MANSIONS IN HEAVEN! DFO 1391 France, 21/12/80
1. IN OUR FATHER'S HOUSE THERE MUST BE MANY MANSIONS TO HAVE ROOM FOR US ALL! (Jn.14:2) Do you know the literal meaning of "mansions"? Well, I hate to disillusion people who've had a traditional preconceived idea of Heaven--like that guy that got mad at me & stomped out of my class when I said that I wasn't planning on going to Heaven! He said, "Well, I am!"--And stomped out! He didn't give me a chance to explain that Heaven was going to be here on Earth, not way off yonder in Outer Space somewhere--which is a misconception most church people have, & most Christians, that it's way off somewhere in some unknown place!
2. GOD CREATED THIS EARTH FOR YOU & ME, FOR MAN, & science is beginning to find out what God & the Bible knew all the time, that there's no place else in the whole Solar System that even begins to hold a candle to it! Every place else is a mess or desolate! It no doubt has its function in its influence on our life here, but the Solar System was created for the benefit of the Earth, not the Earth for the Solar System. And the whole Universe was created for our benefit as well! So I think it's very unlikely that there is any other form of life, particularly any type of human life, anywhere else in the Universe, except for the departed spirits & angels, & they could be in a lot of places!
3. THE EARTH WAS MADE FOR YOU, & HERE'S WHERE YOU'RE GOING TO STAY!--Not only for the Millennium, but you're going to come back afterwards for the New Heaven & New Earth & be here forever! So if you don't like it I'm sure sorry for you, but I think you're going to like it! I was leading up to a point on that. (Family: "In My Father's house are many mansions.") Yes, thank you!--Traditional conceptions of Heaven.
4. IN A WAY, I DON'T LIKE TO DESTROY PEOPLE'S STEREOTYPED IDEAS, BUT IN A WAY I DO! I guess I do like to smash the idols & be an idol-smasher! What's the other word for it? (Family: Iconoclast!) I kind of like to smash people's idols, especially when they're false & not true. I've used the expression myself & I've talked about those mansions in Heaven, how some people are only going to get a cottage & other people are going to get a lot more, & there IS going to be a lot of room in that big City!--But I don't know that you need a lot of acreage for every residence.
5. WHEN WE THINK OF A MANSION, WHAT DO WE THINK OF?--A huge big house, don't we? Well, what is each one of us going to need with a big huge house all to ourselves?--I'd be kind of lonesome myself! I'd rather have you all living there with me! So even if there were big houses, none of us really take up very much room, do we? We live in separate rooms & apartments etc. even in the big houses. Some Bible interpreters & translators agree that the word in the New Testament translated "mansions" doesn't means LARGE quarters, but something more like DIFFERENT quarters. And another translator claims that the modern equivalent would be APARTMENTS--commodious, no doubt luxurious apartments!
6. YOU DON'T LIKE APARTMENTS?--WELL, ASK THE LORD FOR A FARMHOUSE! I'm sure He'll try to oblige! But you might have to take it outside the City, out in the country somewhere if you insist on a farmhouse, & your neighbours wouldn't be quite as congenial that way! Because all the SAVED are going to be living INSIDE the City, & there are going to be other classes outside. So you'd sort of be living in a lower class neighbourhood if you live outside, & you might not particularly like your neighbours. But inside we'll all be saved & love the Lord & will be receivers of our rewards! PTL!
7. PRAISE GOD, THAT'LL BE OUR LAST MOVE! I was just telling Maria the other night as we were walking home, "Well, thank the Lord that's one move we won't have to worry about baggage or luggage or what clothes to wear or take with us! We won't have to do any packing, we won't have to do any loading, we won't have to do any shipping, we won't have to do any hitching & travelling or buying tickets or boarding trains or planes, & we won't even need a passport or a visa--we've already got it!" TTL!
8. YOU'VE ALREADY GOT YOUR PASSPORT, VISA, & TICKET HOME, & there's nothing that you have here that you'll need there, except what has already been sent in the way of souls & those that will follow! PTL? Isn't that wonderful? Won't that be a relief? All you'll have to do is just shut your eyes & you're on your way! Amen? I mean, death for a Christian is not death. Jesus said, "He that believeth on Me shall never die!" (Jn.11:26)
9. YOU WON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT AN UNSAVED DEATH IS LIKE, YOU'LL JUST BE PASSING ON, LIKE GOING THROUGH A DOOR OR THROUGH A TUNNEL! Many who've come back say it's kind of like going through a tunnel with light at the other end, brighter than anything you've ever seen! Nearly all of them testify the light is brighter than the sun, yet it didn't hurt their eyes! Isn't that amazing? And what a Reception Committee!--Either the Lord Himself or one of His angels, & your best friends & loved ones that have gone on before! You're going to get to see all of them! They'll welcome you there & guide you & lead you & introduce you & show you the ropes & show you around & help you get settled! You couldn't expect better than that, could you?
10. BECAUSE HE'S GONE TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU, THAT WHERE HE IS, THERE YOU MAY BE ALSO! FOR IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE, HE SAID, ARE MANY MANSIONS! (Jn.14:2,3) If you expected to have some lofty fancy huge villa on Main Street or something, well, you might be disappointed!--But I doubt it! I think when you see what He has for you there, you'll agree that "eye had not seen & ear had not heard, neither had it entered into the heart of man" what the Lord had in store for you! (1Co.2:9)--Things you didn't even imagine could be so beautiful & so wonderful, & I'm sure you'll be quite satisfied with your quarters--even if it's only one room or in a small apartment!
11. I'M REMINDED OF THE OLD TALE ABOUT THE RICH WOMAN WHO DIDN'T DO VERY MUCH FOR THE LORD, AN OLD PREACHER'S STORY. The angel was leading her to her Heavenly Home past all these beautiful mansions where other Christians were living, & finally they got down to kind of a poor section of shanties. The angel led her through the gate into the yard of this little tiny hut & she said, "I'm used to very fine quarters & very luxurious accommodations! What's the big idea of giving me this little tiny hut?"
12. THE ANGEL SAID, "WELL, YOU KNOW, OUR ABODES UP HERE ARE BUILT OF WHAT YOU SENT ON BEFORE, & YOU DIDN'T SEND VERY MUCH!"--In other words, she hadn't given very much, she hadn't helped the poor much, she hadn't done much for the Lord, she hadn't sent very many materials ahead. So he said, "This is all we've got! This is all you sent."--Whereas others had sacrificed & given everything for the Lord & lived their whole lives for Him & helped many others, & GREAT was their reward in Heaven! (Lk.6:35)
13. "FOR THEY THAT TURN MANY TO RIGHTEOUSNESS SHALL SHINE AS THE STARS OF THE FIRMAMENT FOREVER!" PTL? But others shall be raised to everlasting shame & contempt"--even though saved! (Dan.12:2,3) But what a shame to be forever ashamed of how little you did for the Lord & others, how little material you sent ahead, & be held in everlasting contempt by others who did their best for the Lord!
14. AS I'VE SAID BEFORE, HEAVEN IS NOT A CLASSLESS SOCIETY! It's a very class-conscious society! There will be all kinds of grades & levels of reward, just like there will be all kinds of grades & levels of punishment in the OTHER place--wherever or whatever it is. Jesus Himself said that some would be beaten with FEW stripes, their punishment will be light & short, but others who deserved it will be beaten with MANY stripes, long & hard. (Lk.12:47,48)
15. SO THERE WILL BE DEGREES OF PUNISHMENT AS WELL AS DEGREES OF REWARD IN THE HEREAFTER! There's the same salvation for us all, same City, but apparently there's going to be differences in the section of town you live in. After all, as I told you before, this life & nearly everything in it is a type or foreshadowing of the spiritual or the Hereafter.--And if cities today have nice sections & not-so-good sections, believe it or not, Heaven will too! But don't misunderstand me, there's not going to be anything as bad in Heaven as there is here! Even the worst neighbourhood of Heaven will be better than the best neighbourhood of the fanciest town on Earth! So even if you're living in a hut or a shanty, it's going to be better than whatever you could have had here.
16. BUT HE CALLED THEM "MANSIONS", WHICH SOUNDS RATHER ROOMY! We've always lived in mansions here, haven't we? It's wonderful what you can do if you live together & cooperate & share what you can afford to enjoy. Just think, the selfish rich man who built this place or bought it or whatever, he's so selfish that he's not even getting to enjoy living in it! Think of it, he's running out of money! He'd rather live in the big city--at least his family apparently would. Maybe he'd rather live here, I don't know. And here we get to enjoy it when really he paid for it! The little bit of rent we pay is nothing compared to what it cost him!--Ha!
17. I HAVE TO LAUGH SOMETIMES WHEN I THINK ABOUT HOW MANY MANSIONS & FINE HOMES WE'VE GOTTEN TO ENJOY THAT THE RICH WHO OWNED THEM COULDN'T EVEN ENJOY!--And at just a fraction of what it cost them! I told Maria the other day as we were walking past all these beautiful farms & everything, I said, "Just think, I'll bet you we enjoy these roads & these walks & looking at this scenery & these farms & enjoy everything about them more than the farmer has!"--Except the dogs! Well, they're kind of fun too, a little challenge! I said, "I'll bet we have walked these roads more than the farmer has! He hasn't got time, he's too busy working trying to make money & survive, poor fellow! I bet we've walked these roads more, enjoyed looking at all these beautiful places & farms & the lovely scenery more than anybody else who lives out here, & it doesn't cost us a thing!"
18. WE CAN SEE THIS PRICELESS VIEW OF THE SUNSET & IT DOESN'T COST US A THING! Oh, we pay a little rent, but you've got to pay rent anywhere. But we can walk past all these fine homes & beautiful mansions & enjoy their beauty & looking at them & living in one of them ourselves, & it has cost us almost nothing compared to what it has cost the owners! Think of it!
19. GOD'S CHILDREN GET TO ENJOY THE BEST FOR ALMOST NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT IT COSTS THE RICH! The owners have got all the worry of ownership, title, responsibility, insurance & worrying about its condition & its upkeep & its maintenance & its value & its deterioration & its devaluation. They've got all the worry & all the headaches & all the responsibility & all the trouble, & we just get to enjoy it! Of course, we do a little fixing up here & there & pick up a few rocks & make a few improvements to make it even a little bit more pleasant for us & those that follow us, but it's nothing compared to the responsibility & the trouble & the worry & the cost & the expense & the maintenance & repairs & everything else that the owners have!
20. ONE OF THESE DAYS, PRAISE GOD, YOU'RE GOING TO OWN A MANSION THAT ISN'T GOING TO COST YOU ANYTHING!--No upkeep, no expense, absolutely nothing except what it's already cost Jesus!--And it will be commensurate with your works on Earth, what you already paid for it down here. There are some things that you're paying for right now that you're not going to receive till you get there, but compared to what it's costing you now, you're even getting back a hundredfold now--all this & Heaven too! That's a pretty good investment, isn't it?
21. AND THAT'LL BE OUR LAST MOVE! PTL?--NO BAGGAGE, NO LUGGAGE, NO HARD JOURNEY, NO PACKING, NO LONG TRAVEL. It may be a long ways, or it may be closer than you think! The Heavenly City is somewhere above, but it's on its way! PTL? And IT'S the one that's going to do the travelling, not you or me! It may be a lot closer than you think, & certainly the Spirit World is very very close--it's right here & now & all around us, & we're probably even sitting in it right now without knowing it!--Kind of like two dimensions both occupying the same place at the same time, which physics says can't happen! The laws of physics tell you that two things cannot occupy the same place at the same time, but the spirit can! PTL!--Because it's not physics, it's not physical, it's spirit & spiritual! PTL!
22. SO HERE WE ARE PREPARING FOR ANOTHER LONG JOURNEY, & SOME PEOPLE SPEAK OF HEAVEN AS A LONG JOURNEY, & IT MIGHT BE, FOR ALL WE KNOW. Right now when we go to be with the Lord, we don't really know how long that tunnel is. We might be going through it real fast & it may be a great distance for all we know. It may be shooting millions or billions of miles into Space to wherever the Heavenly City is right now!
23. WHEN I SAW THE HEAVENLY CITY, IT WAS ON THE NEW EARTH & EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL, just as it's going to be or maybe it already is in a new dimension where there's no time! All I know is I was there, & it was already there on Earth! The outside Earth was there & beautiful like the original Creation, the Garden of Eden, beautiful! I mean, even the people that live outside are going to be very thankful to be there. So, PTL! Hallelujah!
24. WELL, ANYWAY, WE WERE TALKING ABOUT TRIPS & MOVING, & I THOUGHT I OUGHT TO COMPARE THAT ONE, BECAUSE THAT'S GOING TO BE THE EASIEST MOVE WE EVER MAKE! Praise God? We won't have to worry about vans & baggage & trunks & bustin' our guts liftin' things & hauling dollies & pulling trailers. We won't have to worry about borders, passports & visas or customs, because everything you need will already be there! You can't take it with you. Whatever you have there you will have already sent ahead in the way of souls won, victories won, battles won & rewards won for your service here! You're going to get most of it over there!
25. --AND A HUNDREDFOLD HERE OF WHATEVER YOU PAID TO LIVE FOR THE LORD! You read the Letter! (No.928) Think of it! A one-hundred-percent increase is twice as much, that's only two-fold. So if every percent is 100% increase, how much is 100-fold? It's 100 times 100! That's 10,000% increase! You're going to get 10,000% on your investment here & now, plus a lot more over there! TTL! Isn't that wonderful? It is really wonderful to think about!
26. SO LET THAT BE A COMFORT TO YOU AS YOU WORRY OVER YOUR PACKING & your sorting & your disposing & your destroying & your storing & your shredding of useless papers that you'll no longer need, & are working on the preparations for the place we're going to, & transportation & moving all these personnel & all of our vital equipment & personal luggage & all these things. As you're doing it, keep shouting "Hallelujah" that there's coming up a trip one of these days in which you won't have to do this any more! The last trip's going to be the easiest one of all! PTL?
27. ONE OLD PREACHER I KNEW USED TO SING AN OLD SONG: "I'M GOING TO TAKE MY VACATION IN HEAVEN", BECAUSE HE NEVER GOT ONE HERE! Well, I wouldn't be too sure about that! From what I've seen of the Spirit World, it's a pretty busy place!--Especially right now! Of course, when this job is done, maybe we'll all take a vacation for awhile, there. But as long as we have this World still to worry about or to govern or to run, I wouldn't say it's going to be exactly a vacation, because it's going to be a JOB!
28. IT SAYS WE SHALL RULE & REIGN WITH HIM ON THE EARTH! (Re.20:6) Well, ruling & reigning & governing, no matter how powerful you are & supernatural, is still a form of WORK.--Even the angels are MINISTERING spirits! What does it take to minister? You ought to ask dear Sue, she ministers to us all the time personally & so do some of you! It might seem sometimes a pleasure, but it's still work!--Kind of like that joke they have on MWM, the discussion over whether love-making is work or pure pleasure. The nobleman who's discussing it asks his butler Jeeves what he thinks about it. He said, "Well, it must be pure pleasure, Sir, because if it was work, you'd have me doing it!"
29. SO MINISTERING IS IN A WAY WORK, MINISTERING TO OTHERS. What does ministering mean, hmm? (Family: Serving.) Serving. Waiting on people. The picture of waiting on the Lord is like waiters & waitresses waiting on a customer, where the customer is king & can do no wrong! That's serving the Lord, that's waiting on the Lord, that's ministering to the Lord & others. So if even the angels are ministering spirits, they are serving, working spirits!
30. YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE LOTS OF WORK TO DO IN THE AFTERLIFE, BUT IT'S GOING TO BE A LOT EASIER, THANK THE LORD! There'll be no sorrow, no sickness, no pain, no weariness, no death, no more tears, no more crying. (Re.21:4) That's certainly going to make things easier, huh?--Even if it is a little bit of work. PTL! Amen? So don't let it worry you now, it's not going to be that hard to be in Heaven or the Heavenly City or the Millennium, but you're going to have something to do & something to keep you busy!--You'd be unhappy if you didn't!
31. WOULDN'T IT BE RIDICULOUS AFTER BEING SO BUSY HERE, IF YOU WOUND UP IN HEAVEN WITH NOTHING TO DO BUT SIT ON A CLOUD PLAYING A HARP FOR A THOUSAND YEARS?--Much less all Eternity! I think you'd really get bored! This is just your schooling for what you have to do when you're a grad & you start getting your post-graduate course to prepare you for perhaps even greater work to do thereafter! We know we're going to have work to do during the Millennium helping the Lord to run the World, but what kind of work is THAT going to prepare us for, I wonder? Maybe after we've had a little experience running this Earth, the Lord's going to invite us to help Him run the whole Universe!
32. "KNOW YE NOT THAT YE SHALL JUDGE ANGELS?" (1Co.6:3) When's that going to happen? First of all we're going to judge the Earth, then it looks like we're going to be judges of the angels even thereafter! Because the whole deal & what happens to the angels & the dirty work of the dirty devilish angels is not going to be finished until after the Millennium when all others shall be judged along with the angels of both God & the Devil. It'll be your privilege to reward those who've done well, & to punish those who have done evil. You will have the satisfaction of meting out the rewards that they deserve, even to the angelic hosts!
33. AFTER GOING THROUGH THIS LIFE, & THEN THE NEXT LIFE WHICH IS THE MILLENNIUM, WE WILL ENTER INTO THE THIRD PHASE, ETERNAL LIFE, & by that time be capable of even judging angels! Why? Why do you think God will consider us worthy & capable by that time of even judging the angelic hosts of Heaven, the spiritual hosts of God? Hmm? Well, by that time we will have been through a whole lot more than even the angels ever went through!--A whole lot more suffering, a whole lot more hard work, a whole lot more battles & testings & temptings & grades in school, more examinations we'll have passed, so that we will even be considered worthy & capable of judging angels by that time!
34. LIKE AN OLD SONG THAT MY GRANDMOTHER USED TO SING: "AND WHEN WE SING REDEMPTION'S STORY, ANGELS FOLD THEIR WINGS. FOR ANGELS NEVER KNEW THE JOY THAT OUR SALVATION BRINGS!" Think of that! The angels of God never knew what it was to be lost, so they can hardly know what it is to be saved! Well, in a way, I partially disagree with that particular hymn, because I believe that eventually even the rebellious angels will be redeemed, in a way! They won't have the same quality & quantity of salvation that we have, but it'll sort of be "second class goods", damaged goods, a little sort of cheaper form of salvation, because they didn't receive it when they should have, & they rebelled against the Lord when they shouldn't. They're going to have to be judged severely, some harshly, & some punished greatly before they learn their lessons, & before the Lord will lay off the rod & finally forgive & restore eternally in Universal Reconciliation! (See Nos.1437,1441,1460,1465,1466,1476.)
35. (SINGS:) "O BE YE RECONCILED, THUS SAITH MY LORD & KING, O BE YE RECONCILED TO GOD!"--THAT'S OUR MESSAGE, ISN'T IT? And if Jesus preached to the spirits in prison, maybe that's going to be part of our job in the Future World, to go around preaching to all the spirits who are being punished & teach them the lessons that we learned! And who could teach them better than us?--Because we've been through it & learned it! We'll be their instructors & teachers & guides when they should have been ours! Instead, the Devil's angels have led us to sin & tempted us & tried to destroy us, but God is even going to have mercy on them in the long run, after they receive what they deserve in the way of punishment.
36. EVERYONE'S GOING TO BE REWARDED ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS, EVEN THE ANGELS OF GOD--EVEN THE ANGELS OF THE DEVIL! If it was eternal punishment there wouldn't be any point to it, would there? What's the purpose of punishment? What does the worldly penal system consider the purpose of punishment? They call them correctional institutions, PENAL institutions, meaning they're doing PENANCE, they're serving for their sins. They're being punished, corrected & chastised for their sins--which of course definitely implies an END to such punishment & a time which will come when such beings are corrected & the punishment, the chastisement, the correction is ended, according to how much they need.
37. THEY THEN STAND CORRECTED, PUNISHED--PAST TENSE--& THEY HAVE RECEIVED THEIR REWARD ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS. They will have learned their lesson, & they'll have been corrected & reconciled to God. Now doesn't that sound a lot wiser & more loving & vastly more understandable & superior to the ridiculous &, sorry to say, Church-promoted doctrine of eternal punishment which is so cruel & so horrible & so unfathomable that I cannot believe it! I don't think it's Scriptural, & I've got a lot of Scriptures to prove it!
38. WELL, IF YOU WANT TO KNOW ALL THE DETAILS & THE SCRIPTURES & EVERYTHING ELSE, YOU CAN READ CHARLES H. PRIDGEON'S BOOK ON: "IS HELL ETERNAL OR WILL GOD'S PLAN FAIL?"--And the point that he proves is the one of eternal reconciliation of both men & angels, possibly even the Devil!--Maybe even the Antichrist & the False Prophet, although they get the worst of all! They get cast into the Lake of Fire, it says, forever & ever, but that literally means for "an age of ages". (Rev.20:10)
39. THE TRANSLATORS HAVE A DIFFICULT TIME TRANSLATING "THE AEON OF THE AEONS", THEY DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT IT MEANS. When it says "aeon", it actually means "for an age", not in our sense of the word "forever". It could be long enough that we might THINK it's forever! I mean, even to be in prison like the Devil's going to be for a thousand years may feel like & seem like forever. It's hard enough for some people to stay in prison several years or for the rest of their life, that's their forever! And for the Devil to be in prison for even a thousand years may seem like forever.
40. AGES ARE SPECIFICALLY SPOKEN OF IN GOD'S WORD AS A PERIOD OF TIME, you might say a part of so-called Eternity, a section of it, a period, & those ages come to an end! The longest is the one known as Eternity, "the age of the ages", which is even longer, & spoken of, for example, like the existence of God, the Eternal! Well, most of the time when the Bible speaks of these "forevers", it's usually talking about an age or even a number of ages, but even a number of ages have an end.
41. SO, AS FAR AS I CAN SEE, SUCH PUNISHMENT, EVEN THE LAKE OF FIRE, WILL SOME DAY COME TO AN END! And in a way, the Catholics even teach that in the matter of Purgatory. But of course they more or less teach it only for the Saved or those that finally get to Heaven. But Purgatory is a rather simple childlike form of what we believe as well, the doctrine of Universal Reconciliation. So thank the Lord the time's coming when it will all be over & everybody will have received their reward, even the angels of God!
42. NOW IF THE WICKED & THE WICKED REBELLIOUS ANGELS ARE GOING TO BE JUDGED AT THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM AT THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGEMENT, THEN THERE ARE SOME JUDGEMENTS & PUNISHMENTS EVEN TO FOLLOW THE MILLENNIUM, RIGHT?--EVEN BEYOND! We don't know how long & where exactly some of this is going to occur, but from the way it sounds, the Lake of Fire & Hell are in the heart of the Earth, & it's usually spoken of as being DOWN, whereas Heaven is usually spoken of as being UP! These may be symbolic & figurative expressions in simple terms to help our childlike minds comprehend, just like you explain something very complicated to Techi in a very simple way that she can kind of partially grasp the meaning; whereas the larger meaning, of course, is beyond her present mental capacity & experience to understand.
43. BUT IT'S AMAZING TO ME HOW MUCH SHE DOES UNDERSTAND--"WISE TECHI"! (No.794) The Lord certainly did say the right thing about her, isn't that amazing? She is the smartest child I ever had! I don't know if she's going to be as dedicated & as strong spiritually as David, but she sure is smart! Sometimes she's almost too smart for her own good! But she certainly is "Wise Techi"! She learned to talk faster, comprehend quicker, was saved younger & is making extremely rapid progress, thanks to your help, all of you, & I believe it's because the Lord knows the time is short & she's got to get there in a hurry, wherever she's going, & whatever she's going to do! There's not very much time left to learn how to do it!--WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THE TIME YOU HAVE LEFT?
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family