The End

The arrival of Jesus will be an event of great victory and utter finality. That day will include the resurrection and the New Creation.

The return of Jesus is portrayed in the New Testament as a singular event, one of great finality. His “arrival” or ‘Parousia’ will be accompanied by celestial and terrestrial upheaval, the appearance of the New Creation, the resurrection of the righteous dead, the judgment and punishment of the ungodly, “the gathering of his elect,” and the end of Death.

As the Apostle Paul declares, the future return of Jesus, our salvation, and our resurrection are based on his past Death and Resurrection:

• “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he has been raised on the third day, according to the scriptures. <…> Now, if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?” – (1 Corinthians 15:3-5, 12).

[Sunset - Photo by Jessica Ruscello (California) on Unsplash]

In his response to believers who deny the future resurrection of the saints, Paul points to the raising of Jesus from the dead in the past as the precedent and evidence of our coming resurrection.

While explaining the resurrection, the Apostle describes several events that will precede or coincide with the arrival of Jesus. This includes the consummation of the Kingdom of God, the complete subjugation of all Christ’s enemies, and the termination of death itself. Resurrected men and women will never die again:

• “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order. Christ, the first fruits; then they that are Christ's at his arrival [‘Parousia’]. Then comes the end, when he will deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death” - (1 Corinthians 15:22-28).

Believers who die before his return will be raised bodily from the dead just as Christ was. The resurrection of Jesus was the “first fruits” and is the guarantee of our resurrection. Christ’s return will be a collective event. All believers will be raised at the same time and reunited with disciples who are still alive at that time.

• “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so those also who sleep in Jesus, God will bring with him. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left unto the arrival [‘Parousia’] of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who sleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will ever be with the Lord” -  - (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17).

This day will not come until after Jesus has put “all things under his feet,” just as the Psalmist foresaw. The sovereignty of Jesus over the Earth will be complete, and his sudden appearance will mark the consummation of God’s Kingdom. Thereafter, there will be no more enemies to subdue.

• “Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will tell of the decree: Yahweh said to me, You are my son! This day, I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession” - (Psalm 2:6-9).

• “Yahweh says to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool” - (Psalm 2:6-9, 110:1).

Paul calls this event “the end” in First Corinthians, and the last enemy that will be eliminated is death. No longer will death or the fear of it enslave men and women. Satan’s legal claim against us was discharged by the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. We will continue to die, for we remain mortal, but Death will not have the last word:

• “Since the children are participants in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death he might nullify him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil, and might deliver all those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” - (Hebrews 2:14-15).

In Second Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul links the arrival of Jesus with the Day of the Lord, which will include the gathering of the saints, and he connects it to the final judgment:

• “And to you who are afflicted, rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power, in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to those who know not God, and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, who will suffer punishment, everlasting destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes to be glorified in his saints” - (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10).

• “Now, we implore you, brethren, regarding the arrival [‘Parousia’] of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him, to the end, that you not be quickly shaken from your mind, or be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is at hand” - (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2).

All men will see this final event. When Jesus appears from the heavens, “all the tribes of the Earth will mourn.” The entire planet, indeed, the Cosmos, will be affected and changed forever by Christ’s appearance “on the clouds.” These events will not be limited to the Middle East or the nation of Israel:

• “But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” - (Matthew 24:29-31).

THE FINAL DAY

Years later, the Apostle Peter warned of coming “scoffers” who will mock the church’s hope in the return of Jesus, asking, “Where is the promise of his arrival [‘Parousia’]?”

However, as many men and women will discover to their horror, “God is not lax concerning his promises.” That day will come. Moreover, like Paul, Peter links the return of Jesus to the Day of the Lord, and like Jesus, Peter predicts terrestrial and celestial upheaval on that day - (2 Peter 3:1-4):

• “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief, in the which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the arrival [‘Parousia’] of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire will be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? But, according to his promise, we look for the new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells” - (2 Peter 3:10-12).

The arrival of Jesus will mean nothing less than the dissolution of the old order and its replacement by the New Creation. The radically altered conditions ushered in by his appearance will be permanent, and righteousness will prevail throughout the Universe.

In his Letter to the assemblies of Rome, Paul connects the resurrection of the saints with the arrival of the New Creation. After all, bodily resurrection is an act of new creation. In the meantime, the entire universe is groaning and travailing:

• “Waiting for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation is groaning and travailing in pain together until now.  And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, the redemption of our body” - (Romans 8:19-23).

• “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we are waiting for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things unto himself" - (Philippians 3:20-21).

The Apostolic Tradition consistently presents the day of Christ’s arrival as an event of great finality. It will mean nothing less than the resurrection of the righteous, the gathering of the elect, the consummation of the Kingdom of God, the judgment of the wicked, the end of death, and the New Creation. On that day:

• “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible will have put on incorruption, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” – (1 Corinthians 15:52-55).

All this will result from the victory that God has achieved already through the sacrificial death of the Nazarene and his subsequent resurrection from the dead:

• “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not vain in the Lord” – (1 Corinthians 15:57-58).

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SEE ALSO:

• Christ's Appearance - (The arrival of Jesus at the end of the age will mean our resurrection and the end of the Last Enemy, Death - 1 Corinthians 15:24-28)

• The Death of Death - (Jesus warned of coming deceivers who will mislead many and spread false information about his return)

• Coming on the Clouds - (The whole earth will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of Heaven, and he will send his angels to gather his elect –Mark 13:21-27)

• El Último Día - (La llegada de Jesús será un evento de gran victoria y absoluta finalidad. Ese día incluirá la resurrección y la Nueva Creación)