Is Matthew 16:27-28 a Prophecy About the Ascension?

I am once again constrained to speak out about what I believe is a totally unacceptable misunderstanding and an easily demonstrable misrepresentation of facts.  You know there is an old saying, “There is bliss in ignorance . . .”  It is much easier to wear rose-colored glasses or to obfuscate or cut corners—or even deflect an issue—deflect a problem, a concern, a belief or an interpretation if it is done in a state of ‘unknowingness.’  And, moreover, there are some people who are willfully ignorant, ignorant of things they don’t agree with or know but refuse to believe (1 Peter 3:5).  Nothing quite hurts more than being misunderstood and we all know only too well what that feels like. 

When you say something to someone else and they misconstrue what you said or accuse you of lying or saying something you absolutely did not mean and then they run around bad-mouthing you, let’s be real—that hurts on a very deep level.  Nevertheless, the New Testament gives us standards of conduct for our attitudes, for example, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.”  But there are some Christians who insist upon a childish understanding of certain things while at the very same time, they exhibit a low boiling animosity, bitterness, and resentment towards certain issues, people, and beliefs they refuse to frankly speak about but put forth arguments and aspersions that simply do not hold any water at all.  Such is the case with a certain Christian official, Dr. Sam Frost, who used to be a Full Preterist and renounced it years ago.  That is his choice and I have no issue with him being whatever he wants to be—either way, I accept him as a Christian, but I do not think his arguments against Preterism are honest ones or well thought out.

On his website, in an essay titled, Review of Bamboozled Believers, Part 1?, he wrote this quote concerning Preterists and one of their proof texts (which, by the way, is one of mine), 

“Right off the bat, page 1, Biehler quotes Matthew (Mat) 16.27. ‘Some of you standing here….’ We all know it. It is one of the ‘prooftexts’ of Preterists, and Full Preterists. Is this verse talking about the ‘end of the world’? Some think it is. Some don’t. I don’t. It is talking about his Ascension, which, interestingly enough, Biehler never considers (so much for thinking outside of the box).  Like many, Preterists and non-Preterists, Biehler skips over Ascension.  I have several commentaries, as Biehler notes some of them, that offer the Transfiguration as the ‘coming’ in 16.27.  Nope. Others have the Day of Pentecost. Nope.  Still others, who are not Full Preterists, have 70 CE. Nope.  I was just talking to a fellow the other day, Benjamin Colson, who noted the same observance: they all skip over the Ascension.  You know, the Ascension, the fulfillment of Psalm 110.1, and Psalm 2.  Remarkably, there are many scholars to day seeing this problem, and noting that Daniel 7.13-14/Revelation 5 are Ascension passages, and these two passages speak of the son of man ‘coming’ (16.27, Daniel 7.13, and Revelation 5.7 all have the son of man/lamb ‘coming,’ using the same Greek verb, erchomai).[3] Biehler never mentions this alternative interpretation, and thus easily “writes off” the others – rightly so.”¹

Here Frost is quoting Biehler, a scholar, but he and others of his ilk are openly contumelious against valid questions, objections, and alternative interpretive solutions championed and advanced by Preterists.  By the manner they disagree, they give Preterists a very bad name.  And by that I mean the situation with Matthew 16:27-28 is a classic case-in-point for this where, for example, it appears, we may say, that the ‘crime’ of Preterists is more for mentioning the Matthean text and having the gall to use it as a proverbial ‘brick’ in their arguments.²  We are here to say, that brick, after inspection, is actually quite solid and should not be treated with mockery, contempt, or disregard.

Frost, however, says, “It is talking about his Ascension, which, interestingly enough, Biehler never considers (so much for thinking outside of the box).”  He believes Biehler never considered that Matthew 16:27-28 was referring to the Ascension when that is, in fact, one of the conventional interpretations of the verse in historic Christianity.  It is not thinking outside of the box to think that this is what our Lord means here.  But does the verse really refer to Christ’s Ascension?  Let’s think about that question here and seriously entertain why that is either a totally logical option or entirely unacceptable in light of demonstrable facts.

Did Jesus Come in His Glory When He Went?

In order to prove that Matthew 16:27-28 refers to the Ascension of our Lord it must be alleged that at that time Jesus came in his glory.  But we need to step back and draw a timeline just so we know where to put the Lord’s Ascension on the calendar.

Between A.D.30 and 33 Jesus made these promises and, going by the specific Jewish years that was between 3790-3791—3794.  The Ascension was forty days after the Cross and ten days before the Day of Pentecost.  That means the Ascension happened on a Friday, 26 Iyar 3794.  Now that we know this we need to ask important questions about what happened that day (either on earth or in heaven) to fulfill anything Jesus said in Matthew 16:27-28.  But in order to expand this discussion to its proper size we need to also include in our considerations material in Daniel chapter 7 (particularly within the framework of verses 13 to 27).  In all this, we must never forget that our target date is the Ascension, 26 Iyar of the Jewish year 3794.

Now, according to the theory or belief that Jesus is referring to his Ascension in Matthew 16:27-28, it is also held that Daniel 7:13-27 is also talking about the Ascension. 

Is it? 

Before we can really make an impactful discovery we need to first explore, verse by verse, what the pertinent issues in Daniel 7 are.  And then we also need to pan out and see if Daniel 7:13-14 and the events witnessed by John in Revelation 5:1-14 are Ascension passages.  The entirety of the Danielic 7 passage from the LXX with endnotes to help clarify this talk is printed here with bold emphasis on certain verses for the purposes of this discussion:-

“After this one I looked, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and exceedingly strong, and its teeth were of iron; devouring and crushing to atoms, and it trampled the remainder with its feet: and it was altogether different from the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. ⁸ I noticed his horns, and behold, another little horn came up in the midst of them, and before it three of the former horns were rooted out: and, behold, there were eyes as the eyes of a man in this horn, and a mouth speaking great things.³

Daniel’s Vision of the Ancient of Days

⁹ I beheld until the thrones were set, and the Ancient of days sat; and his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head, as pure wool: his throne was a flame of fire, and his wheels burning fire.⁴ 

¹⁰ A stream of fire rushed forth before him: thousand thousands ministered to him, and ten thousands of myriads, attended upon him: the judgment sat, and the books were opened.^{5  6}

¹¹ I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which that horn spoke, until the wild beast was slain and destroyed, and his body given to be burnt with fire. ¹² And the dominion of the rest of the wild beasts was taken away; but a prolonging of life was given them for certain times.⁷

Daniel’s Vision of the Son of Man

¹³ I beheld in the night vision, and, lo, one coming with the clouds of heaven as the Son of man, and he came on to the Ancient of days, and was brought near to him.

¹⁴ And to him was given the dominion, and the honor, and the kingdom; and all nations, tribes, and languages, shall serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom shall not be destroyed.⁸

Daniel’s Visions Interpreted

¹⁵As for me Daniel, my spirit in my body trembled, and the visions of my head troubled me. ¹⁶ And I drew near to one of them that stood by, and I sought to learn of him the truth of all these things: and he told me the truth, and made known to me the interpretation of the things. ¹⁷These four beasts are four kingdoms that shall rise up on the earth: ¹⁸ which shall be taken away; and the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess it for ever and ever.

¹⁹ Then I enquired carefully concerning the fourth beast; for it differed from every other beast, exceeding dreadful: its teeth were of iron, and its claws of brass, devouring, and utterly breaking to pieces, and it trampled the remainder with its feet: ²⁰ and concerning it ten horns that were in its head, and the other that came up, and rooted up some of the former, which had eyes, and a mouth speaking great things, and his look was bolder than the rest. ²¹ I beheld, and that horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; ²² until the Ancient of days came, and he gave judgment to the saints of the Most High; and the time came on, and the saints possessed the kingdom. ^{9  10}

²³And he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom on the earth, which shall excel all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and trample and destroy it. ²⁴And his ten horns are ten kings that shall arise: and after them shall arise another, who shall exceed all the former ones in wickedness and he shall subdue three kings. ²⁵And he shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change times and law: and power shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time.^{11  12}

²⁶And the judgment has sat, and they shall remove his dominion to abolish it, and to destroy it utterly. ²⁷And the kingdom and the power and the greatness of the kings that are under the whole heaven were given to the saints of the Most High; and his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all powers shall serve and obey him.”

It has to be clear to us and we must all at least consider the possibility that Daniel 7:7-27 speaks of our Lord coming in the glory of his Father to judge, convince, and deprive a world kingdom of its futile attempt to seize the kingdom of God by force and matches, more or less, the events John witnessed when he was caught up in the Spirit on the Lord’s day in the 6^th decade of the first century.   

We don’t have a problem believing Psalm 110:1 and Psalm 2 corresponding to this, but we do have a big problem tying these things with the Ascension or to a date on Friday 26 Iyar 3794 where everybody knows full well that NO events in the Book of Revelation happened that early, by any stretch of the imagination!   

Did Jesus Come With His Angels When He Went?

The next thing we need to consider is whether or not our Lord showed up with his angels?  According to his promise to the crowd standing before him at Caesarea Philippi, he would come with his angels.  Now, of course, when Jesus ascended at Bethany angels escorted him back to the Father, but is this what Jesus means in this instance?  Is he saying angels will be with him as he is leaving the earth?  Or is he saying angels will be with him as he is coming back to the earth?  If he is describing his Ascension it would obviously mean they are accompanying him back to his rightful place on the throne of God but the entire statement, including what we discuss below, just does not seem to point to his departure! 

A couple of examples must suffice: It is clear from 2 Thessalonians 1:4-10 that our Lord’s glorious return would be with his mighty angels, the same is true in Jude verses 14-16 where we read,  

“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, ¹⁵ To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

¹⁶ These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.”

As early as 26 Iyar 3794, forty days after his brutal crucifixion our Lord was neither famous nor infamous to the Jewish people; and besides, who knew he was ascending back to heaven?  It was, basically, a private event and nobody saw it except for the eleven who, at that very time, saw him levitate in a supernatural cloud, but nobody else was there to slander or speak ill of him.  And as for the mobs who had attended that fatal Passover that called for his life and his blood, they thought he was silenced by that unjust death they insisted upon.  If word had reached anyone that he had risen, as he said, the counterfactual claims of the chief priests surely assuaged all fears and as far as the public was concerned, and for all intents and purposes, Jesus’ body was by night stolen from his tomb by his disciples (Matthew 28:11-15). 

We don’t want to lose our way and forget that Daniel 7:8, 20, and 25 calls for loud words, big words, and swelling words and we just do not have that happening anywhere as early as ten days before Pentecost.

And so, if the Iyar date in 3794 is way too early what about the situation in the Holy Land later?  Do we have any proof that there was widespread public murmuring against Jesus Christ’s person and name?  The Hebrew writer speaks of some who fell away and crucified Jesus again and put him to an open shame (Hebrews 6:4-6).  By the sixth decade of the first century, we do see an environment where Jesus is detested, spit upon, and blasphemed as a disgusting nuisance.  And it is here that James 2:7, Jude 15, and Revelation 13:5-6 makes it crystal clear that that time had come, not earlier than the Day of Pentecost and not even on Pentecost or the immediate days after was any public animosity or disgraceful words directed against either Christ or Christians (Acts 2:47).

Did Jesus Reward Every Man

According to His Works When He Went?

If Matthew 16:27-28 was fulfilled on 26 Iyar 3794, we have to believe or imagine that every man was judged according to his works at that very time.  Another way to express this is to say that judgment day happened a week and three days before the day of Pentecost!  Who actually believes that!?  Who believes Jesus was leaving the earth and this was actually accomplished when Revelation 22:12 puts in the mouth of Jesus these words,

“And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”¹³

This announcement and when it was given point to something happening later on in that century; not early; not the Ascension and not Pentecost.  Again, the relevant passages that relate to this can be found in the Book of Revelation.

One, nobody was given the kingdom of God at the Ascension, the kingdom of God was taken by Jesus during the Jewish war (Revelation 11:15).

Two, Gentiles were not worshipping Jesus as early as 26 Iyar 3794 but the case was very different later in the century (Revelation 7:9).

Three, there was no war fomented by the fourth kingdom ten days before Pentecost as even up to Acts 2:47 there were good relations between the people of Judæa and the newly born church.

Four, neither the Apostles nor their opponents were rewarded or condemned ten days before Pentecost on 26 Iyar 3794.

Five, there was no attempt by anyone in the Holy Land to change either times or laws ten days before the day of Pentecost.  And we can see, so far, that this notion of fulfillment of the Danielic eschaton in the second month of the Jewish year thirty-three years before the onset of the First Jewish Revolt.

So far we see that there is an attempt to do at least two things: Obfuscate and publically justify self-deception.  By doing this Frost insures that there will be this Elephant in the Living Room and that some authorities in the churches will ignore all rational objections and considerations against a premature fulfillment of Matthew 16:27-28 by 26 Iyar 3794 and furthermore, pontificate, without a basis, contrary to all evidence.

Six, nobody was hurt.  As far as we know, no blood was shed by anyone that Friday which makes us even more determined to make sure these issues get aired so as not to be categorized as the “truth that dare not speak its name.”

Seven, nobody spoke disrespectful, loud, or bellicose words against Christ that day; nobody blasphemed God and herein we see Daniel 7:7-27 as supposedly the Ascension to be a false alternative by all honest standards of evaluation.

Eight, no one tried to seize the kingdom of God ten days before Pentecost and Luke never represents that that was the case at all.

Nine, one hundred thousand people did not stand before God and only later, in the sixth decade, did John see any such number standing in preparation for the awful judgment that was being prepared to overcome the Jewish world.

Jesus did not come in his Father’s glory; he was not attended by his angels, and he did not reward every man according to their works a full thirty-seven years before their intentions against his will were translated into actions that could be evaluated and condemned, therefore, the revelation passages in Matthew, Daniel, Psalms and the Book of Revelation do not refer to a year, month, and day in 3794 but to tense, anomalous, and catastrophic events which happened between 8 Marcheshvan 3827 and 9 Av 3831.

Conclusion

To conclude this study I want to say that we don’t want to fight fire with fire and we are not out to belittle or badmouth anyone, even if we disagree.  By all means, we want to convey dignity and respect to Christian officials—and all Christians and all other people groups.  We feel this way on the basis that they are made in the image of God and he loves mankind; there is an innate dignity where everyone has a right to think, reason, and make choices.   

However, we cannot and will not abide by or be subject to interpretive pronouncements that are made that have no logic or proof, or dictates that confuse, deflect, and twist facts.  To say Matthew 16:27-27, Daniel 7:7-27, and Revelation 5:1-14 refers to an event that happened at Bethany, Judæa on a Friday ten days before the day of Pentecost in 3794 is a blatant lie.  Frost may refuse to dot every i or cross every t, but we believe matters like this are much too important to be treated like that.

Jesus did not come in his glory, he left as our risen Lord; nothing in the entirety of Daniel 7:7-27 was fulfilled that Friday, NOT ONE THING!   Jesus departed in a cloud, Luke does not tell us whether or not angels escorted him back to the throne of God, he only tells us that two angels informed the Apostles that Jesus would return as they saw him leave (in a cloud).  But Jesus, we observed by our direct scrutiny and investigation both of what was described in Daniel 7:7-27, Revelation 5:7, and the Ascension itself, certainly DID NOT SHOW UP with the Father’s glory, with his angels; to reward every man according to his works on 26 Iyar 3794, and any man who says it makes no difference whether he did those things or not is directly DENYING empirical evidence.¹⁴

Numbers one through nine walks you through the implications of this whole discussion and attempts to bring home the ramifications of what we are dealing with: the fourth kingdom’s attempt to obtain a violent possession of the kingdom of God; worship of Jesus by the Gentiles had not begun and was still a few years away, a war and persecution of the remnant against the remnant was more than thirty years away; between the resurrection of our Lord and the day of Pentecost nobody was hurt, the Apostles were not rewarded ten days before Pentecost, but at the resurrection of the prophets and saints, nobody attempted to change times and laws ahead of the Jewish war, nobody spoke bellicose and blasphemous words against God that early on; none tried to seize the kingdom of God and an assize of one hundred thousand heavenly attendants did not stand ready to dispense judgment on Jerusalem, Judæa or the Second Jewish Commonwealth, but they prepared to do so on the eve of the Destruction in 3824.

 

Endnotes

¹ Dr. Sam Frost, Review of Bamboozled Believers, Part 1?, 2022.  The Full Preterist paradigm is skewered with so many conventional presuppositions and we take note of this in several essays on this site, including Litotes in Bible Prophecy and the Challenge of Embarrassing Full Preterist Claims, and Second Century Israel: Should Christians Agree on Prophetic History? (Fifth Revised Edition). 

² Make no mistake about it: some Christians—leadership and laypersons alike—believe any absolute Realized Eschatology is a heresy reaching to the level of a religious crime, even blasphemy.  And there are others who know it is true but because they fear what others may think of them or the consequences that might happen believe in it incognito.

³ Note where this is happening in the New Testament (Revelation 13:5-6).  If the traditional Christian belief was correct this would mean that Revelation 13:1-18 was fulfilled in the year 3794 and 26 Iyar ten days before Pentecost which was on 6 Sivan 3794, but is that right or wrong?

⁴ This vision of the Son of man (Revelation 1:12-15) was shown to John in the 6^th decade of the first century at Patmos but not at Bethany in the 3^rd decade.

⁵ As in Daniel 7, so in Revelation 5:11 the number of saints was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, but it must be remembered that in the very next chapter, the judgments against the Second Jewish Commonwealth will commence and we, therefore, have every reason to think conflating Revelation chapters 4 and 5 thirty-odd years backward down to events which happened 10 days before Pentecost in 3794 is extremely tendentious, questionable, and unlikely.

⁶ According to Frost, some have decided that the events in Revelation  5 match the events of Daniel 7, but that is not a problem, what is problematic is averting that Daniel 7 and Revelation 5 can be jack-knifed back, shoe-horned into or conflated to 26 Iyar 3794—THAT is the single issue that destroys the timeline and combines events which are obviously separated on a distinct timeline.

⁷ Where can it be shown and how can it be demonstrated that such monumental transactions as these happened on Friday 26 Iyar 3794 when, in fact, the imbroglio closely resembles the crisis, circumstances, and vicissitudes that are vividly spelled out in the book of Revelation between chapters 13 and 19?

⁸ Revelation 11:15 and Revelation 12:10 represent Jesus obtaining the kingdom at the seventh trumpet in the middle of the crisis of the Jewish sedition, not thirty-three years earlier before such a bizarre war as that was ever seemed to be foreseeable.

⁹ The sea beast made war with the saints, Revelation 11:7, 13:7, 15:1-4, and 20:4).

¹⁰ This edict is reiterated in Revelation 11:15 which, as we have seen, is at least 30 years after our Lord’s ministry in Judæa.  The Book of Revelation represents the Jewish Christians obtaining the kingdom of God within a window of a forty-two-month war anomaly - Revelation 11:15, 12:10—as did Daniel 7:25.

¹¹ Loud and blasphemous words come from the ten-horned beast come to fruition near the end of John’s lifetime, not in 3794 when he was still a young man (Daniel 7:8, 20, 25 cf. Revelation 13:1-7; 17:1-3, 17:7-17). 

¹² The time allotted for the beast to do his evil work out to be three years and six months, i.e., equal in both texts (Daniel 7:25 cf. Revelation 11:1-2, 7 and 13:1-7, 16:8-21, and 20:4).

¹³ In Revelation 16, after the sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the Euphrates river, evil spirits gathered for the battle of the great day of God Almighty, in verse 15 of that chapter Jesus himself declared,

“Behold, I come as a thief, Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.  And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, ‘IT IS DONE.’”

If you follow what happens in verses 18 and 19, 20, and 21, in verse 21 you will see that Great Babylon begins to be showered with a great hail out of heaven where it says each stone was the weight of a talent (one hundred pounds, cf. Wars of the Jews 5.6.3:269-274).  This, indeed, happened to Jerusalem and Jerusalem alone when the Tenth Legion started bombarding the doomed city, just three days before Passover in A.D. 70., which would be Tuesday evening and Wednesday, 11 and 12 Nisan of the Jewish year 3831, which is about thirty-six years and eleven months after that Ascension where it is alleged that Christ came in fulfillment of Matthew 16:27-28.

¹⁴ While it is true that our Lord used the word ἔρχεσθαι in reference to his coming in Matthew 16:27, that word alone is not enough to establish that the context of what he meant in these two verses was satisfied thirty-seven years before the Destruction of Jerusalem or during the Destruction of Jerusalem, as the graphic and turbulent events of Daniel 7:7-27 and Revelation 6:1 through 19:4 very strongly suggest. 

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