After Jesus resurrection he
spent forty days teaching them and commissioned the disciples to proclaim the
Gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the remotest part of the earth, and
then He leaves them and ascends to the Father:
And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they
were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. (Acts 1:9 NASB)
Now this same event was
captured by the same author of the book of Acts in the gospels. We learn from
Luke's account that it was while Jesus was in the act of blessing them with
uplifted hands that He departed from them and went into heaven:
And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands
and blessed them. 51 And it came about that while He was blessing them, He
parted from them. (Luke 24:50-51 NASB)
So we see that it was while he blessed
them that he departed. It seems a little different. Now of course the same
author cannot be confused. The harmony of scriptures is to understand the
narrative from the mind of the given author
In continuation he also
stated that:
And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they
were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. (Acts 1:9 NASB)
It sounds like while they
are talking to Jesus He begins to float upward and ascends into a cloud and
disappears. This is the basis for the expectation of a physical return of Jesus
coming on physical clouds. This line of thinking also connects the following
verse that says
10 And while they looked stedfastly toward
heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into
heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come
in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts 1)
Now I must say this that if
we do not understand the language of the first three quarters of the Bible, we
will never understand the last quarter which is the New Testament.
Now I have dealt with the
clouds aspect in one of my previous blogs but today I want to address the
aspect of “in like manner”.
First of all it would
interest you to know that the disciples were not star-gazing Jesus watching
float into the stratosphere. Let’s look
at that verse again.
And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they
were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. (Acts 1:9 NASB)
The word "Looking
on" is the present active participle of the Greek
word blepo. Which, according to the Biblical Greek
dictionary, is used abstractly, i.e., there was no object
at which the disciples were looking; thus it may well mean simply "in their
sight,"
Also Jesus is then said to
have been "lifted up," or in the KJV “taken up” which is the Greek
word epairo. This word in its passive form, figuratively signifies
the lifting up of someone in dignity. It basically describes the exaltation of an
individual.
A right understanding
of that place would be that Jesus is exalted to the right hand of God, a
position of superiority over and above created being. What is the essence of
this exaltation? Remember the prophecy from Daniel?
"I kept looking in the night visions, And
behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came
up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. 14 "And to Him was
given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations, and men of
every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will
not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed. (Daniel
7:13-14)
In this event Jesus wanted his
disciples to know that He had left for good, as opposed to the way He appeared
and reappeared during the forty days after the resurrection. It was time for
the Holy Spirit to guide them to the next phase.
Then
we see two angels who were present to witness and tell them of his return.
11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into
heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come
in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts 1:11 KJV)
Now there’s the word that
keeps coming up in many heated debates. They said that he would return in like
manner.
The words "in
like manner" are the Greek phrase "hon tropon." When
you examine the usage of "hon tropon" in the New
Testament, it is clear that this phrase does not mean: "exactly the same
in every detail," but has the idea of: "similar in some
fashion."
We will see examples of
this phrase as it was used:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and
stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together,
just as a (hon tropon) hen gathers her
brood under her wings, and you would not have it! (Luke 13:34 NASB)
Did Jesus want to gather
Jerusalem in exactly the same manner as (hon tropon) a hen gathers
her chicks? Nah.
The coming was described in
various ways that could end with varying ways to look out for if it to be taken
in the way it is worded without doing a proper exegesis.
This is how Matthew describes
His coming:
"For just as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes
even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. (Matthew 24:27)
This is totally different
than what Acts 1:11 describes. So which way is it, visibly in a cloud or like
lightning?
Paul also describes
Christ's coming this way:
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ
shall rise first. (1 Thessalonians 4:16)
This is not "in
like manner" as Luke describes in Acts.
Paul also states that:
and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when
the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming
fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who
do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8 NASB)
This is still different
than Acts 1:11. In this place we have angels and flaming fire dealing out
retribution. This is different from what we see in Acts.
Notice what John says in
his prophetic writing:
And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat
upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages
war. (Revelation 19:11)
John has Jesus coming on a
horse, not a cloud. Looking at all of these how can anyone honestly say that that
Jesus is going to come EXACTLY how He left when they read Acts
1:11? When you compare Scripture with Scripture, it just doesn't agree.
The emphasis of Acts 1:11
is that Christ's coming would be a cloud coming, just as He left in
a cloud, so He would come in the clouds. That is the manner that Luke is
communicating that actually brings about a harmony with other verses of
scripture.
This coming on the cloud is
an apocalyptic symbol for coming in judgment. Look at Psalsm
The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at My right
hand, Until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet." (Psalms 110:1
NASB)
The
exaltation of Christ was for him to receive a kingdom that would be shared with
the saints. He would be there till all enemies be made his footstool. Jesus
told the disciples that when the temple was about to be destroyed that they
should understand that the kingdom had drawn near already. Those who opposed
the kingdom were the ones who would end up in the destruction that mirrored the
plagues of Egypt. This is the reason all other verses use a judgment theme and
not about a physical body appearance.
An good understanding of
the language of Scripture will help us see that His coming was not to be
physical, but a coming in judgment on that old covenant world and
administration so that the new and eternal would reign in His grace.
Blessings.