Idiosyncrasy - “... Actually when Jesus was on earth he did just that. He cured people, fed them, and even raised the dead. But did they worship him? No. They put him to death. It would be just the same today. This man is obviously a charlatan....”
Correct. He quite clearly was. We are still talking about Jesus aren't we?
My earlier post which posed the tongue in cheek question, “... how could He 'prove' his divinity?” was meant to be a joke. From your answer it is clear that you were taking me seriously. As others have pointed out, if Jesus was able to walk on water, heal the sick and raise the dead then clearly the powers that be wouldn't have had Him killed. Far from it. His ability to raise the dead alone would make Him utterly invaluable to any would-be ruler; imagine the army He could conjure up!
The fact that so many people actually believe in the literal miracles of Jesus just goes to prove how gullible and easily lead some people are. Convince them of an eternal afterlife living in the lap of luxury and they'll believe, regurgitate and attempt to indoctrinate others into believing the most ludicrous things imaginable.
As for Jesus coming back in 'spirit' alone, that's just not correct I'm afraid. The second coming of Jesus is a quite literal one. The Bible clearly states that Jesus will return to earth in mortal form.
http://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/second-coming-jesus
You further say, “... No doubt many of you will remember from our school days the History teacher focusing on 1914 as a pivotal date, a date which ended the "golden years" and ushered in a new society...”.
Err, no actually. I was never taught that and I went to a Catholic faith school where we had morning prayers, etc. Not once was I told that 1914 was a "pivotal" year which ended the "golden years". If you were truly taught that then your history teacher wasn't very good since there has never been a period of "golden years" and anyone who claims otherwise clearly doesn't know their history.