The "Forty Years" WITHOUT Christ's Presence

Rev. Josiah Litch (Millerite)

Christ Yet to Come: A Review of I.P. Warren's Parousia (1880) "He speaks of the fact that the Parousia was 'near'.' If, as the Doctor so strenuously contends, parousia signifies "presence," not "coming" what does he mean by "was near" ? Was there an interval of some forty years after Christ left his disciples on the mountain in Galilee, saying, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," to the time of Jerusalem's overthrow, when Christ's presence was not with them ? I press this point and urge an answer. Was there forty years, more or less, when they had to work without his omnipresence ? If there was not, and the time of his presence was still future when Paul wrote, where had been his omnipresence ? Either Dr. Warren or his reviewer is confused in his mode of apprehending and expressing this great theme. Does not the word near imply not yet here but coming : and if parousia is near, is it not coming ? How is this ?"

Source: Preterist Archive