Verses 50-53
§ 156. JESUS’S ASCENSION, Luke 24:50-53 .
Inasmuch as Luke alone of the Evangelists explicitly describes the visible and bodily ascension of Jesus, adverse criticism has questioned the reality of the fact. The New Testament, they admit, does plentifully assume that Christ is in heaven; but, perhaps, his soul only. (Matthew 26:64; John 20:17; Acts 2:33; Eph 4:10 ; 1 Peter 3:22.) But, 1. Since the body of Jesus rose, in possession of supernatural qualities belonging to a resurrection body, either he must have passed through another death, and that a death of a resurrection body, or he must have gone corporeally to heaven. 2. The representation of his bodily return at the Judgment Advent (Matthew 25:31) necessarily implied a bodily ascension. 3. The unanimous and intense faith of the Church in his ascension can be no otherwise explained than upon the ground that his ascension was visibly witnessed. 4. The explicit and circumstantial narrative of one Evangelist would be sufficient, without either of the preceding reasons; with them, we hold any doubt to be superfluous and foolish. All assume the fact, but he supplies the mode.
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