Mark 9:1

1 And He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.”

Also found in Matthew 16:28 and Luke 9:27.

This verse should be included at the end of chapter 8.

There are various interpretation of this verse. This is what I wrote in my study on Matthew 16:28.

This verse is not saying that the kingdom would come while members of the Lord’s audience were still alive. It is saying that some of the disciples would see the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8), when Jesus appeared in His majesty. This was a taste of what it will be like at His second coming when He returns in glory. Peter refers to this event in his second epistle.

2 Peter 1:16-19 —  For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

But this is what it says in the November 2011 Berean Searchlight:

In Matthew 16:28, the Lord said that “there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in His kingdom.” We know it is commonly taught that this prophecy was fulfilled six days later when the Lord was transfigured before James, Peter and John (Matthew 17:1-5), who became “eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Peter 1:16-18). However, we feel that seeing the Lord’s majesty is not the same as seeing “the Son of man coming in His kingdom.” Indeed, Luke’s version of our Lord’s words have Him saying that “there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom” (Luke 9:27). If a prediction of seeing the king dom can be satisfied with a vision of the kingdom, how do we know that those who are born again will see more than just a vision of the kingdom (John 3:3)?

We feel it is more natural to believe that the Lord was saying that some who were standing there would live to see the actual kingdom of heaven established on earth. Remember, most if not all of the disciples, and certainly all of the apostles, were alive six days later for the transfiguration, and the Lord had said that only “some” would live to see the kingdom.

Later, after speaking of events that will transpire during the Great Tribulation, the Lord asserted that “this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (Matthew 24:34). We know it is commonly taught that the Greek word translated generation here should be translated something similar to race, making this a prediction that the Hebrew race would not die out, but would rather remain in existence unto the Tribulation. Here we have to agree with preterists, who label this interpretation as “a reach” and “a stretch.”

We believe this construal, and all other attempts to explain away our Lord’s plain statements to this effect, originated with well-meaning Bible teachers who did not understand that the present dispensation of grace interrupted the fulfillment of our Lord’s plain prophecies. Had the dispensation of grace not interrupted the prophetic program, that generation would have lived to see the Tribulation, and the subsequent establishment of the kingdom of heaven.

But in another volume of the Searchlight, it interprets the verse the way I did in Matthew. So …

Whichever interpretation is correct, the verse needs to be understood in its dispensational context. The Lord was not referring to the coming of the Church, because makes it clear that that truth was not revealed until he revealed it (Colossians 1:24-27).