• Table of Contents

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• About the Author

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• Preface to the Book

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• The Last Words in Old Testament Prophecy

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• PART I. - The Parousia in the Gospels

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• Parousia in the Synoptical Gospels

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• Prophetic Intimations of the approaching Consummation of the Kingdom of God:

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• The Prophecy on the Mount examined:

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• Our Lord's declaration before the High Priest

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• Prediction of the Woes coming on Jerusalem

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• Prayer of the Penitent Thief

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• Apostolic Commission, the

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• The Parousia in the Gospel of St.John.

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• Appendix to Part I

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• PART II. The Parousia in the Acts and the Epistles.
  • In the Acts of the Apostles.

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  • In the First Epistle to the Thessalonians

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  • In the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians

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  • In the First Epistle to the Corinthians

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  • In the Second Epistle to the Corinthians

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  • In the Epistle to the Galatians

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  • In the Epistle to the Romans

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  • In the Epistle to the Colossians

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  • In the First Epistle to Timothy

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  • In the Second Epistle of Timothy

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  • In the Epistle to Titus

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  • In the Epistle to the Hebrews

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  • In the Epistle of St. James

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  • In the First Epistle of St. Peter

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  • In the Second Epistle of St. Peter

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  • In the First Epistle of St. John

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  • In the Epistle of St. Jude

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• Appendix to Part II

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• Part III. The Parousia in the Apocalypse.
  • The First Vision.

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  • The Second Vision..

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  • The Third Vision.

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  • The Fourth Vision.

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  • The Fifth Vision.

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  • The Sixth Vision.

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  • The Seventh Vision.

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• Summary and Conclusion

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• Appendix to Part III.

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• Afterword by Russell

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• All the Comparative Scripture Charts Combined

THE PAROUSIA

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About the Author

James Stuart Russell M.A., D. Div.,
(1816-1895)

James Stuart Russell was a pastor and author of The Parousia. The book was originally published in 1878 with the title, The Parousia: A Critical Inquiry into the New Testament Doctrine of Our Lord's Second Coming. A second edition followed in 1887. A reprint of this edition by Baker Books is available today with the title, The Parousia: The New Testament Doctrine of Our Lord's Second Coming.

James Stuart Russell, the son of a pious Scotsman, was born at Elgin, Morayshire, on November 28, 1816. He entered King's College, Aberdeen, at the age of twelve and when eighteen he completed his M.A. degree. His religious decision dates from about his sixteenth year under the influence of his older brother. For a time he served in a law office. Then to prepare for a Christian ministry he studied in the Theological Halls of Edinburgh and Glasgow, ultimately finding his way to Cheshunt College.

In June 1843 Russell became an assistant minister at the Congregationalist Church in Great Yarmouth before taking over as minister. In 1857 Russell transferred to the Congregational Church in Tottenham and Edmonton. While holding this position, Russell visited Belfast to observe the working of the great Irish Revival and came under its influence. On his return a similar awakening occurred in his own church.

After a stay of five years in his second church, Russell was attracted to a new church in the rapidly growing Bayswater, whose chapel in Lancaster Road was built in 1866. Here he continued to serve until his years and failing health led to retirement near the end of 1888.

Russell was not only an able preacher, but also a man of kindly deportment. He was gifted with winning personal characteristics, which secured for him a devoted following. His pleasant manners and genial spirit, his native humor and genuine wit, his extensive reading and wide knowledge and most retentive memory, made conversations with him agreeable and profitable.

Russell's fervor stretched beyond the limits of his own pastorate. He was present, in 1843, at the formation of the Evangelical Alliance, with whose aim and operations he remained in warm and active sympathy to the last. He had an ever deepening sense of the importance of the temperance movement, and he was the first chairman of the Congregational Total Abstinence Association. Both the National Temperance League and the United Kingdom Alliance counted him among their members. His advocacy of the good cause was in frequent demand for meetings in London and the suburbs.

Publishing The Parousia

But it is as an author that Russell is most widely known and will be longest remembered. He had held the doctrine of the past second Advent (Preterism) for many years before writing or even speaking on the subject. He used to describe how the matter came to him as a sort of revelation. On discovering the key to the mystery, the whole theme gradually unfolded. It was to him a source of constant delight to see one point after another fall into harmony with what he believed to be the central truth. Accordingly, in 1878, he published anonymously his now celebrated, The Parousia, containing an elaborate exegesis on these lines of New Testament teaching concerning the second coming of Jesus Christ. Another edition followed with the author's name attached.

This work, a rare specimen of serious exposition and logical acumen, drew much attention to the subject on both sides of the Atlantic. The University of Aberdeen soon signalled its appreciation of the book by conferring on the author a well earned diploma in divinity, which he valued all the more highly because it came from his alma mater.

The argument of this consummate piece of Biblical criticism has had the effect of leading many to believe that Christ's second advent actually took place in the first century of the Christian era. Often Russell would have joy from the open adherence of one person after another to the views set forth in his work. His masterly disquisition must hold its own as an authority in its particular department, which all who propose to explore the same field are bound to consult. To his independent yet reverent pen the Church at large stands indebted for a valuable conribution to the range of Scripture study and sacred thought.

Late life

Russell's later years clouded with bodily infirmity and painful disease. He bore his sufferings, to the admiration of attendants and medical advisers, with a manly and even cheerful patience, upheld by his Christian faith. Again and again he repeated the words, "On Christ the solid rock I stand!" Moreover, his physical trials were happily relieved, as those of his sainted wife had been, by the tender solicitude and untiring devotion of an only daughter. From her arms and those of her one brother, the father passed peacefully away on October 5, 1895, in the 79th year of his age and the fifty-second year of his ministry. Russell is buried in the Kensal Green Cemetery.