The PAROUSIA and the RAPTURE - More Biblical Proof Refuting The Pre-tribulation Rapture Doctrine

A Study of The Biblical Language and the Rapture Timing

The answer to the mystery hinges on the use of the biblical word in the Greek language – Parousia.

Are you ready to examine what the BIBLE says?  Read on!

Parousia – from Outline of Biblical Usage (Blue Letter Bible Greek Dictionary)

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G3952&t=KJV

1.      presence

2.      the coming, arrival, advent

1.      the future visible return from heaven of Jesus, to raise the dead, hold the last judgment, and set up formally and gloriously the kingdom of God

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Vine's Expository Dictionary:  The words in red and brackets are my added notes…

Parousia – “Coming” (Noun):

lit., "a presence," para, "with," and ousia, "being" (from eimi, "to be"), denotes both an "arrival" and a consequent "presence with." For instance, in a papyrus letter a lady speaks of the necessity of her parousia in a place in order to attend to matters relating to her property there. Paul speaks of his parousia in Philippi, Phl 2:12 (in contrast to his apousia, "his absence;" see ABSENCE). Other words denote "the arrival" (see eisodos and eleusis, above). Parousia is used to describe the presence of Christ with His disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, 2Pe 1:16.

When used of the return of Christ, at the Rapture of the Church, it signifies, not merely His momentary "coming" for His saints, but His presence with them from that moment until His revelation and manifestation to the world. [In other words – His final arrival as opposed to His “first” arrival as God With Us.]

In some passages the word gives prominence to the beginning of that period, the course of the period being implied, 1Cr 15:23; 1Th 4:15; 5:23; 2Th 2:1; Jam 5:7, 8; 2Pe 3:4. In some, the course is prominent, Mat 24:3, 37; 1Th 3:13; 1Jo 2:28; in others the conclusion of the period, Mat 24:27; 2Th 2:8.

The word is also used of the Lawless One, the Man of Sin, his access to power and his doings in the world during his parousia, 2Th 2:9. In addition to Phl 2:12 (above), it is used in the same way of the Apostle, or his companions, in 1Cr 16:17; 2Cr 7:6, 7; 10:10; Phl 1:26; of the Day of God, 2Pe 3:12.

  

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In other words – the Greek word parousia - used for the “coming of our Lord” - is used in the context of His ultimate “appearing” or His “final arrival” or an “arrival” that was greatly and finally anticipated because it was promised. This is how the word is used in biblical context – throughout.

Now let us examine the contextual use of parousia in Paul’s revelation to the church at Thessalonica. In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 we find these words:

 

1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 

15            According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming [parousia – final arrival] of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.

16        For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

17        After that, [after the parousia – the final appearing of Christ to the world!] we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together  [raptured] with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

18            Therefore encourage each other with these words.

But, just in case one is still not convinced; this is not the only place in the letters to the Thessalonians where Paul uses the word parousia.  Observe the other three uses of the word – in the same letter and context:

1 Thessalonians 2:19

For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? ^G3952

1 Thessalonians 3:13

To the end  [at Jesus final coming!] he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming ^G3952 of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:23

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming ^G3952 of our Lord Jesus Christ.

NOTE: Why would Paul pray that our body would be preserved unto the coming [parousia] at the end, if we had been raptured/resurrected/changed into our glorified bodies seven years earlier – as the pre-tribulation rapture teaching espouses?

Also, note that in Paul’s second letter to the same church – he states the following:

 

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3

1            Concerning the coming [parousia – final appearance] of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, [the rapture – it is the same thing he says in 1 Thessalonians 4:13!] we ask you, brothers,

2          not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come.

3          Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

Compare also the use of the word parousia (final and expected coming) in the following verses - Matthew 24:3, Matthew 24:27, Matthew 24:37, 1 Corinthians 15:23, James 5:7 -8, 2 Peter 1:16, 2 Peter 3:4, 2 Peter 3:12, and I John 2:28. 

How could it be any clearer once one knows the linguistic context and the scriptural context?  The rapture occurs AFTER the antichrist is revealed to the world. Then Jesus “reveals” Himself and comes [parousia] to take His church. There is no pre-trib rapture taught here – or anywhere else in the Bible – from a contextual viewpoint. It just is not there.

Additionally, we are not aware of a single instance of a scholarly definition (lexicons, dictionaries, commentaries, etc.) of the word parousia before the early 1900’s, and the advent of the Scofield Reference Bible, where parousia was ever translated (in reference to Jesus’ coming) as anything other than His final appearance at the time of the end – on the Lord’s Day.

The plain biblical truth is that throughout the Bible it is declared that Jesus would come twice to earth. Once as the Word that Became Flesh – God With Us – the incarnate Christ of God. And the second time is when Jesus returns as the Lion of Judah, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It is at this parousia that the Bible plainly reveals the rapture will occur. This is what the contextual interpretation of the Bible says. There really is no other way around it.


Acts 1:9-11

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

 Revelation 1:7
"Look, he is coming with the clouds," and "every eye will see him, even those who pierced him"; and all peoples on earth "will mourn because of him." So shall it be! Amen.

 
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The comment below was left at the PNN Facebook page under our link to this article. We have reproduced here:


 David Rice An example of Pretrib eisegesis.

• Pretribbers believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, therefore, they skip the first five verses of 2 Thessalonians 2 and start with verse 6.
 • “And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.”
• Starting there, they make a wild guess and say that one identified in Scripture only as “he” is the Holy Spirit.
• Then, with no Scriptural basis whatsoever, they assume that the Holy Spirit MUST leave the earth in order to stop restraining the “Evil One” or the “spirit of lawlessness”.
• Scripture doesn’t say that but they are sure that that is true.
• Based on their guess that “he” is the Holy Spirit, Pretribbers then make the assumption that the Holy Spirit must leave the earth in order to stop restraining evil.
• Based on a guess and an assumption, they are possessed of the conviction that if “he” whom they guess is the Holy Spirit must leave the earth in order to quit restraining, which is an assumption, “he” must take the Church with Him.
• Now, standing on a guess and an assumption Pretribbers are convinced that they will go with Him.
• Therefore based on a guess, an assumption and a conviction, Pretribbers know that the Rapture is Pre-Trib.
• Assured of that, they go back and read the first five verses of the chapter and discover that we cannot be gathered to Christ unless the Man of Sin is revealed first.
• “Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and OUR GATHERING TOGETHER TO HIM, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for IT WILL NOT COME UNLESS THE APOSTASY COMES FIRST, AND THE MAN OF LAWLESSNESS IS REVEALED, THE SON OF DESTRUCTION, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-5)
• That conflicts with what Pretribbers have already believed, a belief based on a guess, an assumption and a conviction.
• Placing their guess, their assumption and their conviction ahead of the clear and plain Scripture that precedes it, Pretribbers decide that those verses must be speaking about the Day of the Lord which comes after the Tribulation but because they are convinced of a Pretrib Rapture, they start speaking in Doublespeak.
 
Now Pretribbers are forced to conclude that WE ARE RAPTURED BEFORE THE TRIBULATION AND THEN RETURNED TO EARTH, AT THE END OF THE TRIBULATION, so that we may be gathered to Him the second time. That does not make sense, which is why Pretrib books all skip the first five verses of 2 Thessalonians 2 and start their argument with verse six.
 
Almost without exception, the passages used as proof texts by Pretrib expositors can be taken apart with equal ease. The more I look at the Pretrib Doctrine, the more evidence I find that it is a doctrine built on wishful thinking and eisegesis.