10-2-23 Daily Bible Nugget 782 Acts 1v11
The Nugget:
Act 1:11 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.
My Comment:
In answer to what a Muslim commented to me I wrote:
You quoted in a comment above from an Imam who stated:
“The return of Jesus in the Bible does not mean the return of the prophet’s physical body; Jesus did not see himself as just a physical person, so he was referring to his society (congregation) when he spoke of his “body.””
Unfortunately, this Imam, just like many Jehovah’s Witnesses I have talked to, gets this wrong. The Bible expressly declares that just as Jesus left this earth in His very tangible and visible but glorified resurrected physical body, so He will return in His visible, tangible, resurrected glorified physical body:
The ascension was most visible to the human eye for the disciples of Jesus SAW Jesus ascend from earth to heaven as recorded in Acts 1:9-11,
Act 1:9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
Act 1:10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
Act 1:11 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.
Note that Acts 1:11 specifically states “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.” (emphasis added)
Jesus declared plainly that His return will be VISIBLE:
Mat 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Paul in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8 refers to this future return of the Lord Jesus,
2Th 1:7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
2Th 1:8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
2Th 1:9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
2Th 1:10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
John in the opening chapter of the book of Revelation directly states this same truth in Revelation 1:7,
Rev 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
Therefore, case closed, for the Bible directly states that the return of our Lord Jesus Christ will be visible!
The Imam is most mistaken when he states “he was referring to his society (congregation) when he spoke of his “body.””
The answer is found in John 2:18-22,
Joh 2:18 Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
Joh 2:19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
Joh 2:20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
Joh 2:21 But he spake of the temple of his body.
Joh 2:22 When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
When my Jehovah Witness friend argued that “His body” is the congregation of His followers, His church, I answered: Just when was the church or temple destroyed and subsequently raised up in three days? He had no answer. He wrote a letter to the Brooklyn, New York headquarters of the Watchtower Society and received a written answer. I took a photograph of the letter when he showed it to me. It claimed that “his body” was the congregation, and I gave the same objection I just gave you–there is no record that the congregation was destroyed and then raised up after three days! Rather, this was the prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ that he would be killed and would be raised from the dead after three days in the grave (see Mark 8:31 and Luke 24:21).
Mar 8:31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
Luk 24:21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.