DISPENSATIONAL TRUTH

Appearing

APPEARING, Greek epiphaneia. This word which occurs six times is derived from phaino to appear, bring to light, shine.

2 Thess. 2:8.	‘The brightness of His coming’.
1 Tim. 6:14.	‘The appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ’.
2 Tim. 1:10.	‘The appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ’.
2 Tim. 4:1.	‘His appearing and His kingdom’.
2 Tim. 4:8.	‘Them also that love His appearing’.
Titus 2:13.	‘The glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ’.

This subject is part of a greater one, namely the coming of the Lord, and the relationship of the Hope entertained by the believer, the calling he has received, and the sphere of his blessing. It must be related with the other key words parousia and apocalupsis which are dealt with under the word HOPE . All that we will say here is that whereas parousia is used to define the hope of the kingdom (Matt. 24:3) and of the Church of the Acts period (1 Thess. 4:15, 2 Thess. 2:1), epiphaneia is reserved for the hope of the Church of the Mystery.

The one occurrence in an epistle before Acts 28, is no exception. ‘His coming or parousia’ is the subject and in this passage ‘brightness’ or epiphaneia but qualifies that ‘coming’, whereas after Acts 28 parousia is dropped and ‘the appearing’ is used of the first phase of the Second Coming, a phase that belongs to things above where Christ sits on the right hand of God, and not to the second sphere which is associated with the Archangel and the air. These aspects are fully discussed in the main article HOPE to which the reader is directed.

An Alphabetical Analysis