Some Thoughts on Paul's Doctrine of Christ's Parousia

The following is from my forthcoming exposition of Paul’s Thessalonian Letters, “When the Lord Jesus Is Revealed from Heaven” which will be made available as a free download for those who complete season two of the Blessed Hope Podcast.

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Paul answers the question asked by the Thessalonians, “do those who die before Christ’s return miss out on the benefits of our Lord’s return”?

In verse 15b, Paul responds, stating that “we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.” There is no diminished blessing for those who die before our Lord’s return. They don’t miss out on anything so there is no need to worry about them. They already possess eternal life as spoken of by Jesus in John 5:24—“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” All those who have died in Christ will return with Jesus when he does (1 Thessalonians 4:14).

Paul describes Jesus’s return as his parousia (παρουσία), a term with a very rich cultural background. According to Gene Green, parousia is . . .

a term that commonly meant the glorious “coming” of a deity or the official visit of a sovereign to a city, who himself was often honored as divine. An imperial visit was an event of great pomp and magnificent celebrations, with rich banquets, speeches that praised the imperial visitor, a visit to the local temple, rich donations, celebration of games, sacrifices, statues dedicated, and arches and other buildings constructed. Money was minted to commemorate the event, crowns of gold might be given, and at times a new era was inaugurated. . . . The officials and a multitude of people would head out of the city to receive the one who came, all dressed with special clothing.[1]

When Jesus returns with his heavenly host, his people who are living at that time will be caught up to join him in his triumphal return.

The nature of the coming of the Lord requires careful reflection. The mechanics of how Jesus will return are beyond our full comprehension. If Jesus possesses a glorified human nature, he has locality—his glorified body is located somewhere (i.e., in heaven). Yet Scripture teaches that every eye will see him when he returns. G. K. Beale addresses the difficulties this presents by noting that “what has been traditionally understood as the second coming of Christ is best conceived as a revelation of his formerly hidden, heavenly `presence.’ The old-world reality will be ripped away, and the dimension of the new, eternal reality will appear along with Christ’s `presence.’”[2]

This understanding of the parousia fits well with Paul’s two-age eschatology and the promise of a final consummation such as that disclosed in 1 Corinthians 15:35-49, when Paul contrasts earthly bodies which perish (because they are mortal) and heavenly bodies fit for eternity (which are said to be imperishable).

When the last trumpet sounds, the transformation from mortal to immortal occurs, as Paul says, in a moment, which he describes as the “twinkling of the eye,” (1 Corinthians 15:52). Therefore, we have every reason to expect something quite different than the mere re-animation of our once dead bodies when Jesus returns. We should expect “a transformation of an old-world body into a new creational body that can inhabit the dimension of the new world in Christ’s and God’s presence.”[3] The resurrection should not be confused with apocalyptic dystopias such as the “walking dead,” but should be understood as a complete and instantaneous transformation of our personal existence. We once lived in an earthly body of dust (as did Adam), but when Jesus returns we will possess a heavenly body like His, now glorified, which is perfectly suited for the heavenly dwelling and immortality (1 Corinthians 15:47-51).

Beale also wrestles with the difficulties we face in getting our arms around the question of how the Lord can return bodily (Jesus ascended into heaven in a glorified human body), and yet return in such a manner that every eye will see him.

When Christ appears, he will not descend from the sky over Boston or London or New York City or Hong Kong or any other localized area. When he appears, the present dimension will be ripped away, and Christ will be manifest to all eyes throughout the earth (see Mt 24:27). Just as one can lay flat a map of the whole world and see it all at one glance, so Christ will appear and be able to behold humanity at one glance and they him. How this is possible in literal geographical terms is certainly unclear, but the answer lies in recalling that a new dimension will break into the old physical dimension, and the possibilities of new kinds of perception and of existence beyond present understanding will then be realized. Interestingly, Revelation 21:3, 22 say that directly following Christ’s final coming, God and the Lamb will form a “tabernacling” presence over all redeemed believers.[4]

Perhaps one helpful way to think of this is that when Jesus returns, the boundary between the visible world and the invisible world is no more. Meredith Kline proposes . . .

in biblical revelation, we may catch a glimpse of something of the nature of heaven and how heaven relates to our visible world . . . . In theological reflections heaven is sometimes considered to be a place outside the cosmos, out beyond our universe. Or if it is regarded as within our space-time-matter-energy continuum, it is thought of as a separate part of the cosmos, at some distance from the environs of planet earth. There are biblical indications, however, that suggest otherwise.[5]

Kline goes on to point out . . .

For instance, in Isaiah 6 the heaven-temple (vv. 1-4) is identified with the whole earth (v. 3). And there are those episodes reported in Scripture when the eyes of earthlings have been supernaturally opened to perceive heavenly phenomena and they discover that the very spot where they are is the gate of heaven (Gen. 28:16-17) or that [the space] is filled with heavenly beings (2 Kgs 6:17). Heaven, it would seem, is not remote from us but present right here, even though unseen. Also, there does not appear to be anything in Scripture that would contradict the assumption that the invisible heaven is co-extensive with the visible cosmos in its entirety.[6]

Kline concludes that because the mechanics of this are currently beyond our comprehension, and “because of our inability to apprehend the heavenly reality itself, it was necessary that these prophetic disclosures be cast in such symbolic forms.”[7] In light of this, he proposes that because of the glory present throughout John’s vision of the heavenly temple in the Book of Revelation, we speak of the invisible dimension revealed to us at the Lord’s return as the “Spirit-dimension” (the Glory present is that of the Holy Spirit) when the “invisible” becomes visible.[8]

If true, when Jesus returns and the boundary between things seen (visible) and unseen (invisible) is removed, we are instantaneously given our imperishable resurrected bodies suited for this new transformed reality, unbelievers are removed unto judgment in a full catharsis of evil and defilement from the world, human culture is transformed into heaven reality, and the entire cosmos is renewed and purified of all hints and traces of human sin and the curse.

While beyond our full understanding, the scenario proposed by Beale and Kline avoids the problems of Jesus’s return requiring transporting himself from heaven (a distant place) to earth–like Superman flying across the sky. Likewise, unbelievers are taken to a place within our cosmos to face final and eternal judgment. This is much more plausible and fits well with our Christology–that Christ’s glorified human nature still has locality.[9]

All of this takes place within created reality (not in a place far removed from us–“planet heaven”), which is now brought to its final consummation and fully reflects God’s glory. To put it simply, Christ’s parousia entails a complete reorienting of the natural order–a new heaven and earth if you will.

Let us long for the day when the heavens roll up like a scroll (Revelation 6:14) and every eye shall see him (Revelation 1:7)!

Maranatha!

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[1] Gene L. Green, The Letters to the Thessalonians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2002), 222.

[2] G. K. Beale, 1-2 Thessalonians, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 137.

[3] Beale, 1–2 Thessalonians, 139.

[4] Green, The Letters to the Thessalonians, 224-225.

[5] Meredith G. Kline, God, Heaven and Har Magedon, (Eugene Or: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2006), 3-4.

[6] Kline, God, Heaven and Har Magedon, 4.

[7] Kline, God, Heaven and Har Magedon, 5.

[8] Kline, God, Heaven and Har Magedon, 8-9.

[9] Peter Martyr Vermigli writes, “we recognize that apostolic teaching also announces this true humanity of Christ, which is in place, as well as the true divinity, which is always immense. To show that the body of Christ, truly a man, is contained in a place, the Apostle Paul asks the Thessalonians: `How have you turned to God from idols, to serve the true and living God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus?’and he indeed shows that he will come bodily from heaven since he knew that he had been raised bodily from the dead.” Peter Martyr Vermigli, Dialogue on the Two Natures in Christ, trans John Patrick Donnelly (Lincoln NB: The Davenant Press, 2018), 110.