Since I only just managed to get the bulk of this post complete before my 14-year old computer stopped working-and was sent to the tip I’m not quite sure if there will be a next instalment of what was potentially going to be another series. So, in the meantime this first offering will have to suffice.

“And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.” Mark 9:1 KJV

Folks, here we are in the first verse of the Book of Mark, chapter 9, and what do we see? Well first off, we see that He said unto them.

Which, prey tell are the ‘them’ that He is talking to?

“And he said unto them…” (Underline mine)

Hmm?

Well, with a little attention to the previous chapter, we can readily establish that Christ is talking to His disciples and the people He called in the towns of Caesarea Philippi; a conversation that began at the end of the Book of Mark, chapter 8:

“And Christ went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets. And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ. And he charged them that they should tell no man of him. And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan (adversary) for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” Mark 8:27-38 KJV (strikethrough and brackets mine)

So, we can see in this epic tongue lashing Christ gives His disciples that they are clearly provided with a stiff lesson on differentiating between those things that are of men and those that are of God. Yet, what do we find? We find that the verse which, kicks off the Book of Mark, chapter 9, is a thing of men as it really belongs in chapter 8, at the end of the verses we have just read  because it is the final verse of that teaching and conversation!

So we have here yet another example of men doctoring up the word of God to suit their own ends! (Remember this if you ever go in to get your doctorate – ha ha)

Let’s therefore put the entire teaching of Christ together the way it should be:

“And Christ went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets. And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ. And he charged them that they should tell no man of him. And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan (adversary) for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.” Mark 8:27-39 HBTS corrected (strikethrough and brackets mine)

Folks, here is the following verse in the Book of Mark, chapter 9:

“And after six days Christ taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.” Mark 9:2 KJV (strikethrough mine) 

Am I missing something? Would not this be the natural first verse of chapter 9? Yes, of course it would. Folks, we have to remember chapter and verse were late additions to the scriptures not written in by the various prophets and writers themselves. (As an aside, with everything we have uncovered over the years why am I still using the KJV? To be fair, I’m pretty sure just about every other version of ‘the Bible’ makes the same obvious mistake which, is all the more proof that either nobody is paying any real attention at all, or the industry just cranks out robotic rubbish for lost sheep – bah bah bah.)

At any rate, the ongoing and understood corruptions of scripture aside, let’s get back to the main menu:

“…That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.”

Folks, correct me if I am wrong but did not Messiah come 2000-odd years ago? So, who was He speaking to and when? Oh yes, that’s right, He was speaking back then to people back then 2000-odd years ago. So, help me understand something. Was Christ a bit weary from all His journeying? Was He a little tipsy after a few too many ales at the local pub? Was He feeling a bit off and not in His right mind? Had He got food poisoning? Had He eaten wild hallucinogenic mushrooms? Not having any record of such things and knowing that He is The Truth, I can’t imagine any of those possibilities being remotely applicable. Therefore, I deduce that He was in fact in His right mind and knew exactly what He was saying. Moreover, His words are The Truth and if they are not then we might as well just go home forever consigned to a hopeless fruitless existence where the possibility of truth is non-existent.

So, what was He saying? He was saying that there were people right then and there 2000-odd years ago, possibly even with him at that very moment, which He maybe even looked straight in the eye whilst speaking, that would not die until…

(Drum roll please!)

….they had seen the kingdom of God come with power!

Folks, look outside your windows, search your mind and maybe have a wonder on the minds of others and what just might be bouncing around within. Are there people alive today, which, truly believe that people alive 2000 years ago are still alive with us now; that among us today are ancient 2000-year old followers of Christ? Really? Do people really believe that? What are these 2000-year old people doing? Where are they hiding? Not even Noah lived that long!

Well, it is simply not the case. There are no 2000-year old people among us today, hiding out in various costume disguises, eternally ageless, or lurking in the shadows waiting for the final prophesied events to unfold. There are no science fiction, shape-shifting time-travellers among us either. This verse, so oddly almost hidden as a one-off stand-alone at the beginning of Mark 9 is yet another emphatic statement by Christ that all was done just as He said it would be 2000-odd years ago and that He is not coming back anytime soon on clouds in great power and glory because that has already happened.

So, is the victory of Christ total, finished and complete? Well, the obvious answer to that question is ‘Yes!’.

Of course it is. This is why the last thing He said before He gave up the ghost was:

“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” John 19:30 KJV

He was not only referring to the work His Father had sent Him to complete and the end of the Old Covenant, but also His complete and total victory. The idea that Christ is somehow in a state of suspended animation with things not yet finished is non-scriptural and illogical. So, we find then that it is the faith of millions of so-called ‘christians’ (heirs of the anointed), world over that is in a state of suspended animation; incomplete and unfinished, non-scriptural and illogical; held in suspended delusion by the very wolves in sheep’s clothing we were all warned about. It is this very lack of faith in the complete and total victory of Christ that has rendered so many sleepwalking impotent ‘christians’ ready victims for well placed, shining, new and ‘modern’ ideas. Ideas you will hopefully recall from the tongue lashing Christ gave to His disciples at the finish of Mark chapter 8, that emerge to suit the minds of men!

Revelation comes to a close with the promise, “Yes, I am coming soon.”  C.S. Lewis, one of the greatest Christian apologists of the 20^th century, felt that Jesus’ failure to return during the first century was Christianity’s Achilles’ heel.¹  In Matthew 24, Mark 14:61-62, John 21:22-23 and several other places in the New Testament, Jesus promised to return in that generation.  Despite Jesus’ “failure to appear,” many Christians still await His return their hope weakened by these mysterious verses.  If Jesus had not returned when He said He would, can anything else He said be trusted?  

Thanks to faithless wretches like C.S. Lewis ‘christians’ have been rendered weak, forever apologising purveyors of what now looks like superstition – and is actually superstition – a whole train wreck of superstitious garbage dressed up as ‘official’ religion! All of it based upon a pure lack of faith that Christ actually did what He said He would – talk about suiting the minds of men! As I stated before if He did not do what He said He would then we might as well all go home to a hopeless untruthful future – and so many have. 

If you would but care to peruse the Internet today on the topics of prophecy and the return of Christ you will see countless millions all caught up in ‘End Times’ mania and yes indeed it is the end; the end of any real faith in Christ at all.

“Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.” Mark 9:50 KJV