A View of the Coming Kingdom

Question:

“Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.” – Matthew 16:28. Who is referred to by the phrase, “There be some standing here”? It seems that the reference is not to those to whom Christ was speaking. And what about the phrase “shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man”? Was this clause intended to be understood as some people being stricken dead immediately after they had seen Christ coming in the clouds of glory for the second time?

Answer:

1. The words are found in the same context in Matt. 16:28; Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27.
2. They are preceded by a prediction of Christ’s suffering and death and the necessity of following Him, followed by the transfiguration story (Matt. 17:1-8).
3. Taking the transfiguration with the lesson it intended to convey, and the lesson it did convey according to one of the apostles, we are forced to the conclusion that Christ referred to His own disciples by the “some standing here.”
4. He promised that they should “see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew), see “the kingdom of God come with power” (Mark), and “see the kingdom of God” (Luke).
5. Two significant essentials in the kingdom of God are the King and His subjects. When Christ comes, these subjects will consist of two classes: the righteous dead, who have been sleeping and are then raised from the dead, and the righteous living, who will then be translated (1 Cor. 15:51-54; 1 Thess. 4:13-17).
6. In the transfiguration scene, we have all these concomitants: there was Christ, the glorious King, whose countenance was altered and whose garments were so exceedingly white and glistening as no fuller on earth could whiten them; there was Moses, the representative of those who had died and were raised from the dead (Rom. 5:14; Jude 1:9); there was Elijah, who had been translated to heaven without seeing death (2 Kings 2:11). It was a miniature representation of what Christ’s second coming will be to His people.
7. Peter refers to this very transfiguration scene as the proof that the apostles had not followed “cunningly devised fables” when they had made known “the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:16-18).

A word further: “Till,” does not convey the suggested meaning. The entire scene of Christ’s future kingdom was given to encourage the disciples in their upcoming task.