Additionally, early Christians were not, as is commonly assumed, bound to a three-tier vision of the universe, i.e., heaven, hell, and earth.
[W]hen the Bible speaks of heaven and earth it is not talking about two localities related to each other within the same space-time continuum or about a nonphysical world contrasted with a physical one but about two different kinds of what we call space, two different kinds of what we call matter, and also quite possibly (though this does not necessarily follow from the other two) two different kinds of what we call time.
So heaven and earth, understood in this way, are two dimensions of the same reality. They “interlock and intersect in a whole variety of ways even while they retain, for the moment at least, their separate identities and roles.” Combine this with the doctrine of the ascension and we do not have a Jesus who floats up into a heaven “up there” but disappears into a reality we cannot yet see. Because heaven and earth are not yet joined Jesus is physically absent from us. At the same time he is present with us through the Holy Spirit and the sacraments, linkages where the two realities meet in the present age.
Well, if Bishop Wright is correct in what he asserts with such authority, then why do we use the word ‘Ascension’ from the word ascend which means to rise; and is St Luke being inexact to write that Christ was “carried up into heaven†[Luke 24] and “while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight,†something backed up when St Luke goes on “And while they were looking steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 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 1:9-11].
St Luke’s account is also supported by St Mark: “after the Lord had spoken to them, he was received up into heaven†[Mark 16:19].
If Bishop Wright is right are we going to have to dump all those attractive renaissance paintings of Christ ascending?
I think the bishop is fairly clear that Jesus did ascend, but it was also an entry into a different expression of reality called heaven, a reality that only at times physically intersects with the dimension we live in.
#2 Adam 12
Can you please point me to the words in the passage where Bishop Wright says that?