Christ’s parousia will be completed in His being manifested in public, that is, His coming to the earth openly.
Christ’s parousia will be completed when He comes openly from the air to the earth at the end of the great tribulation. He will then appear openly to the Jews and the Gentiles. Acts 1:11 prophesies, “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you beheld Him going into heaven.” Christ was taken away by a cloud in the presence of the Jews in a visible way (v. 9). Hence, He will also return openly on the clouds (Matt. 26:64), just as Revelation 1:7 says, “Behold, He comes with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the land will mourn over Him.” At that time, at the end of the great tribulation, the returning Christ will appear to the twelve tribes, and everyone in the Holy Land will see Him. Furthermore, the Lord Jesus also prophesied in the Gospel of Matthew, “Just as the lightning comes forth from the east and shines to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be” (24:27). Christ’s coming back openly will be like lightning that is visible to all the people on earth.
In His open coming, Christ will bring His bride with Him as His army to slay Antichrist. Second Thessalonians 2:8 says, “Then the lawless one will be revealed (whom the Lord Jesus will slay by the breath of His mouth and bring to nothing by the manifestation of His coming).” This will be fulfilled in Revelation 19:19-20: “I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war with Him who sits on the horse and with His army. And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet, who in his presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone.” At His open coming Christ, the heavenly General, will bring the overcoming saints, His faithful ones, as His army to fight against Antichrist, slaying and casting him into the lake of fire.
After Christ returns to the earth, He will also openly gather and save the tribes of Israel. Paul says, “All Israel will be saved, as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion; He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob’” (Rom. 11:26).
Matthew 24:30-31 prophesies, “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the land 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 His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His chosen together from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other end.” The tribes refer to the nation of Israel, and the land, to the Holy Land. At Christ’s appearing His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, and He will save the Israelites who are surrounded by Antichrist and his army (Zech. 14:4-5). Then the Israelites will look upon Christ, and all the tribes will repent and wail (12:10-14; Rev. 1:7). After the great tribulation, at the Lord’s coming back to earth, He will gather together the scattered Jews from all the parts of the earth to the Holy Land. This will be the fulfillment not only of His word in Matthew 23:37 but also of God’s promise in the Old Testament (Deut. 30:3-5; Isa. 43:5-7; 49:9-13, 22-26; 51:11; 56:8; 60:4; 62:10-12; 27:12-13; Ezek. 34:13; 37:21; 28:25).
At His coming back Christ will also be like a stone, striking the Gentiles, the nations, thereby crushing them to pieces, like chaff being carried away by the wind. Daniel 2:34-35 says, “You were watching until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the image at its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed all at once, and they became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” In Matthew 21:44 the Lord referred to this prophecy, saying, “On whomever it falls, it shall crush him to powder and scatter him like chaff.” These verses indicate that when Christ comes the second time, He will be a stone cut out without hands, striking from the heavens the human image, which signifies all human government from Babylon to the revived Roman Empire with ten kings. Christ will be the crushing stone to crush the nations so that they become like chaff being carried away by the wind. Afterward, this stone will become a great mountain, that is, God’s kingdom on earth.