What is the Parousia?

But there are other suggestions also of much instruction from the verse. Observe that there are two terms used which are not precisely the same. "That, if (the correct word, not "when" as in the Received Text) he shall be manifested." This last is one of them; the other is, "at His coming." "Coming" here, as often elsewhere, is not precisely the word that expresses "coming" and nothing else, as in John 14:3, 1 Cor. 11:26, and Rev. very often. He says, "I am coming (ἔρχομαι) again." This means the act of coming. But there is not merely this act, but the fact or state of His presence (παρουσία). It is His presence when He comes, and therefore it may lawfully be translated "coming"; but it often means not exactly when He was coming, but the state that ensued after He came. Take for instance the resurrection of those saints who were put to death in the early and in the later times of the Apocalypse; two classes of saints that are to be raised even after the Lord appears judicially in glory (Rev. 20:4). These form part of "those that are Christ's" raised at His coming. "At His coming" would there mean not the act of coming but the state of His being present instead of absent. There is another difference between them. The word "presence" or "coming" in that sense may be either for the heavenly people or for the earthly. For instance in the Epistle of James "the coming of the Lord draweth nigh" is the earthly side, as when the Lord says "The Son of man at his coming." The connection of His presence with "The Son of man" decides this in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke; and so with the Epistle of James who says "The judge standeth at the door." This relation of the Lord must be connected with His day or appearing. His "manifestation" also is that further effect of His presence, and His "revelation" too.

I may remark as to the expression, the “coming” of the Lord, that it means His presence in contrast with His absence; and it is a large and comprehensive word as so used, reaching from what is known to many of us as the “rapture” of the saints, to be “for ever with the Lord,” and continuing through the interval which follows, till His appearing with His saints in glory. The word “coming” (parousia) embraces both thoughts; while the “appearing” (epiphaneia) is the shining forth of His coming when He will be displayed in glory to the world. That word “coming” is often used for this event, the “appearing”; but this last word is never used for the “coming: His “coming” or presence in contrast to His absence, embraces many details which He will accomplish in the interval, till His open manifestation to the world, when “every eye shall see him,” coming with “ten thousands of his saints.”

Clearly, then, Scripture has distinguished between the coming or presence (par.) of Christ and the manifestation (epiph.) of that presence. The “coming” is the Lord's actual presence by-and-by in contrast with His absence which is the fact now; the appearing or epiphany of His coming is the outward evidence of His future presence by the visible outshining of His manifold glories, making that presence manifest to all men. Hence the coming (par.) is applied (1) to the time when the presence of the Lord is not manifested to all men, but becomes known to “those that look for Him” (Heb. 9:28); and also (2) to the time when He comes with clouds, and all shall know of His arrival (Rev. 1:7), and He will even “become manifest to those not inquiring” after Him (Rom. 10:20, quoted from Isa. 65:1).

But more than that. The apostle continues, and shows that when the Lord Jesus appears in glory, He will bring along with Him those saints that have slept by Him — not their spirits only, but themselves (body, soul, and spirit) glorified, of course. The way in which the dead saints, as well as those that may be till then alive, can thus come with Him is this: He is coming in person, first of all, to change them into His likeness. Whether asleep in death or still alive, they will be caught up to be with the Lord; so that when He comes in judgment of the habitable world (i.e. in His day) they will accompany Him in glory. In this we find the two great parts of the presence of the Lord Jesus. That is to say, He will first come for the saints, and in the second place He will come with them. Both are called "the coming, or presence, of the Lord." They are the two main aspects — if one may so say — of Christ's coming: the first, to gather the heavenly saints to Himself; the second, to bring them with Him when He appears in glory. It is the second part of the coming of Christ that connects itself with Old Testament hopes (as, for instance, with Zech. 14: "The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee"). Clearly, therefore, as we now know, they must have been raised and taken up to be with Christ above; and, as we also know for certain, we who are alive on the earth waiting for Jesus cannot be changed and caught up with the raised ones, to be with the Lord above, unless He Himself have come to this end.

This, then, I believe is what we really ought to gather from the expression of the Holy Spirit here. In short, in the first verse the Spirit of God speaks of His coming without a word about the appearing. In the eighth verse He speaks about not the coming only but the appearing — the manifestation of His coming. Now observe the difference. When the coming alone is spoken of, what is the connection? What the revealed effect of His coming? "We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of the Lord Jesus and our gathering together unto him." The effect of the Lord's coming or presence (for such is the strict meaning of παρουσία), is that the saints are gathered to be with the Lord. Whether found sleeping or awake — in other words, whether alive or dead — the saints are gathered to be with Christ. "We beseech you by the coming of our Lord Jesus and our gathering unto him." The moment the Lord Jesus comes — not when He appears, but when He comes and instead of being absent is present — the saints at once are assembled to be with Him above. But the lawless one is not judged until the Lord not merely comes but appears. Therefore it is said, "whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the appearance of his coming." The manifested presence of the Lord is appointed and said in the word to deal with the adversary.

Now, as regards the world, this manifestation for judgment is Christ's coming. The term coming, or presence, embraces all that passes in connection with His return from the moment of His entrance into the created universe, be it heaven or earth. As regards the world, His coming may be called His appearing, His manifestation, the appearing of His coming, or His revelation. It has all these titles. The saints joining Christ is never referred to anything but His coming; for when He appears, they appear with Him.

A. The presence (παρουσία) of Christ is His coming, or rather state of being present, in contrast with His absence, and is in itself equally compatible with being visible or not at His pleasure (as we see after His resurrection). The solution of the question depends on other scriptures and cannot be decided by the bare word coming or presence. One of these scriptures is the comparison of 2 Thessalonians 2:1 with verse 8. On the face of it, verse 1 binds together his coming or παρουσία with the gathering together of the saints to Himself. This is the motive for comfort against the terror of the day of the Lord, which the false teachers were seeking to bring on the souls of the Thessalonians. The false rumour that His day was actually arrived, or present (ἐνέστηκεν), was effectually dispelled by the sweet hope of being thus re-united to Himself, with the added information that that day of awful associations for the world should not be there before the full development and open display of that lawlessness, which was already at work in secret ways. For the day of the Lord is ever the predicted period of judgment on man's evil, which it is to put down and clear away, in order that the good of God's kingdom may be no longer hidden or hindered but shine out to His everlasting praise. Hence it is said that the lawless one (for so it will end) shall be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of His mouth and shall destroy, or annul, by the appearing of His coming or presence. Thus visibility is expressly connected, not with the Lord's presence to assemble His saints to Himself, but with His judicial action on the Antichrist.

We now see, then, that Jesus will come to reign before the end of the world, and that when He does come, His saints, including the Church, will come with Him. Thus, while the believer's immediate hope — for which he should be constantly waiting — is the coming of Jesus for His saints, another hope is also often mentioned, namely, the coming of Jesus with His saints. The first event is generally called the Lord's "coming;" the second His "revelation," "manifestation," or "appearing." But these names are not invariable. Thus Christ "appears" to those who look for Him when He "comes" to take them to Himself; while He "comes" at the time when He "appears" to the world. In most cases, indeed, the nature and object of his coming or appearing are seen by a glance at the context, and do not depend for their proper interpretation on the use of any particular word.

There seems to be an unhealthy kind of nervous fear in the hearts of some who rightly look for the taking up of the Church, that to give the manifestation of our Lord the least prominence, as that for which the believer waits, is to endanger the hope of that blessed expectation. But this is a very childish and baseless fear, and requires no other antidote for its banishment than the fact that the Holy Spirit of God has given it such a large place in the Scriptures. Indeed, as to the “rapture” and the introduction of the “world to come,” both are brought about by the one coming of Christ. And for that one coming of Christ we look, though now that we have the full and perfect revelation of God, we know that we shall be with Him when that coming bursts upon the world; and though this involves our being with Him before He appears, it does not alter the fact that— “We look for Thine appearing, Thy presence here to bless; We greet the day that’s nearing, When all this woe shall cease.”

Now this will, perhaps, help in making clear the distinction between the Lord's coming for His people and His subsequent coming with them. You get both referred to in Scripture. First, "I will come again and receive you unto Myself." That is His coming for us. Then, in Jude 14, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment." He is coming to hold the assizes, as it were, to visit the ungodly with His displeasure and "throughly purge His floor." In this He will be accompanied by His saints, as the judges in coming from Durham to Newcastle were accompanied by the sheriffs of the latter place. But in order that this may be so, His people will be summoned from earth to meet Him in the air. Then they will return with Him when He comes forth in conquering might. See Revelation 19:11-14. It is this latter event that is referred to again and again in the Old Testament. In the New Testament it is often spoken of as His appearing, or His manifestation in glory, as contrasted with His more secret coming for His people, or "rapture," as it is sometimes called.