Matthew 16:27-28 - Don Preston Review #26

June 18, 2013 Joshua Torrey

²⁷For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. ²⁸Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. - Matthew 16:27-28

Note: Don Preston is a full preterist and therefore his teaching cannot receive full or blind acceptance. His many videos on YouTube are worthy of listening and interacting with in a timeline manner.

We are not going to enter into some fun discussion. We're going to build off of Matthew 16 and apply some links to the Olivet Discourse. We must always be careful of shared imagery. Just because the imagery is shared does not mean the passages speak of the same event. However, in this case I happen to agree with Mr Preston. The text that will be evaluate comes from Matthew 24.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. - Matthew 24:29-31

@2:00: This is an important section to link. The commentary of Southern Baptist John Broadus (Part 1, Part 2) hopefully will comfort people in accepting this link. The events and descriptions are similar and the author is the same. The shared author makes a huge difference in the probability that these describe the same event. It in fact is this that can get people into trouble with Matthew 25. There too are descriptive words that I am not convinced refer to the final judgment (25:31).

I will reiterate here as to avoid controversy. I believe in a future return of Christ, resurrection of the righteous and unrighteous and cosmic final judgment. I don't believe I need Matthew 25 to prove those points. And so for the time being I remain in wait-and-see mode on the throne scene at the end of Matthew 25.

@4:30: The exact same precise language and themes do not equate to the same events. This is partly because the time texts don't always align. And Matthew 25 has multiple arguments for existing in a different time texts (better arguments than Matthew 24). Mr Preston does well to link the "kingdom" described in Luke into the discussion of Matthew 24. And this sets us up to accept the time text of Matthew 24:34 as the final word on understanding these texts.

Preston's Ponderings: We continue our study demonstrating the unity of Matthew 16:27-28 and Jesus' prediction to come in judgment in the lifetime of his contemporary generation. This study focuses on the direct parallelism between Matthew 16:27-28 and Matthew 24:29-34. The parallels are precise, and irrefutable! Check it out!