Jesus told Caiaphas that he would see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. But Caiaphas reportedly died in AD36.
Jesus told four of His disciples privately that when they shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. But none of them were in Judaea to see those things; at least one of them, maybe even three of them, weren't even alive: it didn't happen in their lifetimes - even though Jesus had said "This generation shall not pass away before all these things are fulfilled".
So, either Jesus didn't have AD70 exclusively, in mind...
Or, Jesus didn't have all of His immediate audience in mind exclusively or even at all (even though He'd addressed them using the first-person pronoun 'ye').
That being the case, why then should we impose a stricter 'audience relevance' and stricter 'time indicating' rule onto Matthew 16:28?
MATTHEW 16:28
28 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.
Couldn't Jesus have been describing here, like He was with Caiaphas, and with Peter, and Andrew, and James and John, something broader than what happened in AD70 alone, and a broader audience than exclusively all of His immediate audience - extending even beyond the lifetime of all of His immediate audience?
If not, why not.
And yet we hinge an entire eschatological system on a supposed time-indicating, audience-relevant statement, and insist on it even more rigidly than the text itself seems to.
If a little bolt which can't hold up a whole structure, it probably isn't holding up the whole structure - even if, from where you're standing, it looks like it does.
Jesus told four of His disciples privately that when they shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. But none of them were in Judaea to see those things; at least one of them, maybe even three of them, weren't even alive: it didn't happen in their lifetimes - even though Jesus had said "This generation shall not pass away before all these things are fulfilled".
So, either Jesus didn't have AD70 exclusively, in mind...
Or, Jesus didn't have all of His immediate audience in mind exclusively or even at all (even though He'd addressed them using the first-person pronoun 'ye').
That being the case, why then should we impose a stricter 'audience relevance' and stricter 'time indicating' rule onto Matthew 16:28?
MATTHEW 16:28
28 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.
Couldn't Jesus have been describing here, like He was with Caiaphas, and with Peter, and Andrew, and James and John, something broader than what happened in AD70 alone, and a broader audience than exclusively all of His immediate audience - extending even beyond the lifetime of all of His immediate audience?
If not, why not.
And yet we hinge an entire eschatological system on a supposed time-indicating, audience-relevant statement, and insist on it even more rigidly than the text itself seems to.
If a little bolt which can't hold up a whole structure, it probably isn't holding up the whole structure - even if, from where you're standing, it looks like it does.
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