The Vision of John the Baptist and the Vision of Jesus

In his Advent 2 sermon Glynn Cardy compares and contrasts John the Baptist's vision as a first century revolutionary fomenting rebellion versus Jesus' view that God's domain was here, Romans or no Romans. "John the Baptist believed that an avenging warrior messiah would come from the clouds with blade and fire to smite the Romans and establish the kingdom of God. Jesus didn’t share that belief. He didn’t believe in swords and fire and descending saviours. Rather he believed God’s domain was among us already, if only we had eyes to see. In the first century after Jesus’ death however the Church rekindled the message of John the Baptist and developed an end-time theology whereby Jesus would ‘come again’, descending in glory and power to rule the world." Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=447&id=899