Tag Archives: Church

mansion

25 Monday Jun 2012

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The King James Version of the Bible (which was translated in 1611) renders John 14:2 as follows: “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.” Today, many pastors use this verse to helpMansions in John 14 describe to their congregations what heaven will be like when they die. Well, what if you discovered that, according to the revelation in the Bible, the believers do not go to heaven when they die? What if that one word “mansion” should not be translated as mansion after all (at least in the way we think of mansion)? Indeed, one word could change everything!

Firstly, the Bible reveals that there is only one Man in heaven right now, and that is Jesus (Acts 1:11; 7:56)! Peter tells us in Acts 2:34 that not even King David, who was a man according to God’s heart, has ascended into heaven, but that he still remains in Hades, which is somewhere in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40; Acts 2:31). And consider the parable in Luke 16:19-31 which indicates that Abraham is there in Hades right now, and two others who died in Luke 16 also ended up in Hades—one in torment and the other in Paradise with Abraham (c.f. Luke 23:43 with Acts 2:31).

Secondly, the term “My Father’s house” has already been used by the Lord in the Gospel of John to refer to the temple of His body (v. 2:14-22), which was raised from the dead after three days as the mystical Body of Christ—the church—having all the believers as members of this Body (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 2:6).

Thirdly, a more accurate translation of John 14:2 renders the KJV word “mansions” as “abodes”: “In My Father’s house are many abodes; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you” (Recovery Version). This translation is consistent with the rest of the revelation in John 14 and 15—that through His death and resurrection Jesus would prepare a place for us to abide in God. In John 14 Jesus said that He was going to the Father (v.12) as He was about to be crucified. And in verse 20 He said, “In that day [(the day of His resurrection)] you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”  In 15:4 the Lord said, “Abide in Me and I in you….” If the believers are in Christ, and Christ is in God the Father, then surely the believers are in God!

The abiding place (not mansion in the sky) that Christ prepared for us through His death and resurrection is in God. God, of course, is a heavenly Being, and through regeneration (divine birth) the believers now abide in God and have a citizenship in the heavens from which they eagerly await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:20), though they are physically on the earth. But what a huge difference one word can make in our understanding—talk about paradigm shift! To say the least, the destiny of the believers in Christ is far more profound than the stereotypical view of going to heaven!

sanctuary

16 Thursday Feb 2012

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Asaph, the author of Psalm 73, was very perplexed and nearly even stumbled by what he saw in the world around him. While he and the other people of God were suffering, it seemed that the unbelievers and the wicked were prospering; they were well nourished, and they went to their graves in peace. So much so was his inner turmoil until he went into the sanctuary of God. Then he received another view, a particular perception, of the situation concerning the ungodly. Not only did Asaph see the eventual judgment upon the wicked, but what is more important is that he saw that, as a seeker of God, he would be restricted by God and even stripped by God to such an extent that God Himself alone would be his only possession and only enjoyment.

In this case it is one place that changes everything. In Old Testament times that place was the sanctuary of God in the temple where there was God’s presence and His oracle. That place, however, was a prefigure of the place where God dwells and speaks today: our regenerated spirit and the church. Concerning the regenerated spirit of the believers, the apostle Paul says, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16) and, “The Lord be with your spirit” (2 Tim. 4:22a). Concerning the church, he says, “For we are the temple of the living God, even as God said, ‘I will dwell among them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people’” (2 Cor. 6:16b), and, “In whom [(Christ)] you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit” (Eph. 2:22). The church is the house of the living God (1 Tim. 3:15). When we Christians turn to the Lord in our spirit and gather together with the called-out ones (the church), we are enlightened concerning the troubling things in our life, and we can praise God that He would be everything to us, our unique possession and enjoyment! At that time we will be able to declare with the psalmist, “Whom do I have in heaven but You? And besides You there is nothing I desire on earth. My flesh and my heart fail, But God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever” (Psa. 73:25-26).

church

22 Sunday Jan 2012

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Based on verse 28 of First Corinthians chapter twelve, it seems clear that in this chapter the author is writing about the church: “And God has placed some in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers,….” Much is written in chapter twelve concerning the believers as members of the Body of Christ, the church, and of the various spiritual gifts that the members may possess, such as a word of wisdom, or healing, or works of power, or prophecy, or speaking in tongues, etc. When we read chapter twelve verse 12, however, light bulbs begin to flash in our heads. Because of the context, our brain tells us that verse 12 should read as follows: “For even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the church.” We expect that the author is now using the human body as an illustration of the Body of Christ, which is the church. But, instead, we are shocked to read, “…so also is the Christ.” We ponder anew what the church is! As a child we were told that the building on the street corner with stained glass and steeple was the church. In later years we came to know that the church is the regenerated people collectively—the assembly of the called out ones (ekklesia, in Greek). Now, this one word (or actually, the lack of one word that we expected to be there, and it being replaced by a different word) uplifts our entire view concerning the church: It is THE CHRIST!

Before his conversion, the author of this verse (Paul the apostle, who was formerly called Saul) was struck down by the Lord as he was traveling to Damascus to persecute the Christians there (Acts 9). The voice of the One who struck him said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” “Who are you, Lord,” responded the bewildered Saul. The answer came back, “I am Jesus whom you persecute!” No doubt, from that day forward this man had the strong realization that the people he was persecuting, those who have turned to the Lord Jesus, called upon His name, and gotten regenerated with the divine life, are truly part of Christ. May we similarly be so bedazzled by this revelation that we could have the proper discernment to know what is the church and what is not the church in the midst of the distorted world in which we live.