Posted by Joyce on 3/26/2007, 10:27 am, in reply to "Re: 'Appear' in glory?" For many years I saw this scenario the same way John described when he wrote, "The epiphaneia is connected with His coming but its an event that takes place first whilst Christ is preparing for His parousia". However, after further study, I see it slightly differently. Let me explain. I think we must make a distinction between "epipheneia" and "phaneroo". Even though, according to Dr. Bullinger, they are of the same root, they are after all different words. "Phaneroo" is most often translated "manifest", which is, in my opinion, a more descriptive word than "appearing". In other words, Christ does more than just appear in heaven, He manifests Himself to (as John wrote) principalities and powers in heavenly places as to Who He is. This makes perfect sense. That is to say, the church has been witnessing to principalities and powers in heavenly places for around two thousand years and counting. So at the phanernoo of Christ in heaven they will see who He is and the church will also be manifest as to who we are, i.e. the body of Christ. Now as to the timing of all this, may I suggest the follwoing: We read in Col. 3:4 that Christ will phaneroo (be made manifest, "then shall we also phaneroo". In other words, I think this tells us that the phaneroo, not the epipheneia, will occur first in heaven, and as John wrote, prepares for the epipheneia. Then we will be made manifest in heaven and then the epipheneia at His parousia. But I must add that I agree with John that the preparatory phaneroo and the epipheneia will be separated only by moments. How do we know that? We know that from the fact that the church is told to wait for both the phaneroo and the epipheneia. So to put it another way: 1) The manifestation (phaneroo) of Christ in heaven, then 2) The church is made manifest in heaven. then 3)Christ descends to the clouds at which time the antichrist is destroyed by His epipheneia. Again, forgive the repetition, but I do believe that if we see all these five Greek word connected to Christ's coming as aspects of the same event it will all make much better sense. In Christ,
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Dear Chris and John,
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