Difficult Passage

Originally posted by Rajk999
Well its 2010 now. Did anyone see Christ coming in .." glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works."?
No? Then a couple of the guys standing there must still be alive.

I don't see anything in that passage that would indicate that anyone in this world should have seen "Christ coming in ..' glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.' What are you basing this on?

Originally posted by Regicidal
Go back one verse:

"For the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of his Father with his angels and then he will reward each one according to his deeds. I assure you that there are some here who will not die until they have seen the Son of Man come as King."

It clearly has nothing to do with your transfiguration rationalization.

Interpret it ...[text shortened]... s disciples that they need not wait long, for the end time kingdom was just around the corner.

================================
"For the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of his Father with his angels and then he will reward each one according to his deeds. I assure you that there are some here who will not die until they have seen the Son of Man come as King."

It clearly has nothing to do with your transfiguration rationalization.

Interpret it as a fundamentalist. Jesus wanted to assure his disciples that they need not wait long, for the end time kingdom was just around the corner.
=====================================

You have a good point. But I consider some other things as well.

Firstly, the passage does not say that some will not taste death until they see the Second Coming of Christ. I think many people read "the Son of Man coming in His kingdom" but mentally insert "the Son of Man in [His Second Coming]"

Though the three disciples did not continue to live until the second coming of Christ, they did get a glimpse of the hidden divine glory of Christ's divinity temporarily breaking through the concealing shell of His humanity. They got a glimpse of Him in transfiguration in His manifest kingdom glory.

Granted that this glimpse was not accompanied by "angels" in the usual sense. It was accompanied by holy angels if we consider angels simply as "messengers". Elijah, representing the prophets and Moses, representing the law were holy messengers of God. And they do appear on the Mount with Christ in His transfigured state.

Now some may make point that I am pushing the envelope on this interpretation. I would ask them, is it pushing the envelope any more than in the following passage about His transfiguration passage?

"And as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is raised from teh dead. And the disciples asked Him, saying, Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? And He answered and said, Elijah indeed is coming and will restore all things; But I say to you that Elijah has already come; and they did not recognize him, but did with him the things they wished. So... Then the disciples understood that He spoke of John the Baptist." (See Matt. 17:9-13)

Like the disciples who were hung up on the technicality of Elijah preceeding Christ, today's disciples could be hung up on the technicality of when His coming in the kingdom was or will be.

Jesus taught that for all intents and purposes the Old Testament promise of Christ being preceeded by Elijah occured with John the Baptist preceeding Christ. Technically John the Baptist is not Elijah. Spiritually John came (as the virtual Elijah) fulfilling the mission of preparing the way for Christ and the priests did not believe.

This kind of preoccupation with technical details at the expense of obedience and belief is included in what Jesus refered to as "the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadduces" (16:12)

The leaven is the corrupting element which ferments and bloats the bread up. And straining out the gnat of technicalities at the expence of belief and obedience is a corrupting leaven of the Gospel.

Just as Jesus could tell the technically distracted disciples that Elijah essentially already preceeded Him in the ministry of John the Baptist, so also He could say to us today, He already came in the glory of His Father in His kingdom, in His transfiguration and in His resurrection (17:9).

It remains for the believers to act in obedience to the Gospel realizing that the Son has been witnessed in transfiguration and in resurrection. We should not doubt His ministry or reject His proclamation because Peter and James and John are dead and the Second Coming has not yet occured.