The Second Coming

The primary Greek term for the return of Christ is parousia (παρουσία, presence, arrival, coming). In the Hellenistic world, parousia was a technical term for the official visit of a king or emperor to a city: the city would prepare, go out to meet (eis apantesin, the same phrase used in Matthew 25:6 for the bridesmaids going to meet the bridegroom), and escort the arriving dignitary back to the city. Paul uses the same vocabulary in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 (meeting the Lord in the air and escorting him).

Other NT terms: apokalypsis (ἀποκάλυψις, revelation, unveiling, apocalypse, used in 1 Corinthians 1:7 and 1 Peter 1:13 for the revelation of Christ); epiphaneia (ἐπιφάνεια, epiphany, appearance, manifestation, used in 2 Thessalonians 2:8 for "the epiphany of his parousia"). The cumulative force: the return is a visible, glorious, public event, an arrival, an unveiling, and an epiphany, not a secret or invisible event.

The return appears in every major NT corpus: Matthew 24-25, Mark 13, Luke 17 and 21, John 14:3 ("I will come again"), Acts 1:11, 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Thessalonians 4-5, 2 Thessalonians 1-2, 2 Peter 3, Jude, Revelation 1, 19, 22. The universal expectation of the return is the context for the entire ethics and eschatology of the New Testament.

The Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24-25, parallel in Mark 13 and Luke 21) is Jesus's extended teaching on the end: the fall of Jerusalem (predicted in 70 AD, 37 years after the discourse), the signs of the end of the age, and the coming of the Son of Man. The discourse is famously difficult to interpret because it weaves together two distinct events, the fall of Jerusalem (near future, fulfilled) and the final return of Christ (distant future, still coming), without always signaling the transition.

"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 heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matthew 24:29-30). The cosmic imagery (sun/moon/stars darkened) is drawn from the OT prophetic tradition (Isaiah 13:10 for Babylon; Ezekiel 32:7 for Egypt) where such language signals the cosmic significance of historical judgment events. The "coming on the clouds" language echoes Daniel 7:13-14.

The call to readiness: "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only" (24:36). The timing is unknowable; therefore the posture is watchfulness. The parables that follow, the ten virgins (25:1-13), the talents (25:14-30), the sheep and goats (25:31-46), all address the question of how to live in the time between the ascension and the return.

"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13). The Thessalonian believers were apparently grieving because some of their number had died before the return, they feared the dead would miss the parousia.

Paul's answer: "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet (eis apantesin, the royal-reception-escort term) the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord" (4:16-17). The dead in Christ are raised first; the living are transformed; both together meet (eis apantesin) the Lord in the air.

The purpose of the return: "we will always be with the Lord" (4:17). The eschatological goal is presence with Christ, not merely escape from earth. The imagery of eis apantesin suggests not a rapture where believers are taken to heaven to stay there but an escort: the crowd goes out to meet the arriving king and escorts him back to the city. The arriving king is coming to establish his reign on the renewed earth.

The return is not only comfort for the persecuted but judgment for the persecutors. 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10: "Since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed (en te apokalupsei, in the revelation) from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed."

The two sides of the return: relief and comfort for the persecuted Spiritborn; just judgment for those who afflict them and reject the gospel. The return is an event of cosmic justice, YHWH's righteousness made visible in the vindication of the righteous and the judgment of the wicked.

Revelation 19:11-16 images this as the rider on the white horse, called Faithful and True, who in righteousness judges and makes war. His robe is dipped in blood (the blood of the cross, Revelation 5's slain-yet-standing Lamb); from his mouth comes a sharp sword (the word of judgment); and on his robe and thigh the name: "King of kings and Lord of lords" (19:16).

The Sanctum holds the second coming as certain, visible, bodily, and cosmic, the public vindication of the crucified and risen Jesus before all creation. It is comfort for the persecuted (the one who suffered with us will return in glory), judgment for the persecutors (cosmic justice), resurrection for the dead in Christ, and the inauguration of the eternal state. The posture the NT calls for in light of the return: watchfulness, readiness, faithful stewardship, and lives that are congruent with the kingdom that is coming.