There will be a seven-year period between the "rapture" and the coming of the Lord, during which time the business of the earth will continue.

The passage above teaches clearly that there will be no seven-year period of time after the Lord's return during which the business on the earth will continue. The moment the Lord returns and calls together His elect with the sound of the trumpet, at that very moment destruction will fall on the wicked of the earth.

If, as it is taught, the preservation of Noah and his family in the Ark is a type of the rapture, then we see that the day Noah entered the Ark the "flood came and destroyed them all." Thus the teaching of the pre-tribulation rapture followed by seven years of business as usual on the earth is unscriptural.

Christ is building mansions for us in Heaven.

In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. (John 14:2)

The King James states there are many mansions in the Father's house. The New International Version gives the preferred translation: "In my Father's house are many rooms."

I suppose every student of the Bible knows by this time that the Greek term does not refer to a mansion, as we use the term today. Rather, it indicates a place of abode. Yet the tradition persists that Jesus Christ, the Carpenter, has been building mansions for the saints during the last two thousand years.

We never are to build a doctrine from one verse. There is no other verse in the Bible that speaks of mansions in Heaven.

In fact, even John 14:2 is not referring to mansions in Heaven but rooms in the Father's house. The Father's House is the Lord Jesus Christ, not Heaven.

The fourteenth and fifteenth chapters of the Gospel of John use the Greek term monai both as a noun and a verb. Properly translated the term respectively is abode and abide. When Christ says "Abide in Me" He is saying "Mansion in me," if we are to be consistent in the use of the Greek terms.

God's House is Jesus Christ. In the Lord Jesus Christ there are many places of abode so each one of us can find a dwelling place. The Lord Jesus went to the cross, and then to the Father in Heaven, in order to prepare a place for us in Himself. This is the spiritual fulfillment of the Jewish feast of Tabernacles.

It is true that each one of us is building a house, a robe of righteousness in Heaven, that will clothe our mortal body when the Lord raises our body from the dead. But that house is a house of eternal life that will clothe our spiritual nature, not a stationary house built on a some sort of foundation in the spirit realm.

Yet the tradition of a mansion in Heaven goes on and on and on, without any scriptural support whatever.

This is what the LORD says: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?" declares the LORD. "This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:1,2)

Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, (II Corinthians 5:2)

To be continued.