He also interpreted the Second Coming in accordance with the literal translation of the original Greek term, parousia ("presence"), suggesting that Christ would come as an invisible presence and that the Parousia, or "Millennial Dawn," already had occurred, in 1874.
The Pastoureaux, thousands of shepherds who swept across the French countryside in 1251 and again in 1320, believed that they were God's chosen instrument to free the Holy Land and thus bring about the Parousia.
The thousands of peasants, or Pastoureaux ("Shepherds"), who swept through the French countryside in 1251 emerged again in 1320, believing they could bring about the Parousia by freeing the Holy Land.
Although the kingdom did not come, Russell's teachings motivated a number of volunteers to circulate his many books and pamphlets and a periodical, The Watchtower, and to recalculate the time of the Parousia.
The celebration of the Lord's Supper as anticipation of the heavenly meal with the Messiah Son of Man in the coming kingdom of God, even to the point of preserving in the liturgy the Aramaic exclamation maranatha ("O Lord, Come") and its Greek parallel erche kyrie ("Come, Lord!") as the supplicant calling for the Parousia (Second Coming)—all this became tradition.
Meanwhile, other early Christians, dissatisfied with this immanent eschatology, articulated a belief in the provisional nature of the world, which would continue only until the imminent Second Coming (the Parousia) of Christ in power and glory to judge the living and the dead.
Those who did not abandon the movement responded to the delay of the Parousia by organizing communities and rituals that created a foretaste of the coming world.
Of course, the years 1000 and 1033 passed without the arrival of the Parousia, but, rather than disappearing, apocalyptic expectations in western Europe underwent profound transformation.
