At 09:23 PM 7/26/99 -0400, George Murphy wrote:
>andrew wrote:
> ............................
>> This is all well and helpful but I still am left with this. If the new
>> testament is reporting history than did the Lord really seem to lift up in
>> the clouds when he "left" earth? Some say that calls the account into
>> question which is to arrogant a claim for my taste but any thoughts? Do you
>> take the account at face value?
>> Andrew
>
> 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/
>
>
>