Why did Jesus "ascend" into heaven?

[Jack_Common]

In that case, three possibilities that I see:
1 - Despite Church teaching and common sense, heaven is somewhere up in the sky. Ridiculous on its face.

This is the truth. Heaven IS a physical place. Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary still have their physical bodies, which reside in heaven.

3 - Whether or not Jesus actually died and was resurrected, the Apostles (with a primitive concept of what something like heaven would be like) fabricated the story, either as part of a larger fabrication regarding the resurrection, or simply to bolster the credibility of the resurrection that they had actually witnesses. Seems the most likely explanation; their primitive explanation has now been overtaken by more sophisticated understanding of what something like heaven would be like.

This is the least likely explanation. The Scriptures are not fabrications, they are true and inspired. The Apostles saw what they saw, they would not and did not lie.

I think you are having problems due to the modern idea of a globe earth and the stars being trillions upon trillions of miles away in a vast universe, etc. This is all just speculation though, based on assumptions. They don’t know as much about the shape of and size of the universe as they would have you believe.

 

[Bradski]

I think you are having problems due to the modern idea of a globe earth and the stars being trillions upon trillions of miles away in a vast universe, etc. This is all just speculation though, based on assumptions. They don’t know as much about the shape of and size of the universe as they would have you believe.

Christmas is coming. You should ask Santa to bring you a telescope, Jack.

And Jesus, if He went anywhere, went out, not up. Otherwise, where I come from he would be going down.

 

[thistle]

As I understand it, the Church teaches that heaven is not a physical place, up in the sky or anywhere else.

Yet when Jesus allegedly goes to Heaven, the Bible says that he “ascends” up into the sky. Acts 1:9: “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.” So, he didn’t fade from view, or disappear. He rose up into the sky like someone riding an elevator.

In that case, three possibilities that I see:
1 - Despite Church teaching and common sense, heaven is somewhere up in the sky. Ridiculous on its face.
2 - Jesus ascended into the sky, mostly for show, in order to give the Apostles a more visual sense for what had happened. Plausible, but seems a bit off to me.
3 - Whether or not Jesus actually died and was resurrected, the Apostles (with a primitive concept of what something like heaven would be like) fabricated the story, either as part of a larger fabrication regarding the resurrection, or simply to bolster the credibility of the resurrection that they had actually witnesses. Seems the most likely explanation; their primitive explanation has now been overtaken by more sophisticated understanding of what something like heaven would be like.

Thoughts?

Please show me where the Church teaches that Heaven is not a place.

 

[babylonfalling]

As I understand it, the Church teaches that heaven is not a physical place, up in the sky or anywhere else.

Yet when Jesus allegedly goes to Heaven, the Bible says that he “ascends” up into the sky. Acts 1:9: “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.” So, he didn’t fade from view, or disappear. He rose up into the sky like someone riding an elevator.

In that case, three possibilities that I see:
1 - Despite Church teaching and common sense, heaven is somewhere up in the sky. Ridiculous on its face.
2 - Jesus ascended into the sky, mostly for show, in order to give the Apostles a more visual sense for what had happened. Plausible, but seems a bit off to me.
3 - Whether or not Jesus actually died and was resurrected, the Apostles (with a primitive concept of what something like heaven would be like) fabricated the story, either as part of a larger fabrication regarding the resurrection, or simply to bolster the credibility of the resurrection that they had actually witnesses. Seems the most likely explanation; their primitive explanation has now been overtaken by more sophisticated understanding of what something like heaven would be like.

Thoughts?

Christ’s body physically rose above the earth bound for heaven. It’s my understanding that three heavens would thought to exist anyway. Sky, space, and the afterlife Heaven.
Christ did things to show his divinity and I’m sure this was at least part of the reason for this.