Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 101:403 (Jul 1944)
Article: Eschatological Problems IV: New Testament Words for the Lord’s Coming
Author: John F. Walvoord

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BSac 101:403 (Jul 44) p. 283

Eschatological Problems IV:
New Testament Words for the Lord’s Coming

John F. Walvoord

Three important words are used in the New Testament to describe the coming of the Lord. Their transliteration has frequently been carried into the English until they are familiar to many Bible students who do not know the Greek: parousia (παρουσία), apokalupsis (ἀποκάλυψις), and epiphaneia (ἐπιφάνεια). In the nature of the important meaning of these words, a study of them and their usage is valuable in itself, but their careful consideration is made imperative by the claim often made that these terms have a technical meaning. It is commonly assumed that the term coming of the Lord, παρουσία, refers to the imminent return of Christ for His church, and that ἀποκάλυψις and ἐπιφάνεια refer to the return of Christ to establish His Kingdom on earth. It is the purpose of this brief and necessarily limited study of the subject to examine this thesis to see whether the Scriptures sustain it and at the same time to draw from the study some important facts regarding the Lord’s coming.

There is undoubtedly confusion on the interpretation of these terms among all types of interpreters. Professor Louis Berkhof, whose theological declarations few would presume to treat lightly, states without qualification that premillennialists refer to the imminent return of Christ under the term παρουσία and His second coming to the earth as the “revelation” (ἀποκάλυψις).1 While he is an ardent opponent of premillennialism and might be expected to seize upon aspects which are inconsistent with Scriptural revelation, it is a singular fact that he has retained this impression from premillennial writers. Without doubt, those who uphold premillennialism are guilty too often of seizing upon some phrase

BSac 101:403 (Jul 44) p. 284

or word as justifying their doctrine rather than building upon broader and surer foundations.

There are a number of reasons underlying the confusion. Both the postmillennial and amillennial viewpoints of eschatology are at one in claiming that all three words refer to the coming of Christ before the final judgment. Only the premillennialist is in the position of attempting to establish a complicated sequence of events in which too often both the theologue and the the...

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