Originally posted by Patmosman_sga
Here is a classic example of the interpretive error known as apocalypticism, that is, in the words of N.T. Wright, the exploitation "of apocalyptic language to express a non-biblical dualism in which the heavenly world is good and the earthly bad." In its proper biblical context, apocalyptic language is used (by Paul, Peter, John and the synoptic authors) to draw attention to the heavenly significance of earthly events. In other words, the full significance of seemingly ordinary "events" is often explained with the language of cosmic cataclysm. For what fallen human beings may see as ordinary or mundane, God sees as literally shaking the earth and the heavens to their very foundation.
For instance, when the seventy-two returned to Jesus proclaiming, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" (Luke 10:17), Jesus responded, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven" (v. 18). In other words, in preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God, healing the sick and casting out demons, the seventy-two were participants in the ongoing cosmic battle of which, from the foundation of the world, Jesus is the victor and Satan is the vanquished. The actual "events" themselves may have looked rather tame (although casting out demons can cause quite a stir), but the ultimate reality behind these temporal "events" was and is the final victory of God in Christ over Satan and the forces of evil--a victory decreed from eternity and seen in the temporal sphere every time a sinner repents, every time a disease is healed, every time a demoniac is delivered. That is, every time the Gospel of God's kingdom of redemption and wholeness is proclaimed, Satan's kingdom of bondage and brokenness is destroyed.
When Scripture employs apocalyptic language to describe "the coming of the Son of Man," it should likewise be understood to be describing an ultimate reality from the perspective of heaven. Indeed, if we read Matthew 24-25 as a complete unit we find, in the parable of the Last Judgment (25:31-46), that "the Son of man" will judge each and every one of us according to how we responded to his "coming" to us as one of "the least of these." To be "ready" for his coming is not to have our eyes fixed permanently on the sky (the Apostles were rebuked for this very thing), but to train our eyes so as to be able to see his glory in the face of a beggar asking for food and drink or the stranger seeking shelter for the night. We must look for the parousia in the minutiae of everyday life. We dare not risk standing in judgment only to find that the One sitting on the throne is that poor stranger we turned away one cold winter night.