Did Christ already return?

In the days surrounding their Lord's crucifixion, Jesus's disciples wondered, "When will Christ return?" This vexing question is still asked and still provides much speculation today. It is explored in countless end times books and films and debated in churches and Bible schools.

But what if the second coming already happened?

In this important but neglected nineteenth-century study, author and pastor J. Stuart Russell argues persuasively that Christ's parousia (second coming) was the center of a great cluster of significant events in first-century Jerusalem, including the close of the Jewish economy, the judgment of Israel, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the resurrection of the dead.

First published in 1878, The Parousia was esteemed by contemporaries who may have agreed or disagreed with Russell's conclusions but nevertheless had utmost respect for his exegetical method, his illumination of difficult passages of Scripture, and the popular level on which the book was written.

Pastors, students of the Bible, and anyone suspicious of the current media focus on the end times will treasure this well-reasoned and hope-filled book.

J. Stuart Russell (1816-1895) pastored the Congregational church in Bayswater, England, from 1862 to 1888. He earned a master's degree from King's College, University of Aberdeen, which also honored him with a doctor of divinity degree after The Parousia appeared. He also wrote Nonconformity in the Seventeenth Century.