Welcome to Parousia Fulfilled

The central focus of New Testament (NT) prophecies is the return of Christ ‘in the last days’. Although this is commonly known as the ‘Second Coming’, there is no such phrase or term in the Holy Bible.

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The original Greek text uses the term “παρουσία” (parousia), which means: “coming”, “presence”, “arrival” or “advent”.

This website discusses the biblical evidence which indicates a 1st Century return of Christ, hence the name: Parousia Fulfilled. This ‘past fulfillment’ viewpoint may not be ‘traditional’ ‘mainstream’ Church teaching, but it is not a ‘novel’ idea. Many theologians and writers have held this view, either fully or partially, including J S Russell1, Milton S Terry2, David Chilton3 and the late R C Sproul Sr.4

Our duty as Christians is to study and “rightly divide” the Word of God: the final authority on all matters of faith and practice. We ought not elevate ‘traditions’ of men over and above the Holy Bible. Sola scriptura! 5

Audience Relevance

‘The Bible contains all kinds of language (figurative, literal, historical, symbolic, apocalytic, typological, poetic, hyperbolic, parabolic, etc). Each type should be interpreted “according to its own particular genre”.’ (Edward E. Stevens) 6 For instance, when trying to understand or interpret books like Revelation, “… we need to first acquaint ourselves with the history, culture, language, religion and politics of the times in which the book was written.” (ibid)6

‘The fundamental task of a Biblical interpreter is to discover exactly what the original author intended to communicate to his original audience at the specific time and place under that specific set of circumstances (i.e., “Audience Relevance”).’ (ibid)6

The NT contains numerous ‘end times’ prophecies that clearly indicate a 1st Century fulfillment of the Parousia. The key to understanding these ‘end times’ passages is to look at their ‘audience relevance’, because the NT was not originally written to us, living in the 21st Century: it was written to the early Christians, living in the Roman Empire in the 1st Century AD.
▹ READ MORE (Audience Relevance)

Time Statements

Jesus and his Apostles made numerous statements indicating the expected time of the Parousia, such as these:

• “When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” (Matt 10:23)
• “For the Son of Man is going to [Gk: μέλλει: mellei = is about to] come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Matt 16:27-28)
• “so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” (Matt 23:35-36)
• “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Matt 24:34)
• “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages [Gk: αἰώνων: aionon = ages] has come.” (1 Cor 10:11)
• ‘For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;”’ (Heb 10:37)
• “since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed [Gk: ἀποκαλύψει: apokalypsei = revelation] from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” (2 Thess 1:6-8)

Clearly, Jesus prophesied a “SOON” parousia which was coming “QUICKLY”, during the lifetime of some of his disciples.
▹ READ MORE (When Jesus Said He Would Return)

There are more than 100 TIME STATEMENTS in the NT which clearly indicate the imminence of the Parousia, in the 1st Century.
▹ READ MORE (Time Statements)

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MELLO: Things “About To” Happen

The New Testament (NT) tells us about many events which were “about to” happen during the lives of Jesus and his disciples; things which were imminent and expected to occur within a short time. In order to convey this meaning, the original NT manuscripts use the Greek word “μέλλω” (mello), which means: “I intend to, I am about to”. So, whenever something was “about to” happen, the Greek NT would say “mello” this or that.

“Mello” means that something is IMMINENT and “ABOUT TO HAPPEN”. It never means “MANY YEARS FROM NOW” or “SOME TIME IN THE FUTURE” or “2000 YEARS FROM NOW”! Yet that is what some Bible translators want us to believe, whenever “mello” is used in a passage about the parousia (Second Coming) of Christ.
▹ READ MORE (MELLO: Things “About To” Happen)

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No End Of World

One might well ask: “If the Parousia occurred in the first century AD, why are we still here? Why didn’t the world end? Why wasn’t our planet vaporised and all human beings killed?” Futurists expect: a future global judgement, physical destruction of planet Earth and the universe and every living thing.

Closer examination of the scriptures reveals that the idea of a global judgement and a catastrophic end to planet Earth is not scripturally sound. It is completely foreign to the Holy Bible. It is not in scripture. As Michael Biehler7 asserts: “Jesus never predicted the end of the world. He predicted the end of the age… the age of temple worship and animal sacrifice.”

The problem may derive from a faulty translation of the Greek word: “αἰών” (aion) in the KJV Bible and other early translations. Those translations render “aion” as “world”, but the correct translation is “age” or “period”. (In fact, our English word “eon” is derived from “aion”). Likewise, the KJV wrongly translates the Greek phrase: “συντέλεια τοῦ αἰῶνος” (synteleia tou aionos) as “end of the world”, instead of the actual meaning: “full end of the age” or “consummation of the age”.
▹ READ MORE (No End Of World)

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Nature Of Fulfillment

• Q: Why do we say that Christ returned in the 1st Century AD?
• A: Because that is the clear message of dozens of verses in the New Testament (NT).
• Q: If so, HOW did he return? WHAT happened? What was the NATURE of the Parousia?
• A: In order to understand the NATURE of fulfillment of the Parousia of Christ, we need to review his sermon on the Mount of Olives, from where his disciples were admiring the Temple.

Jesus revealed the NATURE of his impending Parousia by describing various events that the disciples would likely live to see before the Parousia, including: false messiahs and false prophets, wars and rumours of wars, famines, earthquakes, great persecution and murder of Christians, apostasy and lawlessness (Matt 24:4‐32). He told them not to be concerned about these things, because: “the end is not yet.” (Matt 24:6).

When the disciples heard about various wars and famines and even Nero’s terrible persecution and slaughter of Christians (c. AD 64‐66), they remembered Jesus’ advice that “the end is not yet.” They needed to continue waiting and watching and living godly and upright lives before the real events of the Parousia commenced.

History records that ALL the events and signs that Jesus described occurred before the existing generation (contemporaries of Jesus) had passed away. Many events of the Parousia are recorded in the book of Acts, the Epistles and the histories of various 1st Century authors, like Josephus and Tacitus.
▹ READ MORE (Nature of Fulfillment)

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Symbolism And Metaphors

When Jesus was speaking to his disciples, before his crucifixion, he described the awesome significance of his parousia return:

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”(Matt 24:29‐30)

Jesus’ words were very ominous and dramatic, but, it is important to remember ‘audience relevance’ (as stated earlier): Jesus spoke these words to his disciples in AD 30, not to us in the 21^st Century. He was revealing to them the terrible wrath of God, which would soon come during the last generation of Old Covenant (OC) Israel, in the 1^st Century.

This NT passage uses apocalyptic words and imagery that also occur in Old Testament (OT) prophecies, in passages like Isaiah 13:10, Ezekiel 32:7‐8, Amos 8:9 and Joel 2:30‐31 (to name just a few). Most of those prophecies were fulfilled hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, yet none of them resulted in the ‘literal destruction of the physical planets and universe’. Something else was meant by those dramatic and ominous‐sounding words.

When reading the Holy Bible, it is important to recognise the type of language used in a passage. Robert M. Bowman Jr observed that: “the Bible is a large collection of ancient books written in other languages by people living in other cultures.” 8
▹ READ MORE (Symbolism)

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An interesting example of apocalyptic language in prophecy is the expression ‘new heavens’ & ‘new earth’. Some people mistakenly think that the phrase is signifying the destruction of Earth and the physical universe, but what does it really mean ?
▹ READ MORE (‘New Heavens’ & ‘New Earth’)

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Dividing Wall Broken Down

Under the Mosaic Covenant, only ethnic Israelites were God’s special covenant people, enjoying the blessings of his providence and atonement for their sins. Foreigners (aka “gentiles”) could only become part of the covenant community by being circumcised, converting and observing all of the rituals of Judaism.

In 19 BC King Herod rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem and added a “soreg” wall, which excluded foreigners from the Sanctuary. A warning sign in Hebrew, Greek and Latin said: “No stranger is to enter within the balustrade around the temple and enclosure. And whoever is caught will have himself to blame that his death ensues.” This physical barrier was a daily reminder to gentiles that they were unworthy sinners excluded from the fellowship and blessings of the Old Covenant.

Apostle Paul tells us in Eph 2:14 that Christ has broken down “the dividing wall of hostility”, accomplishing in full, once and for all time, what the Mosaic Law could never achieve: the reconciliation of mankind to God and the reconciliation of the circumcised (Jews) to the uncircumcised (Gentiles), so that:

“he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” (Eph 2:11-16)

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28)

▹ READ MORE (Dividing Wall)

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Last Days of What?

The New Testament contains several references to “last days”, “last times” or “last hour”, and many people mistakenly believe that it is foretelling the literal, physical destruction of planet Earth and the universe of stars and planets. An earlier article, entitled: “No End of the World”, refutes these doomsday scenarios and shows that the Bible is actually referring to the last days or end of a certain period in history… an “age” or “eon”.

In order to truly understand this topic of “last days”, we need to examine what the scriptures actually say, paying particular attention to the historical context and audience relevance.

▹ READ MORE (Last Days of What?)

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Dispensationalism & ‘Replacement Theology’

The idea, or doctrine, that the church could conceivably be the fulfillment of God’s promises to Old Covenant (OC) Israel is according to Hal Lindsay, “a dangerous doctrine.” They call this “replacement theology.”

Dispensationalists acknowledge that the church is a spiritual entity, a spiritual temple, a spiritual people, with spiritual sacrifices and the like. However, they believe that the church and all of the things just mentioned will one day all be replaced again with, and by, a literal temple, literal priesthood and literal sacrifices in a literal city again.

Which doctrinal position is really teaching the ultimate form of “replacement theology”?

(guest article)

▹ READ MORE (Dispensationalism & ‘Replacement Theology’)

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What About The Rapture?

The word ‘rapture’ does not appear in the Holy Bible. It is derived from the Latin word: ‘rapio’, which means: “to seize and carry off, to snatch, tear, drag, draw, or hurry away”. ‘Rapio’ is a Latin translation of the original Greek word: ἁρπάζω (harpazo), which means: “to seize, catch up, snatch away, etc”

What did Jesus and his Apostles say on this subject? There are several NT scriptures that plainly reveal Jesus’ promise to return during the lifetime of his early disciples. He intended to “catch up” the believers at his parousia, gathering both living and dead believers, transforming their bodies and taking them away to heaven.

▹ READ MORE (What About The Rapture?)

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ESSAYS ON ”REVELATION”

The Book of Revelation is not meant to be a closed, arcane secret. The opening words in Greek read: “ἀποκάλυψις Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ” (apokalypsis Iesou Christou) meaning “the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1). It’s a “REVELATION” not an “obscure mystery”. It was intended to be understood by believers in seven real, historical churches of Asia Minor in the 1st century, ie: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea (Revelation 2 & 3). Through the vision, Jesus tells those believers about all the things about to occur in their lifetime. He says that all the events described would occur SOON …

“things that must SOON take place” [Gk: ἐν τάχει : en tachei : quickly] (Rev 1:1)

“… for the time is NEAR” [Gk: ἐγγύς : engys : near](Rev 1:3)

At the end of the book, Jesus repeats the promise that all the things would occur SOON …

“what must SOON take place” [Gk: ἐν τάχει : en tachei : quickly] (Rev 22:6)

“I am coming SOON” [Gk: ταχύ : tachy : quickly] (Rev 22:7,12,20)

In this section, you will find essays on the date of Revelation; imminence of events; the Beast and so on. Enjoy!

▹ READ MORE (Essays on Book Of Revelation)

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The Fate of the Wicked

“And be not afraid of those killing the body, and are not able to kill the soul, but fear rather Him who is able both soul and body to destroy in gehenna.” (Matthew 10:28 YLT)

The Bible makes it clear that, after death, each person is destined to a conscious “afterlife” in which they will personally experience divine judgement on their earthly life. Physical death is the separation of body and soul and marks the end of our present physical existence. The body then decays but our soul continues to exist as an individual, conscious being. The soul as a spiritual entity is not composed of various parts, and is therefore incapable of division or dissolution. Consequently, the decomposition of the body does not carry with it the destruction of the soul. Even when the former perishes, the latter remains intact.

▹ READ MORE (The Fate of the Wicked)

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Jerusalem Above ‐ The Dwelling Place of God

“In my Father’s house are many rooms… and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
(John 14: 2, 3)

NEW JERUSALEM is always represented in Scripture as situated in heaven, not on earth … it is the abode of the glorified; the inheritance of the saints in light; the mansions of the Father’s house, prepared for the home of the blessed.…

▹ READ MORE (Jerusalem Above ‐ The Dwelling Place of God)

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Who or What is Antichrist ?

“Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.”
(1 John 2:22)

In the Epistles of John, he mentions five times a strange name: “antichrist”. The word never appears in any other scripture. Only the Apostle seems to be concerned with this particular phenomenon, so who or what is it? Is it a particular person… some mystical evil being? Is it some monstrous incarnation to be feared? Perhaps if we take a closer look we will discover the truth…

▹ READ MORE (Who or What is Antichrist ?)

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Great Tribulation

“For then there will be GREAT TRIBULATION, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.” (Matt 24:21)

Jesus denounced the greed and corruption of the existing rulers of Israel: the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees, and he warned them that, IN THEIR LIFETIME, there would be “great tribulation” on Judea and Jerusalem. He also told his disciples about the coming destruction of the Temple and the end of the age, and warned THEM, ie: his 1st century disciples, to flee when they saw these things approaching IN THEIR LIFETIME:

“then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” (Matt 24:16)

The great tribulation is not something in our future. It happened ancient Judea in AD 67 to 70…

▹ READ MORE (Great Tribulation)

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