How Could Jesus Be Heard By Thousands of People When He Preached?

 
Benjamin Franklin, one of the famous Founding Fathers of the United States of America once listened to the famous preacher George Whitefield. He calculated that 30,000 people could hear him. He did the calculation because he doubted stories of generals in ancient times speaking to his entire armies. He says this in his autobiography. Here's an excerpt.

He had a loud and clear Voice, and articulated his Words and Sentences so perfectly that he might be heard and understood at a great Distance, especially as his Auditors [audience], however numerous, observ’d the most exact Silence. He preach’d one Evening from the Top of the Court House Steps, which are in the middle of Market Street, and on the West Side of Second Street which crosses it at right angles. Both Streets were fill’d with his Hearers to a considerable Distance. Being among the hindmost in Market Street, I had the Curiosity to learn how far he could be heard, by retiring backwards down the Street towards the River; and I found his Voice distinct till I came near Front Street, when some Noise in that Street, obscur’d it. Imagining then a Semicircle, of which my Distance should be the Radius, and that it were fill’d with Auditors, to each of whom I allow’d two square feet, I computed that he might well be heard by more than Thirty Thousand. This reconcil’d me to the Newspaper Accounts of his having preach’d to 25,000 People in the Fields, and to the ancient Histories of Generals haranguing whole Armies, of which I had sometimes doubted.

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/becomingamer/ideas/text2/franklinwhitefield.pdf 

The Last Days According to Jesus by R.C. Sproul

 

A common objection to Christianity by skeptics and atheists is that Jesus Christ's prophecies about the timing of His return failed to come to pass. That Jesus predicted His return would be in the lifetime of those who heard Him. That is, the audience He was speaking to. To their generation. Since, Jesus' Second Coming didn't come to pass during their lifetimes, atheists and skeptics argue that that fact proves Jesus as a false prophet and that Christianity is a false religion.

Partial Preterism is an eschatological view that answers that objection. It argues that Jesus did return, in some sense, during the lifetime those who heard Him. Though, Jesus' Second Coming [i.e. the 2nd Advent], His final return, is yet future. Full Preterism is the unbiblical and dangerous position that argues further than Partial Preterism in saying Jesus' Second Coming came to pass along with all other Biblical prophecies. I prefer calling it "Hyper-Preterism" because of its unorthodox views that rejects the future bodily Second Coming of Christ, rejects the future physical resurrection of all men, rejects the future Final Judgment of all men, and rejects the future conclusion of history that will result in the consummate order, and insteads erroneously teaches it to have already occurred in AD 70.

Good resources for the partial preterist interpretation of the New Testament can be found from folks like Kenneth Gentry and Gary DeMar. One can do a search for their materials online. However, R.C. Sproul's lecture series "The Last Days According to Jesus" is a great introduction to the objection regarding Jesus' alleged failed prophecies and a partial preterist response to them. The lecture series is linked below. They are based on his book by the same title [Amazon link].

There are 12 [TWELVE] lectures in the series, not just the 4 in the overview of the series. Use the DROPDOWN PLAYIST to view all 12 of the lectures.

https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/last_days_according_to_jesus/

 

While I lean toward a Postmillennialist understanding of the thousand year reign of Christ mentioned in Revelation chapter 20, Partial Preterism is also compatible with Amillennialism. One of the best expositors of Amillennialism is Kim Riddlebarger. He argues that there's some truth to Partial Preterism, but it's not the whole truth. See his book "The Case For Amillennialism" [Amazon link].

Riddlebarger's lectures:
Amillennialism 101
Eschatology and the Antichrist

For more introductions to Amillennialism see the following books:
The End Times Made Simple by Samuel E. Waldron
MORE End Times Made Simple by Samuel E. Waldron
Kingdom Come: The Amillennial Alternative by Sam Storms

 
Kenneth Gentry is one of the best expositors of Postmillennialism. As mentioned above, he's also one of the best expositors of Partial Preterism. Many of his audio and other materials are scattered on different websites. Here are just some:

https://www.monergism.com/authorsspeakers/dr-kenneth-l-gentry-jr

https://postmillennialworldview.com

Some of the books Kenneth Gentry has written that's relevant to the topic are:
Postmillennialism Made Easy
He Shall Have Dominion: A Postmillennial Eschatology
The Truth about Postmillennialism
Before Jerusalem Fell: Dating the Book of Revelation
The Beast of Revelation
Have We Missed the Second Coming?

Gentry is also a contributor to a book edited by Keith Mathison:
When Shall These Things Be?: A Reformed Response to Hyper-Preterism

For more introductory material on Postmillennialism, see also:
Victory in Jesus: The Bright Hope of Postmillennialism by Greg Bahnsen
Postmillennialism: An Eschatology of Hope by Keith A. Mathison

See also the mp3s at Covenant Media Foundation. ALL OF THEIR MP3S ARE NOW COMPLETELY FREE TO DOWNLOAD. Download audio on the topic by Bahnsen, Gentry, and others at:
https://www.cmfnow.com/

Along with Gentry's audio on the topic, see also Bahnsen's lecture series:
Why Am I a Postmillennialist?
Pessimistic Passages

Rumor has it that R.C. Sproul himself switched from Amillennialism to Postmillennialism a few years before he died.