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Thursday ninth May is Ascension Day, which is a public vacation in lots of international locations. This is the story.
Ascension
The English phrase ascension comes from Latin through Norman French. The English phrase ‘to ascend’ means to go up, and an ‘ascent’ the method of doing it. In English we discuss concerning the ‘ascent’ of Mount Everest or an individual’s ‘ascension to the presidency’. In theology, ascension is the concept some people ascend to heaven with out dying first, or die first and are bodily resurrected and brought into heaven.
Ascension within the Jewish Scriptures
In the Bible the concept of ascension is typically utilized to Enoch, who was Noah’s great-grandfather. The textual content says, ‘And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him’ (Genesis 5:24). It shouldn’t be completely clear what this implies, however some individuals interpret it to imply that Enoch had an ascension into heaven. A clearer story is advised of Elijah. The textual content reads ‘behold, there appeared a chariot of fireside, and horses of fireside, and parted them each asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven’ (2 Kings 2:11).
There is a practice that Moses wrote the primary 5 books of the Bible referred to as the Torah or Pentateuch. He could have written a few of them, however he couldn’t have written all of it as a result of his loss of life and burial is detailed on the finish of the Torah (Deuteronomy 34:5-6), which is sweet proof if any that he didn’t write at the very least this bit. Despite recording his loss of life and burial, there however arose the concept, that he had some sort of ascension into heaven. St Jude tells the story of Michael the Archangel contending about his physique (Jude verse 9).
Indeed the concept Moses and Elijah ascended into heaven permits for them to re-appear on the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36 and a pair of Peter 1:16-18).
The Ascension of Jesus within the Gospels
After the resurrection, Jesus spent forty days with the disciples (Acts 1:3). The scene of the Ascension is the Mount of Olives close to Bethany close to Jerusalem. The Gospel accounts by Matthew and John don’t report the ascension, however it’s recorded by Mark and Luke. Mark mentions it on the finish of his Gospel the place it reads: ‘So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was acquired up into heaven, and sat on the appropriate hand of God’ (Mark 16:19).
Luke very briefly mentions it in the previous few verses of his Gospel account which reads: ‘And he led them out so far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his fingers, and blessed them. And it got here to cross, whereas he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven’ (Luke 24:50-51). After that ‘they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with nice pleasure: And had been frequently within the temple, praising and blessing God’ (Luke 24:52-53).
In John’s Gospel, the Ascension shouldn’t be described however it’s referenced. John information Jesus saying ‘No one has ascended into heaven however he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man’ (John 3:13) after which he says to the disciples ‘What in the event you had been to see the Son of Man ascending the place he was earlier than?’ (John 6:62), and after the resurrection, he says to Mary Magdalene, ‘Do not maintain me, for I’ve not but ascended to my Father … ‘ (John 20:17).
The Ascension in Acts
Luke then fleshes out his account within the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. They had been on the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:20) and Jesus spoke with them concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-8) after which ‘he was taken up; and a cloud acquired him out of their sight’ (Acts 1:9). As they regarded up and noticed him go, two angels appeared (Acts 1:10) and mentioned that he would at some point return within the method he left (Acts 1:11). They then returned to the Upper Room in Jerusalem because the prelude to Pentecost.
The Ascension within the Epistles
The Ascension was not in dispute within the Early Church and it’s alluded to many occasions within the Epistles. St Peter wrote about Jesus ‘who’s gone up into heaven, and is on the appropriate hand of God’ (1 Peter 3:22). St Paul mentions the ascension in his letter to the church at Ephesus when he wrote: ‘When he ascended up on excessive, he led captivity captive, and gave presents unto males’ (Ephesians 4:8-10). In Philippians 2:9 Jesus is described as having been exalted. In Romans 8:34, Ephesians 1:20, Colossians 3:1 St Paul describes Jesus as being ‘on the proper hand of God’. He additionally wrote to Timothy that Jesus was ‘acquired up into glory’ (1 Timothy 3:16).
Traditional Site
The conventional website of the Ascension is on the Mount of Olives, on which the village of Bethany sits. A church constructing was erected on the finish of the fourth century, which was destroyed and rebuilt numerous occasions. Today there may be an octagonal chapel, known as the Chapel of the Ascension. It homes a slab of stone which seemingly accommodates the appropriate footprint of Jesus the place he stood earlier than he ascended. The perception within the Ascension of Jesus is a kind of beliefs which can be held by Muslims, so the location is used and commemorated by each Muslims and Christians.
The Problem of the Ascension
The Ascension is a troublesome story for a lot of. Most individuals right now don’t maintain to what gave the impression to be the traditional three-tiered cosmology of hell under us, earth within the center, and heaven above us. Many believers desire to consider heaven as a non secular realm, and the concept Jesus ascended into it bodily is a bit puzzling and even awkward, even to these evangelicals who imagine it. As a end result the Ascension tends not be addressed by apologetics, and there are only a few books on it.
Some individuals desire to consider the Ascension as symbolic, or they think about a non secular ascension, or as Jesus having a brand new immortal non secular physique. The drawback with that is that the New Testament narrative goes out of its method to describe the resurrection as bodily and bodily. The tomb is empty, Thomas places his fingers within the wounds which his physique nonetheless has (John 20:24-29), Jesus eats grilled fish with the apostles after the resurrection (Luke 24:41-43), and Jesus himself explains that he’s not a ghost nor a spirit (Luke 24:36-39). The implication is that if the resurrection and the Ascension weren’t bodily, then the tomb wouldn’t have wanted to be empty.
The Ascension in Church History
The Ascension is among the beliefs articulated within the Nicene Creed adopted in AD 325 with the phrases ‘ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the appropriate hand of the Father’. It can be outlined in chapter 8 of the Westminster Confession of Faith. It has generally been linked theologically as a fulfilment of the Day of Atonement. The theologian William Barclay additionally identified that the Ascension permits the Second Coming. The Ascension has been a topic for work and icons and music all through the centuries.
Ascension Day
Ascension Day within the Church calendar remembers the day of the Ascension of Jesus. Ascension Day is the fortieth day of the Easter season, held 39 days after Easter Sunday, which successfully means it all the time falls on a Thursday. In 2024, meaning it’s Thursday 9 May within the western custom, however Thursday 13 June within the jap custom. Generally talking, the western calendar is utilized by Catholic and Protestant Christians and the jap calendar by Orthodox Christians. Ascension Day marks the tip of the Easter season, and happens 10 days earlier than Pentecost.
Ascension Day is marked by Christians the world over in lots of Christian traditions. For Catholics it’s a Holy Day of Obligation, for Orthodox it is among the twelve Great Feasts of the liturgical yr, and for Anglicans it’s Principal Feast and there could also be particular companies in church buildings. The Anglican Book of Common Prayer additionally calls the day Holy Thursday. One symbolic customized in liturgical church buildings is to extinguish the Paschal candle, which was first lit at Easter, as a logo of Christ leaving the earth.
Ascension Day is a public vacation in lots of Catholic and Lutheran international locations in Europe comparable to Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, some cantons of Switzerland; however not within the UK, Australia nor the USA. In French is it known as l’Ascension, and in German it’s splendidly known as the Christi Himmelfahrt.
For Christians from evangelical non-conformist church buildings, not used to mid-week companies, Ascension Day usually passes by unnoticed, though in lots of church buildings it could be recalled on the next Sunday.
The lectionary readings for Ascension Day are Luke 24.44-53 or Acts 1.1-11, Daniel 7.9-14, Psalm 47 or Psalm 93 and Ephesians 1.15-23.
