p. 393 | THE MANY MANSIONS by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 19, 1900

THE MANY MANSIONS.

By Uriah Smith

“In my Father's house are many mansions.” In our Lord's parting words to his disciples, before his final ascension to the right hand of the throne of the majesty on high, he set before them a picture based on promise, experience, and prophecy; taking in the whole scope of the plan of redemption, and giving them a glimpse of the glad destiny of those who love and serve the Lord. It is in the often-quoted and familiar language of John 14:1–3: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 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.”

In all this declaration, there is no element lacking to make assurance doubly sure. It begins with the basis upon which must rest all religious experience—belief in God. “Ye believe in God.” But “without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Heb. 11:6. Our relation to God, as here revealed, would lead us to expect that if we were basing unwarranted hopes upon his promises, he would undeceive us in this respect. But our hope of immortality through him is uncontradicted by him. “If it were not so, I would have told you.”

The place to which our Lord points us, he calls his “Father's house;” and Paul says that “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Then when Christ returns to take us to himself, to be with him where he is, we, too, are in our Father's house. It is our paternal home.

It is a place that Christ prepares for us: “I go to prepare a place for you.” To do this, it was necessary for him to go away from this earth. But the more immediate purpose of his absence was that he might send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. Thus he said to them: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” John 16:7.

It was the purpose of God in redemption to renew us after the divine likeness, to build up again that image, which, in our first parents, had been ruined. This was to be the especial work of the Holy Spirit; and our Lord taught his disciples, again and again, that this could not be done without his being taken from them, and going to the Father.

The ascension was, moreover, necessary for the manifestation of Christ's sovereignty. No manifestation of majesty here upon earth could ever have been equivalent to the resumption by Christ of the glory that he had with the Father before the world was.

Another great necessity for the removal of our Lord from this world was that he might perform his efficient and merciful office as high priest for us in the heavenly tabernacle. And, further, his ascension has become to us the token of the entire acceptance of the Saviour's sacrificial work for mankind, in our nature. Our thoughts and affections should therefore be directed to the place whither he has gone before. “If we really love our Saviour, and his glorified humanity is to us the spring of our joy and the center of our interests, though the world

may catch our fleeting thoughts and our less earnest attentions, he will have our most serious determinations, and our deepest affections. The world may be our tabernacle; but the place where he is will be our home.”

Our Lord makes mention of the amplitude of our future abiding place: “In my Father's house are many mansions.” How many?—Let us learn from other comparisons. In Heb. 2:10 we read: “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” “Many sons.” “Many mansions.” As many mansions as there are sons to fill them. The promise to Abraham was that he should be the father of many nations. How many?—Every nation, kindred, tongue, and people; for out of all these the children of Abraham are to be gathered at last. “If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal. 3:29.

How many mansions?—Enough to accommodate all these children of Abraham; and it was meet that the patriarch should be favored with a view of this place. So the apostle says that, on the strength of the promise, he “looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Heb. 11:10. In verse 16 of the same chapter we read further, respecting the ancient worthies: “But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.” And the apostle exclaims, in Heb. 13:14: “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” What is this continuing city which they seek?—None other than that city, spoken of before, which is founded and built by God,—the city which hath many mansions, and is the Father's house,—a city “prepared” for those who are seeking a better country, even a heavenly. “I go,” said Christ, “to prepare a place for you.” What place does he go to prepare?—It can be only this heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, the presence of which so changes the feelings of God toward his people, that he is “not ashamed” to call them brethren, for this very reason that he “hath prepared for them a city.”

John gives us a more definite view of this marvelous city, in Revelation 21. He mentions the foundations, which well might have arrested the gaze of Abraham, as they are composed of superimposed layers of most precious stones, filling the whole area inclosed within the broad outlines of the foundation itself; while on the line of the promenade that marks the limit of the city proper, in emerald beauty rises the jasper wall. And all within—the golden, polished streets; the dazzling façades, the columned porches; the gateways, minarets, and towers; all lighted with the glory of God, which shames into utter invisibility the most vivid, blinding beams of the noonday sun—present a scene of incomprehensible glory; the conception of which, as Paul well says, has never entered into the heart of man, and any description of which would be essayed in vain by any human tongue. 1 Cor. 2:9. This is the Father's house which is prepared for them that love him, to take them to which our Lord will, by and by, return, that where he is, there they may be also.

“A tent or a cottage, why should I care? They're building a palace for me over there; Though exiled from home, yet still I may sing, All glory to God; I'm a child of the King.”

In John's description, the angel had a golden reed with which to take the dimensions of the city. The length of the city was equal to the breadth; and the measurement he reported was 12,000 furlongs. This being the entire circumference of the city, according to the ancient custom of measuring places, we have a length of 3,000 furlongs for each of the four sides. There being eight furlongs to the mile, we have 375 miles for each of the four sides of the city. This gives an area of 140,625 square miles, within the walls of the city.

Now, for the sake of easy comparison, let us take one of the rectangular States of the Union, as, for instance, Wyoming, which is 360 miles long by 270 miles wide. This would give about 97,200 square miles as the superficial area of the State; but the New Jerusalem is so much larger that it would take in the entire State of Wyoming, bodily, and still have 43,425 square miles to spare. But perhaps the illustration would be a little more forcible, to take the better-known State of Iowa, which is 300 miles long, east and west, and 220 wide. Here we have an area of 66,000 square miles, which would not take up all the space in the New Jerusalem, into 74,625 square miles. Truly, here is space enough for the “many mansions” of the Father's house.

It is to be inferred that these mansions were not ready for occupancy at the time of Christ's ascension; for his language pertains to the future: “I go,” he said, “to prepare a place for you.” It can not therefore be that any of the great bodies of the stellar worlds constitute the “Father's house,” of this scripture, or any of the mansions to which Christ refers; for these starry worlds were all finished away back in the beginning. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” Gen. 2:1. They can not therefore be the place which Christ went away to prepare, when he said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” And his work since he ascended has not been that of creating new planets.

But does it not read, “In my Father's house are many mansions,” and that God “hath prepared” for them a city, as if the work was then already done?—Yes; but students of Scripture well know that the past or present tenses are often put for the future, according to the law to which appeal is often legitimately made, to adjust the different tenses of Scripture to accord with the facts in the case. Rom. 4:17 explains: “God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” So the sacred writer, over seven hundred years before Christ appeared at his first advent in this world, made this declaration: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,” etc., because that thing was sure to be. And Christ said that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living; and still he said that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they were all then dead. But it was all right, because they were sure to live again. And though Paul wrote of the ancient worthies, that God “hath prepared for them a city,” it is evident that it was prepared only in determination and purpose; for he writes again, saying: “For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come;” and this city which they looked forward to, which was to come, is and was only that city which he said that God “hath prepared.” God speaks of some things which are not, as if they were, because they are so sure to be. In like manner John says that the beast and the false prophet were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. This has not yet taken place, but it is spoken in the past tense, because the time certainly is coming when it will be so.

Another objection to the view that the starry worlds constitute the “Father's house,” in which are the “many mansions,” is that, in that case, our own little world would be one of them; and then it would follow that we are already in the Father's house, and that, so far, the prophecy has been fulfilled unto us—a depressing thought which would be too heavy to bear.

The most direct, simple, literal, and consistent application seems to be that the holy city, the New Jerusalem, is the Father's house; that its innumerable apartments, or dwelling-places, are the many mansions which are being fitted for the saints; that these mansions were not in readiness when Christ ascended, but he went to prepare them, as he said; and when this is done, he will come again, and take his people to the place made ready.

“He is fitting up my mansion, which eternally shall stand; For my stay shall not be transient in that holy, happy land;”

and all this is as yet unseen to mortal eyes. The glass through which we view it is the word of God; and the light in which it is seen is the light of faith. It is not a question of science or of astronomy, grand as that is, but wholly a matter of faith. “The things which are not seen are eternal.”

But, sad thought! all will not attain to that which is intended for them. Christ has died and opened the way to eternal bliss for all; but how many, by unbelief and perversity of life, will cause it to be that, in their cases, his death has been in vain. So there are mansions being fitted up for certain ones who will never occupy them. Crowns are being designed for certain ones, which they will never wear; palm branches are intended for certain ones who will never wave them in the triumph of the great day. What a miscarriage that will be! Alas that man has power thus to frustrate the beneficent and eternity-spanning designs of heaven in his behalf! “He that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth,” says, “Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” Rev. 3:11.

U. S.