Mr. Thomas Ice,
I was hoping you could respond to this email or more specifically to my blog on an article I wrote giving an exposition of Matthew 16:27-28. You made two errors listed below and I was hoping you would either:
1) Admit you made a public interpretive error or
2) Give me an example from the gospels where Jesus uses the phrase, “Verily I say unto you…” to introduce a new subject as you claimed.
Back at the 2003 Evangelical Theological Society I listened to a lecture given by Wayne Brindle where he sought to refute Preterism and made the same claims you have made on this passage. In the Q & A period I asked for a text where “Verily I say unto you” was ever used to introduce a new subject. He looked at me like a deer in headlights, was rather embarrassed, and admitted he didn’t have one. It is important to get this out in the open so others don’t repeat these kinds of errors that you and others have put in print for the Christian public to view. Thank you for your time. My web site is: treeoflifeministries.info And the article is located at: http://treeoflifeministries.info/index.php?view=article&catid=35%3Ahouse-divided-book-promos&id=56%3Aan-exegesis-of-matthew-1627-28&option=com_content&Itemid=75
I have pasted below what I would like you to respond to.
“b). “Verily I say unto you…”
Jesus’ phrase “verily,” “truly,” or “most assuredly I say unto you,” is used 99 times[2] in the gospels and gives the meaning of “Absolutely,” “really,” “may it be fulfilled,” and is used as a phrase of emphasis to drive home a point that has gone before it. It is never used to introduce a new subject.[3] Another Editor of a multi-authored book seeking to refute our position states of our text, “…verse twenty-seven looks at the establishment of the kingdom in the future, while a promise of seeing the Messiah in His glory is the thought of verse twenty-eight. They are two separate predictions separated by the words ‘truly I say to you’”[4] But Mr. Ice does not produce one passage where Jesus’ phrase “Truly I say unto you” is ever used to separate the subject matter previously discussed! Since he cannot produce any evidence for his statement, his point at the very least is unscholarly and at worst, irresponsible and deceptive.
c). “Some standing here shall not taste of death” and “the kingdom of God.”
As we study Christ’s teachings elsewhere in the Gospels and other related passages in the Old and New Testaments concerning: 1) The physical death of some of the 12 and their first century contemporaries along with 2) The Son of Man coming and the arrival of the kingdom of God in power, we discover Christ is addressing a very specific and prophetic persecution coming in the Apostolic generation than just alluding to some of them dying off of because of mere old age. The only event in the teachings of Jesus that associates the death of some of the Apostles with the Kingdom of God is the persecution preceding his second coming Mt.10:16-23; Lk.21:16-32; Mt.23:31-36; Jn.21:19-22; Rev.6:10-11, 17; 16:6, 15; 18:5, 20. The only exception to this is the death of Judas. Daniel’s prophecy confirms Jesus’ teaching. Daniel in (Dan. 2, 7, 9, 12) taught: 1) the kingdom would come and be established during the time of the Roman Empire. 2) There would be a time of persecution and death for believers during this period. The “little” horn would wage “war with the saints” and “prevail against them (thus some of them would be martyred) “Until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and (at this time) the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.”
The prevailing in war with the saints from the little horn answers to the persecution and “death” of some of the Apostles and their contemporaries. Jesus made it clear that Daniel’s prophecy would be fulfilled in His generation (Mt.24:15, 34; Lk.21:20-22). Some of our opponents have made some real crucial mistakes in trying to refute us on this text. Thomas Ice makes another blunder, “A further problem with the preterist view is that our Lord said “some of those standing here…” It is clear that the term “some” would have to include at least two or more individuals…” “…Peter notes that “John only survived among the 12 disciples till the destruction of Jerusalem” (Ice, Controversy, p.88). In other words Ice is claiming that the twelve were the only audience Jesus was addressing in this text and therefore if only John was alive till the destruction of Jerusalem, then that does not meet the definition of “some” because “some” necessitates more than one. However, Mark’s account clearly states, “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said:…” (Mk. 8:34 – 9:1). When we study Christ’s teaching on the “death” of some of His first century disciples in the Gospels it is always in the context of some of them living (while others would not) to witness His Second Coming and inheriting the Kingdom. Jesus’ teaching on the death of some of His disciples and some of them living to witness a specific event is never addressing the transfiguration event, the ascension of Christ, or Pentecost. It is always referring to His Second Coming and to that the Old and New Testaments bear unanimous witness.”
Mr. Ice thank you for your time and Lord willing your concern for accuracy when it comes to Biblical exegesis.
In Christ (2 Cor. 1:20),
Mike Sullivan
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