The Imminent Revelation (Apocalypse) of the Lord Jesus in the 1st Century

The Imminent Revelation (Apocalypse) of the Lord Jesus in the 1st Century Below is the 25th of multiple excerpts of commentary from Parts I and II of The Parousia, the late 19th-century masterpiece on the Second Coming by James Stuart Russell. The initial 31 posts on this blog deal with the Book of Revelation, which is cogently interpreted in Part III of Russell's magnum opus. (For all blog posts, see russellparousia.blogspot.com)

"THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS "The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians appears to have been written shortly after the First [dated A.D. 52], to correct the misapprehension into which some had fallen respecting the time of the Parousia [Second Coming], whether through an erroneous interpretation of the apostle's former letter, or in consequence of some pretended communication circulating among them purporting to be from him. We learn from this epistle the precise nature of the mistake which some of the Thessalonians had committed. It was that the time of the Parousia had actually arrived [Greek: enesteken (perfect tense), meaning 'has come upon' or 'has arrived,' which the King James Version erroneously translates as 'at hand']. In consequence of this opinion some had begun to neglect their secular employments and subsist upon the charity of others. To check the evils which might arise, or had arisen, from such erroneous impressions, St. Paul wrote this second epistle, reminding them that certain events, which had not yet taken place, must precede the ‘day of the Lord.’ There is nothing, however, in the epistle to suggest that the Parousia was a distant event, but the contrary. "THE PAROUSIA [SECOND COMING] A TIME OF JUDGMENT TO THE ENEMIES OF CHRIST, AND OF DELIVERANCE TO HIS PEOPLE. "2 THESS i. 7-10 [2 Thess. 1:7-10].--- 'And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed [Greek: apokalupsei] from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power: in that day when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believed.’ "It is obvious from the allusions in the commencement of this epistle that the Thessalonians were at this time [in the 1st century] suffering severely from the malice [Greek: zelosantes, jealousy] of their Jewish persecutors, and those ‘lewd fellows of the baser sort,’ who were in league with them (Acts xvii. 5 [Acts 17:5]). The apostle comforts them with the prospect of deliverance at the appearing of the Lord Jesus, which would bring rest to them and retribution to their enemies. This is in perfect accordance with the representations constantly made with respect to the Parousia,---that it would be the time of judgment to the wicked, and the reward to the righteous. The apostle seems not to anticipate the ‘rest’ of which he speaks until the Parousia, ‘when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven,’ etc. It follows that the rest was conceived by St. Paul to be very near; for if the revelation of the Lord Jesus be an event still future, then we must conclude that neither the apostle nor the suffering Christians have yet entered into that rest. It will be observed that it is not said that death is to bring them rest, but ‘the apocalypse’ [revelation] of the Lord Jesus from heaven: a clear proof that the apostle did not regard that apocalypse as a distant event. "That this approaching ‘apocalypse,’ or revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, is identical with the Parousia predicted by our Saviour, is so evident that it needs no proof. It is ‘the day of the Lord’...; ‘the day when the Son of man is revealed’ (Luke xvii. 30 [Luke 17:30]); ‘the day which shall be revealed in fire’ (1 Cor. iii. 13 [1 Cor. 3:13]); ‘the day which shall burn as a furnace’ (Mal. iv. 1 [Mal. 4:1]); ‘the great and dreadful day of the Lord’ (Mal. iv. 5 [Mal. 4:5]). It is the day when ‘the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, to reward every man according to his works’ (Matt. xvi. 27 [Matt. 16:27]). And once more, it is that day concerning which our Lord declared, ‘Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom’ (Matt. xvi. 28 [Matt. 16:28 and parallels]). "We are thus brought back to the same truth which everywhere meets us in the New Testament, that the Parousia, the day of Israel’s judgment, and the close of the Jewish [Old Covenant] dispensation [in A.D. 70, when Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed], was not a distant event, but within the limit of the generation which rejected the Messiah [Matt. 24:34, Mark 13:30, Luke 21:32]. "The objection will be urged, What had that to do with Thessalonica and the Christians there? How could the destruction of Jerusalem, or the extinction of the Jewish nationality, or the close of the Mosaic economy, affect persons at so great a distance from Judea as Thessalonica? Even if it were impossible to give a satisfactory answer to this objection, it would not alter the plain and natural meaning of words, or make it incumbent upon us to force an interpretation upon them which they will not bear. The Scriptures must be allowed to speak for themselves---a liberty which many will not concede. But with regard to the bearing of the Parousia on Christians in Thessalonica, or outside of Judea in general, it cannot be denied that the language of this passage, as of many others, intimates that it was an event in which all had a deep and personal interest. Nor is it enough to say that the most bitter antagonists of the Gospel in Thessalonica were Jews, and that the Jewish revolt [against Rome in A.D. 66-70] was the signal for the massacre of the Jewish inhabitants in almost every city of the Empire. This may be true, but it is not the whole truth, according to apostolic teaching. We must admit, therefore, that as the eschatological [last days] scheme of the New Testament unfolds itself, it becomes apparent that the Parousia, and its accompanying events, did not relate to Judea exclusively, but had an ecumenical or world-wide aspect, so that Christians everywhere might look and long for it, and hail its coming as the day of triumph and of glory. As we proceed we shall find ample evidence of this larger aspect of ‘the day of Christ' [Rom. 2:16; 1 Cor. 1:8; Philip. 1:6, 1:10, 2:16] as a great epoch in the divine administration of the world." ----- Visit russellparousia.blogspot.com to see all posts