Invisible or By Sight?

Which is the correct translation of the word parousia, presence or coming? The New World translation renders the translation "presence" and believes Jesus came invisibly present in the year 1914. However they are not the first ones to believe in an invisible presence. This  teaching can be traced back to the 1820's by a London banker and Bible expositor named Henry Drummond, who later was one of the founders of Edward Irvings's Catholic Apostolic Church. This theory of an invisible presence is better known today as the "secret rapture theory." This word parousia was the main support for this two stage coming of Christ. It was commonly held that parousia referred to the first stage of Christ's coming, his invisible presence "in the air." The Greek words ehpiphania, "appearing", and apokalypsis, "revelation," on the other hand were usually said to apply to the second stage of the coming of Christ at Armageddon. Apparently Charles Taze Russell, under the influence of Adventist Nelson H Barbour, had adopted "presence" as the only acceptable rendering of the Greek word parousia. However, with all this stress on the word "presence", most Bible translators did not support this translation.

In all of the earliest writings of the New Testament, such as the Latin Vulgate version of the 4th century, 20 out of the 24 occurrences of parousia, were translated as adventus, the Latin word for "coming." In the Syriac Peshitta version from the 5th century, the word used in Matthew 24:3 was methitha, which literally means "coming."
 
The greek word used at Matthew 24 verse 3 and many other verses is parousia and its primary meaning is "presence." Yet why do most bibles translate this word as coming? Interestingly, this word was always rendered as "coming" when it referred to the parousia of Jesus Christ, but as "presence" when it referred to the parousia of others, such as Apostle Paul. For centuries this remained a mystery, until the late 19th century with its new discoveries through excavations.

These new discoveries showed that the Greek language used in the New Testament was not a different biblical Greek, but koine Greek, the common language of daily life. This gave new insight as to the meaning of many Greek words. One of them was parousia. Professor Deissmann and his colleagues published their findings in 1908 in the work entitled Light From The East. "We now may say that the best interpretation of the of the Primitive Christian hope of the Parousia is the old Advent text, Behold, they King cometh unto thee. (Matthew 21:5) From the Ptolemaic period down into the 2nd century A.D. we are able to trace the word in the East as a technical expression for the arrival or the visit of the king or the emperor."

The technical definition was determined to be an official, royal visit such as a Roman emperor making a parousia or visit in the provinces in the east, "the roads were repaired, crowds flocked to do homage, there were processions and much more." When Emperor Nero of had visited the cities of Corinth and Patras. The cities made "advent coins" showing the royal visit of the king. The Latin adventus was used in equivalent to the Greek term parousia at those occasions, according to Professor Deissmann.

Since then, there have been additional research by numerous scholars all confirming the conclusions of Deissmann, who first demonstrated this technical use of parousia, which is a royal visit of a king. Greek lexicons and dictionaries today all point out this sense of the word in addition to its primary meaning "presence," and there is a general consensus among modern scholars that parousia in the New Testament, when used of the second coming of Christ, is used in this technical sense of a royal visitation. As Bauer's lexicon is quoted as saying that parousia became the official term for a visit of a person of high rank, especially of kings and emperors visiting a province.

Even with these new findings there have been some that still translate parousia, "presence." One of them is W.E. Vine Expository Dictionary. His definition of an invisible presence sounds very much like the Watch Tower Society's translation of the word. The reason for this is Vine was one of the very strong supporters of the "secret rapture" doctrine in our century. However, this only served to bring him in conflict with the results of the late 19th century excavations and the findings of Professor Deissmann and  modern scholars.

In addition to W.E. Vine, the Watch Tower Society in the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures with References , pages 1576 and 1577, cites four Bible translations that render parousia as "presence." One of them is their own 1950 translation! The other three are all from dates earlier then the discovery of Professor Deissmann and his colleagues.

What about the context of the word parousia? Certainly this shows his apostles to have absolutely no thought of  an invisible presence when they asked Christ for a sign of his coming. They clearly thought of it as a visible occurrence. This alone shows that Matthew cannot have used parousia in the sense of an invisible "presence."

And the fact that Jesus described a tree with a bud saying "you know that the summer is near." He did not say "you know that the summer will be present." Clearly this shows that the sign of Christ shows he is near, not invisibly present. This can also be put with his further words comparing his coming and presence to the days of Noah and Lot. It is obvious that Jesus in not comparing his presence or parousia to the days proceeding the Flood or destruction of Sodom, but to the surprise coming of the Flood and destruction of Sodom. And a comparison of Matthew 24:39 with Luke 17:30 shows the word parousia or presence to be interchanged with the word revealed.

@ Another interesting point is at 1Thessalonians 3:13. "Moreover, may the Lord cause you to increase, yes, make you abound, in love to one another and to all, even as we also do to you to the end that he may make your hearts firm, unblamable in holiness before our God and Father at the presence (parousia) of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones." Here it shows Christ's presence along with his angels to be the same as Matthew 16:27 which shows Christ's coming to be with his angels. "For the Son of man is destined to come (erchomai) in the glory of his Father with his angels and then he will recompense each one according to his behavior." Additionally, Jude 1:14 also shows the Lord's  coming to be with his angels. It is clear that all of these texts refer to the one and the same occasion, the Lord's coming with all his holy ones for executing judgment.

The evidence certainly supports, not a "secret rapture" or two stage coming with the first being invisible, but rather Christ's future coming and judgment as King, along with his holy angels.

. If I go and prepare a place for you I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that is where I am there you may be also. Jn. 14:3

There are many different words used in the Greek New Testament concerning the Lord s Second Coming.

The Scriptures show that Jesus will return to gather His bride unto Himself, raising those that sleep (died) in Jesus, and changing those who are still living, to be with Him forever. This is beautifully shown in 1 Thes. 4:13-18. This Second coming for His saints is sometimes confused with His coming with the church to establish His earthly thousand year kingdom which will occur after the marriage of the Lamb and His bride has taken place, spoken of in Rev. 19:6-9.
.....

We will look now at the many references and expressions that refer to the Lord s returning for His bride. They are given as words of encouragement to Jesus followers from Pentecost down to our present time. These are some of the Greek words referring to the Lords Second Advent: Parousia, Epiphania, Apocalupsis, Phaneroo, (Phanero), Katabisis and Erchomai. In writing to the various churches, the Apostles used different Greek words in relating to the same event, depending on the context. Let us look at some of these Scriptures:

Waiting for the Son of God from Heaven - In 1 Thes.1:10; 3:13; 5:23, Paul is telling the church to wait for the Lord s presence (Gk. parousia). James also exhorted the Christians to be patient, for the Lord s presence (Gk. parousia) was near (James 5:7-8).
..... Waiting for His appearing - In 1 Tim. 6:14, Paul was exhorting Timothy to keep the commandment spotless until the Lord s appearing (Gk. epiphania) See also Titus 2:13.
..... Waiting for His revelation - In 1 Cor.1:17, Paul exhorted the church to be faithful until the Lord would be revealed (Gk. apokalupsis). See also 1 Pet. 1:7, 13; 4:13. Paul was expecting to receive the crown of life in that day of the Lord s appearing or revelation (2 Tim. 4:8).
..... Waiting for His manifestation - In Col. 3:4, Paul is reminding the church in Colosse that they are dead and their life is hid with Christ in God and that when Christ...shall appear (Gk. phanerothete) they would also appear with Him in glory. Peter also, while previously using the word apokalupsis three times, now in chapter 5, vs. 4 uses the word phanero. See also 1 John 3:2.
..... Waiting for Him to descend from heaven. (Gk. Katabaino) See 1 Thes. 4:13-17.
....."Waiting for His coming." (Gk. Erchomai) In Matt 16:27, 28 and Luke 21:27, Jesus speaks of his coming in the glory of his Father with his angels and then he will recompense each one according to his behavior." (Jude 1:14)

In brief -- the church was encouraged to:

1 Wait for His parousia or presence - 1 Thes 3:13; 5:23; Jas 5:7, 8
2 Wait for His epiphania or appearing - 1 Tim. 6:14; 2 Tim. 4:8.
3 Wait for His apokalupsis or revelation - 1 Cor 1:7; 1 Pet 1:7, 13.
4 Wait for His phanerosis or manifestation - Col. 3:4; 1 Pet. 4:5.
5 Wait for His katabaino or descending - 1 Thes. 4:13-17.
6 Wait for His erchomai or coming - Matt 16:27,28; Luke 21:27; Ju 1:14

.....From the above we can readily see that these various words are to all take place at the same time, when the completed church will be resurrected and rewarded together. They could not possibly denote different time periods, for why would the Apostle Paul tell the Thessalonians to wait until the Lord s parousia, tell Timothy and Titus to wait unto the Lord s epiphania, the Corinthians to wait unto the Lord s apokalupsis, and the Colossians until the Lords phanerosis, etc? One reason for the use of these various words in the Greek text was to meet the Greek grammatical requirements. Since these words are not synonymous, they could only be used interchangeably because they have a common time application. The various Greek words could be used interchangeably only when the context was one dealing with time.
.....After the Lord Jesus Christ comes for His bride and the marriage of the Lamb has taken place, then they will return together to raise the dead and establish the Kingdom of God on earth.
.....Some Scriptures that refer to this time of blessing are: Ephesians 1:10; 1 Cor. 15:25-28; 2 Tim. 4:1; Rom. 8:17; 1 Cor. 6:2; Isaiah 26:9.
.....The Lord will indeed be coming soon for His church -- his Second Advent. It may well be in our lifetime -- so let us be watching, faithful and ready!

If you are interested in going into more depth on this topic, please send your request for the free booklet, Our Lord s Return to:

Taken From Another Ministry Source

Lightbearer's EscapeFromWatchtower.com