Appendix L
The Return of Jesus Christ
In Power Glory and Splendor
(The epiphaneia)
By Lambert Dolphin

This is a shortened version of this study. View the full article at
http://ldolphin.org/Sadvent.html

Jesus of Nazareth was seen by his disciples and by groups as large as 500 persons (1
Corinthians 15:6) during the 40 days between his resurrection from the dead and his ascension to
the “right hand of the Majesty on High.” Then instructing his disciples to wait for the promised
arrival of the Holy Spirit, he departed this earth from the summit of the Mount of Olives, just
East of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (Acts 1:4-12),
The Holy Spirit then descended, from the Father and the Lord Jesus, ten days later, on the
day of Pentecost, a Sunday morning, while the believing community was gathered for prayer and
fellowship. Thus began the era of the Church, which has been God’s means of calling out the
world “a people for his name” (Acts 15:14). The church is especially called the “body of Christ”
with Jesus the Head of the body, Wherever Christians gather Jesus is with them by means of the
Holy Spirit–but Jesus has been visibly absent from the earth was nearly 2000 years,
The return of Jesus to earth is in two stages, First, He arrives unannounced to call out the
true church, his Bride, This event (described in 1 Thessalonians 4 and usually called “the
rapture”) is distinguished from his visible return in power and glory seven years later, Two
different Greek words are used, parousia, meaning “presence” describes the coming of Jesus for
his saints, and epiphaneia, meaning “appearing” describes his public unveiling (apokalupsis) in
splendor, power and glory.
A number of passages in the Bible describe the glorious second coming of the Messiah
Jesus to save our beleaguered planet from total destruction, and to set up his kingdom on earth,
Zechariah tells us that the place of Jesus’ return to earth will not be Zion, Illinois, but the Mount
of Olives in Jerusalem, Israel (Zechariah 14:1-9).
When Jesus returns to the Mount of Olives he will arrive from the direction of Edom
(Southern Jordan)–with the blood of his enemies spattering his garments, he will bring with him
the remnant of believing Jews who fled earlier to Jordan at the midpoint of The Tribulation
Period, And with him also will be his Bride, the Church, and great myriads of his holy angels
(Isaiah 63:1-6).
During the Olivet Discourse, Jesus describes his future public return in these words,
“Immediately after the distress of those days
” ‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.