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Many Christians still hold a superstitious concept concerning the so-called heavenly mansion; John 14:3 is their basis for believing that the Lord Jesus has gone to the heavens to prepare such a mansion for them. According to the King James Version of the Bible, verses 2 and 3 of John 14 say, “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.” Based upon the King James rendering, many believe that the Lord has gone to prepare a heavenly mansion in the heavens. Then He will come again and will receive the believers to Himself so that where He is they also may be.
For centuries many Christians preached and taught the superstition that once a believer dies, he immediately goes to the heavenly mansion. However, many of them also believe that, according to this verse, once the heavenly mansion is completed, the Lord will come back to receive the believer into this mansion. Even if we did believe that what is mentioned in 14:2 is the heavenly mansion, this verse does not indicate that immediately after we die, we go into this mansion, because 14:3 says the Lord will come again to receive us. These verses in John do not say that after we die, we will go to the heavenly mansion. Based upon the King James rendering of the Lord’s word in 14:3, many Christians hold the concept that the Lord is now preparing the heavenly mansion and that after He is finished, He will come back to receive the believers. If this is the case, then as long as the Lord is not here yet, this indicates that the heavenly mansion has not yet been completed. According to this interpretation of the Bible, we must ask, “After a believer dies, where does he go?” How can he go to the so-called heavenly mansion when it is not yet ready? This shows us the foolish, blind, nonsensical superstition based upon these verses. In these verses the Lord did not say, “I am going to prepare a heavenly mansion. Then I will come back to receive you, but in case you die during the time I am preparing the mansion, you still may come to Me. I am there waiting for you.” The Lord only said that He would go to prepare a place and come again to receive the believers there. For centuries Christians have used John 14:2-3 especially at funerals. They read this portion and told people that the Lord has prepared a place for them in heaven. Nobody asked them, however, why the Lord has not come yet, since He has already prepared a place. John 14:3 does not say that the believers go to the Lord; it says that the Lord will come back to receive them to Himself.
Another portion of the Scriptures also tells us that at the Lord’s coming back “the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are living, who are left remaining, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thes. 4:16-17). This portion of the Word shows us clearly that the dead saints are not in the heavens, because they will be raised up. If they had already gone to the heavens, then when the Lord comes back, they would come with the Lord. This shows us that many Christians, including many Christian teachers, became drugged with this concept of the heavenly mansion. They did not consider the pure Word. Even J. N. Darby, in his Synopsis of the Books of the Bible, told people that the Lord was going to prepare a place and that we all would go there. We can see from this that Darby, who was called the king of the expositors, was also wrong in his interpretation of John 14:2-3.
Let us read Psalm 36:8-9 to see something further: “They are saturated with the fatness of Your house, / And You shall cause them to drink of the river of Your pleasures. / For with You is the fountain of life; / In Your light we see light.” For many years I wondered how a house could have fatness. It is possible for edible things to have fatness. Chicken, fish, and cattle may have fatness. How could a house, though, have fatness? Psalm 36:8 says that they are saturated with the fatness of God’s house. God’s house does have the fatness, but what is the fatness? The definition of the word fatness, according to the Hebrew dictionary of Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, is very interesting and meaningful. It says that figuratively speaking, fatness means “abundance” and specifically refers to the fatty ashes of sacrifices. The fatness of God’s house comes from the sacrifices, the offerings. All the offerings in the Old Testament are types of the all-inclusive Christ; therefore, the fatness of God’s house refers to the riches of Christ. All the offerings are types of Christ, and the fatty ashes of these offerings are the signs of His accomplishment. When you see the ashes of the offerings, they tell you that everything you need has been accomplished by Christ’s death, by His being offered to God. Now we are here “enjoying these ashes.” This is a figurative speaking of Christ being the rich sacrifices through His death, and this is the fatness of God’s house. Verse 8 also tells us that the Lord causes us to drink of the river of His pleasures. The fatness refers to Christ, and the river refers to the Spirit. Then verse 9 says, “For with You is the fountain of life.” This refers to God the Father as the source, as the fountain, not the spring. The fountain is the real source, whereas the spring is the springing up, the bubbling up, of the fountain. The fountain of life refers to the Father as the very source of life. Verse 9 continues to say, “In Your light we see light.” Light also refers to the Father. The Father is not only the source of life but also the source of light. Life comes first and then light. This corresponds with John 1:4: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Even in such a short portion of the Word, in the poetry of the ancient psalmist, we can see the Divine Trinity. We can see Christ as the fatness, the Spirit as the river, and the Father as the source of life and light. This is marvelous!
Strictly speaking, in the Old Testament there was no grace yet. Grace had not yet been given, because grace came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). Psalm 36 shows us, however, that even in the dispensation of law, some of the Old Testament saints who were seeking after God enjoyed the Trinity in the temple. They were saturated with the fatness of God’s house. In the temple of God the ancient saints could participate in the enjoyment of the Triune God — the fatness of Christ, the living water of the Spirit, and the life and light of God the Father as the fountain. Today in the so-called church, today’s Christendom, there is very little saturation with the fatness, drinking of the river of God’s pleasures, and realization of the fountain of life and light. Many Christians talk about “the heavenly mansion” with no thought or no concept whatsoever concerning the saturation with the fatness, concerning the drinking of the living water, and concerning the fountain of life and of light. According to their concept, they merely have a bare heavenly mansion. When they talk about the New Jerusalem, they do not have the realization and they do not care for the fatness for saturation, the river of God’s pleasures for His people’s drinking, and the fountain of life and light. This is why when we come to John 14, we must look at the house according to the entire context of this chapter. If we would read chapters 14 through 17 of John by dropping the concept that the Father’s house is the heavenly mansion, we would be able to see how much fatness is in these four chapters and what a river of God’s pleasures is flowing there with God the Father as the fountain of life and light.
Many Christians only understand verses 2 and 3 of John 14 to say that the Father’s house is the heavenly mansion. They do not relate the rest of the four chapters (chs. 14—17) to these few verses. If they would relate this context to these verses, it would take away their traditional, human, natural, religious, and superstitious mentality. They would realize that the Father’s house could not be a bare house, a heavenly mansion. It must be a house full of the fatness of Christ, a house where the living water is flowing, and a house where the fountain of life and light can be found. Today this is the church. In a proper church life there are the riches of Christ for your satisfaction, the flowing of the river to quench your thirst, and the fountain, a source of light and life. This is not only defined, described, offered, and presented in John 14 through 17, but it is also presented in all the Epistles. Paul’s writings are filled with the fatness, the unsearchable riches of Christ. The river as the Spirit of life is richly flowing in the fourteen Epistles of Paul. Also, concerning the church life in Paul’s Epistles, one can discover and find a fountain of life and light. Then this house will consummate in the New Jerusalem. In the ultimate consummation we see exactly the same thing — the fatness, the river, and the fountain of life and light.
Even in the dispensation of law, before the dispensation of the New Testament age, the seeking saints were enjoying the Triune God. They did not need to go to the heavens to enjoy Him, but they could and did enjoy the Triune God in His dwelling place on this earth. If this was the case with them, how much more should we then enjoy the Triune God in such a high way today in His dwelling place on this earth, the church! Where is the church? The church is where the fatness, the flowing river, and the fountain of life and light are. Some people may claim that they are the church. However, if there is no fatness of Christ, no flowing river of the Spirit, and no fountain of life and light, that is not the proper church. The proper church is a house where the fatness of Christ is saturating people, where the Spirit flows as the river of God’s pleasures, and where the fountain of life and light can be found. This is the church, not in heaven but on earth, and this will consummate in the New Jerusalem, where the Triune God will be our enjoyment in the same way.
Some of you have been reading, studying, and reciting Psalm 36:8-9 for years, but you could not and did not interpret these verses in this way. The only way we could interpret these verses in this way is by the governing vision — the Triune God is working Himself into His chosen and redeemed people to be their life and life supply, to saturate their entire being with the Divine Trinity, that is, with the Father as the fountain, the Son as the fatness, and the Spirit as the river. This is the vision that should govern and direct how you interpret any portion of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, or any book of the Bible must be interpreted by such a governing vision. Without such a vision you may present a good message based on Psalm 36:8-9, yet it will be so shallow, touching nothing of the Divine Trinity. Even if you were to go to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible and discover that the fatness refers to the fatty ashes of the sacrifices, without such a vision you would never think that this refers to Christ. You must have the governing principle. Then when you see the word sacrifices, you would be so clear that this refers to the second of the Divine Trinity, Christ. Then it would also be easy for you to understand the river of God’s pleasures. Without such a vision it is not so easy to understand what this river is. Romans 14:17 refers back to this river when it tells us that the kingdom of God is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” The joy in the Holy Spirit is the river of pleasures, or we could say the river of pleasures is the Spirit of joy. We must realize that the Bible was written under this governing principle. When we pick up this key, we can open up every part of the Bible. This principle helps us to interpret the fountain of life and in Your light we see light (Psa. 36:9). This principle helps us to see in John that life is in Him and that this life is the light of men (1:4). God is life, and God is light. Therefore, He Himself is the fountain of both life and light.
Every book of the Bible confirms our understanding of this Scripture passage because the entire Bible was written according to the principle of the Triune God wrought into His redeemed people as their enjoyment, their drink, and their fountain of life and light. The application of this principle in interpreting any portion of the New Testament is endless. Then our message, using any portion, will be greatly enriched. It will be full of the fatness, full of the flowing of the river of pleasures, and full of the fountain of life and of light. Our message and our ministry will be different. There will be an intrinsic principle within and governing whatever we speak, teach, and preach. This is my burden. Merely to read the lines of a Life-study to pick up some points and titles from a message will not work. We have not been constituted with such a principle, and this principle has not become a vision to us. We may have eyes to read the Bible and a mind to understand it, but we do not have the key to open it. We need the key.
I would like to give some illustrations showing how to discern the interpretation of the Bible by such a key. Psalm 1:1-2 says, “Blessed is the man / Who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, / Nor stand on the path of sinners, / Nor sit in the seat of mockers. / Rather his delight is in the law of Jehovah, / And in His law he meditates by day and by night.” The person described here is quite wonderful. He stays away from anything evil, and he meditates in the law of the Lord by day and by night. What, however, is the difference between this psalmist and the one in Psalm 36? The one in Psalm 1 is a working one, a behaving one, an acting one. This one is not an enjoying one. The psalmist in Psalm 36, though, was not meditating in the law. He was not practicing not walking in the council of the wicked, not standing on the path of sinners, and not sitting in the seat of mockers. He was not in the law, but he was in the house enjoying the fatness, the river of pleasures, and the fountain of life and light. Verse 3 of Psalm 1 continues, “And he will be like a tree / Transplanted beside streams of water.” To drink the river of God’s pleasures is one thing, and to be planted beside the river is another thing. Psalm 36 is according to the Divine Trinity in God’s economy, and Psalm 1 is according to religious ethics, according to the natural concept of religion. This is why we interpreted Psalm 1 for years not on the positive side but on the negative side. Verses 4 through 6 of this psalm say, “The wicked are not so, / But are like chaff, / Which the wind drives away. / Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment; / Nor sinners, in the assembly of the righteous. / For Jehovah knows the way of the righteous, / But the way of the wicked will perish.” These verses are altogether religiously ethical and natural.
We should thank the Lord that after Psalm 1 is Psalm 2. The conclusion of Psalm 2 is that all those who put their trust in Christ are blessed and that we should “kiss the Son, / Lest He be angry” (v. 12). Do not meditate in the law but kiss the Son. (This is fully covered in chapter 1 of the book Christ and the Church Revealed and Typified in the Psalms.) Most of the Bible expositors, if not all, appraise and uplift Psalm 1. Why would we dare to say something different? What is the basis for our interpretation of these two psalms? Again, our basis of interpretation is the principle of the vision of the Triune God being wrought into our being. This really makes a difference.
I do not care how young you are, how old you are, or how many years you have been in the Lord’s service. If you are not possessed and captured by this vision, sooner or later your preaching, your teaching, and your messages will be somewhat natural. You will have no ability to discern what portion of the Bible is religious and what portion of the Bible is of life. During the training on the books of James and Mark, many of you probably wondered how I could interpret the book of James in such a way. This is because I have the key of this basic principle. I say again that the Bible, the holy Word, was written under this governing principle. I believe that a number of the writers of the Scriptures did not realize this principle at the time they were writing, because they were under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They were means, instruments, used by the Spirit. Undoubtedly, Paul knew and realized what he was writing, but I do not believe that some writers, such as those in the Old Testament, knew what the governing principle of their writings was. Some of them must have known that they were under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The reason I say this is because David said in 2 Samuel 23:2, “The Spirit of Jehovah spoke through me, / And His word was on my tongue.” David said that he was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to compose a psalm. Whether or not the writers of the Scriptures knew or did not know that they were under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we must realize that the “rudder” was in the hand of the Holy Spirit in their writing of the Scriptures (2 Pet. 1:20-21).
The sequence of the Trinity in Psalm 36:8-9 is the same in Luke 15. In Luke 15 Christ is first, as the Shepherd (vv. 4-7), the Spirit is second, as the seeking woman (vv. 8-10), and the Father is third (vv. 11-32). In Psalm 36:8-9 Christ is the fatness, the Spirit is the river, and the Father is the fountain. We should believe in Christ; then we receive the Spirit who leads us to the Father. We enjoy the fatness of Christ; then we have a share of the flowing Spirit; and then we are in the presence of the Father enjoying Him as the fountain of life and light. This indicates how the Old Testament, like the Psalms, was written by the Holy Spirit.
We must have the key, the governing principle, of the writings in the Bible. Just as the master key to a building gives us the ability to open the doors in that building, so we need the key to open every book of the Bible. This key also gives us the ability to discern every portion of the Scriptures. This vision, this principle, can be applied to every portion of the Bible, including typology, prophecy, and even dispensations. As a young man fifty-five years ago, I spoke concerning typology, prophecies, and dispensations. Even though I spoke in an interesting way, I did not relate them to life at all. There was no life there. Today, however, if I would interpret any type, it would be full of the enjoyment of Christ, the flowing of the river of the Spirit, and the fountain of life and light.
Every portion of the one hundred twenty Life-study messages of Genesis is filled with life, the river, the fatness, the riches of Christ, the flowing of the Spirit, and the fountain of the Father as life and light. This principle governs all the Life-study messages. I have been much criticized for this. Some people say that it is not necessary to come and listen to me because I always preach and teach the same thing. I totally agree with this statement. What I serve is always “American beef.” This beef is cooked and served by me in many ways; sometimes it is in the style of steak, sometimes in the style of a hamburger, and sometimes I serve this beef in the Chinese way of stewing. Whatever I serve is beef. Beef is my key, and I have nothing but beef. What is this “beef”? — the processed Triune God. This is the beef. Some Chinese cooks boast that they have twenty ways to cook certain things. By the Lord’s mercy, I can boast to these cooks that I have hundreds of ways to cook my “beef” because I have put out more than two thousand messages. Every message is a different way of cooking the same thing — the Triune God being wrought into His redeemed people. Also, all the hymns I have written were written under the same governing principle. The biblical way is this way — the Triune God is “cooked” in different ways from the first page of Genesis to the last page of Revelation. This is the Bible. You need the key. If you have the key, you will eventually say that every page of the Bible is the same. For instance, all the females in the Bible are the same — Eve, Sarah, Rebekah, and the seeking one in the Song of Songs are types. The ultimate consummation of these females in the Bible is the eternal wife, which is the very tabernacle. With this key and by this principle one can wrap up the entire Bible. Then we can discern whether or not someone else’s teaching and ministering is holding people back or frustrating and distracting them.
A certain message may be wonderful, eloquent, and very inspiring, yet in principle that may be a distracting message, a holding-back message. We could be laboring for ten years, but by one message people could be held back for five years. Still, most of the people who listen may appreciate that kind of message. To discern this you need this basic principle of this vision to see that the Triune God is the very essence and should be the very essence of every message that we put out. Only this serves God’s purpose, only this keeps us from being led astray, and only this can keep us in oneness from today through eternity.
In 1 Corinthians Paul charges the believers to speak the same thing (1:10), and in Philippians he charges them to think the same thing (2:2). Philippians is a book on the Triune God — specifically on Christ and specifically on the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. When we are enjoying the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, we have the key. In Philippians Paul tells us that he aspired to be found in Christ (3:9). If we can be found by others in nothing else but Christ, then we have the key. Not only will our messages be found in Christ, but also even our being, our person, will be found in Christ. We are a person in Christ because we live Christ, and we magnify Christ. Because we are a person in Christ, our speaking is the speaking in Christ, and our message is a message in Christ. Everything is directed by this principle.
