Posted by Bibleman [Bibleman] on October 30, 1999 at 12:31:11 {G0PnT/qYmkMRXA6xmpscslyACFuF8c}:
In Reply to: *PAROUSIA="NEARNESS" posted by honhea on October 30, 1999 at 09:29:16:
>>Was he
just hanging around Heaven with the angels waitng for their big invisible return or what?
You're so right! What is the real significance of Jesus' invisible "presence" or "coming" if he was always around in Heaven anyway?
There wouldn't be anything. But it makes a big difference if he was to actually return to the earth visibly.
And that was what the "nearness" I was speaking of was about. Not his nearness in general to his followers, but the "nearness" to his actually appearing again in the flesh, the "nearness of his RETURN" in the flesh.
There doesn't seem to be an adequate English term to actually address the concept they must have had in the 1st century. But as you said, once you consider the other scriptures, the concept is clear. The "parousia" refers to those things that would signal when the Messiah would actually return in the flesh and take up kingdom power and that was a specific date 2520 years after the fall of Jerusalem. "Presence" is a bad term here since it suggests those signs happen post-arrival instead of pre-arrival.
Also, thanks for pointing out that there certainly is a difference in his "coming" or "arrival" which is specific and the pre-arrival "parousia" with its accompanying signs. We must realize that Matthew was very much focussed on the actual time of his arriving in the flesh and the "END of the system of things", that is the "END of the gentile times" which would occur when he arrived in the flesh again.
Cheers,
Bibleman