467
Did Jesus ascend bodily into heaven?
Luke: He ascended to heaven in a body of flesh and blood (xxiv, 36–43, 50, 51).
Paul: “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die; and that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that shall be” (1 Corinthians xv, 35–37).
“It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (44).
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God” (50).
The whole theology of Paul is opposed to the bodily resurrection and ascension of Jesus. The “Bible for Learners” says: “In speaking of the resurrection, he [Paul] does not mean the reanimation of the body of Jesus; and indeed he expressly excludes such a thought by ascribing to the Christ a glorified and spiritual body not made of flesh and blood. It is equally certain that he thinks of the Christ as having appeared from heaven; and his ranking the appearance to himself—unquestionably the product of his own fervid imagination—as parallel with those which preceded it [his appearances to the disciples], seems to indicate that they were all visions alike” (Vol. iii, p. 467).