Just copying and pasting this from Lars W. It is invaluable, clear and true. (You're welcome)
An End Time Dictionary
To help navigating in rough waters
# 003
What to expect
Major concepts meant for synchronizing
When beginning to dig into the many frail and difficult issues of the final days, the End Time, we have to ask the same questions as disciples always have done. It means, some Greek study is necessary for the establishing of parameters of discernment.
The disciples of the Lord knew which questions to ask, even using the right words involved in the matter of defining and ordering. The very first word to handle is found in the first and best question of them all: “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” This is indeed a neat package of questions, but at the frontline we hear them asking regarding the returning, the coming, the “Parousia”. This word contains a sharp comment regarding the manner of returning. It speaks about the visibility of the event, it speaks regarding the ingredient of royalty as well as concerning the matter of permanence.
The Parousia is indeed a royal event – Jesus is coming as the King of Kings. He returns as the Redeemer, in glory, to rule in Zion, the earthly Jerusalem. This is a visual event – to be seen by the many. It is an audible event – a horn to be blown and shoutings to be released.
Rev 1:7, 1 Tim 4:15-18
We immediately come across a valuable aspect of synchronizing when realizing the fact that the Last Horn, the resurrection of the dead and the then living disciples are knit together in one single moment. There is no room for a first, secret and silent occurrence called “Rapture”, then several years later followed by a visual aspect of the Royal appearance with an army of Saints to take on the final conquest of the forces of a foul prince, who have laid hold of the rulership of most of the nations of the Earth. The prophetic texts speak about one single and undivided Parousia, never two of a kind.
There are two more important words covering the event of the Parousia. In the compact segment regarding our “blessed hope and the glorious appearing”, we come across the word “Epiphaneia” – the brightness of the glory, by which the foul prince, the Antichrist, is overcome in the final battle. The two words, Parousia and Epiphaneia, are tightly knit together in the very segment describing the coming of Christ Jesus and the victory of the King of kings. The Glory and the Brightness is not tuned off in a secret event somewhere before the last days of the Antichrist – but turned on in full power and luminousness at the Parousia, which includes the overcoming of the evil endtime kingdom in the fullest measure of eviction and abortion.
Tit 2:13, 2 Thess 2:8, 2 Tim 4:1
One more word is thoroughly linked to the triad – Apocalupsis. This word is quite close to us all. We know it as a word speaking about the complex of catastrophes of the final days. But the root meaning of the Greek word holds a different measure – its plain meaning in the New Testament is “Unveiling” and “Revealing”, especially connected with the plain seeing of Jesus and the understanding of His attributes and agenda. Apostle Paul uses the word to cover the second advent of Jesus Christ – “…as you eagerly await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” By this minimal exposé, the Parousia is in the severest manner undergirded by words which are linked to visibility, brightness and glory – even to trumpet blasts and shoutings, all these for all to be seen and heard. (In Rev 1:7, we find an additional word signifying the coming – “Erchomai”, an appearing accompanied by… Here, we find an appearing, a coming, with the clouds accompanied by saints, not a coming on the clouds to gather a people.
2 Thess 1:6-7, 1 Cor 1:7, Rev 1:7
The Prophetic scenarios belonging to our days and the near future, is characterized by the undividedness which is thoroughly attached to all the texts presented both in the Old Testament and the New. “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which He declared to His servants the prophets.” This is a classic statement delivered by Apostle John about halfway through the Apocalypse, the unveiling of the strategies of Heaven, in Christ Jesus. It tells about the corporate understanding which the old prophets had to deliver to and hand over to hearing disciples and to the unbelieving peoples and people groups.
Rev 10:7
We have to prepare ourselves for the corporateness and undividedness which is to be approached and adhered to at all levels of the prophetic seeing and revealing. This, especially as there are theories, deceptive assortments, which have entered the Christian scene by means of careless interpreters the last 200 years, and which has developed into a radical impact throughout the many varieties of Christian thinking. The dividing, the splitting of concepts and categories is revealed as a firm approach and marker throughout the many levels and aspects of the eschatological elaborations. It is a dangerously deceptive approach which is firmly refuted by the prophetic texts themselves.
Israel and the Church is presented as a “two-covenant” issue, an approach which keeps the Jewish contingent in the bondage of the old covenant and given to the Church as freedom and salvation in Christ – the Jewish Redeemer, mark you. The concept of a Rapture divides mature disciples from the very much smaller clique of so called Tribulation martyrs, the latter to be taken out of the Great Tribulation in the last minute by a second so called rapture… The variations on this theme are plenty. The dividing goes on in multiple varieties… The so called “Pre-trib teachings” will be analysed in a thorough manner at a later stage. We need to return fully and completely to a viewing of the themes and issues belonging to biblical eschatology which the first Church were taught to adhere to for the sake of veracity and testimony. The “Pre-trib” teachings produce far more conundrums and perplexities than it is meant to free us from.
A proper viewing of the Last Days teachings has as its focal point the watching and the waiting for the Messiah, as an “having oil in the lamps”, as an avoiding of the dark night thievery, a corporate matching according to the instructions already given in the prophetic Word of God. “When you see all these things, know that He is near…” “Because all these things are being destroyed in this way, what sort of people must you be in holy behavior and godliness, while waiting for and hastening the coming (Parousia) of the day of God.” We can know, what is needed to know, because “I have told you ahead of time!”. The knowledge of the Holy leads to holiness and a proper view of the dealings of the Lord in the Last Days.
Matt 24:42, 44, Matt 25:1-13, 1 Thess 5: 2-5, Matt 24:33, 2 Pet 3:11-12, Matt 24:25
Lars Widerberg
Intercessors Network
