The Language of the 2nd Coming

The Language of the 2^nd Coming

 
Many today teach the Pre-Trib Rapture of the Church as if it is a doctrine taught by the Scriptures.    The pre-Trib teaching is that Christ comes back secretly at the beginning of the tribulation and catches up his Saints and brings them back to heaven where they will be protected for seven years during the tribulation.  Then at the end of the great tribulation Christ will come back with the Saints and establish his kingdom reign over the earth.   

What I want to do in this article is examine this teaching and see if it stands up to the scrutiny of scripture.   The passage that is used most in reference to the rapture is 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18.  In this passage we read,

 

“13 ¶  But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.  14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.  15  For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming (Parousia) of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.  16  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the in Christ will rise first.  17  Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up (hapozo)  together with them in the clouds to meet (apantesis) the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.  18  Therefore comfort one another with these words”

 

The word rapture in the passage comes from the idea of being caught up.  The word means to up and is a fairly common word used in the New Testament but used only here in reference to the second coming of Christ.  When does Paul say that we will be caught up to be with Christ in the air?  Paul makes it very clear in verse 15 that that will not happen until the coming of Christ.  Paul uses a word in Greek that is a noun form of the verb coming or Parousia.  What is the Parousia of Christ and will this help us know what exactly Paul is teaching here in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18?  Because Paul is saying that we will be caught up at the Parousia of Christ and not before.  Let us look at some other places in the New Testament were this word is used in reference to the New Testament and see exactly what it is referring to. 

 

The word is used 24 times in the New Testament 15 times are used in reference to the second coming of Christ.    The word means, a coming, a presence.  It means the arrival of someone in person to be present with them.  It’s used in 2 Corinthians 7:6 in reference to the coming of Titus and the comfort that that coming brought to the apostle Paul.  In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul writes, “now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming (Parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Here again Paul is wishing that the Thessalonians would be found faithful when Jesus Christ comes to be present with them.   In other words he is coming to where we are and he will be present with us here on earth.

The next passage in which Paul uses this word is 2 Thessalonians 2:1, 8 let’s see how Paul uses this word here in this context in order to see what Paul means by the Parousia of Christ.  Paul says,

 “Now we request you, brother in with regard to the coming (Parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your confidence or disturbed by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the Temple of God, displaying himself as being God.  5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?  6 and you know what restrains him now, so that in this time he will be revealed for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way 8 Then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming (Parousia)”

Paul tells us two things about the Parousia that is very important to our understanding of the timing of the rapture.  The first is that the Parousia will not happen until the lawless one is revealed (vv 1-3).  What does Paul mean by the revelation of the lawless one?    If you take this verse to mean the revelation of the lawless one Christ ties this to the abomination that causes desolation which is the middle of the seven years. 

In Matthew 24: 15 Christ says, “therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place let the reader understand.  Christ makes the point of identification of the Antichrist (lawless one) this appearance in the holy place.  If we put both of these passages together we will not know that we are dealing with the Antichrist for the first 3 1/2 years of Daniels 70th week (Daniel 9:27).  Christ is the one who tells us about the great tribulation and he places it after the revelation of the Antichrist (lawless one) in the holy place. 

If you just take this first point that Paul makes you have to conclude that the Parousia will not occur till after the middle of the 70th week of Daniel.  In other words we are not to expect the rapture of the church to occur before the 70th week of Daniel begins but we are to expect at after the revelation of the lawless one which is the middle.  Already we have ruled out that Christ comes back to rapture his Saints before the seven years begins.

The second point that Paul makes is that the Parousia of Christ will slay the lawless one.  Verse eight clearly teaches this in fact Paul is making it clear that the Parousia is not a secret coming of Christ but a visible one because he says, “Then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord (Jesus Christ) will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance (epiphany) of his coming (Parousia).”  If you take the book of revelation you find that this occurs in chapter 19 where Christ is pictured on a white horse with a sword coming out of his mouth slaying the armies of earth.  The lawless one is the beast and the false prophet who Christ throws alive into the Lake of fire.  This means that now we have to conclude that the Parousia will not happen until after the tribulation.  Just taking these two points together we find that Paul is teaching the identical post-trib doctrine that Christ teaches in Matthew chapter 24. 

Matthew 24 also uses the word of Parousia in four places: verse 3, verse 27, verse 37 and 39.  Verse three of Matthew 24 gives us the whole context that Jesus is teaching.  “And as he was sitting on the Mount of olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, tell us when will these things happen and what will be the sign of your coming (Parousia), and of the end of the age?”  In other words the question that the disciples are asking is what will be the sign of your Parousia.  And so the rest of the teaching of Matthew 24 is the signs that the disciples should expect that would lead up to the Parousia of Christ.

That means that the Parousia will not be some sudden occurrence that will happen apart from predetermined signs that we as believers are to watch for.  Many today teach that there is nothing that must occur before Jesus will come back and rapture his Saints.  But Jesus clearly in Matthew 24 gives his disciples signs that they are to look for prior to his Parousia.  Jesus told them that the world would be marked by certain characteristics before he comes back such as: false christs, wars and rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes in various places, persecution and apostasy, the completion of the great commission (verse 14 This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, then the end will come.), the appearance of the abomination that causes desolation (the Antichrist, lawless, one verse 15) the time of the great tribulation (16-21), and cataclysms in the Sun moon and the stars immediately prior to the sign of the visible coming of Christ (29-30).  Jesus gives all of these signs in response to the disciples questions “what will be the sign of your Parousia”.

Jesus tells us something else about his Parousia in verse 27, “for just as the lightning comes from the East and flashes even to the West, so will the coming (Parousia) of the Son of Man be.”  Jesus here is saying that his coming will be visible like lightning.  Jesus contrasts this teaching in verse 27 with a false christs who will suddenly appear on the scene of earth’s history claiming to be the Christ.  In other words we are not to believe anyone’s claim to being the Christ and less they come from heaven like lightning.  Christ is clearly teaching us that the Parousia will light up the sky like lightning. 

This of course is pictured for us in verses 29 to 31 where we read, “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the Sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heaven will be shaken.  And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming (verbal form of coming erchomai) on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.  And he will send forth his Angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from the end of the sky to the other.”  Notice when Christ says this will occur very clearly he says after the tribulation of those days which Jesus in verse 21 called  the great tribulation.  In other words Jesus is saying that the Parousia will happen after the great tribulation. 

The final way which Parousia is used in Matthew 24 is to speak of it as sudden judgment upon the world.  In verses 37-39 Jesus says, for the coming (Parousia) of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.  For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the Ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming (Parousia) of the Son of Man be.”  Jesus here is teaching that just as the flood of Noah’s day brought the suddenness of judgment upon the world so his Parousia will bring the suddenness of judgment upon the world.  In other words the Parousia will and not you’re a the time of God’s wrath upon the world.  

This is exactly what the apostle Paul teaches us in two Thessalonians 1: 5-10 where we read, “5 ¶  This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. 6  For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7  and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8  dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9  These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10  when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our testimony to you was believed.”     Paul is clearly teaching that the second coming of Christ will accomplish two things, the salvation of the believers and the destruction of the unbelievers.  For the believer it will be a time of great joy in the presence of Christ at his visible coming for the unbeliever it will be a time of under the wrath of Christ who will destroy them with an eternal destruction. 

We have learned that the ing away of the Saints will be at the Parousia of Christ.  We have seen that the Parousia of Christ will not occur until after the revealing of the Antichrist and that the Parousia of Christ will bring about the destruction of the Antichrist.  We have seen that the Parousia of Christ will be preceded by signs, culminating with the visible appearance of Christ where Christ will gather his elect to him (Matthew 24:31) and I’m not great the time of judgment upon the world.  This clearly means that there is no pre-Trib rapture of the church before the 70th week of Daniel begins.  Paul’s use of the word Parousia always refers to the visible second coming of Christ and not to some secret coming prior to Daniel 70th week.