Jeffrey Bowden
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- Dec 25, 2023
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You are butchering the context and meaning of John 14:2-3 (ESV): In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.Exactly
Any time you see the words coming of our Lord it is talking about the second advent. You cannot apply those words to both a pretrib rapture and the second coming. Can you not see that makes no sense whatsoever? You can't just pick and choose which verse you want to apply to a pretrib rapture. Which you already tried to do with 1st John 2:28. The word "coming" implies just that. He's coming. He's descending from Heaven and we will be meeting the Lord. John tells the churches that he cometh with clouds and all eyes see him. To say otherwise would be adding to the word.
And why would Christ leave out something so important in Matthew 24 if a pretrib rapture were possible? After the disciples as for when and what will be the signs be about "his coming"? What coming is that? The coming of our Lord Jesus. It's as simple as that. One more coming -His.
Matthew 24:31 "And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
That's the gathering back together that Paul talks about. No two writers usually give the exact same description. But just like the gospels, Paul is describing the same event. Usually when you have the same account written by different people, you will get an even more rounded picture.
Christ did not have to talk about the dead. Gathering his elect (all in Christ) from one end of heaven to another is sufficient enough in that instance. The reason Paul brought up the dead in Christ was because that was the original subject in his letter to them starting with 1st 4:13. He was trying to comfort them and stated that they would be included. That's why he's coming from it at that angle and why it's worded different or do you not know the original subject? It's still the same "coming of the Lord". Those words alone again tells us that this is the Second Coming/Advent.
I Thessalonians 4:15 "For we say unto you, by the word of our Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent in no wise them which are asleep."
Same trumpet
Matthew 24:30 "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."
Matthew 24:31 "And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
Thessalonians 4:16 "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first;"
It does not state that.
Christ states when talking about the tribulation-
Luke 21:28 "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
He doesn't tell them they will be raptured away. He just laid out the tribulation and states after these things pass, then you can look up..
He also states during this time-
Luke 21:19 "In your patience possess ye your souls."
That's what's going to get you through, not some pretrib rapture. Patience to wait on the Lord and abide in him so that one not be ashamed before him at his coming. That's the truth. That's what's written. There are no holes, just scripture.
Again, this is not a pretrib rapture
John 14:3 "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."
Mansion in the Greek is mone
3438 a staying i.e. residence (the act or the place) abode, mansion.
Where do we abide at this moment? In Christ. That's what he's talking about. The Holy Spirit/the comforter
We have to read this entire passage to get the context.
John 14:4 "And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know."
John 14:5 "Thomas saith unto Him, "Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way?
Thomas is asking him how can we know the way, but Christ doesn't talk about a rapture to Heaven he continues-
John 14:6 "Jesus saith unto him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me."
He's talking about he way to the Father is through him. He's not talking about a pretrib rapture.
John 14:7 "If ye had know Me, ye should have known My Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him."
John 14:8 "Philip saith unto Him, "Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
John 41:9 "Jesus saith unto him, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, 'Shew us the Father' "
John 14:10 "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The Words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father That dwelleth in Me, He doeth the Works."
John 14:11 "Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works' sake."
John 14:12 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father."
John 14:13 "And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."
John 14:14 "If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it."
John 14:15 "If ye love Me, keep My commandments."
John 14:16 "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever
This is what Christ is talking about. The word abide has the same prime root as mansion/mone -meaning a stay.
John 14:17 "Even the Spirit of truth; Whom the world cannot receive, because It seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."
Dwelleth and abide are the same Greek word. It all goes back to mansion/mone.
John 14:18 "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."
John 14:19 "Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live also."
John 14:20 "At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you."
This verse goes back to verse 3. We are in him as he is in us.
John 14:3 "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."
It's about making our abode with him and he with us. The disciples didn't start asking questions about a pretrib rapture to Heaven. The discussion did not pertain to that at all. Context is very important.
Once he does descends from Heaven, then it is the time for the restitution of "all things" A pretrib rapture doesn't fit there at all. Restitution means restore. He will come and usher in that restoration. He will not leave Heaven before that time. Acts 3:21 it is written.
Verse 2 through the beginning of verse 3, are about Jesus preparing a "room" for each of us as our future home in Heaven.
Where is Jesus now?
Verse 3 continues: I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
In this context, "I will come again" along with "and will take you to myself" means Jesus will come back only to rapture us to Heaven, where He is now, and where He has prepared a "room" for each of us to live in, in Heaven.
Again, Jesus is in Heaven, and He will come for us before the wrath to come (1 Th 1:10) which starts no later than the 2nd seal (wars are a certified form of God's wrath, certified as such in Ezekiel 14:21 NLT: “Now this is what the Sovereign Lord says: How terrible it will be when all four of these dreadful punishments fall upon Jerusalem—war, famine, wild animals, and disease—destroying all her people and animals.)
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