{"id":42,"date":"2011-03-13T22:38:25","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T05:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/?p=42"},"modified":"2014-12-28T00:32:56","modified_gmt":"2014-12-28T07:32:56","slug":"42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/?p=42","title":{"rendered":"Is Jesus the Only Man to Have Ascended Into Heaven?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q. Is Jesus the only man to have ascended into heaven?<\/em>
\nA. It depends on what you mean by \u201cheaven\u201d.<\/h3>\n

The verses cited as contradicting the Bible\u2019s claims on the first man ascending into heaven are the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs they were going along and talking, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses and of fire which separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven.\u201d (NASB)
\n– 2 Kings 2:11<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.\u201d (NASB)
\n– John 3:13<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the verse from 2 Kings, Elijah is described in Hebrew from the viewer\u2019s perspective as having ascended into the shamayim <\/em>or shameh <\/em>meaning \u201csky\u201d as in \u201cvisible arch in which the clouds move.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in the verse from John 3, Jesus\u2019s statement is recorded in Greek as ascending into ouranos<\/em> meaning \u201cthe abode of God, happiness, power, eternity, Heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

If one keeps in mind that the discussion taking place in John chapter 3 is the famous dialogue between Jesus Christ and Nicodemus, the distinction becomes more clear. The Pharisee Nicodemus has just asked Jesus what a person has to do in order to enter the kingdom of God. In the course of explanation, Jesus uses earthly analogies to convey spiritual concepts. When Nicodemus is still stumped, Jesus responds:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.\u201d (NASB)
\n– John 3:12-13<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus was, of course, referring to Himself. At the time He was speaking, He alone had been in the abode of God \u2013 the throne room of Heaven \u2013 because He was without sin.<\/p>\n

Now, those who had ascended into heaven before Jesus made that statement \u2013 namely, Enoch (Genesis 5:24) and Elijah \u2013 likely went to heaven, but not directly to the abode of Yahweh. This is because they were sinners, and the unblemished sacrifice of the Messiah had not yet been made.<\/p>\n

After the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ took place, the Apostle Paul explained that all believers in the Savior now have access to God the Father in Heaven and \u201care of God\u2019s household\u201d (Ephesians 2:18-22).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q. Is Jesus the only man to have ascended into heaven? A. It depends on what you mean by \u201cheaven\u201d. The verses cited as contradicting the Bible\u2019s claims on the first man ascending into heaven are the following: \u201cAs they were going along and talking, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[109,124,239,120,112,121,125,106,7,107,118,119,115,27,39,117,116,114,13,110,111,105,72,75,113,103,104,53,122,108,123,126],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305,"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions\/305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}