On his Gravatar profile this blog’s most recent (and welcome!) subscriber cites a few Bible verses: Titus 2:13, Isaiah 40:5, and 2 Timothy 4:1, 8. He adds this caption: “Awaiting Anxiously God’s Next Move, Having That Blessed Hope: His Appearing, Blazing Forth (Epiphaneia) . . . . The Next Event (God’s Prophetic Clock ).”
That Greek word, epiphaneia, is in each of those New Testament verses. (Our word “epiphany” descends from it.) The Greek root, phaino, means “to shine,” and the prefix epi- intensifies it. Otis Q. Sellers suggested that “blazing forth” does justice to it.
A verse containing epiphaneia that the subscriber tellingly does not cite is 2 Thesslonians 2:8:
And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Tellingly, I say, because this violent action of the Lord’s is what most students of Bible prophecy believe is what will happen next (or at least right after the so-called “Rapture”). The “brightness of His coming” translates “the epiphaneia of His parousia.”
That last Greek word refers to Christ’s presence, but not an ordinary presence. It certainly does not mean “coming” (as it’s sometimes mistranslated), although for Christ to be present on earth again he must first arrive. His parousia presupposes His “second coming.” When He gets here, He’ll be present on earth because of Who He is and What He does. It does not mean merely “being here,” as does pareimi. (“Present!” is how modern Greek students answer their teacher when their names are called; the phrase they use is είμαι παρών [eimai paron].)
The epiphaneia in the cited verses refers to a different event.
. . . while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing [epiphaneia] of the glory of our great God and [kai] Savior, Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13).
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing [epiphaneia] and [kai] his kingdom [basileia]. . . . Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day . . . also to all who have loved His appearing [epiphaneia] (2 Timothy 4:1, 8).
The Greek word epiphaneia does not, of course, appear in the Hebrew of Isaiah 40:5:
And the glory (כָּבוֹד, kavod) of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken (Isaiah 4o:5).
“Glory” translates the Hebrew kavod (doxa in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures). The day is coming when all will see God’s glory at the same time. That revelation will coincide with God’s assumption of sovereignty over the earth.
The appositional use of kai (“and”) implies as much: “his appearing [epiphaneia] and [kai] his kingdom [basileia].” His epiphaneia is not one thing and His basileia another.
The conjunction kai sometimes merely connects nouns, but not always; sometimes it tells the reader (or hearer) that one noun is explicating another. This is clear in the verse from Titus cited above:
. . . the appearing [epiphaneia] of the glory of our great God and [kai] Savior, Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13).
Jesus Christ is identical with, not other than, God; and the blazing forth of His glory is identical with, not other than the Kingdom’s inauguration. And the latter is, by contrast with the event described in 2 Thessalonians 2:8, a quiet affair:
Behold My Servant, Whom I have chosen; My Beloved, in Whom My soul is well pleased: I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He shall shew judgment to the Gentiles (ἔθνεσιν, nations). He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory. And in His name shall the Gentiles trust (Matthew 12:18-21, quoting Isaiah 42:1-4, see also Isaiah 11:10 and 42:4).
In other words, if God is tenderly solicitous for bruised reeds and smoking flax, then he’s not going to take
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power (2 Thessalonians 1:7).
Ignorance and disobedience characterize the vast majority of those alive today. If the Second Coming of Christ were to be God’s next move, then Paul’s “blessed hope” would be for a global holocaust.
Capital punishment, however, is not how He’s going to gain the trust of the nations. He’s just going to stop evildoers in their tracks:
But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded. So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away. And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing. The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory (Psalm 64: 7-10).
God promised that He’s going to pour out His spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28), which by divine inspiration Peter modified this way: “pour out of my spirit upon all flesh” (Acts 2:17) and that what the Spirit did on Pentecost “is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel.” The divine administration that Pentecost inaugurated—of which the Book of Acts is the history—involved a measure of that Spirit, a foretaste of the Manifest Kingdom of God which is yet future. No one with a straight face can say that the 120 souls who received of the Holy Spirit’s blessings (Act 1:15) amount to “all flesh.”
That was the first coming of the Holy Spirit; the next time God pours out His spirit upon all flesh will mark the Holy Spirit’s second coming.
The Bible’s focal point is the Kingdom of God, which will come with a gift of health to everyone, but not everyone will be permitted to remain alive to enjoy it; many of those who will not be alive will be resurrected. Heaven is Christ’s throne, the earth His footstool; He’ll govern from the throne and not the footstool (Isaiah 66:1). But govern He will:
Thou shalt judge the peoples righteously, and govern the nations upon the earth (Psalm 67:4).
As Otis Q. Sellers encapsulated the matter:
The theme of the Bible is the Kingdom of God. This statement is made in full recognition of the fact that Christ fills its pages, that He is the crown of its revelation, and that all Scripture points to Him. He is the personality set forth as the principal actor. He is the Jehovah of the Old Testament and the Lord Jesus Christ of the New. Nevertheless, its main subject from beginning to end is the Kingdom of God. This is its central idea and the concept that embraces its total message. This is the truth that is found in one form or another throughout the length and breadth of God’s Holy Word. To understand what is meant by the Kingdom of God is to hold the key that will unlock its treasures.
“The Kingdom of God,” Seed & Bread, No. 27
