Is the Apostle John Still Alive?

A video by Mitch Muller, “Is the Apostle/Disciple John STILL ALIVE?,” is making the rounds on Facebook. Muller begins by quoting John 21:20-23.

Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. He was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper to ask, “Lord, who is going to betray You?” When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you? You follow Me!” Because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. However, Jesus did not say that he would not die, but only, “If I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you?”

Muller then claims that John’s death is not recorded while the deaths of all the other apostles are. His source is most likely excerpts from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (originally titled Actes and Monuments) which was first published in 1563 and went through many editions and expansions. The accuracy of Foxe’s work has been called into question. Foxe does not offer a source for many of his claims, especially the earliest martyrs for which there are few original source documents.

Foxe wrote the following about the Apostle John:

The Apostle John, brother of James, is credited with founding the seven churches of Revelation: Smyrna, Pergamos, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, Thyatira, and Ephesus. It was from Ephesus, it is said, that he was arrested and sent to Rome where he was cast into a large vessel filled with boiling oil that did not harm him. As a result, he was released and banished by the Emperor Domitian to the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. After being released from Patmos he returned to Ephesus where he died about A.D. 98.

First, the story of John being “cast into a large vessel filled with boiling oil that did not harm him” is disputed by numerous historians. It’s like the story of Antipas who is mentioned in Revelation 2:13.

Simeon Metaphrastes, a tenth-century Christian who collected stories of martyrs, wrote that Antipas was executed by being sealed inside a hollow statue of a bull—made of brass—which had been heated until it was red hot and that Antipas called out prayers and thanksgiving from inside the bull. According to Metaphrastes, Antipas was martyred during Domitian’s reign (r. AD 81-96).

Bible commentator R.C.H. Lenski questioned the veracity of the attempted martyrdom of Antipas by noting that it is based on “a legend that appeared in the tenth century.”[1] See the book The Rapture and the Fig Tree Generation (chap. 3 and 4) where Frank Gumerlock and I deal with the Antipas story. The same is true about the story about the attempted martyrdom of John that’s pure legend.

The Rapture and the Fig Tree Generation

For decades Christians have been enticed with the belief that they would be taken to heaven before a coming tribulation period in an event called the “rapture.” Since the national reestablishment of Israel in 1948, countless books and pamphlets have been written defending the doctrine assuring readers that it could happen at any moment.

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Second, Foxe wrote, “[John] was the only apostle who escaped a violent death, and lived the longest of any, he being nearly 100 years of age at the time of his death.” Foxe said John died. Third, there are alternative theories and legends about John’s fate. One theory, associated with second-century bishop Papias of Hierapolis, claimed that John was killed by a group of Jewish men. There are other unprovable legends.

Muller then quotes Jesus from Luke 9:27.

“But I say to you truthfully, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

Notice that Jesus says, “some of those standing here.” If this verse is applied to John, then who are the other ones who were standing there? Are some of them still alive? Muller skips over this bump in the interpretive road by not checking out numerous commentators who offer more sound exegesis. I won’t spend a great deal of time dealing with Luke 9:27 since I cover the parallel accounts in Matthew 16:27-28 and Mark 8:38-91 in chapter 17 of my book Prophecy Wars: The Biblical Battle Over the End Times.

Prophecy Wars

There is a long history of skeptics turning to Bible prophecy to claim that Jesus was wrong about the timing of His coming at “the end of the age” (Matt. 24:3) and the signs associated with it. Noted atheist Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) is one of them and Bart Ehrman is a modern example. It’s obvious that neither Russell or Ehrman are aware of or are ignoring the mountain of scholarship that was available to them that showed that the prophecy given by Jesus was fulfilled in great detail just as He said it would be before the generation of His day passed away.

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I’ll come back to these verses when I discuss John 21:20-23 below since Jesus’ “coming” is mentioned in all these passages. Mullers argues that this “coming” is yet to come, the so-called “second Coming.” See my book Last Days Madness for a detailed study of what the NT means by Jesus’ coming. Muller then claims that Malachi 4:5 has not been fulfilled even though Jesus said of John the Baptist, “He is Elijah who is to come” (Matt 11:14). Muller then quotes Revelation 10:11.

And they said to me [John], “You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”

Since the events in Revelation were “shortly to take place” (1:1; 22:6) because “the time is near” (1:3; 22:10), that is, near to those in John’s day and was written before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, John most likely continued to preach a warning to the nations that the same judgment could befall them (cp., Acts 17:30-31). Kenneth Gentry writes:

John’s prophetic ministry is not over: he “must prophesy again” (palin), focusing not only on Israel’s judgment but that of the nations who are in collusion with her. He has been concentrating on the judgment of the harlotrous wife (Israel); he must also prophesy the judgment of her partner in adultery (Lev 20:10; Dt 22:24), Nero’s Rome, the empire of nations (see especially chs. 13 and 17, though note 11:7, 9).

John’s renewed commission must refer to prophetic judgment rather than gospel ministry (contra Osborne 405; Bauckham 1993a: 264-66). He is to prophesy “upon” (epi), that is, “against” the nations (Aune 573; NASB)…. John will soon mention Rome (Rev 13). In fact, the Roman beast is surprisingly anticipated in the next few verses when “the beast” (to therion) appears proleptically [by way of anticipation] and without explanation in 11:7, as if the readers already know of “the” beast.[2]

Muller then claims that John is one of the two witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11. There is a great debate about who the witnesses are. It’s pure speculation to dogmatically claim that John is one of them. It seems to me that when John wants to identify himself, he does that (1:9) I could easily claim that they are James, the brother of Jesus, and Peter who were the two witnesses. Traditionally, Clement of Alexandria relates that “James was thrown from the pinnacle of the Temple and was beaten to death with a club.” This puts him in Jerusalem. Hegesippus writes that “the Scribes and Pharisees placed James upon the pinnacle of the temple, and threw down the just man, and they began to stone him, for he was not killed by the fall. And one of them, who was a fuller, took the club with which he beat out clothes and struck the just man on the head.” In Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History we learn of an incident that led to the martyrdom of James the brother of Jesus. Citing Hegesippus, who wrote between AD 165 and 175, when James was called on by a group of Scribes and Pharisees to establish what he believed was the truth of the claimed Messiahship of Jesus, Hegesippus reports that James said, “Why do you ask me respecting Jesus the Son of Man? He is now sitting in the heavens, on the right hand of great Power, and is about to come on the clouds of heaven.”[3] This is a direct quotation from Matthew 16:27 where Jesus also uses “about to” (mellō) come.

Muller then appeals to Revelation 1:9, “I, John, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation….” As if this refers to a tribulation that has not taken place. (See my books Wars and Rumors of Wars and Prophecy Wars for a discussion of Matthew 24:21.) Muller futurizes what John wrote in what was a present reality for himself. The tribulation was real then.

What coming was Jesus referring to in Revelation 21? The same coming mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 10:23, 16:27-28, and 24:30. The fact that John did die is proof that what Jesus said about His coming was true. The “coming” Jesus referred to was His coming in judgment before that generation passed away. Jesus makes this clear in the Olivet Discourse where He issues a warning to that generation in Matthew 24:34 where Jesus limits the prophetic events to “those who are in Judea” (24:15-20). Similar “coming” language is used in Revelation 2:5, 16, 25, and 3:3, 11. None of these “comings” refer to a distant physical coming of Jesus. They are threatened local judgment comings. James told his readers that “the coming of the Lord is at hand,” that is, “near” to those who first received his letter (James 5:8). “Near” is defined as “right at the doors” (5:9; see Matt. 24:33).

It’s amazing to see the hermeneutical hoops futurists jump through to skirt the obvious.

Like Muller, consider this from David Dolan’s book Israel in Crisis and his use of John 21:20-23. Because Dolan holds to a futuristic eschatology, he like Muller must force Jesus’ words to fit into his futuristic structure: “In further nonbiblical research, I discovered that many early church authorities believed that John had never died. This was based on the Lord’s mysterious words in John 21 and also on the fact that, unlike the other apostles, no credible account exists about his death. I suspect that may be because John did not die.”[4] (Vincent Bugliosi, author of Helter Skelter and Divinity of Doubt: The God Question, uses John 21:21-23 to support his claim that Jesus was mistaken about His coming.) Dolan speculates that John could have been living on a Greek island for two millennia, wandering around the world disguising his true identity or caught up into heaven like Elijah where he has been supernaturally preserved until he is needed. John 21:23 refutes this notion: “yet Jesus did not say to [Peter] that [John] would not die, but only, ‘If I want to remain until I come, what is that to you.’”

If we are still waiting for the fulfillment of Jesus’ prediction of His coming “in the glory of His Father with His angels,” then some of those who were with Jesus, not just John, are still alive! An impossibility, to be sure. Once again, we must look for an event that was far enough in the future where most of Jesus’ hearers would be dead, but not so far in the future where they all would be dead. Is there such an event? Yes! The destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 by the Romans, a coming that is described in great detail in Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 17, 19, and 21. Muller needs to a bit more research on this topic.

[1] R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of John’s Revelation (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1943), 105.

[2] The Divorce of Israel: A Redemptive-Historical Interpretation of Revelation, 2 vols. (Tolle Lege Press and Chalcedon Foundation, 2024), 2:868-869.

[3] Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, “The martyrdom of James, who was called the brother of the Lord,” 2.23 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1958), 77-78. The same account can be found in volume 8 of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, 763.

[4] David Dolan, Israel in Crisis: What Lies Ahead? (Grand Rapids, MI: Fleming H. Revell, 2001), 143.

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