The question is not whether there is a distinction between Jesus' presence and his coming. There is a difference, but there is also some overlap of his presence and coming. In what sense? Jesus comes to be present with his disciples in a very special way, but after his presence commences with his true followers, then, the other aspect is that the nations "will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." (Luke 21:27)

To elaborate, the Scriptures indicate that the parousia has two phases and objects. The first phase has to do with judging the anointed house of God. But, afterwards, secondly, Christ judges the world. With respect to his parousia, Jesus urged his disciples to remain awake and expectant of his coming and arrival, which would occur as unexpectedly as a thief in the night. At Luke 12:40, Jesus urged his disciples to "keep ready, because at an hour that you do not think likely the Son of man is coming." Apparently the Greek word in that particular verse is not the same as the erchomai, but is translated the same. But, in that context was Jesus referring to the same "coming" as you referenced at Matthew 24:30? The answer is no.

In the 12th chapter of Luke Jesus said that after his sudden thief-like arrival he will "gird himself and make them recline at the table and will come alongside and minister to them." The expression "come alongside" is nearly identical with parousia, which literally means "being alongside."

The context of Jesus' discussion of his coming like a thief in the night had to do with the judgment of God's household. Jesus plainly stated that when he "comes," those judged as evil slaves would be severely punished and dismissed from God's house, and the faithful ones, after being disciplined, would be appointed over all of the master's possessions. The question is: Has Jesus come alongside his faithful slaves to judge and minister to them and appoint them over all of his belongings? No, definitely not. Can we be sure he has not? Yes. We can definitely make that statement based upon the fact that it can be proven scripturally that the evil slave is still very much a part of God's household.

Please consider Jesus' illustration of the wheat and the weeds in the 13th chapter of Matthew. That's where Jesus foretold that weed-like imitation sons of the kingdom would coexist, side-by-side, with the true wheat-like sons of the kingdom up until the time of the harvest. Jesus explained that the harvest is a conclusion of a system of things. It is especially important to note that particular phrase because, as you know, the apostles specifically asked what the sign would be not just of Christ's presence, but of the conclusion of the system of things. Apparently, the parousia and the conclusion are the same thing. In the parable, Jesus said the conclusion was when the angels are sent forth to "collect out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling and persons doing lawlessness."

If we believe that Jehovah's Witnesses are the true Christian faith, and that the anointed have been transferred into the kingdom of the Son of [God's] love, as Colossians 1:13 says, then, we merely have to ask the question: Has Christ collected out from his spiritual kingdom, his congregation, all the stumbling blocks and persons doing lawlessness? Definitely not! How can we possibly imagine that the angels have intervened to create a true spiritual paradise when there are numerous stumbling blocks and a growing number of lawless persons in the congregations? The Watchtower's hypocrisy and deviousness in connection with UN/NGO caper and the deplorable way the organization has handled the child abuse situation indicates that lawlessness prevails at the highest levels of the Watchtower. Ultimately, the very teaching that Christ was supposedly given the kingdom of the world in 1914 looms as a huge stumbling block for all of Jehovah's Witnesses that must eventually be removed.

The Watchtower has likened the sign of Christ's presence to a fingerprint, in that no two fingerprints are precisely the same. In the spirit of that illustration, as detectives in search of clues we must objectively look at the evidence to see if it matches the unique prophetic "print" we have on file—in the Bible. But, if we are careful in our investigation we will likely come to the conclusion that the evidence pointing to 1914 dose not match up exactly with what Christ foretold would happen.

So, where does that leave us? Bible prophecy aside, the world has reached a critical stage. At the very time when the United States is facing imminent collapse as the world's economic super-power, it is also embarking on a dangerous path of securing hegemony as the new Roman Empire. Another world war, using WMD, is a distinct and growing possibility. Under the conditions of global war and financial ruin the sign of Christ's presence might become manifest in a way so as to exactly fit the prophecies that we imagine were fulfilled beginning in 1914. We will keep on the watch.

I agree with you. If, as discussed in the previous question, Christ's presence and the conclusion of the system of things is a future event, then that means that up to this point the preaching of Jehovah's Witnesses has not fulfilled the prophecy in question. But, it has laid the ground work for it. How so? Keep in mind that it is Jehovah's purpose to resurrect nearly everyone who has ever lived and died up to this point. So, in that respect, those persons are taken care of already. But, starting in the first century the primary purpose of the preaching work has been to produce 144,000 future kings and priests. As the conclusion draws near, Jehovah has seen to it that the remnant of the heaven-bound body of Christ has been gathered just as in the 1st Century. So, what next? The house of God faces Christ's inspection and judgment at his arrival. Then what?

The 10th chapter of Revelation is an extraordinary prophecy that relates to Christ's actual arrival as earth's new king. In that vision Jesus is depicted as a mighty angel coming down out of heaven, draped in a cloud, with a rainbow crown, and the countenance of his face being like the sun. He comes down and stands astride the earth and sea with legs of flaming fire—as if to lay claim to dominion over the world.

In the 6th verse the Lord Jesus swears by the Creator that "there will be no delay any longer," and that the time has come for the sacred secret of God to be brought to a finish. Unfortunately, that prophecy is among the many that the Watchtower has applied to 1914. But, by what method of reasoning can we say that the sacred secret of God was brought to a finish way back then? The Watchtower didn't even understand the identity of the great crowd of Revelation until 1935. It was still a secret. So, how could the sacred secret of God possibly have been finished before then? And what about the last hour of the 8th king and the eventual destruction of Babylon the Great? Those are obviously future events that we still cannot see in detail yet. Again, why do we assume that the purpose of God has been brought to a finish in 1914?

Furthermore, how can we reasonably attribute Christ's sworn declaration of no further delay on God's part to a time nearly a century ago? The truth is that there is no basis in reality for our believing that the prophecy in the 10th chapter of Revelation was fulfilled in 1914. What are the implications of that as far as the preaching work of Jehovah's Witnesses?

The vision concludes with the glorified Christ handing John a little scroll with the instructions to "prophesy again with regard to peoples and nations and tongues and many kings." The prophecy not only acknowledges that there has been preaching up until the point of Jesus' arrival, but it also indicates that after his arrival a new phase of preaching to nations and kings will be undertaken.

That is in harmony with Christ's own prophecy of the conclusion when he said that Christians would be empowered by the holy spirit to witness before courts and kings.

We may be sure that the future witness work done by Jehovah's Witnesses will not involve handing out Awake magazines discussing innocuous topics such as "Whatever Happened to Apaches?" Nor will it span decades of time.

The 2nd chapter of Joel, for example, foretells a final outpouring of God's spirit upon his anointed sons and daughters as well as his menservants and maidservants. Likely that outpouring will result in the sealing of the anointed and the foretold revealing of the sons of God. That grand outpouring of holy spirit comes in the context of the apocalyptic heavenly phenomenon of the sun and moon going into eclipse, which is reserved in Scripture to denote cataclysmic events related to the collapse of the present system. What the prophecies indicate is that the world will receive a final thorough witness under the trying circumstance of global war, famine and so forth. That future preaching will serve as the basis for God's final judgment of the nations.

Whether the Watchtower is used in the future as an instrument of God remains to be seen. We should not, though, underestimate the power of God's spirit to re-energize those who serve as his witnesses during the actual presence of Christ; in order to fulfill the words of God that a witness will be given in all the inhabited earth before the end. There is no doubt a great work ahead of us that will be accomplished in ways that we cannot imagine at the present time.