A. J. MATTILL, Jr.
Long ago, as a boy in Sunday School, I memorized the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary: suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; and descended into hell; the third day He arose from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.”
Volumes have been written to explain the Apostles’ Creed, but here we concentrate on Jesus’ Ascension: “He ascended into Heaven.” Unless otherwise noted, biblical quotations are from the King James Version.
First of all, we note that in the Bible Jesus is not the only person who was believed to have ascended into heaven. The others are Enoch and Elijah.
1. Enoch (Genesis 5:23-24). “23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: 24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not, for God took him.” Hebrews 11:5: “5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death: and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” This means that God took up Enoch from earth without Enoch’s dying.
2. Elijah (2 Kings 2:9-15). “Behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted Elijah and Elisha asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” Elijah went up in a whirlwind on the fiery chariot to heaven.
3. Jesus (seven passages affirm his ascension): 1. “So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them [the eleven disciples], he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19). (2.) “50 And he led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them, 51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:50-51). (3.) “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that cometh down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven” (John 3:13). (4.) “I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). (5.) “Jesus saith unto her [Mary Magdalene], Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethern, and say to them, I ascend unto my father, and your father; and to my God and your God” (John 20:17). (6.) “And when he [Jesus] had spoken these things, while they [the apostles] beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9). (7.) “He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:10).
4. The Virgin Mary. Our ministudy of Ascension would be incomplete without mentioning the fact that in the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church the Virgin Mary ascended into heaven: “The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.”—Catechism of the Catholic Church (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994, p. 252.
5. Mohammed. Shame on us if we forget that Holy Islamic Scriptures have preserved for humankind the tradition of Mohammed’s Ascension. In the year 621, at the age of 51 years, Mohammed fell asleep on a carpet at his cousin’s place. Suddenly the voice of the Archangel Gabriel broke the silence and called on Mohammed, “Awake, thou sleeper, awake!” Mohammed saw a horse as dazzling as Gabriel. It had the glittering wings of an immense eagle. Gabriel told Mohammed that the horse’s name was Burak, the horse of Abraham. Burak allowed Mohammed to ride on its back and soared into the starry night. First of all, they flew to Mount Sinai, where Jehovah had given the Ten Commandments to Moses. Then they flew to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. Finally, they went to Heaven, where Mohammed met with many of the Holy Land’s previous horsemen, such as Adam, Noah, Enoch, Elijah, Jesus, and a few others.—Based upon http://www.allaboutturkey.com/muhammed.htm.
“Burak” reminds us of a swift, winged horse in Greek mythology named Pegasus, who soared toward heaven. Pegasus’ soaring flight was interpreted as an allegory of the soul’s immortality.
ASSESSING ASCENSIONS. Here we look briefly at three positions: 1. Rationalists, who reject belief in anything supernatural, deny belief in ascensions of anyone to heaven at any time or any place. End of discussion.
2. Some Christians, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, believe that Jesus ascended to heaven but no one else did. Jehovah “took Enoch” (Genesis 5:23-24), but not to heaven. God “took Enoch” in the sense that God cut short Enoch’s life at age 365. Jesus stated clearly in John 3:13 that he, Jesus, was the only person who ever ascended to heaven, “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” So much for anyone else, such as Enoch, Elijah, the Virgin Mary, and Mohammed. For more on the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ view of ascension, see Enoch in Volume One of their Insight on the Scriptures, 1988, published by the Watchtower and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
3. Astronomy versus Ascension. As Fundamentalist Christians understand Isaiah 14:13, heaven is beyond the highest stars, some 500,000,000 light years away. Thus a person ascending to heaven would have to travel 186,000 miles per second (the speed of light) for 500,000,000 years to get there. Yet believers contend that those who ascended to heaven did so instantly: Bang! Just that quick! Needless to say, modern astronomy has done away with a heaven located a few miles above a flat earth.