Parousia

Usage in Scripture

The word parousia occurs some twenty times in the New Testament, and most occurrences refer to Christ's Second Coming. Among the Gospels it appears only in Matthew 24: in the disciples' question, "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" (Matthew 24:3), and in the passages where Jesus compares "the coming of the Son of man" to lightning and to the days of Noah (Matthew 24:27, 37, 39).

Among the Pauline epistles it appears most often in 1 Thessalonians. A representative passage describes how, at the coming of the Lord, the dead in Christ and those who are alive will together meet the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:15–17). 1 Corinthians 15:22–26 says that those who belong to Christ will be made alive "at his coming." The word also appears in James 5:7–8, 2 Peter 3:4, and 1 John 2:28. The New Korean Revised Version renders it variously, depending on the context, with terms meaning "coming," "arrival," or "descent."

The same word can also refer to the arrival or presence of ordinary people, as in the coming of Stephanas and his companions (1 Corinthians 16:17) and the coming of Titus (2 Corinthians 7:6).

Background of the Word

Parousia derives from para ("beside") and a verb meaning "to be," and denotes presence or arrival. In the Hellenistic world the term is reported to have been used for the official visit of a king or high official to a city.

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

The Old Testament stands behind this word: the expectation of the Day of the Lord, when God himself would come to judge, and the vision of the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven (Daniel 7:13). Matthew 24:30 takes up this language from Daniel. The New Testament also calls the same event an "appearing" (epiphaneia, Titus 2:13) or a "revelation" (apokalypsis, 1 Corinthians 1:7). The parousia is portrayed as an event bound up with the resurrection and the Last Judgment. The confession of the Apostles' Creed, "from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead," also expresses this expectation.

Interpretations and Debates

• One event or two stages: Dispensationalism generally distinguishes between the rapture, in which the church is caught up, and Christ's return to earth. The Reformed tradition and covenant theology generally regard it as a single event. The question is tied to one's understanding of the millennium, and both views are held in the Korean church across denominational lines.
• The scope of Matthew 24: One interpretation (preterism) holds that much of this chapter was fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. Others take it as referring to the future Second Coming, and still others see the two events as overlapping.
• The problem of delay: 2 Peter 3 answers the scoffers' question, "Where is the promise of his coming?" by stating that "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years" (compare Psalm 90:4). Modern scholarship includes a discussion of the "delay of the parousia," which examines how the church responded when the imminent return expected by the early church was delayed.
• Alternative interpretations: Jehovah's Witnesses translate the word as "presence" and teach that Christ has been invisibly present since 1914. Major Protestant denominations do not accept this interpretation.
• Date-setting: Scripture states that no one knows the day or the hour (Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32–33; Acts 1:7). Many denominations hold in common that date-setting eschatology, which predicts the Second Coming for a specific date, has no basis in the biblical text. In Korea, a claim that the rapture would occur on October 28, 1992, spread widely and became a social problem.

In the Korean Church

The Holiness Church proclaims regeneration, sanctification, divine healing, and the Second Coming as its Fourfold Gospel. The Fivefold Gospel of the Full Gospel (Pentecostal) tradition also includes the Second Coming. Advent is explained both as a season of waiting for Christmas and as a season of waiting for the Lord who will come again. Maranatha, meaning "O Lord, come," is frequently used in prayer and song. The original term parousia itself is used mainly in sermons and theological lectures on eschatology as a technical term for the Second Coming.