The Parousia

In the 19^th century, second Adventists, in response to Jesus’ admonition to look out for his coming, propagated three types of errors, by predicting the year(s) of his coming, and that he would come in the flesh, and that only the small number of Adventists would be saved, while the whole of mankind gets to be wiped out. Russell set about preaching against those errors only to get caught up in similar misconceptions.

Why, down to this day we maintain that we predicted the appointed time of Christ’s coming in power and kingdom glory in 1914, basing our claim to be appointed over all his belongings on foreknowing this date, contrary to Jesus’ own word: “You do not know when the appointed time is,” and, ‘don’t get taken in by those who are saying,”The due time has approached!”’

Countering the Adventist view that Christ returned for the purpose of saving them and destroying everybody else, Russell unfortunately compounded two sequential aspects of his Parousia, if not reversing their order, namely, the blessing of mankind and the judging. But does the Parousia start with the blessing of the families of the earth through some invisible kingdom, or does Christ come first with striking observableness to destroy the wicked? Adding to the mix-up, the suddenness and unexpectedness of his Parousia, relating to time as it does, gets misinterpreted as ambiguity about his location - might the thief have already arrived in the wilderness? ‘Look, there he is’ – and as well he might be, if his Parousia was indeed to be invisible, secret.

But Jesus warned against such deception. Unexpected does not mean invisible, unnoticed. Constantly keeping on the watch was meant to enhance the expectation of, and readiness for his Parousia, but not to jump the gun on its commencement. Russell rightly realized that the objective of Christ’s Parousia was not to destroy the families of the earth, but to bless them, in fulfilment of the promise to Abraham and as elaborated upon by all the prophets.

But was this Parousia of blessing to take place amongst this wicked, evil world, perhaps to spread slowly through a worldwide Bible educational campaign, to finally reform the whole world? To avoid this misunderstanding, and particularly to warn against the time of ‘freedom from care’ during the coming reign of Satan’s beast over all nations, who will worship it admiringly for blessing mankind in imitation of, and directly preceding Christ’s kingdom, Jesus sternly warned us against this very notion of his own kingdom rule and presence somehow having already begun invisibly. “Many will come on the basis of my name, saying, ‘The due time has approached.’” Similarly, Paul warned us against this concept of Christ’s Parousia being already here, invisibly, as it were, not to be seduced, ‘against our reason’ through an untested inspired expression, which certainly does not originate with God.

So, rather than warning us against his coming and subsequent presence as somehow happening unnoticed and prematurely, he stresses the exact opposite: ‘Do not be misled, do not be terrified, the end is not yet, this is only the beginning of distress’ etc., and that his coming on the clouds in power and glory, which starts off his presence will be like lightning, seen by all the tribes of the earth simultaneously. That way, it will be clearly seen, in a supernatural global display of glory, that it is Christ Jesus who destroys the wicked and then blesses all the survivors of the nations. This Presence will not take place invisibly, to the eye of faith, done in a corner, so to speak. The Greek word Parousia means ‘coming and consequent presence’, not ‘presence’ followed by coming. His arrival was to be unexpected, not his subsequent presence! By over focusing on the ‘ongoing presence’ inherent in the word Parousia, we have lost sight of how it was to begin, namely, with a glorious, miraculous display of Christ coming with power on the clouds of heaven as seen by Peter, James and John in the transfiguration. That, at any rate, is how Peter acquainted us with his coming Parousia, when ‘every eye’ will ‘become eye-witnesses of his magnificence.’ What can our ‘invisible presence-and-subsequent-arrival’ teaching be but artfully contrived false stories that we inherited from Adventists who, intent on covering up their failed prediction of the date of Christ’s return, turning it into an article of faith, declared it to be invisible, revealed only to those in the inner chambers of their superstition?!

And, that Nelson H. Barbour, who denied the ransom, believed in an invisible presence to uplift mankind before a time of judgment, and then succeeded in convincing Russell, against his previously expressed disgust with Adventist date-fixing, to adopt 1914 for Christ’s return, adds little credence to this peculiar, and, more importantly, unscriptural doctrine.

If Jesus’ presence started in 1914 and ‘Presence’ being based on the Greek ‘Parousia’, which according to one dictionary means “Arrival, someone’s coming in order to be present”, Jesus must have come then at the start of his presence, and being present still, and presence being the exact opposite of absence, in order for him to be “coming on the clouds of heaven” in the near future, he has yet to become absent again from his ‘Presence’ – when is that going to be? Or, rather, is there a third coming? Not according to Hebrews 9 verse 28: “And the second time that he appears…” – no third time! Similarly, John 14 verse 3 quotes Jesus himself as saying: “I am coming again…”- not, ‘again and again!’ Back to Hebrews 9 – his second coming to be present would be to those earnestly looking for him for their salvation. When might that be, if not at the end of the great tribulation as it gets cut short to save at least some of the chosen ones?

Similarly, Jesus says in Luke 17 about the great tribulation: “Days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, but you will not see it” – this will be the second and only time Jesus comes back to gather his chosen ones who then will be earnestly looking for him for their salvation. Since Christ’s future coming for the purpose of being present is to be with power and great glory, and remember, this is his second, one and only arrival and return warranted by scripture – how can that be invisible? Invisible magnificence? Invisible glory and splendour and celestial phenomena, beheld by the eye of faith? Since ‘all the tribes of the earth’ lack such spiritual discernment, just what triggers their beating themselves in grief at Christ’s return, unless Jesus means what he says: they literally see him coming in supernatural glory?

Further, if the Parousia of Christ was to be invisible, why liken it to lightning? Invisible lightning? Invisible revelation? Invisible glory? Stop and think about it! The notion of Christ returning ‘in the flesh’ is of course clearly unscriptural, but does that automatically prove that his coming, as the beginning of his Presence (Parousia), is invisible to those dwelling on the earth, as so dogmatically asserted by us? After his resurrection, when Christ appeared to his disciples, was he ‘in the flesh’? No, but nor was he invisible. At his transfiguration, which, by the way was a preview of his arriving for his presence in glory, was he ‘in the flesh’? No, he was transfigured in the spirit. This same glorious display will soon appear before the eyes of the whole world at the start of his Parousia, just as promised.

So, although ‘Invisible Presence’ was used to counter ‘Coming in the flesh’, both concepts are false and misleading. The revelation of Jesus is the public showing at the start of his ongoing presence, as the word Parousia properly signifies. Christ is invisibly present in the spirit prospering his congregation before his Parousia; but to show the uniqueness of the Parousia as being more than just a spiritual presence, it is to be introduced with the revealing of Christ and his Body in glory to the whole world. Christ’s two thousand year invisible, spiritual presence with his chosen ones has never accomplished a peaceful world, nor was it meant to, but his Parousia will soon do so.

Having thus established that every eye will see him at the start of his Parousia, could it be that the destruction of the wicked and subsequent blessing of the righteous would be taking place invisibly, discerned only by those who believe with their eye of faith? Obviously not! Seeing there will be nothing invisible about Christ’s Parousia, calling it ‘invisible presence’ is a lie, a tradition invalidating the word of God that will not go unpunished. Since Christ’s Parousia means unexpected spectacular return for the purpose of rescuing and glorifying his chosen ones to join him in destroying the wicked and blessing the survivors and all those to be resurrected, it becomes evident that the Parousia is the same as the coming millennial kingdom, for which we are hoping, and, yes, with the ‘eye of faith’, for when a man sees a thing, does he hope for it?

So we hope for the coming of the Parousia kingdom precisely because it is yet future, otherwise why pray for its coming? To hope for an already established Parousia is no faith at all, and can only be discerned with the eye of ignorance or superstition! So if Christ started to rule in the midst of his enemies some 90 years ago, how many kings did he break to pieces? How did he ‘execute judgment among the nations, causing a fullness of dead bodies, breaking to pieces the head one (i.e. little horn) over a populous land?’ (Ps. 110) If the last century of world history was a demonstration of Christ’s glorious world rulership of invisible, active presence, who could be blamed for rejecting it – what a misrepresentation of his Parousia!

Similarly, in Revelation 11 when the Parousia starts and ‘the nations become wrathful, his own wrath came to bring to ruin those ruining the earth’ – if this describes what happened in 1914, then the nations have held up splendidly under his wrath, perhaps missing out on their ruin because of not having the ‘eye of faith’ for beholding it?? Maybe this is Paradise and some ten thousands started to rule as kings without us in 1914?? Since Satan is ruling the whole world from the rebellion in Eden onward, who is ruling the world today? And who since 1914? Is Christ sharing rulership over the earth with Satan? Did Christ start ruling over his congregation only since 1914? Was that to be the object of his Parousia? Clearly not!

But didn’t Jesus indicate that his Kingdom-Parousia would start unnoticed, hence maybe ‘invisible’, by “not coming with striking observableness”? Yes, to the people in the first century, the kingdom in its pre-Parousia form, as proclaimed by Jesus and later on by his disciples, even down to our time, did not appear with striking observableness precisely because it was to be received by faith in its future realization at the coming and consequent presence of the ‘Parousia’. This pre-Parousia Kingdom existing in the faith of its believers, and transmitted through the preaching about its future fulfilment goes unnoticed to all outsiders or non-believers even down to our day, because it is in our midst as the word of promise seen only with the eye of faith, ‘invisible’, if you will.

So, isn’t it ironic that in the first century believers were looking for Christ and his kingdom to come with great power, pomp and glory to take over the world – they got it wrong, and many missed out on life! Today, when according to his own word he is coming like lightning on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, strikingly observable indeed, many believers are following a Christ that came invisibly, unnoticed into the inner chambers of their pre-conceived ideas; how tragic their delusion will turn out to be, when this ‘Christ’ blesses mankind to the point of their following him with admiration all the way to “Peace and security”!

What about the days of Noah, then? Wasn’t his Parousia to be like them? Yes, ‘for as they were in those days before the “Parousia”, eating and drinking etc., until the day that the Son of man arrives in order to be present at his Parousia to sweep them all away!’ It ought to be obvious that it was the flood that swept them all away, not the ‘days of Noah’ preceding it. So too it will be the coming at the start of his presence (Parousia) that will destroy the wicked, not the days leading up to it. Jesus’ point wasn’t that the flood was invisibly present in the days of Noah, but that it came with striking observableness, with instant global force and effect, visually experienced simultaneously by everybody, and so the start of his Parousia will be –this being the point of analogy with the days of Noah! It wasn’t the invisible presence of the flood in the days of Noah that the people took no note of, but the preaching about its coming, its being on the way, approaching, moving towards them; that is what should have been of concern to them, not that it would result in an ongoing presence.

And, yes, there is an element of progression in Jesus’ additional statement: “Just as soon as its young branch grows tender and it puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near”, or, according to our twist: ‘…you know that summer has been invisibly present, and autumn is near’; quite a perversion of Jesus’ meaning; we shall see who is right – anyhow, Jesus continues: “Likewise also you, when you see all these things, i.e. ‘nation against nation’ etc. right up to seeing ‘the sign of the Son of man appearing in heaven’, know then, says Jesus, that he is NEAR, at the doors, yes, coming, on the way, moving toward, but not yet present; or, as Luke puts it: “Know that the kingdom of God is NEAR”, not ‘invisibly established some 9 decades ago’ – what a lie!

Thus, according to Jesus’ own words, immediately after the end of the great tribulation when we will see him coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, he will be near, approaching, arriving for his long promised subsequent and ongoing presence, as signified by the much misinterpreted Greek word Parousia.

Isaiah aptly prophesied about Jehovah’s modern Witnesses in chapter 30:

“… it is a rebellious people, untruthful sons, who have said to the ones seeing, ‘you must not see, you must not envision for us any straightforward things. Speak to us smooth things; envision deceptive things.” “Therefore”, says Jehovah, “since you trust in what is devious and you support yourselves on it, for you this ‘1914/invisible presence’ error will become like a broken section about to fall down, a swelling out in a highly raised wall, the breakdown of which may come suddenly, in an instant. And one will certainly break it as in the breaking of a large jar of the potters, crushed to pieces without one’s sparing it, so that there cannot be found among its crushed pieces a fragment of earthenware with which to rake fire from the fireplace or to skim water from a marshy place.”

Jesus’ disciples asked him for the sign of his Parousia, and he told them precisely and clearly that immediately after the end of the great tribulation the sign (v.30) of the start of his Parousia would appear in heaven. But how could all the tribes of the earth actually see Jesus coming on the clouds of heaven? Ever heard of miracles? Might it not be fitting to introduce Christ’s long awaited and much misrepresented Parousia with a spectacular, miraculous display of awe-inspiring power and glory, coming on the clouds of heaven with all his holy angels in a flaming fire, to glorify and reveal his brothers as Sons of God in connection with himself, just as all the scriptures so graphically describe? If at the giving of the Law ‘the display of a dark cloud and a tempest and the blare of a trumpet and the voice of words was unbearable and even Moses was fearful and trembling, how much more glorious Christ’s coming at the start of his Parousia will be!

Satan and his demons, of course, hate the coming public revelation of Jesus, preferring to have it swept under the carpet of invisibility, or disguised as some random, cosmic cataclysm brought on by aliens. No wonder, then, that Christ’s Parousia will be preceded by the unmistakable Sign of the Son of man, and will be recognized as such by all.

In the ‘Insight’ book we state under ‘Presence’: “While Jesus’ presence of necessity implies his arrival at the place where he is to be present, the translation of Parousia by ‘coming’ places all the emphasis on the arrival and obscures the subsequent presence that follows the arrival.” True enough. But doesn’t the translation as ‘presence’ obscure the necessary and prior meaning of coming, arrival? Further, isn’t it rather obvious that absolutely no one comes, or arrives, except for the purpose of being present, no matter how long such Parousia might be, or what it might accomplish?

Do we really think that the vast majority of Bible translators are ignorant of the fact that ‘Parousia denotes both an arrival and a consequent presence with’? Why, then, do they choose to use ‘coming’ instead of ‘presence’? Because that is precisely how any Parousia starts, whereas a presence cannot be followed by the arrival of the person so present unless first he becomes absent again, and his next presence, just as his first, is preceded by his arrival or coming. No person present, without becoming absent again from his presence, can become present again, unless he first ‘comes’ again. Only through Watchtower-doublethink can we comprehend the future coming of one being ‘actively present’! By using ‘presence’ and disregarding the coming that was to precede it, we have painted ourselves into this spiritual corner of having to explain away his future glorious coming, while searching for accomplishments of his century long invisible presence, which are embarrassingly thin on the ground.

We are walking not by faith, nor by sight, but backwards by means of our spiritual rear vision mirrors off into ‘cloud cuckoo land’, the invisible presence of a future reality; the invisible presence of active absence! The kingdom of God had overtaken the Pharisees of the first century; not wanting to be beaten this time, we started overtaking the kingdom of God!

Further, the ‘Insight’ book gives this useful description of the Parousia: “…Christ’s presence is the time for him to direct his full attention to the whole earth and its population, bringing the full force of his kingly power to bear so as to accomplish his father’s will for the earth and its inhabitants.” Right! If for the last century, since 1914, we have experienced the “Full force of his kingly power” over the “whole earth”, and the resulting mayhem has been the “father’s will for the earth and its inhabitants”, the kingdom of God is really a cruel joke. And if I were God, I would be furious at being so blasphemously misrepresented!

This intellectual dishonesty must of necessity be a reflection of the spiritual duplicity of a dominant section of the Watchtower leadership. Will they be able to resist joining the dawning global kingdom of world-improvers of the synagogue of Satan, as he hands over his power to this beast to have authority over every nation on earth who will follow it admiringly?

As alluded to above, Luke chapter 17 from verse 20 on is a much misunderstood and misquoted scripture, but one that is vital in understanding the Parousia. Notice that Jesus directly contradicts his statements from verses 20,21 in his next sentence, verses 22-24, namely: “…neither will people be saying, ‘See here!’ or, ‘There!’”

contradicted in verse 23 by: “…people will say to you, ‘See there!’ or, ‘See here!’”

Similarly, the saying of verse 20: “The kingdom of God is not coming with striking observableness” is contradicted in verse 24, where the kingdom-Parousia of the Son of man will be just “as the lightning, by its flashing, shines from one part under heaven to another part under heaven” -- Strikingly observable indeed! How can we account for this obvious contradiction by Jesus? True, one set of sayings were spoken to the Pharisees and the opposite was meant for his disciples, but this is only incidental to the real reason for Jesus’ contradiction, in that it would be his disciples who would be affected when those future “Days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of man but you will not see it.” These future days are obviously just before Jesus comes back for his Parousia to rescue them. By means of this obvious and deliberate contradiction Jesus contrasts the difference between his presence then and his future Parousia consisting of coming and subsequent presence!

So by saying the kingdom of God is not coming with striking observableness in our time, as we do, we have totally missed the point Jesus made about his future Parousia. His first coming was indeed to be quiet and to those willing to put faith in him, and to give a sample through his miracles of what would happen during his future Parousia. He also came to suffer and to start the kingdom over his brothers who would be called right up to his second coming. All this would happen unnoticed to the world, and could only be appropriated by faith – but not so with his second coming for his Parousia, which was to be the realization of faith, the thing hoped for!

The kingdom of God is indeed coming with striking observableness, with power and great glory, yes, it is coming, on the way, moving toward us now before it becomes present; and this is the thrust of Jesus’ sayings and the object of our faith! It takes a lot of holy spirit to disambiguate Jesus’ sayings, which then turn into powerful weapons for overturning strongly entrenched things, reasonings and lofty things raised up against the knowledge of God.

In second Thessalonians Paul gives us an inspired insight into how he understood the Parousia and when it would start. Commenting on the very end of the great tribulation after which Jesus comes from heaven with his powerful angels at his revelation to save and glorify his holy ones, he then uses the word Parousia (ch.2: 1) for the event just described, thus equating the start of the Parousia with his revelation. Then he specifies the coming of the apostasy to be just prior to the start of his Parousia, and in connection with the revelation of the one “set in opposition” to Christ, i.e. the ‘anti-Christ’ or man of lawlessness. “The Parousia…will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed.”

So where are we today? Christ is indeed invisibly present in the spirit today and has been so for the past 2000years, but that has got nothing to do with his Parousia, for which we keep on hoping until it arrives. True Christians wait, not for the kingdom that will soon bring about a ‘righteous new world society’ as presently advertised by Jehovah’s Witnesses, but the one that comes afterwards to destroy it, led by Jesus Christ coming on the clouds of heaven with all his angels in power and glory in a flaming fire, as he brings vengeance upon those who did not accept the love of the truth, but believed the lie!