Acts1:11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Mixed. Many writes over many years employed many forms of literary devices. Context is king.
From various angles a general case could be made that Samuel, Jonah, Lazarus, Jesus, and a few children all "came back" depending on what you mean. Edit to add that Paul also had an Anon friend he might boast about...
Mankind tends to make much of ourselves and our comforts especially in the seemingly more prosperous times and developed places. Sufferings are experiences designed to understand wholeness in Christ. Wanting to escape pain is natural. Knowing the Savior through the pain is supernatural. Experiencing the wholeness of "rejoicing in sufferings" is glorious.
If you look closely at the scripture you quoted, it's actually deceptively complex. On face value, it seems to say one thing, but on another, it says something completely different.
Consider: the Angel is asking the men "Why are you standing here looking into heaven?"
The question implies that looking up into heaven is an unreasonable action.
"Why are you standing here looking into heaven (as if you expect Jesus to return this way)?"
The issue is that the word heaven is used in multiple ways in scripture.
There is the literal 'heaven', meaning the sky, the upper atmosphere, including the stratosphere, etc., or even outer space, where the stars exist.
There is also the metaphorical use of 'heaven', meaning the spiritual realm where God's presence dwells, signifying an elevated spiritual dimension.
Confusion over which is which is the cause of much theological confusion. This is understandable if you consider that people in Jesus day really had no scientific understanding of the former, and also limited grasp of the latter. (to a great extent, our scientific grasp of the nature of the spiritual realms etc, is just as limited as their scientific grasp of the nature of the material realms.)
"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven." I guess there are some who think that God literally lives in the sky, but by far the more coherent idea is that Heaven here refers to the elevates spiritual realm where God dwells, and Earth refers to the material realm, aka the Physical universe.
Just as a human being has a mind (internal quality, invisible, subjective) and a body (external form, visible, objective), likewise the universe is comprised of the spiritual world (internal, invisible, subjective) and the physical world (external, visible, objective).
"This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
We know through scripture that Jesus was perfected through his life and his sufferings. He was born pure, but not perfect, in the sense that perfect means fully and completely mature. (We can, however, say that Jesus was born perfect In the sense that a seed is perfect, i.e. without blemish, even if it is not fully developed and mature).
From this perspective, Jesus "going into heaven" was a process that happened over the course of his natural life, as he matured into perfect union with the Father. Is the Angel saying: "why are you looking up to the sky? Jesus will return in the way that he grew into oneness with the Father, through a natural life in his flesh in the material realm." Otherwise, it's hard to logically explain why the angel questions their standing their gawking into the sky.
From various angles a general case could be made that Samuel, Jonah, Lazarus, Jesus, and a few children all "came back" depending on what you mean.
OK. None of those is what I mean. I mean, "coming back" in the sense that someone lived on Earth, then died, then was prophesied to return at some future date, and then did. Aka a second coming.
Eschatology in 3 general points:
But... HOW will he return?
Is scripture purely literal, or symbolic? or mixed?
For example, "I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" Luke 12:49.
Jesus is clearly talking about fire as a metaphor for spiritual awakening and/or truth.
Extra points for finding the one example in scripture of when someone "came back". It's there if you can find it.
Acts1:11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Mixed. Many writes over many years employed many forms of literary devices. Context is king.
From various angles a general case could be made that Samuel, Jonah, Lazarus, Jesus, and a few children all "came back" depending on what you mean. Edit to add that Paul also had an Anon friend he might boast about...
Mankind tends to make much of ourselves and our comforts especially in the seemingly more prosperous times and developed places. Sufferings are experiences designed to understand wholeness in Christ. Wanting to escape pain is natural. Knowing the Savior through the pain is supernatural. Experiencing the wholeness of "rejoicing in sufferings" is glorious.
Thanks for the reply.
If you look closely at the scripture you quoted, it's actually deceptively complex. On face value, it seems to say one thing, but on another, it says something completely different.
Consider: the Angel is asking the men "Why are you standing here looking into heaven?"
The question implies that looking up into heaven is an unreasonable action.
"Why are you standing here looking into heaven (as if you expect Jesus to return this way)?"
The issue is that the word heaven is used in multiple ways in scripture.
There is the literal 'heaven', meaning the sky, the upper atmosphere, including the stratosphere, etc., or even outer space, where the stars exist.
There is also the metaphorical use of 'heaven', meaning the spiritual realm where God's presence dwells, signifying an elevated spiritual dimension.
Confusion over which is which is the cause of much theological confusion. This is understandable if you consider that people in Jesus day really had no scientific understanding of the former, and also limited grasp of the latter. (to a great extent, our scientific grasp of the nature of the spiritual realms etc, is just as limited as their scientific grasp of the nature of the material realms.)
"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven." I guess there are some who think that God literally lives in the sky, but by far the more coherent idea is that Heaven here refers to the elevates spiritual realm where God dwells, and Earth refers to the material realm, aka the Physical universe.
Just as a human being has a mind (internal quality, invisible, subjective) and a body (external form, visible, objective), likewise the universe is comprised of the spiritual world (internal, invisible, subjective) and the physical world (external, visible, objective).
"This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
We know through scripture that Jesus was perfected through his life and his sufferings. He was born pure, but not perfect, in the sense that perfect means fully and completely mature. (We can, however, say that Jesus was born perfect In the sense that a seed is perfect, i.e. without blemish, even if it is not fully developed and mature).
From this perspective, Jesus "going into heaven" was a process that happened over the course of his natural life, as he matured into perfect union with the Father. Is the Angel saying: "why are you looking up to the sky? Jesus will return in the way that he grew into oneness with the Father, through a natural life in his flesh in the material realm." Otherwise, it's hard to logically explain why the angel questions their standing their gawking into the sky.
OK. None of those is what I mean. I mean, "coming back" in the sense that someone lived on Earth, then died, then was prophesied to return at some future date, and then did. Aka a second coming.