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NASB | John 13:33 "Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 13:33 "Little children, I am with you [only] a little longer. You will look for Me and, as I told the Jews, so I tell you now, 'Where I am going, you are not able to come.' [John 8:21] |
Bible Question:
Ed, Three things on your writing: (1) John 13 is Jesus' farewell message to his own inner disciples, not the Jews in general. Jesus is saying not only the Jews but you either cannot come to the Heaven. (2) "come" is not the same as "follow." Come refers to a place but follow, a path. (3) You argue as soon as believers die they go to God. But what do you think John 1:18 No man has ever seen God at any time? I wonder what happened to Abraham, Enoch, Noah, Moses, Jacob, Joseph, David, and all other heroes of faith who died. They obviously didn't see God yet. Where are they since death? Dan |
Bible Answer: Dan Point 1 In John 13:33 (NASB) 33 "Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' “As I said to the Jews.” Since the second covenant had not yet been established the disciples were in the same situation as the Jew unable to go to where Jesus was going. However Jesus assured them that in a little while they would be able to follow after Jesus. This also has the double meaning that Peter would shortly face crucifixion. Point 2 Come is to accompany, follow is to go after as these words were used by Jesus. Jesus said you can’t accompany me or come with me but you will follow after me in a little while. Point 3 Hades/Hell is not place of punishment as such but rather a holding place for the dead spirits. Jesus gave us a full description of Hades/Hells in Luke 16:19-31 when he told of Lazarus and rich man. This description exactly corresponds to the Jewish understanding of Hades/Hell found in Jewish literature. In any case Hades/Hell is divided into two sections a hot dry place and Abraham’s bosom or paradise. Before Christ all that died went to the Hades/Hell to await Judgment or the Messiah. The unrighteous dead would be in the hot dry place awaiting final Judgment. The righteous dead that died looking for the Messiah would be in Abraham’s bosom. All were held captive by death. When Jesus died upon the cross he descended into Hades/Hell to Abraham’s bosom and preached the Good News. He then led captivity captive to heaven. Eph 4:8. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (NASB) 6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight— 8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. 9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Or to put it simply absent from the body is to be present with the Lord if you are in Christ Jesus. The unrighteous still wait judgment in the hot dry side of Hades/Hells however Abraham’s bosom side is now empty. What John 1:18 is saying if more complex than no one has seen God. God is spirit so God must be worshipped in spirit but the real intent of what Jesus is saying is no one on this earth is qualified to tell of God, they aren’t able to ascend into God’s presence to observe Him and then report back. Jesus is saying that He and He alone is the only one able to talk of the Father since He and the Father is one and since Jesus descended directly from the Father. |