I go to prepare a place for you - part 1.

I am trying to understand this statement by Jesus Christ himself in John 14:2. In the same verse He also says : In my Father's house are many mansions.

I got started on this because of a news item on television on 4 February 2011 wherein it was stated that scientists have discovered five earth-like planets in our milky way, which may have climates like earth and probably also life.

To introduce us to the idea of populating the universe, we need to go back to God's covenant with and promise to Abraham.

Gen 15:5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

We can make a few conclusions from this:

Abraham will have as many offspring as the stars in heaven. This earth cannot contain - even remotely - a population so plentiful. I am quite sure that heaven will also not be a place where people are born. So my first conclusion is that most of these offspring will be born elsewhere in the universe.

God focuses Abraham's vision on the stars - the most likely place where his offspring will be born. It is inconceivable that God would make this whole universe and leave it unpopulated, similar to his making the earth and leaving it unpopulated. Here we have one instruction (via Adam) : Gen 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply. If only the earth would have to be populated, God would have told Adam : Go slow, for I have only this one planet that can sustain life.

The second thing we need to know is that presently only the earth, and no other planet in the universe, is populated with humans, and the argument for that is quite simple. If God had created humans all over the universe, the devil would have gone all over the universe to contaminate them with his views and his evilness and his temptation. Mankind on all these planets would then have fallen and Jesus Christ would have to go and die on each of these planets. The scripture however says that : 1Pe 3:18 For Christ also hath ONCE suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. So Jesus Christ only had to die ONCE for the whole universe - He does not have a carnal body, which is subject to death, left .

Another facet of this argument is that man had to evolute (I do not mean the Darwinian delusion) from other species, and man's evolution on other planets similar to us and in parallel with us would probably have been different and thus not conforming to the (carnal) body of Christ.

The third thing we need to know is that there is going to be a new world for us : Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. v.2 And I John saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
It is clear from this that this new Jerusalem will not be in Heaven or the destroyed Earth, so where else can it be than somewhere in the universe on an earth like planet.

We can read it in more detail here :

Isa 65:17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. v.18 But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. v.19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. v.20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. v.21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. v.22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. v.23 They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them. v.24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. v.25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.

The above cannot be on heaven or on earth, as heaven and earth as we know it now, will have come to and end. 2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.

So, will we then not go to heaven and live there ? I do not think so, as I think it is reserved for the Bride of Christ, and maybe for the gentiles who die in Christ, but not for the Jews, for the covenant was with Abraham's offspring, which we are probably not. One must also realise that we were called to be Kings and Priests. That means we must reign over people and minister to them - and to who else can it be than to these trillions of offspring of Abraham that will be born for everafter until eternity.

One can only think that we will reign over these stars and planets, because God's jurisdiction is called the Kingdom of God, and not heaven. We only need to look at the number of the saved who is said to be Rev 5:11 And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. From this I understand that there will be 100 million angels and a million beasts and elders. If this is the number of the saved, then the trillions promised to Abraham must still come after this - and after the ending of this world. Consider also the promise to Rebeccah : Gen 24:60 And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.

Here we read that billions will be Rebekah's descendants, while only 100 million will be saved - so there is a discrepency which I cannot explain. Remember that Rebekah is a type of the bride of Christ and not one of the promised descendants of Abraham, which will be trillions times trillions .....

And how are we going to get to these prepared planets ? Scientifically it seems that we need to accelerate to the speed of light and higher to become weightless or massless and for time to almost disappear from our lives. It is still uncertain what happens in this meta-physical world, but we can accept that it is a spiritual world with another type of reality as our bodies will change into a type of glorious body as described in : Php 3:21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
All this will happen in a twinkling of the eye : 1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: v:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

One thinks that those who do not receive spiritual bodies will reconstitute into their physical bodies once they slow down below the speed of light and become massive again.

In this regard I wish to quote from the words of a friend of mine who had an after death experience. He was saved, but not prepared for death and he died simultaneously with a sister whom I regarded a servant of God, who would have been prepared for death. During an accident they were both killed and he left his body and started to move away from Earth at an incredible speed while he saw the sister being held by both her hands by angels also moving at this incredible speed and he could see her body, whilst her carnal body was in fact back at the scene of the accident. In this time he realised that he was not ready to die and he pleaded with God to give him another chance. All of a sudden his speed (which he estimated at many thousands of miles per hour)decreased and he reversed (fell back) to earth and after a few seconds came 'alive' again at the scene of the accident.

I wish to conclude with an aspect that is the logical conclusion of my arguments above, but for which I do not have scripture, so it must be regarded as speculation or conjecture.

What happened to the gentiles who died in Christ (someone like Paul) and the Israelites and Jews who died before Christ, but who believed in the promise of the Messiah (someone like Abraham). I do not think they are held somewhere in Paradise or in Hades (Greek) or even Hell (meaning hidden), but they have been called to higher service in the Kingdom of God, which can be interpreted as these new planets we have heard of over television, which can sustain human life, and then there will be life elsewhere in the universe indeed. Yes some will be held in Hades or Hell, but only those that are awaiting the Final Judgement (see our other blog - The Final Judgement - Should we shiver) and who will be going into eternal damnation.