Application and Interpretation

John 14:

1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

2 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.

3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

 

In the context of these familiar verses the Lord Jesus is speaking to His apostles in the upper room just hours before His crucifixion. He is comforting their troubled hearts. They were troubled because He had just told them (chapter 13) that one of them would betray Him, that He was going away and they could not go with Him at this time, and that Peter was going to deny Him three times.

 

There is no doubt that this passage is a source of great comfort to Christians. I certainly believe that we can get a blessing out of it by way of application. But although every passage of scripture may have spiritual and devotional applications it only has one right doctrinal interpretation. It is a problem when we try to make a devotional application to be the doctrinal interpretation. Most Christians treat the Bible like a devotional book but it was given to us first and foremost for DOCTRINE (2 Tim. 3:16).

I am sure that most of us have heard these verses preached many times. We have been told that the Father's house is a reference to heaven, that when Jesus ascended back to heaven He started a construction project on our mansion ("I don't know what it will be like, but if Jesus has been working on it for 2,000 years, I know it will be good!"), and that He was talking about the rapture of the church. One of the major hinderances to Bible study is anticipating revelation (reading truth back into a passage before it was revealed). The way this passage is usually interpreted and preached is a great example of anticipating revelation. The church which is the body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23) and it's rapture (1 Thess. 4:13-18) had not even been revealed when Christ spoke these words in the upper room to His apostles! Christ revealed that later from heaven through Paul's ministry (Eph. 3:1-12). The rapture was a mystery that Paul showed us (1 Cor. 15:51) "by the word of the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:15).

So if Christ was not talking about our rapture to heaven, what was He talking about?  

My Father's House
Christ referred to the temple in Jerusalem as His Father's house (Jn. 2:16). Some teach that in v.2 Christ is referring to the temple that will be in Jerusalem in the Kingdom Age (Ezek. 40-42). But most of those teachers also claim that the word "mansions" should be translated "rooms". The King James Bible is perfect and not one word should be altered. Prophesying of Christ, Isaiah predicted, "And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue..." (Isa. 22:24). Comparing scripture with scripture we learn that when Christ said, "my Father's house" He was talking about people- the house of Israel. 

Many Mansions
One of the definitions of a mansion is "the house of the lord of a manor". A manor is "the land belonging to a lord or nobleman". By saying that there were many mansions in His Father's house, Christ was probably saying that there were plenty of opportunities in redeemed Israel to reign with Him when He establishes His kingdom on earth (see Lk. 19:11-27). Perhaps He was also referring to mansions in the New Jerusalem which will descend out of heaven after the Kingdom Age (Rev. 21). Most believe that the New Jerusalem is primarily for the body of Christ. I don't doubt that we will have access to it but it's description is clearly marked by the number TWELVE. It even has the names of the twelve tribes of ISRAEL on its gates! I wonder what group of people will live in a city called New JERUSALEM?

If it were not so, I would have told you
Why would the Lord have to make such a statement to His apostles? He is reassuring them because they had forsaken all to follow Him (Matt. 19:16-30). In the kingdom of heaven they will receive families, houses, and lands a hundredfold.

Prepare a Place
Before they could receive this promise, Christ had to prepare a place for them in the kingdom of heaven. He was going back to the Father by way of the cross! It was His death for their sins that prepared a place for them in the kingdom (Rev. 1:5-6; 5:9-10). 

A Place
One of the definitions for the word place is an "office or official position" (Jn. 11:48). When Christ sets up His kingdom there will be no more place for Gentile kings (Dan. 2:31-35, 44). The twelve apostles will reign as kings and the faithful Hebrew saints will rule with them over the Gentile nations (Rev. 2:26-27). 

I will come again, and receive you unto myself
Does't this sound like 1 Thess. 4:16-17? Things that sound similar are not necessarily the SAME. Did Jesus teach the little flock to look for Him to secretly rapture them up to heaven (Matt. 24:29-35)? He prepared them for the tribulation period, not a secret rapture. I do believe that there will be a rapture of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists to heaven in the middle of the tribulation period and a rapture of the believing Jews on earth to the land of Israel at the END of the tribulation. The hope of Israel involves Christ coming back to the earth but our hope concerns Christ catching us up to meet Him in the air.