Jesus intended to return within the lifetimes of his peers

I am a follower of Jesus Christ and I believe that God does indeed exist, I certainly do believe Jesus died, was buried and then rose on the third day. I also believe he was God in human form, both fully God and fully man. I also believe that the scripture is the living breathing word of God. Your first point of contention states that "Jesus intent was to return while the Apostles were alive" And to back up this claim you use a few different verses of scripture. You are misinterpreting the meaning of these pieces of scripture, by looking at the verses, isolated from the rest of the book it is easy to misinterpret the verse. Yet if you look at the context before and after all of these verses that you have listed, the meanings are quite clear. You start with 1 Thessalonians 4:15-16, particularly focusing on the portion that reads "that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. " If you start in verse 4:9 and read you will see that the main point of this section was to reassure the believers that those who have died will still go to heaven, not that the people of that generation would be around when Jesus came back. In 1 Thessalonians 4 15-16 Paul is saying the Christians who died will be the first to be reunited with Jesus, and then those believers who are living will be gathered to Christ. When Paul says "we which are alive" the "we" is simply the Christians who are living, and the living shall not precede before the dead, or take precedence over them. Next you use Mark 9:1 "And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. " Again you must look at the context, when Jesus was speaking, he was speaking to the twelve disciples, (you will see that he is speaking to the disciples as well as a crowd if you back up and read chapter 8:34). Later on in chapter 9 of Mark you will find the story of the transfiguration, specifically in verses 2-13. In this case Jesus took only Peter, James and John up to a high mountain, not the twelve, nor anyone from the crowd, only these three men were allowed to see the transfiguration, which is why he says "That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. Here is mark 9:2-7 "2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. ” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened. )7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud:“This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him! ” So when Jesus went up to the Mount of Transfiguration, his form was literally changed. In Matthew 17:1-11 and Luke 9:28-36 they say the appearance of his face changed and glowed like the Sun, and that his clothes were as white as a flash of lightning. He was receiving power and glory from God the Father who said “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him! ”, this is where he came into power. To add to this point, in 2 Peter 1:16-18 Peter speaks of what happened during the transfiguration. "16 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying,“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. ” 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. " Note what Peter is saying here, Jesus has come into power, on the Mount of Transfiguration James, John and Peter were all eyewitnesses to the power of Christ and his Kingdom. For Matthew 24, specifically verses 33-34 once again, you must take the context into account, I will start at the beginning of the chapter, Jesus is speaking of things to come before his return. In verses 4-9 it talks of an unusual amount of famines, earthquakes, and rumors of war. These signs are to be the early warning indicators, and are like the beginning of birth pains before the child is actually born. then comes this, "10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. As you pointed out in your argument pro, there is no way that the gospel reached places such Australia or the New World. Jesus will not come until these things are fulfilled, and this could not have been fulfilled in the generation of the Apostles. Verses 15-21 speak of an "abomination of desolation," whatever follows this "abomination" will wreak such havoc on the earth that it will put the worst events in history (WW1 and 2, the Holocaust etc) to shame. After that many false prophets will appear performing signs and claiming to be Christ, but when the real Christ comes, everyone will know it. This is how Jesus will make his entrance 29“Immediately after the distress of those days “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Now since none of these things has happened yet, Jesus can not have returned, and finally we get to your section of scripture that you used. 32 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Jesus is using the fig tree as an illustration, when these things start to happen, the end result will be quick, and the generation that witnesses them will not pass away. This in no way suggests that the disciples or at least their generation would absolutely be around for the second coming, but it wasnt ruled out either. C2All three scriptures you chose will be fulfilled after the return of Christ during his reign as king in the millennial Kingdom, just because there is prophecy in the OT does not mean it needed to be fulfilled by Jesus' first coming. Isaiah 11 9 the mountain refers to Christ's kingdom, the kingdom will never see ruin. Daniel 2;44-46 tells of a kingdom set up by God that will wipe out all other Kingdoms, this kingdom will last forever and never fall under enemy rule, this kingdom is Christ's kingdom. Read Daniel 2 for full story. Again in Isaiah 2:4 a prophecy speaking of the peace that will come over Earth once Christ is King. Isaiah 11:12 again look at context, in verse 10 it says at that time (that time is the millennial kingdom) he will be a flag to the nations and they will seek guidance from him, in 11-12 God will bring his people to his eternal kingdom. Sources The Bible. http://www.christnotes.org... . https://www.biblegateway.com...