Parousia

Dr. Tom Nettles describes James’ view of the “last days” and the coming of the Lord in his foreword to my book: “Behold the judge is standing at the door” (James 5:9). I read these verses today and considered seriously the possibility that James, the pastor of Christians in Jerusalem,…

Paul wrote about two “comings” in his “great apostasy” passage (2 Thess 2:1–12). One was “the coming (Gk. parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ ” (2 Thess 2:1, 8). The other was “the coming (Gk. parousia) of the lawless one” (2 Thess 2:9). The popular prophetic models create confusion regarding…

Christians need an optimistic view of God’s kingdom. We need to know that Christ’s opponents—including satanic conspirators who manipulate currencies, use COVID and its vaccinations for political purposes, and otherwise attempt to rule the world—will fail. False religions, and false doctrine within the church, also war against the kingdom of…

The major challenge to my prophetic view (inmillennialism) in Paul’s “rapture passage” (1 Thess 4:13–5:11) is in the following statements: The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.…

Before looking at 1 Thessalonians, I want to share an announcement for which I am thankful:                       Inmillennialism is available at Amazon, Books-A-Million, and Barnes & Noble.   We Who Are Alive and Remain Our last three posts on First…

In our last post (here), we proposed that Paul meant for his “rapture” passage—1 Thess 4:13–5:11—to comfort the Thessalonians regarding the relationship of their dead to the parousia (i.e., coming/presence) of Christ. Here is the heart of his answer: We say this to you by a revelation from the Lord:…

We have arrived at a passage—1 Thess 4:13–5:11—that mentions several important prophetic events. In this famous “rapture” passage, Paul discusses the coming (i.e., parousia = presence) of the Lord (1 Thess 4:15), the resurrection (1 Thess 4:16–17), the day of the Lord (1 Thess 5:2), and sudden destruction that would…

R. C. Sproul, one of my favorite theologians, spoke often of living life coram Deo. He explained: “The big idea of the Christian life is coram Deo. Coram Deo captures the essence of the Christian life.” This phrase literally refers to something that takes place in the presence of, or…

A reader who wishes to remain anonymous responded to my recent blog post, Parousia Now. Carl—my fictitious name for the reader—said: The Messiah is not on earth yet. When he is here there will be no evil. Evil is rampant now. I don’t see how you can say we are…

Commentators often make interesting interpretive adjustments when they encounter certain words and concepts in prophetic contexts; they do not allow them to keep the meaning they have elsewhere. Our present passage in 1 Thessalonians furnishes two examples important for our understanding of God’s prophetic word: (1) Paul’s desire to be…