The Parousia and the Final Judgement

Parousia and judgement

Now, what I also want you to see is how Jesus makes it clear that his second coming is tied directly to the final judgement. In short, when Jesus comes he comes to judge the nations. It says there in verse 31 that “when the Son of Man comes in his glory .... before him will be gathered all the nations, and [that] he will separate the people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”

Now, I mention this because I think its relevant, and because it builds upon what Jesus taught back in chapter 24 about the destruction of the Temple, and his second coming. The significance is that Jesus’ eschatology does not indicate that there will be a literal 1,000 year reign of Christ on the earth before the final judgement. The popular eschatology of our day argues that at Christ’s second coming, for a 1,000 years Jesus will reign on the earth before the final judgement at the end of that reign, however, this text, as well as Jesus’ other eschatological parables, seem to indicate that there are two ages, this age and the age to come, and that the judgement, at the end of this age, separates the two. That there is not an age or a period of time between this age and the next, which many call the millennial kingdom.

Now, depending on how familiar you are with the common eschatological positions, or the the common ways Christians believe the second coming plays out, you may be familiar with the passage in Revelation 20 that