The following is something I found online in a FB discussion group I’ve continued to read, but am not allowed to respond or comment. The post began with a passage of scripture:
John 20:30-31 NKJV
30And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
Author comment:
“The Apostle John lived until AD99. He was there to witness all the events Jesus told him about, including the return of Christ.”
John 21:20-24 NKJV
20Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” 21Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?” 22Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.” 23this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?” 24This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true.
Author Comment:
“Now you can make these verses say what you want them to say, or you can believe what they say. What they say is John lived to witness the return of Christ, and we know his testimony is true.”
Now that’s a pretty strong statement, but is it true? Before we tackle the veracity issue, let me say that the original post was made by someone (who is not alone) dedicated to fiercely claim/adamantly assert that Jesus’ return to earth has already taken place. I guess she could be called a ‘partial’ preterist, because ‘full’ preterists believe Christ returned in 70 A.D., when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans.
To restate the claim, we are told that since John lived until @ 99A.D., and Jesus said “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?”, John witnessed Jesus’ return, the return of Jesus is in the past! The words of Jesus to Peter, are proof positive, we are told!
Well, is it true? Sadly (for the lady who made the claim), It’s not true, and a single term that Jesus used in in his reply to Peter, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?”
Just to make sure that the hypothetical “IF” was actually in the text, I consulted BibleHub, since I could examine all English translations at a glance. The term “If” appears in forty-five of the forty-six translations listed.
Then, to make sure I wasn’t in error about “if” being a conditional, or hypothetical term, I consulted two excellent Greek concorddances, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and Thayer’s Greek Lexicon for the definition of “if”.
Strongs, G1437 ἐάν, ean, eh-an’
From G1487 and G302; a conditional particle; in case that, provided, etc.; often used in connection with other particles to denote indefiniteness or uncertainty: – before, but, except, (and) if, (if) so, (what-, whither-) soever, though, when (-soever), whether (or), to whom, [who-] so (-ever). See G3361.
Total KJV occurrences: 297
Thayer Definition:
1) if, in case
Part of Speech: conjunction
A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: from G1487 and G302.
It’s that simple. Jesus simply asked Peter, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?” Period. End of story. In fact, Jesus was telling Peter, who had asked a question about Jesus’ betrayer, basically told him “That’s none of your business, Pete!”
The author of the original post then quoted more scripture that had little to do with Jesus’ return, but why so many don’t believe that Jesus returned in the 1st century, why they just couldn’t see the truth! She actually said that she had been struggling lately about “Why some people can see things and some do not.” . . . “Some just do not believe that Jesus did all He said He would do.”
She had a lot more to say that I’ll not repeat here because it’s really not relevant for this post. I’ll add that I really wanted to respond to her actual post, but alas, I’m banned. But I can message her personally and send her the link to my post here at The Battle Cry.
I am greatly saddened that those that hold to the belief that that Jesus has already returned (sometime in the 1st century) will not even consider that His return might still be in the future. It’s quite similar to those who believe the church didn’t start until sometime in the middle of or late in the book of Acts and that Paul preached a completely different gospel than Jesus and the Apostles.
So there’s my attempt at thinking something through again and writing it down.
The Battle Cry 