Let not your heart be disturbed.  Believe in God, and believe in Me.  In My Father’s house are many abodes; yet if not I would have told you, for I am going to make ready a place for you.  And if I should be going and making ready a place for you, I am coming again and I will be taking you along to Myself, that where I am, you also may be.  And where I am going you are aware, and of the way you are aware.  Thomas is saying to Him, “Lord, we are not aware whither Thou art going, and how can we be aware of the way?”  Jesus is saying to him “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one is coming to the Father except through Me.  If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.  And henceforth you know Him and have seen Him.”  John 14:1-7 Concordant Version of the New Testament

          It is the prevailing view in the United States, that if one is “good” he will go to “heaven”, and if one is “bad”, his ultimate destination is “hell.”  Each sect and/or denomination has its own definitions of “good” and “bad”, as does each un-churched person.  And the general consensus is that “heaven” is a desirable but largely-unknown utopia, and “hell” is an equally unknown very bad place.  However, anyone with an open heart and an open mind can, with a little study and effort, quickly determine that the origins of each of these propositions is pagan from ancient times.  After the edict of Constantine, when all the pagan temples became Christian cathedrals and all the pagan priests became Christian priests by fiat, the Church incorporated these pagan ideas into mainstream Christianity as doctrines where they have remained firmly entrenched to this day, and scriptures (such as the above passage from the gospel of John) are mistakenly interpreted to justify these wrong ideas.

          Hear the Lord’s words:  don’t trouble your hearts with notions of streets of gold and whether there are golf courses in heaven (as we have heard one man say), or with fears of torture and burning and other ideas associated with that hideous doctrine.  Believe in God and believe in Me. 

          We are not intending to prove the falsity of that which is false, but instead to lift up and magnify that which is true.  So, open your hearts and minds, and ask the Lord Spirit to reveal the truth of these matters to you.  Believe Him, not us.

          The word “abodes” in the above translation is alternatively rendered “dwelling places” (NASB), “mansions” (King James Version), “homes” (Amplified Bible), “rooms” (New International Version), and “dwellings” (Wycliffe Bible).  The problem, however, is NOT with the translation of “abodes”; instead, the problem begins with assuming that “My Father’s house” is in heaven.  The Lord Jesus has never said that His Father’s house is in heaven, nor has it ever been His goal to bring a select few, chosen or believing (according to the Calvinist view or the Arminian view), into heaven and leaving the large majority of humanity behind to endure their “just” reward of “great tribulation” as a preview of eternal torment in hell.  Rightly decide the location of “My Father’s house”, and the Lord’s meaning of what He said above becomes clear and simple.

          Beloved of God, if you are wondering, “Well, where is God’s house?” you are not alone.  Do you notice that Thomas didn’t get it, either?  Let’s begin by speculating what was going through Thomas’ mind and see if it sheds some light for us 2,000 years later.  Notice also how the Lord had previously used the phrase:

And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”  Luke 2:19 English Standard Version (ESV)

And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”  John 2:16 ESV

          And so we can see that Thomas believed, like so many since that time have believed, the word “house” referred to Herod’s temple in Jerusalem, or some other man-made structure.  Thomas was naturally curious about where Jesus was referring, if not to Herod’s temple, to which the Lord had previously referred when speaking of “My Father’s house.”  Later, the Holy Spirit began to reveal that God had chosen to place His name not in a structure made by man, but in another place of His own choosing.

          When  Stephen was brought before the Jewish religious judges (the Great Sanhedrin) for allegedly speaking words “against Moses and God“,  he spoke prophetically of God’s ultimate rejection of Herod’s temple, noting that King David had asked to build God a dwelling place but that Solomon his son had carried it out, and that arrangement was not intended to be permanent.  Stephen quoted the prophet Isaiah’s famous passage about the Kingdom of Heaven:

However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says:  Heaven is My throne, and earth is the footstool of My feet; what kind of house will you build for Me? says the Lord, or what place is there for My repose? Was it not My hand which made all these things?  Acts 7:48-50  New American Standard Bible (NASB)

          The Lord Jesus had implicitly and explicitly stated that Jerusalem would be destroyed, and the implications of such destruction were revealed by the Spirit to Stephen and others, such as the writer of the letter to the Hebrews.  Many years later, but again prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, the author to the Hebrews discussed the obsolescence of the temple and sacrifice system (the “old covenant”) and its replacement with a new covenant.   He clearly states that the new covenant is based upon the blood of Jesus and a temple “not made with hands”.

When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete.  But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear…Now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary…But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;  and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption…Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.  For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;…  Hebrews 8:13-9:1-2, 11-12, and 23-24 NASB

          We have quoted from this passage at length because some say the place being prepared is in the heavens, where Christ made His offering.  But we wish to point out that the author is referring to “the holy place”, not to “My Father’s house”.  We do not dispute there are heavenlies and that Christ entered there–we contend that Father prefers things that are not “made with hands” and that heaven is not the believer’s final destination.  Instead, “My Father’s house” is the New Jerusalem, a spiritual temple, coming down out of the heavens and ultimately filling the entire earth.  It is a living temple, not made with hands, but made with living stones.  Each stone is an individual who has tasted the kindness of the Lord and whose heart is a dwelling place, an “abode” for Father and the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

          Christ in you, the hope of glory….a mystery now revealed, the promise of the Father, that He would indwell each believer, was the “place” referred to by the Lord Jesus in our opening scripture.  And yes, there are many of them.  Later on in the same chapter of John, the Lord said:

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you…In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you (all)…If anyone loves me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him.  John 14:18, 20, 24 NASB

          Every one of these “abodes” has been prepared by Jesus, just as He said.  It was the purpose of His going, as well as the destination of His going.  It is a part of His promise that He would come again and receive each one to Himself.  Thus, those who believe that heaven is the ultimate destination point to passages like 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, contending that the Lord will return, rapture the believers in the air, and proceed directly to heaven. 

          We will indeed “meet” the Lord in the air, just as the scripture says, but the word “meet” in Greek is apantesis, which means to meet a visiting dignitary on the outskirts of town and accompany him back to the visited city, NOT to accompany the dignitary back to the origin of his journey, as is evident from the other two passages in the New Testament using this verb.  (See Matthew 25:1-10 and Acts 28:15-16.)  For example, when Paul was being delivered to Rome for his appeal to Caesar, the brothers came out from Rome some considerable part of the 112 miles to Puteoli to meet Paul and escort him back to Rome.  They did NOT meet Paul and escort him back to Caesarea!  Respectfully, in the same way, we will not meet the Lord in the air and escort Him back to heaven.

          Isaiah also prophesied that Messiah Jesus would be like a nail securely driven into a “place” and it would be a glory to His Father’s house.  Take a look at this remarkable scripture, and understand that it refers to your heart, dear reader.   It is the place where God has caused His name to be remembered and the place which God has chosen.  It has always been His plan, a mystery which was hidden from past ages and generations, to present every man complete in Christ!

          Messiah Jesus intends to take up His throne in the earth, at which time the prayer which He Himself instructed us to pray, will be fulfilled:

Pray then this way:  Our Father who is in heaven–hallowed be Your name.  Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Matthew 6:9-10 NASB

          Could there be a prayer that the Lord would teach us to pray, for which Father’s answer would be “No”?  We think not.  Dear reader, if your heart is troubled, or you are searching, look no further.  Your redemption is drawing near–call to Him, He will answer!  Why wait?  Ask Him to make ready your heart NOW.

Blessed are You, O Lord, lover of our souls.  Blessed are You for you have promised better things to come and to prepare the places in our hearts, and if there weren’t MANY, You would have told us so.  How great is Your love and how unfailing is Your purpose! Complete Your preparation in every man!  Make our hearts ready to receive you.  We say Amen to all Your ways. 

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