09. The Problem and Solution of the Promise of His Return

9. The Problem and Solution of the Promise of His Return

9.1 The passage

9.2 The problem 9.3 The solution

" Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 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. 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" (Joh 14:1-3).

This is the passage in which Jesus promised to return to His disciples and to receive them to Himself. The Lord told them, it is usually understood, that He would go back to heaven for the preparation of heavenly "mansions" (AV) to which He would take the disciples at His return. From this the argument develops that Jesus must come to take believers to heaven before the tribulation, because at His posttribulational return, He will reign upon the earth rather than return to heaven.

Many noteable weaknesses appear in the argument: Jesus did not promise that upon His return He would take believers to mansions in the Father’s house. Instead, He promised, "Where I am, there you may be also." The pretribulation interpretation would require us to believe that the Church will occupy heavenly mansions for a short period of seven years, only to vacate them for a thousand years in order to reign with Christ "upon the earth" (Rev 5:10; Rev 20:4-6). A thousand years’ delay before habitation of the mansions poses no greater problem for posttribulationalists than a thousand years’ vacating them for the pretribulationalists. In order to maintain pretribulationalism we might avoid the difficulty by regarding the New Jerusalem (where the mansions are assumed to be) as a millennial as well as an eternal city. Then the Church would not have to leave her mansions during the millennium because they, too, will descend from heaven after the tribulation. But if this view were adopted, no difficulty would arise for posttribulationism either! For if the mansions in the New Jerusalem will descend at the beginning of the millennium, the Church will not need to return to heaven before the tribulation in order to dwell in them. In order to console His disciples concerning His going away, Jesus told them that His leaving would work to their advantage. He was going to prepare for them spiritual abodes within His own person. Dwelling in these abiding places they would belong to God’s household. This He would accomplish by going to the cross and then ascending to the Father. But He would return to receive the disciples into His immediate presence forever. Thus, the rapture will not have the purpose of taking them to heaven. It rather follows from their being in Christ, in whom each believer already has an abode. The crucial point is that Jesus did not speak about a work of construction in the New Jerusalem. He rather spoke along a line which runs through the entire Upper Room Discourse, that of the position "In Christ" of believers. The word "place" (topos - topos) easily lends itself to the thought. The verb "prepare" (hetoimazo - etoimazw) often refers to a spiritual work. And the figure of a house (oikia - oikia), in its various nominal and verbal forms, appears frequently in the New Testament as a metaphor for the place of believers in the Father’s domestic domain. The use of "mone" - monh and its associated verb confirms the above understanding. Unfortunately, the familiar term "mansion" does not project the correct connotation in contemporary English. The Greek word carries no thought of a stately house of imposing size and luxurious style. It means simply an abode or an abiding place (the meaning of "mansion" in early English). And the rest of the Upper Room Discourse indicates that monh and its verbal cognate (menw) have to do with a spiritual abode in Christ rather than a material structure in heaven. Monh appears only once elsewhere in the New Testament, and that, significantly, only a few verses after Joh 14:2. Referring to the Father and Himself, Jesus said, "We will come to him, and make Our abode [monh] with him" (Joh 14:23). The two appearances of movh denote a reciprocal relationship: as believers will have abiding places in Christ, so the Father and the Son will have abiding places in believers. The plurality of the term "abodes" in verse 3 emphasizes the individuality of each believer’s place in Christ. In confirmation, "abiding," in a spiritual sense, forms a leading motif throughout the Upper Room Discourse: "the Father abiding in me" (John 14:10); "He [the comforter] abides with you, and will be in you" (John 14:17); "abide in Me, and I in you . . . abides in the vine . . . abides in Me" (John 15:4); "if anyone does not abide in Me (John 15:6); "if you abide in Me, and My words abide in you If "abide in My love" (John 15:9); "you will . . . (John 15:7); abide in My love; even as I abide in His love" (John 15:10). Jesus could hardly have made it more clear that the abode of a disciple in the Father’s house will not be a mansion in the sky but a spiritual position in Christ. The larger context of Johannine literature bears out the same thought. See Joh 6:56; 1Jn 2:6, 1Jn 2:10, 1Jn 2:14, 1Jn 2:24, 1Jn 2:28, 1Jn 3:6, 1Jn 3:9, 1Jn 3:17, 1Jn 3:24, 1Jn 4:12-13, 1Jn 4:15-16.