Parousia is the greek word for "presence" In other words, Christ's parousia is when He returns to earth. He will bring His "presence" to the earth.

To start off, take a look at:

I Thess 4:15. It says that "we which are alive and remain unto the coming (gk. parousia) of the Lord shall not prevent them that are asleep." It goes on to describe the parousia of the Lord when He descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel…

From this passage we can establish that at the parousia of the Lord (when He descends from heaven with a shout) those who are alive will be caught up together with Him in the clouds. This passage is describing the resurrection, otherwise termed the rapture.

The question that we need to answer is: when does His parousia take place?

Take a look at Matt 24, go ahead and read the whole chapter.

The disciples come to Christ and ask Him "when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming(parousia), and the completion of the age" Matt 24:3

(I quoted that verse from Darby's translation, so it reads a little different from KJV.) What this verse tells us is that these two events (Christ's parousia and the completion of the age) happen at the same time. In other words, when Christ comes back, the end of the age will come as well.

Christ goes on to describe the signs of His parousia (vs 4-26).

Notice verse 15, this is a description of the "beast" or the "man of sin" (2Thess 2:3,4) who will exalt himself above all that is called God. This of course will take place during the tribulation.

O.k., look at verse 27-31. Here is where Christ gives us a detailed description of what will happen at His parousia. Read these verses carefully and look at all of the details of what will occur when He comes:

The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give her light, the stars shall fall from

heaven, the powers of the heaven's shall be shaken, He will come in the clouds

Remember, that in the context of Matt 24., all these things happen at the Lord's parousia, which is after the tribulation (immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened…etc…vs29).

Ok., go back to I Thess 4:13-18. These verses describe the resurrection(rapture). Now read through these again and look for details that match up with Matt 24.

I Thess 4:16- The Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump (Matt 24:31, I Cor 15:51-53) of God and the dead in Christ shall rise

I Thess 4:17- Then we which are alive and remain (Matt 24:31) shall be caught up together with Him in the Clouds (Matt 24:30) .

We are caught up with the Lord at His parousia (I Thess 4:15, 2 Thess 2:1 , I John 2:28),

which occurs after the tribulation.

Another scripture which clearly shows that the Lord's parousia occurs after the tribulation is 2 Thess 2. This is a chapter with mucho information but I'll just touch on one part.

The whole chapter is describing the workings of leaven (Matt 13:33) which has produced teaching that the day of the Lord is already at hand (2 Thess 2:2,3). Paul goes on to describe that the day of the Lord will not come "except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition" (2 Thess 2:3). This man of sin is the same man of sin in Matt 24:15. He is the wicked one who comes on the scene during the tribulation.

And this wicked one will be destroyed "with the brightness of His (Christ's) coming (parousia). 2 Thess 2:8.

If Christ's parousia (which is when we will be resurrected) occurs before the tribulation, then how does He destroy the wicked one who hasn't even arisen yet?

Like I said, this is only a bare bone study, there are so many scriptures that pertain to this subject.

Here are some passages that will be helpful to study:

Here are some types of the Lord's parousia: