Apostle John no recluse on exile

Bible commentaries will tell you the apostle John didn’t write John, I John, II John, III John and the Book of Revelation until 90 to 100 A.D., outliving all the other apostles and writing the very last books of Holy Scripture. The evidence for that is a blank page, though; there’s not even any good historic church tradition to back up the claim.

John writes in Revelation 1:9, “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

Jordan explains, “On the basis of that verse, so-called scholars (incorrectly) say that the apostle John, late in his life as John the elder, was a recluse exiled to the Isle of Patmos for preaching the gospel and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

“There’s no more historic evidence for John being on exile for preaching the Word of God than there is that the apostle Thomas went to India.

“The ‘Patron Saint of India’ is Thomas, but there’s no credible, or even un-credible, evidence in history at all that Thomas, one of the 12, went to India and converted people. It’s such a tradition in Indian culture, though, that you can’t question it. It’s like George Washington cutting down the cherry tree.

“Look at what John says in verse 9. Why was he there? For the Word of God, and what happens to him is God speaks to him. He was there to RECEIVE the Word. He went there in order to be GIVEN the visions that are in Revelation!

“The passage has nothing to do with him being put over there because he was preaching the gospel and God just took pity on him and gave him the information.

“John was a prophet. God had him go to the Isle of Patmos and there’s reasons for that in Revelation 1. He went there for the specific purpose of receiving the revelation that’s in the Book of the Revelation.

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“For years I’ve wondered with these scholars who say John was written late, do any of them read the Book of John and notice what it says?!

“John 5:2 says, ‘Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.’

“Notice the third word in that verse. ‘Now there IS.’ Do you know the tense of ‘is’? It’s the verb to be; it is. It’s present tense. When John wrote the book, he says that there IS in Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool,’ and he gives you the name of it.

“Does that tell you something? Nothing clicks in your mind? It’s like you’ve got a shade pulled down. Somebody tell me when Jerusalem was destroyed? 70 A.D., give or take a year or two.

“Well, if Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D., what do you reckon happened to that pool at the sheep market? If John wrote after 70 A.D., what would he have had to say? ‘Now there WAS at Jerusalem.’

“I point this out to you to say EVERY book in your New Testament was penned, and the ink was dry, and copies were being made and distributed, among all of the known world, PRIOR to 70 A.D.

“We saw when we finished II Peter that Peter and the circumcision believers up in northern Turkey, Galatia, Bethsaida--all that region up in there had copies of Paul’s epistles. You know they didn’t have the originals. You see, God’s Word was not just being written, it was being copied, collated together and distributed everywhere there were believers—circumcision and Body of Christ believers.

“John writes in Revelation 19:10, ‘And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’

“The testimony of Jesus Christ is identified as the spirit of prophecy. So what you’d have John doing is continuing to preach the prophetic program. He writes in Revelation 1:3, ‘Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.’

“There isn’t any question about what the Book of Revelation is about. As John says, it’s a prophecy about the tribulation and the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.”