Quote:
Originally Posted by zeek
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.
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So, would you say that the Christian thing is just for our galaxy? Aren’t we still trying to determine how many planets there actually are in our galaxy? Symbolism has its place- the gospel of John was full of it. Matthew end with Jesus up on the mountain- closer to heaven? Mark has him go up to heaven, Luke same, John has him eating fish on the sea shore- except he does talk earlier to Mary Mag about ascending.
Heaven plays a major concept in the whole bible and I suspect, up until the Wright brothers, it was still somewhat assumed that heaven was just beyond the clouds, just out of sight. Today, heaven is as nebulous to Christians as 6000 years creation. To say “ Oh, they just didn’t have a full view of the cosmos” or the Bible really wasn’t giving a scientific view of creation, kind of leaves us with a what else is not real- the flood, David, a real Jesus, resurrection? Heaven is one of those things that lost importance, as did discussing creation.
Symbolism doesn’t seem to account for the activities in the book of Acts.