Parousia

Parousia (Greek parousia, presence, arrival, or coming) is the NT's primary technical term for the second coming of Christ — his visible, personal, glorious return at the end of the age. In secular Greek, parousia described an official visit of a dignitary or king, complete with ceremonial greeting. The NT applies it to Christ's awaited return: Matthew 24:3, 27, 37, 39; 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 2:1, 8–9; James 5:7–8; 2 Peter 1:16; 3:4, 12; 1 John 2:28. The Thessalonian letters give the most sustained eschatological teaching around the parousia: the Lord will descend with a shout, trumpet call, and archangel's voice; the dead in Christ will rise first; then the living believers will be caught up (harpageso, "raptured") to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:16–17). Paul's second Thessalonian letter corrects misunderstanding: the Day of the Lord has not yet come and awaits the apostasy and the revelation of the man of lawlessness (2 Thess. 2:1–12). The timing of the parousia relative to the tribulation and millennium (pre-, mid-, or post-tribulation; premillennial, amillennial, or postmillennial) is the major division in Protestant eschatology.