`He shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion (tohu), and the

stones of emptiness (bohu)' (Isa. 34:11).

B -- You answer your own question therefore as to the connection

between Genesis 1:2 and the Coming of the Lord.

A -- Yes, but I had never seen it in that light before.  I had not

realized that there is to be a repetition of Genesis 1:2 at the Lord's

B -- In 2 Peter 3:9 Peter returns to the charge of the scoffers:

`The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count

Whatever the reason may be that causes the apparent delay, slackness is

not that reason.  For one thing Peter sees the longsuffering of the Lord

waiting as it did in the days of Noah, and links the parousia with the day of

the Lord (verse 10).

You will remember that Peter refers his readers to the writings of Paul

for fuller exposition of the purpose of God in the long interval that exists

between the First and the Second Coming.  This is an inspired admission that

Paul's ministry occupies the interval that has become so prolonged by reason

of Israel's blindness.  All the references to the parousia in Paul's writings

occur in those epistles written before Acts 28.  After having written 1

Thessalonians 4 Paul can say that he was bound with a chain `for the hope of

Israel'.  There is one clear distinct character given to the parousia in all

its occurrences, which severs it most completely from the hope of the one

body.  Had you continued, and brought into prominence the references in 2

Thessalonians as well as those in 1 Thessalonians you would have seen the

close association this hope has with:

The day of the Lord, and

The man of sin.

James, too, who uses the word parousia of the hope, addresses his

epistle to the twelve tribes of Israel, and not to the church of the One