[Ryter] Jesus never predicted that His return would take place in the first century.

Not true:

Jesus instructed his apostles to hurry because the time for preaching before his return was relatively short:

…whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes. (Matt. 10:23, NASB throughout unless otherwise noted.)

This emphatic statement leaves no room for an enormous delay. It would certainly not take thousands of years to reach all the cities of Israel. In fact, those cities were destroyed by a.d. 70. So Christ’s coming had to be fulfilled by that time.

Jesus clearly understood the general timing of his return. He guaranteed that it would occur within the lifetimes of his contemporaries:

²⁷“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.

²⁸“Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” (Matt. 16:27f)

Note: The NASB (which incorporates boldface verse numbers to denote new paragraphs) inserts a paragraph break at verse 28. However, the Nestle-Aland 27th Edition of The Greek New Testament inserts the break after verse 28.

Responding to questions from Peter, James, John, and Andrew regarding signs that would precede the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem (Mark 13:3; Matt. 24:3), Jesus declared that the entire Olivet Prophecy would be fulfilled before his generation had passed:

³³…when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. ³⁴“Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Matt. 24:33f)

The very people to whom Jesus was speaking would see “all these things take place.” The Temple was destroyed in a.d. 70. The “things” to be fulfilled within their generation included the preaching of the gospel to “all the nations” (v. 14), “the abomination of desolation” (v. 15), “the Son of Man coming on the clouds” (v. 30) and the gathering of the “elect” (v. 31).

Luke’s account of the Olivet Discourse reveals that all Old Testament prophecy was to be fulfilled about the time of Jerusalem’s destruction. The Resurrection, Rapture and arrival of the Kingdom of God were predicted to coincide with that catastrophe:

…these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. (Luke 21:22); …when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. (v. 28); …when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near. (v. 31)

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:1) promised the persecuted first-century Christians that the fulfillment of the events described therein was “near”:

…the time is near (1:3); Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. (22:10)

[Ryter] Many of his followers ASSUMED He would return in the first century...after all, how does does [sic] it take to go home and ask your Dad if you can bring a bunch of people home with you?

Actually, all his followers assumed that he would return in the first century. All the New Testament authors, including the apostles, believed they were living in the “last days” and would soon be rescued from that “evil age.” They all taught that Christ’s predictions would be fulfilled during their lifetimes:

¹God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, ²in these last days has spoken to us in His Son… (Heb. 1:1f)

…now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. (Heb. 9:26)

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you (1Pet. 1:20)

Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. (1Cor. 10:11)

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. (Jas. 5:1); It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! (v. 3b)

[Jesus Christ] gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age (Gal. 1:4)

…wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. (1Thess. 1:10)

Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. (1John 2:18)

¹¹…it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep… ¹²The night is almost gone, and the day is near. (Rom. 13:11f)

Do not seek a wife. (1Cor. 7:27b); ²⁹…this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none; ³⁰…those who buy, as though they did not possess; ³¹…for the form of this world is passing away. (vv. 29-31)

We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. (1Thess. 4:15, NLT); …together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. (v. 17, NLT)

…we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed (1Cor. 15:51b)

…encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. (Heb. 10:25)

The end of all things is near (1Pet. 4:7)

Regarding the signs leading up to his Second Coming, Jesus said the following to his disciples:

…when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. (Matt. 24:33)

Later in the first century, James wrote this:

⁸…the coming of the Lord is near. ⁹…behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. (Jas. 5:8b, 9b)

Of course they assumed that Jesus would return in the first century; that’s exactly what he told them to expect.

[Ryter] There was an assumption on the part of Christianity, since they have been taught that His return is “imminent.”

They have been taught that his return was imminent because that’s what the New Testament teaches. The problem is that they believe it is still imminent today. The word imminent has been distorted to mean that Christ could come at anytime; however, an enormous amount of time might elapse before he does. That is not the meaning of the word imminent.

Definition: imminent

Function: adjective
• ready to take place; especially : hanging threateningly over one’s head <was in imminent danger of being run over>
Source: Merriam-Webster OnLine

No room here for 2,000 years to elapse.

[Ryter] But nowhere in prophecy can you see anything that can only be construed that way.

Not true. See the list of Scriptures above.

[Ryter] Nor did Christ ever say, “I will return immediately.”

I never said that he did. The time frame is within Christ's generation.

Keep in mind, the Revelation of Jesus Christ (which most people mistakingly [sic] believe is the Revelation of John the Beloved) was written in 90 AD.

Evidently, Ryter is unaware that numerous books have been published making a strong case for a mid-sixties date. The evidence for the nineties is not only weak, it is virtually non-existent.

[Fenemore] Furthermore, Christ said that the Holy Spirit would guide the apostles into “all the truth” and show them “what is to come” (John 16:13). So whatever the apostles said was “to come” must have been inspired by the Holy Spirit.

[Ryter] You are linking two diverse thoughts into one. Christ said the Spirit of Truth would come (on the Day of Pentecost). He further said the Holy Spirit would GUIDE the Apostles to the truthl [sic] and that the Holy Spirit would reveal things prophetically that would later come to past. Then He said that everything the Holy Spirit would do would glorify Christ.

What Ryter is trying to prove here escapes me. It sounds like he’s agreeing with me.

[Ryter] Then you say, because the Holy Spirit would instruct them, that everything the Apostles said would happen, would happen. This has a sprinkling of Catholic theology about it: whatever you bind on Warth [sic] will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth will be loosed in Heaven. For your thought to have instructional merit, you would have to believe that each of the Apostles were given perfection. They weren’t. The Apostles, as Paul laborously [sic] pointed out, like everyone else, sinned daily and had to seek forgiveness daily.

Where in Deut. 18:20-22 is there an allowance for the forgiveness of false prophets?

²⁰‘…the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak…that prophet shall die.’

²¹“You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’

²²“When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.” (Deut. 18:20-22)

²⁴This is what the Lord says…“I am the Lord… ²⁵I expose the false prophets as liars…I cause the wise to give bad advice, thus proving them to be fools. ²⁶But I carry out the predictions of my prophets!” (Isa. 44:24-26, NLT)

All first-century Jews were duty bound to judge Jesus and the apostles by this test. In fact, modern Jews still use it and consider Jesus to be a false prophet because of his supposed failed predictions. See the link Jews Reject Christian Futurism.

[Ryter] The Apostles, who “appointed” Barnabus [sic] as Judas’ replacement, and apponted [sic] one or two other Apostles assumed their actions were godly, or God-inspried [sic]. They weren’t. Since the number of Apostles has a prophetic significance, there could only be 12. When Judas sold out Christ, he was removed from that equation. Christ, the only “person” who could appoint an Apostle, picked Saul of Tarsus as Judas’ replacement. Yet, the other Apostles failed to see what they did was wrong.

Assuming Ryter's assessment regarding these ordinations is correct, there is nothing here that cancels the death penalty for false prophets.

[Ryter] There was no prophesied Second Coming that failed to occur when it was supposed to.

Not true. See the list of Scriptures above.

[Ryter] Again, there is NO scripture anywhere in the Bible in which Christ said, or implied, He was returning in the first century.

Not true. See the list of Scriptures above.

[Fenemore] I recommend the short article Were the Apostles False Prophets? found at http://www.preterism.info.

[Ryter] No. Supply me with the chapter and verse where Christ said He was coming back in the first century.

Here’s where Ryter refused to read the article. Had he read it, he would have found plenty of “chapter and verse” to consider.

[Ryter] Your thesis fails in your introduction, which reads: Preterism is the belief that all Bible prophecies, including those concerned with the Second Coming of Jesus, the Resurrection of the Dead, the Rapture and the Judgment came to complete fulfillment in a.d. 70 at the destruction of Jerusalem just as Jesus predicted they would: since you are ending everything before the New Testament was even completed.

Again, Ryter appears to be unaware of the fact that many authors have demonstrated that the entire New Testament was probably written before a.d. 70. For instance, Redating the New Testament by John A. T. Robinson.

[Ryter] Under the New Covenant, being judged a false prophet means burning in Hell.

Obviously then, it is a very serious matter to be in the sandals of a false prophet which is exactly the position all futurist systems put Jesus into.

I/m [sic] curious. Where did you get your theological and eschatological training?

Questioning my credentials instead of seriously dealing with the questions at hand is an unprofessional diversionary tactic.

[Fenemore] Futurism is the belief that the Second Coming will take place in our future. It is founded on the premise that the first-century fulfillment predicted by Jesus, his apostles, the Holy Spirit and Scripture failed to occur.

[Ryter] Now you’re making stuff up.

I did not make up any of the Scriptures in the extensive lists above.

Many thanks to Jon Christian Ryter for his response to my friendly challenge.