In John 21:21-23, did Jesus predict that John would live until the rapture of the Church?
"Peter
seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and
what shall this man do? Jesus saith
unto him, If I will that he tarry
till I come, what is that to thee?
Follow thou me. Then went this
saying abroad among the brethren,
that that disciple should not die:
yet Jesus said not unto him, He
shall not die; but, If I will that
he tarry till I come, what is that
to thee? This is the disciple which
testifieth of these things, and
wrote these things: and we know that
his testimony is true" (John
21.21-23).
Jesus
did not predict that John would live
until He returned. John has not been
living in seclusion for the last
1,980 years. Jesus used an
exaggerated statement to get Peter
to stop worrying about John and
follow: Him. The phrase "follow thou
me" is a command, not a suggestion
and Peter did not get it.
Some create
wild theories based on this
statement, but they are just that –
wild theories. In the movie "Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade," it
depicted something similar to this
idea. Three knights found the holy
grail -- the cup Jesus drank from at
the Last Supper
- - and one of them lived for
hundreds of years in a cave. It is
Hollywood hyperbole.
Others
claim John lived unto the Second
Advent because he saw it in a
vision. This is true that he saw a
vision of the Second Advent, but he
did not (will not) actually live to
see it.
The point
is that every believer is to focus
solely on Jesus and not worry about
how other believers are serving
their Lord.