PAROUSIA, CHRIST’S RETURN.
Parousia indicates the Second coming of Christ.
The word itself is found in that terrifying chapter of Matthew 24, where Jesus describes the very circumstances, we are experiencing today. In its 3d verse, He uses the GREEK word Parousia, also found in 1 Corinthians 15:23, and in 1 Thessalonians 2:19.
You may not have noticed, but the concept of Parousia – the ending of this world, and the onset of THE NEW WORLD – frightens the billionaires of our age. They are preparing for this event by building elaborate retreats, while, ironically, those who call themselves followers of Christ, are fixated on going to heaven, a Greek, pagan notion, deeply ingrained in Christendom.
Why is heaven so preferred?
Heaven is the church’s favorite, because it is much easier to exploit earth’s riches than to appreciate, cherish, yes, love the earth as God’s precious gift to us, not to exploit, but to enhance. That’s why Jesus’ repeated warnings – open your Bible and check such passages as John 3: 13, John 7: 33, John 8: 21 – clearly state that where Jesus is going, we cannot come. However, the erroneous ‘belief’ that Christians, upon death, go to heaven, is almost universally accepted as ‘gospel’ truth. It is clearly the Devil’s teaching, inspired by pagan preaching, propagated by Plato and Socrates, who separated mind from matter, heaven from earth, seeing mind as good and matter as evil. Socrates drank the poison with pleasure, in the false notion that leaving ‘material life’ would lead to ‘eternal’ bliss. Yet, this unbiblical heaven notion has dominated Christianity almost from its inception, in spite of Genesis 2, where God surveyed his creation and pronounced it ‘good’ seven times.
Enter Dietrich Bonhoeffer and J. H. Bavinck, two prominent theologians.
First the eminent Dutch theologian, the late professor of Missions at the Amsterdam Free University. He writes: “It is God’s intention to unite all fractured parts of his creation into one overarching harmony. There is no such thing as individual Salvation. All salvation is of necessity universal.
In other words, personal salvation and the salvation of creation go hand in hand: you can’t have one without the other.
Bonhoeffer, as outlined in Dr. Sabine Dramm’s book on Bonhoeffer, goes a step further: Christians exist with both God and the world. And that means: worldly Christianity, a religion-less Christianity. In Bonhoeffer’s eyes, for us to be Christian and for the church to be Christian, believers must be fellow travelers with the world; God’s kingdom comes whenever the church remains in solidarity with the world while awaiting the Kingdom from God alone…….God wants to be revered by us here on earth, in our brother and sister, nowhere else. And then she quotes Bonhoeffer: Christianity in its present form has no future as a religion.
Quoting Bonhoeffer again, she writes: “God himself mended this sundering of religion from life by living in Christ a human life in a human body, and thus life lived in the discipleship of Christ is a full, undivided life as a full human being. It is simply impossible to experience God without the world, and to taste the reality of the world, without God: worldly existence and Christian existence are not simply two sides of a coin, but they are at one and the same time the entire coin.”
It is well to re-read the above passages, both based on John 3: 16. In that dialogue Jesus outlined to Nicodemus, an important teacher in the Jewish most important school of theology, God’s plan for salvation: Love Creation just as God does.
What does this mean for us, as Christians?
Embrace creation: work for her betterment, ask for forgiveness when we harm her. I tentatively see the cosmos as God’s female expression, God’s beloved daughter, just as Jesus is his male counterpart, his beloved Son.
Back to Dramm: ‘We are off the beaten track or even secularists when we no longer believe in God’s kingdom. Secularists are Christians who accommodate by denying God’s kingdom on earth and a flight from the earth. Christians exist with both God ‘and’ the world and with God ‘in’ the world: that means ‘religion-less’ Christianity, worldly Christianity.’
What does the immediate future resemble?
I experienced the Hitler regime from 1932-1945. Its aim was to establish a One Thousand Year Kingdom of Peace, preceded by a period of purification, not unlike Trump is pursuing. The Nazi experiment lasted a dozen years, ending in total destruction and millions of deaths. The Trump Era too will end in bloodshed and global demise. Watch what’s happening on the Climate front: In the Polar Regions heat threatens to reach sediments at the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean and destabilize hydrates contained there, resulting in eruptions of huge amounts of methane: the most lethal of gases.
Could that trigger the Parousia? Stay tuned.