John 14:1-3


koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

conjoint lecturer Avondale College

Australia


For Seventh Day Adventists, John chapter 14 is the pinnacle of hope in an eschatological fulfillment. Included in the promise of better places than this earth, is the search for more believers. This pericope discusses the condition of the fulfillment of this hope, namely, that faith is necessary. Many other churches and their believers are also Adventists since they are also living in the expectation of the Advent of Christ and also using this same pericope. They are not Seventh Day Adventists but Adventists keeping the first day of the week. The time will come that they will have a chance to change to a proper understanding.


In contrast is the shocking statement by one of the most revered Theologians for other denominations, of the twentieth century: Rudolph Bultmann. Contrary to the statements by John, Paul and even Jesus, Bultmann said:

"We can no longer look for the return of the Son of Man on the clouds of heaven, or hope that the faithful will meet him in the air" (in H.-V. Bartsch, Kerugma and Myth, I: 1-25, especially page 4).

What, we ask, gives Bultmann the authority to remove from the Word of God the actual words of John, Jesus and Paul and boldly deny anything they have said and still call himself a Theologian?

There is no need to stay long with Bultmann, since he also deny resurrection, atonement, He denied it because it cannot be proven objectively. He argues that the Bible have contradictory statements about Christ. He questions the incarnation.

He said "What a primitive mythology it is that a divine being should become incarnate, atone for the sins of men through his own blood" (ibid., pages 7-8). This was in 1962 and 1964 amid a time for the upsurge of the Beatles, Elvis Presley, bubblegum, long hair for men, mini skirts, body tatoos, peace signs and drug abuses. So, is Bultmann just the hippie theologian? This is the easiest way to shelve him.

It is well known that Bultmann was influenced in 1962 by the ideas of Jonas Marburg who was a specialist in Gnostic Religion. Marburg graduated in 1928 under Martin Heidegger and Marburg said

"the extrication of the inner self which only thus can gain self . . . " is in our opinion Buddhism at best (see Jonas Marburg, "Epilogue: Gnosticism, Existentialism, and Nihilism" in The Gnostic Religion [1963]: 320.

It was Marburg that Bultmann used in 1941 in his famous essay on demythologization. This was in the middle of World War II. Siegfried Horn was a product of World War II since he studied biblical languages while in detention and he became one of the beacons of the Word of God but Bultmann spent his time during the same years in destroying the Bible. Said Ian Hartley once: Two men sat behind bars, the one saw mud, the other stars.

We cannot afford to waste time with hermeneutics of skepticism and its disciples. Therefore, we move forward with hermeneutics of affirmation.

Affirming that the Bible is the very Word of God, affirming that it is real history and affirming that it has real messages for all mankind, including me in this year, John chapter 14 has much to offer.

Jesus asked His disciples not to be worried. He asked them to believe.

He then said that there is ample room in heaven. In His Father's house there are many dwellings (monoi). They are actually there and in existence already (eisin). At the time Jesus spoke they were a present reality. There were dwellings for all in heaven 2000 years ago already.

Jesus said that He is going to prepare a place (topon) for them and for all mankind.

Question: If there are many dwellings already in heaven for all then what is the place or topon that Jesus was to prepare or still in need of preparing?

This is a very important question.

The answer is even more important.

Jesus explained that He has to go out (poreutho) and prepare a place. It does not say places (topoi) and has no relation to dwellings or monoi. It is only one place.

The book of Hebrews fill us in here with the function, activities and work of Christ from His ascension until His Advent. Hebrews indicate that Jesus has to complete the Atonement.

Atonement is an umbrella concept in the New Testament that involves no less than seven phases. The funny thing about the Atonement of the Bible, is that it was already completed, not at the cross, but before the Creation of the World in the Eternal Covenant between the Trinity. This is the most important phase of the Atonement since salvation is by the Trinity and what the Sovereign God decides to do is more important than anything else. From our point of view, it was the Prospective Atonement but in their (Trinity's view) it was the Consumated Atonement. For us it feels as if it was not real yet, but for God who knows the end from the beginning, there is no uncertainty as to its outcome.

The cross was the completion of the ransom paid by the Trinity for the guilt of sinners, the penalty paid thus. This is in 31 CE on the cross.

When Jesus entered the Heavenly sanctuary, and especially as priest in the First Apartment of the Heavenly sanctuary, according to the book of Hebrews, He assists the believer with the breaking of the power of sin or sanctification. Every day He is available for them.

In 1844, calculated with the year day principle of the 2300 days prophecy of Daniel 8:14, Jesus moved from the Holy to the Most Holy and the Antetypical "Day of Atonement" started with Christ inaugurating the Honorification Atonement process. This in essence means that the process that now is running by Christ in heaven, is an Investigative Judgment of the Saints or the house of God first. The dead first then the living. Books are opened as Daniel 7 indicate and Christ appear in front of the Ancient of Days, or His Father. The audience are interested in the stigma of the saints and what is removed in this process in the heavenly courts, are the stigma of sin in the eyes of the heavenly beings. That is why it a honorification process. Thus, it is the Honorification Atonement phase.

At the Advent of Christ will be the Glorification of the saints when they will be made perfect or resurrected to perfection. This Glorification Atonement phase.

During the 1000 years that followed, as the book of Revelation indicates, the saints in heaven will inquire as to why their loved ones are not there. It is the Inquiring Atonement meaning, that the saints in heaven's tears are finally wiped off by Christ and they make peace with the bad news.

Finally, the last phase of the Atonement arrived. This is the executive judgement or in other words, Hell. With the extinction of all evil, God complete the Atonement and there will be no more evil. This is the Eradication Atonement.


a. Consumated Atonement among the Trinity

b. Completed Ransom Payment Atonement at the cross.

c. Sanctification Atonement for the believer

d. Honorification Atonement since 1844 or the end of the 2300 years of Daniel 8:14

e. Glorification Atonement at the Advent

f. Inquiring Atonement during the 1000 years

g. Eradication Atonement at the final Executive Judgment on the wicked.


John 14 says that Jesus said that He is going to prepare a place or topon for them. Jesus was and is very busy. We can see that after the cross Jesus had many things to do, sanctification of the believer, which is helping the sinner here on earth with assistance and power of the Holy Spirit. Probably the honorification atonement is the closest we can come to a place that Christ has to prepare.

Topon is not a house, or space, but a status and reputation and stigma removal in the views of the audience in heaven that are before the Ancient of Days, described in Daniel 7. This is the work of the Son of Man on our behalf, even after the cross, and the book of Hebrews establish that fact for us.


Says Ellen White on this passage

"For your sake I [Jesus] came into the world. I am working in your behalf. When I go away, I shall still work earnestly for you" DA 663.


Dear Jesus, you prepare for us a place in heaven. There are many mansions but you o Savior Divine, on our behalf, intercedes for us to clear our reputation. There is a place of reputation, there is a place of clean stigma, there is a place in the heart of God and in the eyes of the unfallen worlds for us. All because you prepare a place for us in the Investigative court in heaven. O Priest divine, o King divine, we all worship you in Jesus name, Amen.