Was Melchizedek a preincarnate appearance of Jesus Christ?

FERGUSON: All of us on the panel believe that there is a biblical relationship established between Christ and Melchizedek. I think most of us believe that Melchizedek was just an ordinary king of Salem or king of peace. He was a human being like we might say about other individuals in Scripture who lead us to Jesus Christ but are not pre-incarnate manifestations of Christ.

KRUGER: Let me give some context that might be helpful here. The person asking the question knows, but the audience may not, that there is a long-standing debate among theologians and scholars about how to interpret Hebrews 7, which says that Melchizedek had neither father nor mother. Is that a literal reference to the fact that he was not human and, therefore, some sort of early, pre-incarnate vision of Christ? Or was Melchizedek a real human being? My view is that he was a real human being. The language of having neither father nor mother is not speaking to the fact that he just popped into the world out of nowhere but that he was not shown to have any genealogy in Scripture. Therefore, Melchizedek has an eternal sense that makes him a better type of Christ than others.