Many Christians still hold a superstitious concept concerning the so-called heavenly mansion; John 14:3 is their basis for believing that the Lord Jesus has gone to the heavens to prepare such a mansion for them. According to the King James version of the Bible verses 2 and 3 of John 14 say, “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. 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.” Based upon the King James rendering, many believe that the Lord has gone to prepare a heavenly mansion in the heavens. Then He will come again and will receive the believers to Himself that where He is they also may be.
The superstition is that for so many centuries many Christians preached and taught that once a believer dies he immediately goes to the heavenly mansion. However, many of them also believe that according to this verse once the heavenly mansion will be completed, the Lord will come back to receive the believer into this mansion. Even if we did believe that what is mentioned in 14:2 is the heavenly mansion, this verse does not indicate that immediately after we die we go into this mansion because 14:3 says the Lord will come again to receive us. These verses in John do not say that after we die we will go to the heavenly mansion. According to the Lord’s word in 14:3 many Christians hold the concept that the Lord is now preparing the heavenly mansion and that after He is finished He will come back to receive the believers. If this is the case, then as long as the Lord is not here yet, this indicates that the heavenly mansion has not yet been completed. According to this interpretation of the Bible we must ask, “After a believer dies, where shall he go?” How can they go to the so-called heavenly mansion when it is not yet ready? This shows us the foolish, blind, nonsensical, superstition based upon these verses. In these verses the Lord does not say, “I am going to prepare a heavenly mansion. Then I will come back to receive you, but in case you die during the time I am preparing the mansion, you still may come to me. I am there waiting for you.” The Lord only said that He would go to prepare a place and come again to receive the believers there. For centuries many Christians taught people using John 14:2-3 as a basis, especially at funerals. They read this portion and told people that the Lord has prepared a place in heaven. Nobody asked them, however, why the Lord had not come yet since He had already prepared a place. John 14:3 does not say that the believers go to the Lord, but it says that the Lord will come back to receive them to Himself.
Another portion of the Scriptures also tells us that at the Lord’s coming back “the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are living, who are left remaining, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thes. 4:16-17). This portion of the Word shows us clearly that the dead saints are not in the heavens because they will be raised up. If they had already gone to the heavens, then when the Lord comes back they would come with the Lord. This shows us that many Christians, including many Christian teachers, became drugged with this concept of the heavenly mansion. They did not consider the pure Word. Even J. N. Darby, in his Synopsis of the Books of the Bible, told people that the Lord was going to prepare a place and that we all would go there. We can see from this that Darby, who was called the king of the expositors, was also wrong in his interpretation of John 14:2-3.
Let us read Psalm 36:8-9 to see something further: “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light” (KJV). For many years I wondered how a house could have fatness. It is possible for edible things to have fatness. Chicken, fish, and cattle may have fatness. How could a house, though, have fatness? Psalm 36:8 says they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of God’s house. God’s house does have the fatness, but what is the fatness? The definition of the word fatness according to the Hebrew dictionary of the Strong’s Concordance is very interesting and meaningful. Strong’s says that figuratively speaking fatness means “abundance” and specifically refers to the fatty ashes of sacrifices. The fatness of God’s house comes from the sacrifices, the offerings. All the offerings in the Old Testament were types of the all-inclusive Christ; therefore, the fatness of God’s house refers to the riches of Christ. All of the offerings are types of Christ and the fatty ashes of these offerings are the signs of His accomplishment. When you see the ashes of the offerings, they tell you that everything you need has been accomplished by Christ’s death, by His being offered to God. Now we are here “enjoying these ashes.” This is a figurative speaking of Christ being the rich sacrifices through His death, and this is the fatness of God’s house. This verse also tells us that the Lord shall make us to drink of the river of His pleasures. The fatness refers to Christ, and the river refers to the Spirit. Then verse 9 says, “For with You is the fountain of life.” This refers to God the Father as the source, as the fountain, not the spring. The fountain is the real source, while the spring is the springing up, the bubbling up, of the fountain. The fountain of life refers to the Father as the very source of life. Verse 9 continues to say, “In Your light we see light.” Light also refers to the Father. The Father is not only the source of life but also the source of light. Life comes first and then light. This corresponds with John 1:4: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Even in such a short portion of the Word in the poetry of the ancient psalmist we can see the Divine Trinity. We can see Christ as the fatness, the Spirit as the river, and the Father as the source of life and light. This is marvelous!
Strictly speaking, in the Old Testament there was no grace yet. Grace had not yet been given because grace came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). This Psalm shows us, however, that even in the dispensation of law some of the Old Testament saints who were seeking after God enjoyed the Trinity in the temple. They were abundantly satisfied with the fatness of God’s house. In the temple of God, the ancient saints could participate in the enjoyment of the Triune God—the fatness of Christ, the living water of the Spirit, and the life and light of God the Father as the fountain. Today in the so-called church, today’s Christendom, there is very little satisfaction with the fatness, drinking of the river of God’s pleasures, and realization of the fountain of life and light. Many Christians talk about “the heavenly mansion” with no thought or no concept whatsoever concerning the satisfaction of the fatness, concerning the drinking of the living water, and concerning the fountain of life and of light. According to their concept, they merely have a bare heavenly mansion. When they talk about the New Jerusalem, they do not have the realization and they do not care for the fatness for satisfaction, the river of God’s pleasures for His people’s drinking, and the fountain of life and light. This is why when we come to John 14, we must look at the house according to the entire context of this chapter. If we would read chapters fourteen through seventeen of John by dropping the concept that the Father’s house is the heavenly mansion, we would be able to see how much fatness is in these four chapters and what a river of God’s pleasures is flowing there with God the Father as the fountain of life and light.
Many Christians only take verses 2 and 3 of John 14 to say that the Father’s house is the heavenly mansion. They do not relate the rest of the four chapters (John 14—17) to these few verses. If they would relate this context to these verses, it would take away their traditional, human, natural, religious, and superstitious mentality. They would realize that the Father’s house could not be a bare house, a heavenly mansion. It must be a house full of the fatness of Christ, a house where the living water is flowing, and a house where the fountain of life and light can be found. Today this is the church. In a proper church life there are the riches of Christ for your satisfaction, the flowing of the river to quench your thirst, and the fountain, a source of light and life. This is not only defined, described, offered, and presented in John 14 through 17, but it is also presented in all the Epistles. Paul’s writings are filled with the fatness, the unsearchable riches of Christ. The river as the Spirit of life is richly flowing in the fourteen Epistles of Paul. Also, concerning the church life in Paul’s Epistles one can discover and find a fountain of life and light. Then this house will consummate in the New Jerusalem. In the ultimate consummation we see exactly the same thing—the fatness, the river, and the fountain of life and light.
Even in the dispensation of law before the dispensation of the New Testament age, the seeking saints were enjoying the Triune God. They did not need to go to the heavens to enjoy Him, but they could and did enjoy the Triune God in His dwelling place on this earth. If this was the case with them, how much more should we then enjoy the Triune God in such a high way today in His dwelling place on this earth, the church. Where is the church? The church is where the fatness, the flowing river, and the fountain of life and light are. Some people may claim that they are the church. However, if there is no fatness of Christ, no flowing river of the Spirit, and no fountain of life and light, that is not the proper church. The proper church is a house where the fatness of Christ is satisfying people, where the Spirit flows as the river of God’s pleasures, and where the fountain of life and light could be found. This is the church, not in heaven but on earth, and this will consummate in the New Jerusalem where the Triune God will be our enjoyment in the same way.