Quote:
Originally Posted by awareness
The ascension was written back when they knew nothing about the real cosmos, back when they pictured the earth like a three-layered cake. In that conception, heaven wasn't very far up ; close enough for Jesus to levitate to heaven.
Of course reality didn't and doesn't match that conception. Where Jesus went we don't know.
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Here's in an alternative symbolic view. According to the traditional view of reality there is a hidden world behind the world of appearance. So in the story of Christ's Ascension he disappears into a cloud as he rises. And that is the case that he is present to the believer he is nevertheless invisible.
Now the heavens are the source of spiritual truths and powers. Each planet represents a concentric sphere of truth and power. The resurrected Christ rises above them all to the place of preeminent power at the right hand of God. Thus he is said to have conquered the principalities and powers and encompasses them. His way of life and his mode of being--the way of love and sacrifice--are thus symbolically shown to be the highest possible pattern of human life.