Page 30 - Watchman- What of the Night

―used of the return of the Lord as that event relates to the blessing of saints and to the

destruction of the man of sin.‖ Exactly right! The blessing of saints and the
destruction of the man of sin occur on ―the last day,‖ the day of His ―visibility
(apokalupsis) to every man, and His ―appearing‖ (epiphaneia) in glory. That is ―the
day,‖ ―that day,‖ ―the last day,‖ ―the day of Christ,‖ ―the day of the Lord,‖ ―the day of

the Lord Jesus,‖ ―the day of Jesus Christ,‖ ―the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.‖ That
day marks ―the end‖ of Satanic control, it is ―the consummation‖ (sunteleia) of the
age of wickedness (Matt.13:39,49), ―the harvest,‖ There is a variety of words used to
designate exactly the same crisis. Their intertwining and interchanging show their

identity in meaning, as well as the concatenation of events.
On the same ―day‖ and probably only a few moments apart, He comes for His
saints, and with His saints. The dead and living go up to meet Him as He descends,
join His train and accompany Him back as He stands on the Mount of Olives and

destroys antichrist and his armies. So the parousia does ―relate to the blessing of
saints and the destruction of the man of sin,‖ but in making that statement, Dr.
Scofield stultifies the secret, pre-tribulation rapture theory and betrays those who
claim that the parousia (in the epistles) relates to the previous rapture only, and that

none of the church are on earth thereafter, or at the time of the apokalupsis (visible
unveiling) or the epipbaneia (appearing).
There are seventeen occurrence of parousia in the new testament that have
reference to the coming of the Lord, or the day of the Lord, or the day of God.

Thirteen are in the epistles. Most of these are exhortations to believers in view of that
momentous event, but 2 Thess. 2:8 reveals beyond peradventure of doubt the
synchronization of the parousia and the epiphaneia, when we are told that the man of
sin will be destroyed ―with the brightness of His coming,‖ which is literally ―the

epiphaneia of His parousia.‖ We learn here that the parousia of Christ will bring the
judgment and destruction of antichrist, not a separate event some years before. We
learn further that so far from being a private, secret event it will be an ―appearing,‖ an
―out-shinning,‖ a ―manifestation.‖ This again destroys the idea of the secret rapturists.

Early in the same chapter the parousia and the ―day of Christ‖ are brought together.
The apostle announces as the subject of his discussion in 2 Thess. 2:1, ―the parousia
of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him,‖ and beseeches them
not to be soon shaken in mind nor troubled by spirit, word, or letter as from us, as that

―the day of Christ‖ or ―the day of the Lord‖ is at hand. The authorized version uses
the former of these two expressions, the revised version the latter. That the A. V. was
translated from the Textus Receptus and the R. V. reflects changes found in the Codex
Sinaiticus is a well-known fact and medicates that even in the Greek texts the

expressions ―day of Christ‖ and ―day of the Lord‖ were interchangeable. Whichever

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