From: John Albu (tunon@phantom.com)
Date: Wed Aug 30 1995 - 14:40:29 EDT
Concerning the meaning of parousia, Israel P. Warren, D.D., wrote in his
work The Parousia, Portland, Maine (1879), pp. 12-15:
"We often speak of the 'second advent,' the 'second coming,'
etc., but the Scriptures never speak of a 'second Parousia.' Whatever was
to be its nature, it was something peculiar, having never occurred
before, and being never to occur again. It was to be a presence differing
from and superior to all other manifestations of himself to men, so that
its designation should properly stand by itself, without any qualifying
epithet other than the article,--THE PRESENCE.
"From this view of the word it is evident, I think, that neither
the English word 'coming' nor the Latin 'advent' is the best
representative of the original. They do not conform to its etymology;
they do not correspond to the idea of the verb from which it is derived;
nor could they appropriately be substituted for the more exact word,
'presence,' in the cases where the translators used the latter. Nor is
the radical [root] idea of them the same. 'Coming' and 'advent' give most
prominently the conception of an approach to us, motion toward us;
'parousia' that of being with us, without reference to how it began. The
force of the former ends with the arrival; that of the latter begins with
it. Those are words of motion; this of rest. The space of time covered by
the action of the former is limited, it may be momentary; that of the
latter unlimited . . . .
"Had our translators done with this technical word 'parousia' as
they did with 'baptisma,'--transferring it unchanged,--or if translated
using its exact etymological equivalent, presence, and had it been well
understood, as it then would have been, that there is no such thing as a
'second Presence,' I believe that the entire doctrine would have been
different from what it now is. The phrases, 'second advent,' and 'second
coming,' would never have been heard of. The church would have been
taught to speak of THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD, as that from which its hopes
were to be realized, whether in the near future or at the remotest
period,--that under which the world was to be made new, a resurrection
both spiritual and corporeal should be attained, and justice and
everlasting awards administered."
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