The NT speaks of historical events but is not limited to chronicle-like
recording of them. It speaks about the meaning of those events and, pre-eminently,
about the meaning of Jesus. A good argument can be made for the basic historical
character of the Easter events - i.e., the appearances of Christ and the empty tomb -
without trying to "harmonize" in chronological sequence & geographical placement.
The resurrection appearances came to an end at some point - to put it crudely, we don't
see Jesus on earth now. If the risen Christ told them on one occasion that that
was the last time they would see him, and if they believed that he was seated at the
right hand of God, whatever his departure was like would - given the cosmology of the
time - have been understood and described by them in terms of an "ascension". & of
course any motion away from the earth will be seen to begin with as a motion "upward".
C.S. Lewis discission in Chapter 16 of _Miracles_ my be helpful, though I would
not subscribe to all that he says here.
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/