Quote[/b] ]Matthew 16
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. 28
I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."
This text seems pretty clear. Christ said that He would return before some of the people He was talking to died. But He did not, why?
Let me see if I can save some time and address some common defenses to this problem.
Some biblical inerrantists try to assert that the verse above doesn't talk about Christ's second coming, but rather His transfiguration which occurs in the next chapter. This isn't plausible for three reasons:
1.) Christ mentions in the passage that He would come "with His angels in the glory of His Father." The transfiguration text, however, makes no mention of angels.
2.) The context in which Christ spoke makes clear references to judgment, but at the transfiguration, just as there were no angels, there was no final judgment either. In fact, no judgment of any kind was involved in this story, so how could this event have been the fulfillment of Jesus’s promise in the preceding chapter?
3.) The beginning of the next chapter mentions that the transfiguration happened only six days after Christ had said that some hearing Him that day would not die until they saw Him coming in His kingdom. Now if the fulfillment of Christ's promise to His audience had come only six days later, that would mean that Christ had, in effect, said, "Verily, I say to you, there are some standing here who will still be alive six days from now to see the son of man coming in his kingdom," which is NOT the meaning of the verses.
Now let's be clear...Christ was to return SOON, this is the message that was preached in the New Testament.
Examples:
James 5
Patience in Suffering
7 Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm,
because the Lord's coming is near.
1 Peter 4
7
The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.
1 John 2
Warning Against Antichrists
18 Dear children,
this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.
This is how we know it is the last hour.
Now let's look at another common defense, the issue of time:
2 Peter 3
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends:
With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
Unfortunately, there is a HUGE problem with this verse. Not only the verse, but the book of 2 Peter. According to Fr. Raymond E. Brown, a member of the Vatican's Roman Pontifical Biblical Commission, 95% of biblical critical scholars believe that Peter did not write 2 Peter. According to religioustolerance.org...
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Most Christian conservatives accept Peter as the author. However, there is a consensus among liberals that he could not have written the epistle. The book refers to the book of Jude, which was written too late to have been known by Peter. The book also refers to the writings of Paul as "scriptures." This term was not applied to Paul's writings until long after Peter's death. Also, the author supports the belief that Jesus' second coming was in the immediate future. He criticizes the increasing doubt about the immanence of the second coming within the Christian community - a problem that only materialized long after Peter's death. The author stresses the importance of correct knowledge in order to grow in faith: knowledge that Jesus would be returning at any moment, and knowledge of how to conduct godly lives.
I assert that this book was penned much later as a form of damage control for the people at that time who were complaining that Christ had not come soon, as He had promised.
