Parousia Now

Christians! Let us adopt Paul’s view of the local church. Consider his words in the next section of our study of 1 Thessalonians:

But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming (Gk. parousia)? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy. (1 Thess 2:17–20 ESV)

The church of the Thessalonians was Paul’s hope, joy, crown of boasting, and glory “before our Lord Jesus Christ in his presence (Gk. parousia)” (1 Thess 2:19 YLT). On it—and other such congregations (cf. 2 Cor 11:28)—Paul focused all his efforts.

This exalted view of the local church required Paul to reject his previous self-identity. As we have seen in previous posts, he had viewed the church of God as composed of “Jews by nature” (Gal 2:15); they were God’s elect nation. He had thought of the Jewish church as the kingdom over which God reigned. The Apostle knew that the Divine Presence dwelt in the temple in Jerusalem. 

All these views changed when the risen Christ revealed himself to Paul. He learned the correct definition of a Jew: “They which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham” (Gal 3:7). The promises God made to Abraham, he discovered, appertained to those having faith in Christ, not to the patriarch’s physical progeny. Paul learned that “it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all” (Rom 4:16). The Apostle now saw the church of the Thessalonians, and other churches, as “the Israel of God” (Gal 6:16).

Paul now addressed the church as the elect people of God (1 Thess 1:4). He knew that God had established a kingdom in which this Israel would dwell during the messianic age. Therefore, he told the Thessalonians that God was calling them “into His own kingdom and glory” (1 Thess 2:12).¹ In this kingdom, the temple at Jerusalem would no longer exist—the local church would be the temple of God in the new age (e.g., 2 Cor 6:16). 

This brings us to a key concept Paul introduces in our current passage—the parousia of Christ (1 Thess 2:19). The current prophetic models assume Paul is talking about the return of Christ at the end of the church age. This is a mistake—he is referring to the presence of Christ with his church during the entire messianic age.

I have given the reasons for understanding parousia this way elsewhere,² and will here mention just two facts that require this definition. First, Jesus associated his parousia (presence) with the temple’s fall in his generation (cf. Matt 24:3, 27, 34, 37, 39). Second, Paul associates the parousia of Christ with the resurrection at the end of the messianic age (1 Cor 15:23). The parousia cannot, therefore, be a point-in-time event and still meet these criteria; it must be the ongoing presence of Christ with his church during the messianic age.³

Paul knew a significant change was about to occur in his generation. The temple would soon fall (Matt 24:1–2, 34), bringing an end to the Mosaic age (Matt 24:3). God would take the kingdom from Israel after the flesh (1 Cor 10:18) and give it to the Israel of God (Matt 21:43). The Son of Man would come in his kingdom and glory (Matt 16:27–28). Afterward, the parousia (i.e., presence) of Christ would abide with his churches.

Paul was laboring to prepare the churches for this new state of affairs. He wanted them to fulfill God’s purposes for them in the messianic age: to be his congregation, his elect, his kingdom, and his temple. Paul was risking everything to do this important work. He believed that, when the changes occurred, faithful churches would be his “glory and joy.”

As present-day Christians, we have an advantage over Paul. We can see what Paul accepted by faith—the “great tribulation” has occurred and the temple in Jerusalem has fallen (in AD 70) just as Jesus had predicted. We now live in the presence of Christ; the parousia is now!

So, let us re-evaluate our estimation of the church to which we belong. Let us find our identity in it and work to make it fill the role God designed for it. May it be our hope, joy, crown, and glory “in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ”!

1. This translation is from John Eadie, A Commentary on the Greek Text of the Epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians, ed. William Young (London: Macmillan and Co., 1877), 73.
2. Michael A. Rogers, Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days (Tullahoma, TN: McGahan Publishing House, 2020), 73–88.
3. I provide reasons for this definition here.