BEREAN PICTORIAL CHARTS

Hope, in the Scriptures, whether it he the hope of Israel or the hope of the church, whether the church which is the Bride or the church which is the Body, is always focused upon the Person of the Lord and His presence. For the realization of the hope of creation, of Israel, or of the Kingdom, the personal presence of the Lord on earth is necessary, and this is spoken of in the Scriptures as His "coming"(parousia) or His "revelation" (apokalupsis). There is a heavenly side to the kingdom purpose (Heb. 3:1), and so we find the word parousia used not only in Matt. 24, but in 1 Thess. 4. The prison epistles do not speak of the Lord's coming, but of the church's manifestation with the Lord in glory at His appearing (epiphaneia).

The term used in Matt. 24 in the question concerning “The end of the world" is the Greek word sunteleia, a word that needed no translation to any Jew who kept the feasts, for it is the word used in the Septuagint version of Exod. 23:16 for the "Feast of the Ingathering."

The Chart represents the wedding of the King's Son at Westminster Abbey, and divides those who take part into three groups:

1. Those who had the privilege of actually being in the Abbey itself. This corresponds with the hope of the mystery, the "manifestation with Him in glory," and suggests the place of privilege as "far above Principalities." This is the epiphaneia.
   
   
2. Those who had the privilege of a seat in the grandstand immediately outside the Abbey might he likened to those who are partakers of the heavenly kingdom, who meet the Lord in the air, and
   
   
3. Those who waited in the streets, where "every eye shall see," correspond with those who wait for the coming of the Lord Whose feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives.
   
   

Inspiration has watched over the use and distribution of the three words parousia, apokalupsis and epiphaneia, and the student who accepts the facts of Scripture regarding these words will have a dear understanding as to the relation of the three phases of the Lord's return and the three spheres of blessing.

For fuller treatment of the various phases of the subject, see our booklet: "That Blessed Hope"

CHARLES H. WELCH.

Berean Pictorial Charts