-Removed-Okay.
In a different thread, possibly yours, KellyJay made a very good point in saying that it's God, and all things are possible with God. (Paraphrase)
So maybe there is mansion(s) up there.....it's possible.
The reason I bring up KellyJay's comment is because sometimes the debates on this forum seem to diminish the fact that if God is truly God, then He can do whatever He wants, even though it may not make any sense to us.
"My Father's house has many rooms".
Is there a house (mansion) in the heavens? And a room waiting for us?
The word used there is a plural form of the same word in singular in verse 23.
" ... We [Father and Son] will come to him and make an ABODE with him." (v.23)
So the many abodes of John 14:1 are the corporate reality of the Triune God making AN abode with many believers.
He is not talking about preparing mansions in heaven, hanging chandeliers, hanging luxurious curtains, and setting beautiful furniture in millions of "mansions" in heaven.
This is a natural human and unenlightened concept .
Jesus went to the cross to prepare a way for God to come into people to make an abode with each one. Together they constitute the Father's house.
But Jesus said there are “many mansions”, don’t you accept what Jesus plainly says as begin literal sonship?
About 300 years ago in English, the word there legitimately MIGHT be translated as a word which we understand today to mean a large house - ie. a mansion.
That it HAS to be "mansions" is not the case.
And here are some other renderings. of John 14:1.
But since you only read 10% of what I write you may not benefit from the information.
English Standard Version
In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
Berean Study Bible
In My Father’s house are many rooms.
New American Standard Bible
"In My Father's house are many dwelling places;
Christian Standard Bible
In my Father's house are many rooms
Aramaic Bible in Plain English
“There are many lodgings in my Father's house, and if not, I would have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you.”
So not all English versions read "many mansions".
It’s strange that some of Jesus words are metaphorical, but other of his words, about being cast into a place called hell, for example, are literal.
Interesting.
I don't understand your argument.
And I don't see the need to make every thread you visit morph INTO this argument.
Jesus is "the Lamb of God."
Of course that is metaphorical of Jesus being the Redeemer.
He is not a little woolly creature with a tail because He is "the Lamb of God."
Your objection seems to boil down to - "Things I like are pretty literal. What I hate to believe is not possible to be spoken of symbolically or metaphorically."
Eternal punishment is capable of being DEPICTED in terms of a symbol or a metaphor. That fact, for many of us, does not cause the dread of such a situation to be unnecessary.
Why could not "lake of fire" be that and MORE ?
By what rule is eternal punishment NOT suspect to also being pictured metaphorically?