“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:1-6)
The general perception that God has promised Heaven to
His people seems to be supported by the opening words of John chapter fourteen.
A place was to be prepared ‘in My Father’s house’, a prospect made even more
appealing by there being ‘many mansions’. This was one of the earliest
Bible passages that I had memorised as a child and, though there is obviously a
great benefit in children being able to repeat Bible passages, there is also a
danger in misleading them if the verses are not explained properly (or are made
directly applicable to the child when the text may give no such authority).
There are four reasons why I believe Jesus was not
promising Heaven as a destination here. The first is found in the timing of the
transformation that He was speaking about; the second in to whom He was speaking directly; the third
in the definition of ‘My Father’s house’;
and the fourth in the conspicuous absence of such a Heaven-bound promise
throughout the rest of His discourse in John chapters thirteen to seventeen. As
with the previous section, I will also divide my approach to this proof-text into
four subsections.
Consideration
1: The Timing of the Event
Jesus stated that this gathering to be with Him was
when He would ‘come again’ (v3). It was not a promise of seeing Jesus
again at the point of death.
There is an evident period of time during which the
Lord would be away from His disciples, preparing a place for them. Only after
the preparation is made would He come again for them. This could not refer to
the ascension of the disciples’ souls to Heaven after their physical death –
where does such a doctrine state that a ‘coming
again’ of Jesus is required? It is taught to be before His return.
It is also worth asking this: where was Jesus speaking
of going when He told the disciples that He would be preparing a place for
them? I had formerly assumed this to primarily mean the Cross. After all, what
place can anyone share with God if there has been no redemptive price paid on
their behalf? However, though Jesus’ destination necessitated a journey via
Calvary (He could not begin preparing a place without first shedding His
blood), I do not see that the Cross was where He would be preparing a place,
not within this context anyway.
One reason I say this is that the ‘Upper Room
Discourse’ (John 13-17), from which the text is taken, does not include any
direct reference to the Cross itself. For sure, the Cross is referenced in earlier
chapters of John (e.g. 2:19; 3:14; 8:28; 10:11,15,17) but by this stage of
John’s gospel it is the inner circle of disciples who are being spoken to and
the monologue that transpires is directed towards their conduct as faithful
disciples while He is gone, and the heavenly assistance they will be receiving.
It seems that this assistance is dependent upon Jesus being in the right place,
the required location for preparing a place for the disciples.
Near the beginning of the whole discourse Jesus had
said that He was going somewhere they could not come (13:33). Does this wording not
suggest He is referring to somewhere other than the Cross? After all, it was
physically possible for any of the disciples to follow Him there (proved by
John’s presence at Calvary as an onlooker). Furthermore, when in later life some
of the disciples picked up their ‘cross’ and died for their Lord, they did
follow Him there.
There are other occurrences in earlier chapters of
John that show Jesus referring to an unfamiliar destination to which none of
the Jews could follow Him. These verses support the notion that His destination
of John 14:2-3 (and indeed all of John 13-17) is not the Cross, but Heaven. Not only this, it seems that this is a place that man is forbidden to
enter.
Then Jesus said to them, “I shall be with you a little
while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me. You will seek Me and not find
Me, and where I am you cannot come.” (John 7:33-34).
Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I bear
witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I
am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going.” (John
8:14)
Then Jesus said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek Me,
and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.” (John 8:21)
From John 14:3 onward, other verses in the Upper
Room Discourse show that Jesus had Heaven in view as His
destination:
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me,
the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because
I go to My Father. (John 14:12)
You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and
coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I
am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I. (John 14:28)
But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none
of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ (John 16:5)
…I go to My Father and you see Me no more (John
16:10)
A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a
little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father. (John
16:16)
I came forth from the Father and have come
into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father. (John
16:28)
Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the
world, and I come to You. (John 17:11)
But now I come to You… (John 17:13)
Though this point does not directly relate to the
overall argument regarding the disciples’ destination (a point I will come to
shortly), I feel it is important to emphasise the explicit place that Jesus had
in mind in John 14:3 – Heaven. It was in Heaven that He would be preparing a
place for His disciples. To me, the context of John chapters thirteen to
seventeen seems to support the idea that Jesus was referring to His heavenly
role as High Priest – interceding for His
people as they sought to live holy lives as true disciples (a role most
articulately presented in the epistle to the Hebrews).
And it would therefore only be after His role as heavenly High Priest is completed
that He would ‘come again and receive’ the disciples to Himself.
Wherever the disciples’ ultimate destination would be, the context of
John chapter fourteen does not support the popular doctrine of ‘going to
Heaven when we die’.
Consideration
2: To whom was Jesus speaking?
My second point regards the importance of
understanding to whom Jesus was making the promise in John 14:3. What makes
evangelicals believe that the passage applies to all of them? The words are
part of an intimate conversation between Jesus and His remaining eleven
disciples. There are statements within the discourse that evidently could not
be applied to all who claim to be Christians, so who can tell which verses apply
to whom? The following verses could hardly have been stated with all the church
in view:
These things I have spoken
to you while being present with you. (John 14:25)
And now I have told you
before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. (John
14:29)
And you also will bear
witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning. (John
15:27)
They will put you out of
the synagogues; yes, the time is coming
that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. (John 16:2)
And these things I did not
say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go away to Him
who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have
said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. (John 16:4-6)
I still have many things to
say to you, but you cannot bear them now (John 16:12)
Then some of His disciples
said among themselves, “What is this that He says to us, ‘A little while, and
you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and,
‘because I go to the Father’?’” They said therefore, “What is this that He
says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is saying.” Now Jesus knew that
they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, “Are you inquiring among
yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and
again a little while, and you will see Me’? Most assuredly, I say to you that
you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be
sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.” (John 16:17-20)
Indeed the hour is coming,
yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave
Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. (John
16:32)
[praying to the Father concerning the disciples] While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. (John 17:12)
I
believe that we must be very careful not to turn promises that were made to a
closed group into general promises for a wider group. We cannot use John 15:16
to say that Jesus chose and ordained each one of us personally to go and bear
fruit for Him – that statement was made to the eleven remaining disciples. If
we are to believe this doctrine we must find it elsewhere in the Bible. We
cannot take John 14:26 as a personal promise that the Holy Spirit will remind
us of every word Jesus said – that statement was made to the eleven disciples.
As
such, therefore, we should judge the meaning of John 14:3 according to the people
being addressed. This should then warn us about using the verse to support a doctrine
when the context does not apply to us. Indeed, it is when we respect the Scriptures
more that we begin to question terminology we once thought obvious in meaning,
which brings me to my third point.
Consideration 3: Where and what is ‘My Father’s house’?
Is
‘My Father’s house’ really a synonym
for Heaven? Are the ‘mansions’ really
dwelling places within a ‘building’ that presently exists up there somewhere,
one of which has my name on it? In
order to answer these questions, is it not a good idea to survey what the
Scriptures might say elsewhere about the ‘Father’s
house’ than make potentially groundless assumptions?
There are over eighty
occurrences of the expression ‘father’s
house’ or other forms of it (e.g. ‘father’s
household’) in the Hebrew Scriptures. None of them state God’s house as
Heaven. Unsurprisingly the term is used to denote the family from which an
individual comes, or the place where that family was known to reside. For
example, Jacob’s ‘father’s house’ was
in Canaan (Genesis 31:30).
By contrast, there are
only three uses of the term in the New Testament. One of these – Acts 7:20 – is
a reference to Moses’ ‘father’s house’
and is therefore identical in meaning to the other Hebrew Scriptures. For the
sake of this discussion, we are as yet undecided about what Jesus means in John
14:2, so this leaves us with John 2:16 to shed some light upon where and what
God’s house is. As it happens, the verse does exactly this:
Now the Passover of the Jews
was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He
found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the
money changers doing business. When He had made a
whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the
oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to
those who sold doves, “Take these
things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it
was written, “Zeal for Your
house has eaten Me up.” (John 2:13-17)
John
therefore, in the very same gospel, has defined ‘My Father’s house’. This may seem somewhat bizarre given Jesus’
ultimate destination in chapter fourteen, but it is nevertheless crucial to see
that His Father’s house was the temple.
This in turn will remind some readers of King David’s intention to build a ‘house’ for God the Father, and God’s
response:
Now it came to pass when the king was dwelling in his house,
and the Lord had given
him rest from all his enemies all around, that the king
said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the
ark of God dwells inside tent curtains.” Then Nathan said
to the king, “Go, do all that is
in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”
But it happened that night that the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, “Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus says
the Lord: “Would
you build a house for Me to dwell in? For I have
not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up
from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a
tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about with all
the children of Israel, have I ever spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of
Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you
not built Me a house of cedar?’”’ Now
therefore, thus shall you say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the
sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel. And
I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies
from before you, and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men
who are on the earth. Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will
plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor
shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously, since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel, and have caused you to rest from
all your enemies. Also the Lord tells you that He will make you a house. “When
your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your
seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
He shall build a house for My name, and I will
establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I
will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I
will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from
before you. And your house and your kingdom
shall be established forever before you.
Your throne shall be established forever.”’” (2nd Samuel 7:1-16)
David
is denied his wishes of building a house that he can call God’s. As a reverse
of David’s original intent, the house that is promised is one that will be for
the benefit of David and his ‘seed’,
rather than for God’s benefit. God has given His reasons for not requiring a ‘house’ built for Himself. Yet it is
still worth noting that God is going to be the builder of this future ‘house’ and, as such, it can still
legitimately be seen as the ‘Father’s
house’. John 2:16 is merely one verse that approves such a designation. Of
further significance is the revelation that God will build this house for his ‘son’. The father-son dynamic is
explicitly stated.
Biblical
history first reveals this ‘house’ to
be the temple that Solomon, David’s son, built. And yet, this earthly temple
did not meet the full prophetic description given to David. Solomon did not ‘establish the throne of his kingdom forever’.
Solomon’s temple was destroyed in the Babylonian invasion then rebuilt in
less-spectacular fashion when the exiles returned from captivity. It was that
particular temple which Jesus referred to as ‘My Father’s house’ in John 2:16. And yet, even this temple was soon destroyed
by the Romans, which suggests that the ‘house’
still has not been built through which God will establish the throne of His Son’s
kingdom forever.
However,
it seems that New Testament Scripture reveals to us an unexpected dimension to God’s
idea of His temple, and therefore the ‘Father’s
house’. As a result of the ministry, death, resurrection and ascension of
Jesus Christ, many truths were revealed that, up to that point, had been
unforeseen (e.g. Ephesians 3:1-7). One of these truths was that Gentiles were
to be considered as part of the same unit, or ‘body’, as the Jewish apostles and all other Jews who had believed
the Gospel. It was, and still is, this particular body of people that is to be
considered as God’s temple. Consider
the following verses:
Simon Peter
answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not
revealed this to you, but My
Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I
will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:16-18)
Do you not
know that you [second person plural: the Corinthian saints as a group] are the temple of God and
that the Spirit of God dwells in
you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God
will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. (1st
Corinthians 3:16-17)
Or do you
not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from
God, and you are not your own? (1st
Corinthians 6:19) [‘your’ = second person plural: the Corinthian saints as a group; ‘body’
is singular, referring to the Corinthian saints as a collective unit – if Paul had
intended to mean their physical bodies he would have used the plural, which he
did four verses prior]
Do not be
unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has
righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a
believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement
has the temple of God with idols? For you [second
person plural; though in some Greek manuscripts it is ‘we’ – nevertheless still
plural!] are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them, and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be
My people. (2nd Corinthians
6:14-16)
Now,
therefore, you [second person plural – the Ephesian saints as a group] are no longer strangers and
foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household
of God, having been built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the
whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in
whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the
Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22)
He who
overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will
not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the
name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven
from My God, and My new name. (Revelation
3:12) [the
overcomer is part of the actual structure – a pillar – of God’s temple; note
also he/she will bear the name of God, Christ’s ‘new name’ and the name of the
city, which may be significant when comparing this to the next reference; the overcomer
is part of the structure – the temple, the ‘Father’s house’ – in which
the Father and Son dwell]
But I saw no temple in it [the New Jerusalem], for the Lord God
Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. (Revelation
21:22) [there is no visible temple; the Father and
Son, who have been said to dwell in the temple, are therefore dwelling
in the entire incorrupt and incorruptible city, where the saints also dwell]
This
somewhat lengthy diversion is to biblically determine what ‘My Father’s house’ means. It does not
mean Heaven and is not even presently in Heaven. Interestingly Christ is said
to have ascended, not to a heavenly temple but tabernacle (Hebrews 8:1-2; 9:11-12). A tabernacle was a
temporary dwelling place. A temple was considered permanent. Jesus Christ is temporarily in the heavenly tabernacle,
preparing a place for His people. The place He is preparing is permanent, as
prophesied in 2nd Samuel 7. Though its present construction is entirely
dependent upon the ‘builder’ who is in the heavenly tabernacle, the construction itself is today on earth.
God’s
faithful people are the temple. God’s faithful people are the so-called ‘mansions’ – they are the ‘dwelling
places’ or ‘abodes’ of the Father and Son. The Greek word translated as ‘mansions’
(μονή ; moné) is used in only one
other part of Scripture, the very same chapter:
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him,
and We will come to him and make Our home with him. (John 14:23)
The
testimony of the Bible seems to confirm that it is the faithful who are the ‘dwelling
places’ (rather than ‘mansions’) of the ‘Father’s
house’. These dwelling places, or saints, collectively make up the ‘temple’.
Hopefully
we can now see the benefits being described at the beginning of John chapter
fourteen, and appreciate that they were opened out to the Gentiles of the first
century and beyond. But it is nevertheless important to remember that, within
the context of the chapter, the encouragement is for the eleven remaining
disciples alone.
After
His High Priestly role in the heavenly tabernacle is carried out, the Lord
Jesus will leave His heavenly location and come for His disciples. They do not go to where He has been. They are the Father’s house. ‘That where I am there you may be also’
is stated immediately after Jesus said ‘I
will come again’. In fact, I find it striking that Jesus describes the
location as ‘where I am’ rather than
giving a specific geographical point: the
focus is upon renewing company, not the location of that renewal. In
other words, the remark ‘that where I am, there you may be also’ was not
intended to make the reader think of Heaven, Earth or anywhere in between. Rather,
it was intended to make the disciple think of simply seeing Jesus again. They
were words of comfort to friends who would be hurting deeply.
Consideration 4: the irrelevance of ‘going to Heaven’ in
the Upper Room Discourse
A fourth
cause to doubt the view that Jesus could have been referring to the soul’s
ascension to Heaven lies in the conspicuous absence of any other mention of it
in the Upper Room Discourse (John
13-17). I have given more than one reason why I do not think John 14:2-3
is referring to it. However, I think it is even harder to argue for its
appearance throughout the rest of the text.
A study
of these five chapters will show Jesus speak to His disciples about their
conduct of loving one another and abiding in His love by obedience (13:34-35;
15:1-17); His going away to a place where they could not come (13:33; 16:5-6);
His revelation of the Father (14:7-11); asking the Father for things in His
name (14:12-14); the coming comfort and ministry of the Holy Spirit
(14:16-18,26; 15:26; 16:7-15); His return so that they would see Him again
(14:19-24, 28-29; 16:16-23); their coming persecution (15:18-25; 16:1-4,
31-32); and a prayer on their behalf, as He will be leaving them (John 17).
Considering
the emotional trauma that the disciples were about to experience and the Lord’s
clear intent to comfort them, I find it significant that there is no mention of
them seeing Him again in Heaven at the point of death. If such a doctrine were
true then it would not only have been pertinent to share it with them at this
point but it would also have been an enormous encouragement to them. However,
Jesus’ only mention of seeing them again is set within the context of Him ‘coming
again’. Heaven is not mentioned. The only one going there is the Son of God
Himself.
I
would therefore ask, why is the doctrine of ‘going to Heaven when we die’
considered a fundamental truth of the Bible when the Lord Jesus’ departing
words of comfort to the disciples made no mention of it?
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