You are right that the Lord's promise that "the Son of Man is about to come with his angels in the glory of the Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done" was referring to an event that was to take place not immediately after, but after some who then heard him had died, but while others who heard him them were still alive (Mat. 16:27-28). Then, those who survived the Day of the Lord, would "see the kingdom of God after it has come with power" (Mark 9:1). You are right, sir, that this was referring to, and was fulfilled in 70 A.D. when the Lord came in judgment upon Jerusalem and destroyed the country, city and temple. So, if the Lord came in judgment, and the Kingdom of God came in power in 70 A.D., this is "your coming and of the end of the age" of Mat. 24:3, which, again, was to take place during that generation that heard the warning (Mat. 24:34). At that time, and in that event, not only did the Lord come, we also have everything else: 1. The old heaven and earth pass away, and the sun and moon stop giving their light, and the stars fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies (powers) were shaken and removed (Mat. 24:29-30) 2. The harvest gathering together took place, at the blast of the Great Trumpet (Mat. 24:31). But this is also the harvest at the end of the age (Mat. 13:39), when the wicked are uprooted and gathered into bundles to be burned (Mat. 13:40-42), and the resurrection of the just and the unjust of Dan. 12 when "the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Mat. 13:43). Although you say you aren't a full preterist, you gave away the farm here. At the fall of Jerusalem prophecy was fulfilled, as the Lord said "or these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written" (Luke 21:22). What prophecies? ALL of them! By your own admission: 1. The coming of the Kingdom in power and judgement of Dan. 7, when the Son of Man comes on the cloud or with the cloud or as the cloud, per Mat. 24; Mat. 16:27-28; Mark 8:38-9:1. Which is also the coming of the Lord to his temple suddenly of Mal. 3 after John the Baptist has gone before him. Which is also the coming of the Lord to the temple, putting the city in uproar, when the Lord renders recompense to his enemies of Is. 66:6 in connection with the destruction of the old heaven and earth and the arrival of the new heavens and the new earth. 2. The harvest gatherings of the weeds to be burned and the wheat into the barn at the end of the age when the Great Trumpet is blasted, in fulfillment of Is. 27. Again, you have given away the farm! Is. 27 has the new creation as the new vineyard, being the resurrected or renewed or redeemed people of God (Is. 27:2-3), being the vine of Jacob that would fill the world with fruit (Is. 27:6), which happened in the First Century according to Paul (Col. 1:6). Is. 27 also has the destruction of the enemies of God, as the dragon, as Leviathan, being put to death by YHWH himself and his terrible sword. This is the same dragon character as in the book of Revelation, the Satan (Enemy or Adversary) that was to be destroyed in the First Century (Rom. 16:20; Rev. 12:12). That dragon was the wayward people of God, who would be put to death by him, when the old heaven and earth passed away and was replaced by the new heavens and the new earth in Is. 65-66. Those people and that nation were to miss out on the wedding feast and would be put to death instead (Is. 65:13-15; Mat. 8:10-12; 22:1-14). The judgement at the sounding of the great trumpet of Is. 27 and Mat 24 is the destruction of the Second Temple, when "not one stone would be left on another" and when "he makes all the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces" (Is. 27:9) when the fortified city too would be desolated (Is. 27:10). Why would it be desolated? Why would Jerusalem's house be left to her desolate? Because the blood of the martyrs she had killed would be exposed and avenged (Is. 26:21), and to atone for Jacob's guilt (Is. 27:9), for "on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation." (Mat. 23:35-36). It would be then that the snakes, the brood of vipers, would be destroyed and sent to hell (Mat. 23:33). That is what the Lord taught about prophecy and how and when it would be fulfilled. He not only said, he promised and he said "truly I say unto you" that the prophecies he quoted would be required and fulfilled on those people in that generation, at that place, with that effect and result. If we want a true hope, we should recognise that that was the "Hope of Israel" of Paul (Acts. 28:20), the hope of the resurrection of Israel as a nation, all 12 tribes (Acts. 26:6-8). That resurrection of Israel would be "life from the dead" (Rom. 11:15). That resurrection would be when all that are in their graves would hear the voice of the son of God and come out (John 5:25). Dead Israel would come to life, in the gospel. That is the resurrection of the Bible, of prophecy, e.g. Ez. 37. But that resurrection of Israel to life would not be alone, from Israel would also rise the unjust, the wicked and the enemies of the true people of God would also rise up, to persecute them, to rise up as false christs, to take power by means of rebellion. From the tombs would come a wicked man, a wicked ruler, an antichrist, a false christ, a man of sin, a son of perdition, who was working and restrained for a time, but who would then be revealed, and would rise publically to take over the temple and seat himself there (2 Thes. 2). That antichrist character, that false christ, that rebel, was also predicted in the Old Testament prophecy, the second little horn of the Fourth Beast, Israel (Dan. 7). That little horn would rise to persecute the saints for a short time, a little while, 42 months, time, times and half a time, half seven, after the 62 sevens finished (Dan. 9:24-27). By means of that rebel, an anointed one (a legitimate ruler of Second Temple Israel, a High Priest, a governor) would be cut off and have nothing. By means of that rebellion would come the time of the end, the appointed time of the end, the final seven of Old Covenant restored Second Temple Israel. At that appointed time would the rebel precipitate the war to the end, taking over the Second Temple until it was destroyed along with Jerusalem and the rebel government, and indeed restored Second Temple Israel herself. That is the biblical eschatological narrative. That is the program that ends with the Great Tribulation on Israel (Dan. 12:1) when both the righteous and the wicked fools awake from the dust to contend for the Hope of Israel. One hope is dashed, when "the power of the holy people has been completely shattered" (Dan. 12:7) after time, times and half a time of power. One hope is realised, when they receive eternal life, that is, the life of the age to come, the life of the gospel, the messianic age. Those are the ones, the evaneglists, who rise up to heaven and become stars that shine in the Kingdom of God at the end of the age.
The hope that you stated in your opening about victory over death is misplaced as well as mistimed. The life eternal is that one may never die (John 8:58; 11:26). Patently, this is not talking about physical death, nor about physical life. The gospel is not there to give us hope that we will physically never die, or that having physically died we will physically rise again. Even in the New Creation, in the New Heavens and the New Earth, there is still physical death. And birth and marriage, see Is. 65-66. And there is still sin (Is. 65:20) including murder (Rev. 21:8; 22:15). We are mortal beings, as individuals. We are born, get married, produce more mortal children, and then we die, we return to the dust, we decay, and we know nothing and have no hearing to hear anyone's prayers, and no power to answer them or to help the living. We leave behind only our shadow, our shade, a memory. But, to God we live on (Mat. 22:32), in his mind we never are forgotten. We join the great cloud of witnesses. Like Abel, we speak even though we are dead, but only by our past actions, our testimony, our witness to the living, our record in the hall of faith. In the Kingdom of God, and in the resurrection of the just, the dead ones rise and live, in a particular and appropriate sense. The dead who died under the Old Covenant world are not lost, were not lost, even though they all died without receiving the reward and the hope that they awaited. Their hope was the better resurrection. "And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect." (Heb. 11:39-40). The dead ones would be perfected only with the living in the gospel. And those living in the gospel would not be made perfect without the dead ones joining them. These dead ones were dead in Adam, and the dead ones in Adam, like those who had fallen asleep in Christ, would be made alive in the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:22). This doctrine is called the communion of the saints, and refers to the teaching that we, the living in Christ, are in communion with those who have fallen asleep in Christ, and those who slept/died in Adam. The resurrection is not the resurrection only of Christ and of the Church, it is the resurrection of Israel, it is the resurrection of the dead body of Adam. That church from 30-70 A.D. was not an island unto itself, being sown as a seed into the ground, as a spiritual body being sown alive, that would not die and that would rise the same spiritual body. No, that body was part of the body of Adam, the "lowly body", which needed to be changed, transformed (Phil 3:21). That body needed to be sown alive and then to die in the ground (1 Cor. 15:36), as a natural body, a perishable body, a body of dishonour, a mortal body, a weak body, of dust, that bears the image of the man of dust, Adam. And it had to change, to be changed, to be transformed, so that it would become a spiritual body, an imperishable body, a glorious body, an immortal body, bearing the image of Christ, the man of heaven, the life-giving spirit (1 Cor. 15:42-49). But how are the dead ones rising? with what body do they come (1 Cor. 15:35)? They come in the glorious spiritual body, all united in one body (Eph 4:4), the resurrection body of Christ. But what of their individual existence, nature and lives? What do they do? They do not marry and are not given in marriage because they are not living in the same manner as those who live in a physical and biological sense (Mat. 22:29-30). This is in contrast to those who are still biologically alive living in the new heavens and the new earth who marry, produce children and die (Is. 65:20-23). The resurrected dead ones cannot die anymore, and cannot marry anymore, and cannot produce children anymore (biological children, anyway!) This seems adequate to frame the nature and extent of their existence in the body of Christ after the resurrection, after they were raised to join the life of the immortal resurrection body. It does not suggest any capacity for consciousness or conversations, and more suggests vindication and reward while they rest and shine as stars in heaven, giving light to the land, and to the holy city. Obviously these biblical teachings are difficult for those who were sold a bill of goods that they would physically rise to new physical life in a new physical heaven and earth, and would enjoy conscious life of bliss forever. That bill of goods comes more from Plato and Greek superstitions and popular relation than it does from biblical teaching about our mortal frame and our life in the gospel.
You are right that the Lord's promise that "the Son of Man is about to come with his angels in the glory of the Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done" was referring to an event that was to take place not immediately after, but after some who then heard him had died, but while others who heard him them were still alive (Mat. 16:27-28). Then, those who survived the Day of the Lord, would "see the kingdom of God after it has come with power" (Mark 9:1). You are right, sir, that this was referring to, and was fulfilled in 70 A.D. when the Lord came in judgment upon Jerusalem and destroyed the country, city and temple.
So, if the Lord came in judgment, and the Kingdom of God came in power in 70 A.D., this is "your coming and of the end of the age" of Mat. 24:3, which, again, was to take place during that generation that heard the warning (Mat. 24:34). At that time, and in that event, not only did the Lord come, we also have everything else:
1. The old heaven and earth pass away, and the sun and moon stop giving their light, and the stars fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies (powers) were shaken and removed (Mat. 24:29-30)
2. The harvest gathering together took place, at the blast of the Great Trumpet (Mat. 24:31). But this is also the harvest at the end of the age (Mat. 13:39), when the wicked are uprooted and gathered into bundles to be burned (Mat. 13:40-42), and the resurrection of the just and the unjust of Dan. 12 when "the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Mat. 13:43).
Although you say you aren't a full preterist, you gave away the farm here. At the fall of Jerusalem prophecy was fulfilled, as the Lord said "or these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written" (Luke 21:22).
What prophecies? ALL of them! By your own admission:
1. The coming of the Kingdom in power and judgement of Dan. 7, when the Son of Man comes on the cloud or with the cloud or as the cloud, per Mat. 24; Mat. 16:27-28; Mark 8:38-9:1. Which is also the coming of the Lord to his temple suddenly of Mal. 3 after John the Baptist has gone before him. Which is also the coming of the Lord to the temple, putting the city in uproar, when the Lord renders recompense to his enemies of Is. 66:6 in connection with the destruction of the old heaven and earth and the arrival of the new heavens and the new earth.
2. The harvest gatherings of the weeds to be burned and the wheat into the barn at the end of the age when the Great Trumpet is blasted, in fulfillment of Is. 27.
Again, you have given away the farm! Is. 27 has the new creation as the new vineyard, being the resurrected or renewed or redeemed people of God (Is. 27:2-3), being the vine of Jacob that would fill the world with fruit (Is. 27:6), which happened in the First Century according to Paul (Col. 1:6). Is. 27 also has the destruction of the enemies of God, as the dragon, as Leviathan, being put to death by YHWH himself and his terrible sword. This is the same dragon character as in the book of Revelation, the Satan (Enemy or Adversary) that was to be destroyed in the First Century (Rom. 16:20; Rev. 12:12). That dragon was the wayward people of God, who would be put to death by him, when the old heaven and earth passed away and was replaced by the new heavens and the new earth in Is. 65-66. Those people and that nation were to miss out on the wedding feast and would be put to death instead (Is. 65:13-15; Mat. 8:10-12; 22:1-14).
The judgement at the sounding of the great trumpet of Is. 27 and Mat 24 is the destruction of the Second Temple, when "not one stone would be left on another" and when "he makes all the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces" (Is. 27:9) when the fortified city too would be desolated (Is. 27:10). Why would it be desolated? Why would Jerusalem's house be left to her desolate? Because the blood of the martyrs she had killed would be exposed and avenged (Is. 26:21), and to atone for Jacob's guilt (Is. 27:9), for "on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation." (Mat. 23:35-36). It would be then that the snakes, the brood of vipers, would be destroyed and sent to hell (Mat. 23:33).
That is what the Lord taught about prophecy and how and when it would be fulfilled. He not only said, he promised and he said "truly I say unto you" that the prophecies he quoted would be required and fulfilled on those people in that generation, at that place, with that effect and result. If we want a true hope, we should recognise that that was the "Hope of Israel" of Paul (Acts. 28:20), the hope of the resurrection of Israel as a nation, all 12 tribes (Acts. 26:6-8). That resurrection of Israel would be "life from the dead" (Rom. 11:15). That resurrection would be when all that are in their graves would hear the voice of the son of God and come out (John 5:25). Dead Israel would come to life, in the gospel. That is the resurrection of the Bible, of prophecy, e.g. Ez. 37. But that resurrection of Israel to life would not be alone, from Israel would also rise the unjust, the wicked and the enemies of the true people of God would also rise up, to persecute them, to rise up as false christs, to take power by means of rebellion. From the tombs would come a wicked man, a wicked ruler, an antichrist, a false christ, a man of sin, a son of perdition, who was working and restrained for a time, but who would then be revealed, and would rise publically to take over the temple and seat himself there (2 Thes. 2).
That antichrist character, that false christ, that rebel, was also predicted in the Old Testament prophecy, the second little horn of the Fourth Beast, Israel (Dan. 7). That little horn would rise to persecute the saints for a short time, a little while, 42 months, time, times and half a time, half seven, after the 62 sevens finished (Dan. 9:24-27). By means of that rebel, an anointed one (a legitimate ruler of Second Temple Israel, a High Priest, a governor) would be cut off and have nothing. By means of that rebellion would come the time of the end, the appointed time of the end, the final seven of Old Covenant restored Second Temple Israel. At that appointed time would the rebel precipitate the war to the end, taking over the Second Temple until it was destroyed along with Jerusalem and the rebel government, and indeed restored Second Temple Israel herself. That is the biblical eschatological narrative. That is the program that ends with the Great Tribulation on Israel (Dan. 12:1) when both the righteous and the wicked fools awake from the dust to contend for the Hope of Israel. One hope is dashed, when "the power of the holy people has been completely shattered" (Dan. 12:7) after time, times and half a time of power. One hope is realised, when they receive eternal life, that is, the life of the age to come, the life of the gospel, the messianic age. Those are the ones, the evaneglists, who rise up to heaven and become stars that shine in the Kingdom of God at the end of the age.
The hope that you stated in your opening about victory over death is misplaced as well as mistimed. The life eternal is that one may never die (John 8:58; 11:26). Patently, this is not talking about physical death, nor about physical life. The gospel is not there to give us hope that we will physically never die, or that having physically died we will physically rise again. Even in the New Creation, in the New Heavens and the New Earth, there is still physical death. And birth and marriage, see Is. 65-66. And there is still sin (Is. 65:20) including murder (Rev. 21:8; 22:15).
We are mortal beings, as individuals. We are born, get married, produce more mortal children, and then we die, we return to the dust, we decay, and we know nothing and have no hearing to hear anyone's prayers, and no power to answer them or to help the living. We leave behind only our shadow, our shade, a memory. But, to God we live on (Mat. 22:32), in his mind we never are forgotten. We join the great cloud of witnesses. Like Abel, we speak even though we are dead, but only by our past actions, our testimony, our witness to the living, our record in the hall of faith.
In the Kingdom of God, and in the resurrection of the just, the dead ones rise and live, in a particular and appropriate sense. The dead who died under the Old Covenant world are not lost, were not lost, even though they all died without receiving the reward and the hope that they awaited. Their hope was the better resurrection. "And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect." (Heb. 11:39-40). The dead ones would be perfected only with the living in the gospel. And those living in the gospel would not be made perfect without the dead ones joining them. These dead ones were dead in Adam, and the dead ones in Adam, like those who had fallen asleep in Christ, would be made alive in the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:22). This doctrine is called the communion of the saints, and refers to the teaching that we, the living in Christ, are in communion with those who have fallen asleep in Christ, and those who slept/died in Adam.
The resurrection is not the resurrection only of Christ and of the Church, it is the resurrection of Israel, it is the resurrection of the dead body of Adam. That church from 30-70 A.D. was not an island unto itself, being sown as a seed into the ground, as a spiritual body being sown alive, that would not die and that would rise the same spiritual body. No, that body was part of the body of Adam, the "lowly body", which needed to be changed, transformed (Phil 3:21). That body needed to be sown alive and then to die in the ground (1 Cor. 15:36), as a natural body, a perishable body, a body of dishonour, a mortal body, a weak body, of dust, that bears the image of the man of dust, Adam. And it had to change, to be changed, to be transformed, so that it would become a spiritual body, an imperishable body, a glorious body, an immortal body, bearing the image of Christ, the man of heaven, the life-giving spirit (1 Cor. 15:42-49).
But how are the dead ones rising? with what body do they come (1 Cor. 15:35)? They come in the glorious spiritual body, all united in one body (Eph 4:4), the resurrection body of Christ. But what of their individual existence, nature and lives? What do they do? They do not marry and are not given in marriage because they are not living in the same manner as those who live in a physical and biological sense (Mat. 22:29-30). This is in contrast to those who are still biologically alive living in the new heavens and the new earth who marry, produce children and die (Is. 65:20-23). The resurrected dead ones cannot die anymore, and cannot marry anymore, and cannot produce children anymore (biological children, anyway!) This seems adequate to frame the nature and extent of their existence in the body of Christ after the resurrection, after they were raised to join the life of the immortal resurrection body. It does not suggest any capacity for consciousness or conversations, and more suggests vindication and reward while they rest and shine as stars in heaven, giving light to the land, and to the holy city.
Obviously these biblical teachings are difficult for those who were sold a bill of goods that they would physically rise to new physical life in a new physical heaven and earth, and would enjoy conscious life of bliss forever. That bill of goods comes more from Plato and Greek superstitions and popular relation than it does from biblical teaching about our mortal frame and our life in the gospel.