The Parousia
Is the Lord Jesus Christ coming back twice? if you ask most professing christians, they will say "yes", they believe that the Lord will rapture His Church at any time, and take them to heaven, then 7 years later He will come back with them, well, if you read my other messages that talk about the return of the Lord, such as "Does the Bible Teach a Pre-Trib.Rapture", and "When is the First Resurrection?, you will see why I believe the bible teaches differently. Now, here is another reason why I believe differently.
The Greek word for "coming" as in reference to the coming of the Lord is "parousia", and it means, "arrival and presence", the Lord arrives to establish His kingdom, and of course He is present. Now some well meaning preachers say that the second coming {parousia} happens 7 years after the rapture, but if you would examine some verses that talk about the coming of the Lord, all those verses are "parousia" in the Greek. Read these verses below, some of these same verses are used by preachers to try to support their belief in a pre-trib rapture. Here they are below.
Matt.24:3- ".....Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy COMING {parousia}, and the end of the world?
Matt.24:30- And there shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man COMING {parousia} in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."
Matt. 24:37- But as the days of No-e were, so shall also the COMING {parousia} of the Son of man be."
1 Cor.15:23- "But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his COMING".{parousia}
1 Thess.3:13- "To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the COMING {parousia} of Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints."
1 Thess. 4:15- For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the COMING {parousia} of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep."
1 Thess.5:23- "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the COMING {parousia} of our Lord Jesus Christ."
2 Thess.2:1- "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the COMING {parousia} of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him."
2 Thess.2:8- "And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his COMING." {parousia}
There are a few more, but these are the main ones. Now some preachers say that the "coming" in Matt. 24 refers to the Lord's return to this planet to set up his kingdom after the tribulation, and that the "coming" in these other verses refer to the rapture 7 years before, but if you check the Greek, the "coming" in 1 Cor. 15:23, 1 Thess. 3:13, 1 Thess. 4:15, 1 Thess. 5:23, 2 Thess.2:1, 2 Thess.2:8 that I just showed you above is also "parousia" in the Greek just like the verses in Matt. 24 are. Are there two parousias? I think not, otherwise there would be confusion, and God is not the Author of confusion as it says in 1 Cor. 14:33.
God Bless,
Christopher
