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"And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto
Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14: 3).
"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you" (John 14: 18).
"I go away, and come again unto you" (John 14: 28).
We must remember that, however wide the application of these passages may be, they
were spoken in the first place to the little band of disciples for their comfort and strength
at the time of the Lord's apprehension and death. In John 17: 20 the Lord
differentiates between those addressed here, and those who should hereafter believe
through their word, and unless we are to disregard all the statements of Matthew, and
make the twelve apostles members of the church of the mystery, we must beware of
reading into the revelation given in John 14: truth unrevealed at the time.
Seeing that the Lord was ministering to the comfort of those who would be left
"orphans" (14: 18), we do not get the details or the view point of prophecy, but instead
the statement that although the Lord was leaving them to go to the Father (verse 28),
When He came again He would receive them, be with them, and share with them
the prepared places in the house of many mansions. It does not require much
scriptural knowledge to see in this a reference to the holy city which shall come down
out of heaven. To dwell in the house of the Lord for ever was the hope of the writer of
Psa. 23: and of all the O.T. saints. The "Father's house" we suggest is the "tabernacle
of God" which John describes in Rev. 21: 3 and 9-27.
We know, of course, that many children of God look to the New Jerusalem as the
abode of all the redeemed, and would most certainly include the apostles of the Lamb in
the "church". To such we have no word here, for the argument would necessitate a
resumé of the purpose of the ages; moreover, the subject is dealt with in the pamphlet
entitled United yet Divided. Our words are at the moment directed to those who have
learned to discern between Israel and the church, and between the bride and the body.
Such will fail to discover in John's Gospel any direct or distinct testimony to the second
coming that would sever it from the teaching of Matthew and the O.T. Prophets. John's
remark in 21: 23 has no real bearing upon the matter, and with this reference our
examination of the testimony of the Gospels is brought to a conclusion. The witness is
one. The coming of the Lord is set before us as the coming of the Son of man to take the
kingdom and to reign, coming to give blessing and peace to those Israelites indeed who
are without guile, and to sit on the throne of His glory and divide the nations in
connection with their entry into the kingdom.
The next book to be examined is the Acts of the Apostles, and as this is a continuation
of the four Gospels, we shall have a check upon our findings by the comparison of the
two sets of teaching on this great subject.