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Will persons living in Christ’s time survive until the second coming?
The statement in Matthew 16 below is clarified in various verses that follow. Matt. 16:28 “Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.†People think that Jesus meant that some of those in the audience would remain alive until His second coming. Six days later however, a miniature second coming and Christ’s kingdom appear in typological form. The explanation follows: Matt. 17:2-3 “and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.†Jesus is transfigured and His countenance appeared as it will be at the time of His second coming. At the second coming there are two groups that will be saved: 1 Thess. 4:15-18 “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.†Elijah was taken to heaven without having died: 2 Kin. 2:1 “And it came to pass, when the LORD was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.†Moses went up the mountain as requested by the Lord and died there. His grave was never found and once again Jude, the brother of Jesus, gives us an interesting insight: Jude 1:9 “Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you!†At the transfiguration on the mount we see Jesus in conversation with Elijah, the representative of the righteous who are alive when Jesus comes, and Moses, the representative of those who had to taste the first death. Here we then truly have a small typological second coming