Dispensationalists claim that John 14:2-3 is the first mention of the Rapture. John MacArthur says, “This is one of the passages that refers to the rapture of the saints at the end of the age when Christ returns.”1 But is this so? It reads: “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for 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 to myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
I am sorry, but there is absolutely nothing in this verse that even remotely hints at a secret Rapture. There is merely a promise from Jesus to the Christian believer that He will return to claim His own. “He said ‘I go to prepare a place for you,’ and this in connection with the statement that in His Father’s house, or universe, there are many abodes (John 14:1-3). Evidently not one of those abodes is in His estimation suitable for His Bride. Thus it comes about that He is preparing an abode which will be even more glorious than all within God’s creation at present. He is now thus engaged.”2
Matthew Poole writes, “The particle if in this place denoteth no uncertainty of the thing whereof he had before assured them; but in this place hath either the force of although, or after that: When, or after that, I have died, ascended, and by all these acts, as also by my intercession, shall have made places in heaven fully ready for you, I will in the last day return again, as Judge of the quick and the dead, and take you up into heaven, 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17; that you may be made partakers of my glory, John xvii. 22.”3
God said, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” (Isa. 65:17). Peter said, “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13). John said, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away” (Rev. 21:1). Could this be the place that Jesus has gone to prepare for us? I believe that it is.
If Jesus did not go to prepare a place for us, by means of his humiliation and exaltation, then there would be no place for us. Note what Mr. Hendriksen has said: “The coming again of which Jesus speaks in this verse is the counterpart of the going away. Cf. Acts 1:9-11. That fact explains its character. In all probability, therefore, it refers to the second coming, and its purpose is to enable Christ to receive the disciples into his loving presence, to abide with him forever.”4 In verse 4, Jesus says, “You know the way to where I am going.” When Thomas says that they do not know where He is going, then Jesus declares to them, “I am the way” (emphasis supplied).
The use of verses 2-3 in an attempt to support the doctrine of the Rapture demonstrates powerfully the fact that Dispensational Christians exude the classic example of hermeneutical “reaching.” That is, seeing in the passage what one already desires to find there. Dispensationalists impose the Rapture upon this text. Lewis Sperry Chafer incorrectly stated, “Earlier in this work the student has been reminded of the wide difference between two great events which, though in no way related, are each in their turn rightly styled a coming of Christ. The first in the chronological order is the signless, timeless, and prophetically unrelated coming of Christ into the air to gather the Church, His Body and Bride, to Himself; and that event, which might occur at any moment, marks the termination of the Church’s pilgrim sojourn on the earth. … This leads to the second coming of Christ per se, which is His glorious appearing.”5 In other words, “two great events, though in no way related, are each in their turn rightly styled a coming of Christ” is an admittance toward a second and third coming of Christ. But then he enters a state of denial and calls the third coming the second coming. Confusing, I know.
Because Dispensationalists are unwilling to admit the truth of what they believe and teach—that they have Jesus coming back for a second and third coming (in a similar manner to which the Mormons have had Him return a couple of times already), they have devised this scheme wherein they explain it away. They say, “Oh, well, He only comes into the air. He does not plant His feet on the earth, therefore it is not really a coming even though it is a coming.” How preposterous! I guess the next time I pull into your laneway to visit you, and then leave without coming into your home; I was never really at your house. Brothers and sisters, to read the Rapture into this verse is eisegesis (reading something into the text that is not there), and very poor hermeneutics (the art and science of studying the Bible).
If we examine what Jesus had to say, it eliminates any concept about believers being “raptured.” In John 17:15, Jesus prayed, “I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one” (emphasis supplied). The word translated “keep” is the Greek tereo (τηρεω), which literally means “to guard, to preserve.” You will see this word again later when we examine The Rapture in Revelation. For now, please note carefully the exact words that Jesus is saying in this verse and meditate on them.
To show the purpose of verses 1-3, I want to quote from Matthew Henry: “Here is a particular direction to act faith upon the promise of eternal life, v. 2, 3. He had directed them to trust to God, and to trust in him; but what must they trust God and Christ for? Trust them for a happiness to come when this body and this world shall be no more, and for a happiness to last as long as the immortal soul and the eternal world shall last. Now this is proposed as a sovereign cordial under all the troubles of this present time, to which there is that in the happiness of heaven which is admirably adapted and accommodated. The saints have encouraged themselves with this in their greatest extremities, That heaven would make amends for all.”6
1 John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, 1571.
2 Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, 5:277-278.
3 Matthew Poole, A Commentary on the Holy Bible, 3:353.
4 Hendriksen and Kistemaker, New Testament Commentary 4:265.
5 Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, 5:164.
6 Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary, 5:894.
I am sorry, but there is absolutely nothing in this verse that even remotely hints at a secret Rapture. There is merely a promise from Jesus to the Christian believer that He will return to claim His own. “He said ‘I go to prepare a place for you,’ and this in connection with the statement that in His Father’s house, or universe, there are many abodes (John 14:1-3). Evidently not one of those abodes is in His estimation suitable for His Bride. Thus it comes about that He is preparing an abode which will be even more glorious than all within God’s creation at present. He is now thus engaged.”2
Matthew Poole writes, “The particle if in this place denoteth no uncertainty of the thing whereof he had before assured them; but in this place hath either the force of although, or after that: When, or after that, I have died, ascended, and by all these acts, as also by my intercession, shall have made places in heaven fully ready for you, I will in the last day return again, as Judge of the quick and the dead, and take you up into heaven, 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17; that you may be made partakers of my glory, John xvii. 22.”3
God said, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” (Isa. 65:17). Peter said, “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13). John said, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away” (Rev. 21:1). Could this be the place that Jesus has gone to prepare for us? I believe that it is.
If Jesus did not go to prepare a place for us, by means of his humiliation and exaltation, then there would be no place for us. Note what Mr. Hendriksen has said: “The coming again of which Jesus speaks in this verse is the counterpart of the going away. Cf. Acts 1:9-11. That fact explains its character. In all probability, therefore, it refers to the second coming, and its purpose is to enable Christ to receive the disciples into his loving presence, to abide with him forever.”4 In verse 4, Jesus says, “You know the way to where I am going.” When Thomas says that they do not know where He is going, then Jesus declares to them, “I am the way” (emphasis supplied).
The use of verses 2-3 in an attempt to support the doctrine of the Rapture demonstrates powerfully the fact that Dispensational Christians exude the classic example of hermeneutical “reaching.” That is, seeing in the passage what one already desires to find there. Dispensationalists impose the Rapture upon this text. Lewis Sperry Chafer incorrectly stated, “Earlier in this work the student has been reminded of the wide difference between two great events which, though in no way related, are each in their turn rightly styled a coming of Christ. The first in the chronological order is the signless, timeless, and prophetically unrelated coming of Christ into the air to gather the Church, His Body and Bride, to Himself; and that event, which might occur at any moment, marks the termination of the Church’s pilgrim sojourn on the earth. … This leads to the second coming of Christ per se, which is His glorious appearing.”5 In other words, “two great events, though in no way related, are each in their turn rightly styled a coming of Christ” is an admittance toward a second and third coming of Christ. But then he enters a state of denial and calls the third coming the second coming. Confusing, I know.
Because Dispensationalists are unwilling to admit the truth of what they believe and teach—that they have Jesus coming back for a second and third coming (in a similar manner to which the Mormons have had Him return a couple of times already), they have devised this scheme wherein they explain it away. They say, “Oh, well, He only comes into the air. He does not plant His feet on the earth, therefore it is not really a coming even though it is a coming.” How preposterous! I guess the next time I pull into your laneway to visit you, and then leave without coming into your home; I was never really at your house. Brothers and sisters, to read the Rapture into this verse is eisegesis (reading something into the text that is not there), and very poor hermeneutics (the art and science of studying the Bible).
If we examine what Jesus had to say, it eliminates any concept about believers being “raptured.” In John 17:15, Jesus prayed, “I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one” (emphasis supplied). The word translated “keep” is the Greek tereo (τηρεω), which literally means “to guard, to preserve.” You will see this word again later when we examine The Rapture in Revelation. For now, please note carefully the exact words that Jesus is saying in this verse and meditate on them.
To show the purpose of verses 1-3, I want to quote from Matthew Henry: “Here is a particular direction to act faith upon the promise of eternal life, v. 2, 3. He had directed them to trust to God, and to trust in him; but what must they trust God and Christ for? Trust them for a happiness to come when this body and this world shall be no more, and for a happiness to last as long as the immortal soul and the eternal world shall last. Now this is proposed as a sovereign cordial under all the troubles of this present time, to which there is that in the happiness of heaven which is admirably adapted and accommodated. The saints have encouraged themselves with this in their greatest extremities, That heaven would make amends for all.”6
1 John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, 1571.
2 Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, 5:277-278.
3 Matthew Poole, A Commentary on the Holy Bible, 3:353.
4 Hendriksen and Kistemaker, New Testament Commentary 4:265.
5 Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, 5:164.
6 Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary, 5:894.