What Does John 14:2-3 Really Mean?
“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 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” (John 14:2-3, NASB).
The mainstream interpretation of this promise is that that the Lord Jesus Christ has promised to go and build “mansions” for us in heaven. After the construction is completed, He will come back to take us there to live with Him and God forevermore. But the scriptures have given us light that enables us know that such conclusion is very wrong. Although the place is being built in heaven, the chosen ones are not going there to live in physical mansions in an ethereal heaven. We will live in the “rooms” or “dwelling places” in that place which is being built in heaven. We will be with Him, here on earth, after He has “come again.”
The promised place is the New Jerusalem also called Mount Zion (Heb.12:22) which, at God’s appointed time, will be brought down from heaven (Rev. 21:2,10; 3:12). That is the place where His faithful followers will spend eternal life with Him. That holy city whose streets are paved with gold and the gates made of pearls (Rev. 21:21) is the one promised by Jesus Christ in John 14:2-3.
The descriptions given in the Bible give us clear understanding that the place is not the ethereal realm where God dwells which we all call heaven. First, Jesus said it “will come down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 3:12). He later showed a vision to Apostle John who saw the “heavenly city” “coming down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2,10). This simply means that although the place is heaven-built, it will not be located in heaven where God Himself lives. It is going to be brought down to the earth to be new Paradise of God (Rev. 2:7).This city is the better place, the heavenly homeland which the heroes of faith longed for (Heb. 11:16). This city built by God (Heb. 11:10; 12:22) is the one Paul talked about in Heb. 13:14 where he said, “Here on [the present] earth we don’t have a city that lasts forever. But we are waiting for the city that we have in the future” (ERV, words in square brackets added by me).
He also called it “a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10). The word “foundation” (Greek: “themelios”) is defined in Strong’s Greek Lexicon #2310 as a “noun from a derivative of tithemi; something put down, i.e. a substruction. This definition suggests that the city is going to be a physical, tangible one like the present earth. Therefore, it cannot be the invisible, ethereal realm where God dwells.
Apostle John saw it “coming down out of heaven from God.” Is it going to come down literally? Or will it take place supernaturally with the present earth being transformed by God to make it into the heavenly design? There have been unending debates as whether the present earth will be replaced by an entirely new one or by a supernatural renovation of the existing one. My own disposition is that whichever way God is going to do it, the important thing is for us to make ourselves ready so that we will be allowed to enter the holy city.
Apostle Peter said, “But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness (2 Pet. 3:13 NLT).
In addition to this, Apostle Paul said, “But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Saviour. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.” (Phil. 3:20-21 NLT). We are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ, not to come and take us to heaven, which He never promised, but to bring the Kingdom of God down to the renewed or changed earth (Matt. 6:10).
The Bible passages cited above have shown clearly that the hope or expectation of both Old and New Testament saints is not to spend eternity in heaven with the Almighty Father but to be citizens of His kingdom here on a renewed earth. The New Jerusalem is the final place where the faithful and true children of God will spend their eternity with Christ dwelling among them. That is the place Jesus Christ promised in John 14:2-3.
Mansions in Heaven?
I have heard a pastor say, “My mansion is waiting for me in heaven”. He is one of the many Christians who have been misled by the inappropriate, misleading interpretation of the Greek word “mone” as “mansion” in the KJV. A mansion is a large and impressive house, especially the type built by a wealthy person to showcase his wealth. The word “mone” is better interpreted as “room” or “dwelling place”. The word is used twice in the New Testament – here in John 14:2 and in John 14:23 where it is translated as “abode” in the same KJV.
What Jesus Christ promised in John 14:2 are rooms, not mansions. There are enough rooms for as many as will be found qualified to enter into the three-dimensional, holy city, the New Jerusalem.
There is nothing in the Bible which suggests that the promise made by Jesus Christ is for the apostles alone. Of course, when the rules of biblical hermeneutics are ignored, anyone can falsely interpret any verse or passage of the Bible and make it say anything that conforms with his personal ideas or biases which often turn out to be erroneous or false. This is why there are so many false or erroneous teachings in our churches.
There is no Bible passage that says anyone is going to heaven to serve as king and priest. Ab initio, God created the Earth to be the eternal habitation of mankind. The Almighty has not changed that plan. Man is called “Adam” (meaning “soil” or “earth”) because he belongs to Adama (meaning “the earth or soil or matter”). Before God created manning, He had created His dwelling place and the things man needs to maintain his life. In the Kingdom of God, man will live on the earth with an immortal, that is unaging and undying, body. God never intended, nor ever gave the promise, that any man will one day come and dwell eternally in the invisible realm where He lives.
“For, at just the right time Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and only Almighty God, the King of all kings and Lord of all Lords. He alone can never die, and he lives in light so brilliant that no human can approach him. No human eye has ever seen him, nor ever will. All honour and power to him forever! Amen.” (1 Tim. 6:15-16 NLT, bold and underscore emphases added).
Related Materials
The following related materials can be read from my website Jude1v3.com:
*Will any human being go to heaven?
*Some misconceptions about heaven
*Do we go to heaven to spend eternity?
*Do Christians go to heaven immediately they die?
