Search Results for: ascension

The importance of Christ’s Ascension

May 18, 2012 by 84 Comments

Yesterday was Ascension Day, marking the resurrected Christ’s return to His Father.  Pastor Reeder quotes the classic Bible scholar Paul E. Kretzmann on what the Ascension means:

“By His exaltation and ascension the Son of Man, also according to His human body, has entered into the full and unlimited use of His divine omnipresence. His gracious presence is therefore assured to His congregation on earth. He is now nearer to His believers than He was to His disciples in the days of His flesh.

He is now sitting at the right hand of His heavenly Father. As our Brother He has assumed the full use of the divine power and majesty. He reigns with omnipotence over all things, but especially also over His Church. God has put all things under His feet, and has given Him to be the Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all, Eph. 1, 22. 23.

By His Word and Sacrament He gathers unto Himself a congregation and Church upon earth. He works in and with His servants; He governs in the midst of His enemies. He preserves and protects His Church against all the enmity of the hostile world and against the very portals of hell. And His intercession before His heavenly Father makes our salvation a certainty, Rom. 8, 34.”

via On the Lord’s Ascension « Pastor Reeder’s Blog.

Strangely, the Reformed use the Ascension as an argument against the presence of Christ in the sacrament.  (“Jesus isn’t here any more.  He’s in Heaven.”)  But Lutherans use the Ascension as an argument for the Real Presence, since now the Son of God, having taken His place in the Godhead, is omnipresent.

Filed Under: Christ, Holidays, Theology Tagged With: , 84 Comments

Happy belated Ascension Day

May 14, 2010 by 112 Comments

That was yesterday.  Sorry I missed it.  Ascension Day marks an important event, but it is odd the way Protestants interpret it in two opposite ways.  For the Reformed, that Christ ascended into Heaven means that this is where His body is, so it can’t be on the altars of churches celebrating Holy Communion.  But Lutherans say that the taking up of the man Jesus into the Godhead makes the doctrine of the Real Presence possible, since now this flesh and blood human being shares the attributes of the Trinity, including omnipresence.

Filed Under: Christ, Holidays, Theology Tagged With: , 112 Comments

Happy Ascension Day

May 1, 2008 by 42 Comments

Today is Ascension Day, the 40th day after Easter, commemorating the day on which our Risen Lord ascended into Heaven and sits on the right hand of the Father Almighty.

It’s odd that the significance of Christ’s ascension is taken in two opposite ways: The Reformed say that it means Christ is ABSENT, no longer on earth, so that His real presence in the sacrament is impossible. Lutherans say that it means Christ, at the right hand of Power, His human nature assumed into the Holy Trinity, can now be omnipresent, so that He CAN be on every altar.

Ascension Day used to be a hugely important day in the church year. How can we bring it back?

Filed Under: Christ, Holidays 42 Comments

Make your predictions for 2015

January 1, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Now it’s time for you to make your predictions about what is going to happen in the new year that begins today.  Then, on New Year’s Eve of 2015, we will review them to see who is the most far-sighted prognosticator.

Again, the more specific, out-of-the-blue, and surprising predictions fare best.  The example I keep giving is tODD, who a few years ago predicted the death of North Korea’s dictator , Kim Jong-Il, and the ascension of his unlikely son, Kim Jong-Un.  I don’t believe Kim Jong-Il was even sick at the time of the prediction, so it was quite a stunning guess.  (Then again, no one last year predicted that Kim Jong-Un would be associated with a hack of a major Hollywood studio in a first successful and then unsuccessful attempt to kill a crude comedy about assassinating said dictator.  If anyone had made such a prediction, the trophy would be retired.  Instead, reg won with his prediction that the United States would normalize relations with Cuba, which is plenty specific, out-of-the-blue, and surprising.

See yesterday’s reward post and the New Year’s Day prediction post it links to, to show you what we’re looking for.  Then predict away!

Filed Under: Bible, History, Holidays Tagged With: , Leave a Comment

John the Baptizer

December 9, 2014 by Leave a Comment

The great figure of Advent is John the Baptist.  We think of him as that harsh, say-it-like-it-is prophet who ate insects.  But what he preached was repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  Which he conveyed by baptism. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Church, Holidays Tagged With: , , , Leave a Comment

He ascended into Heaven

May 29, 2014 by 2 Comments

Happy Ascension Day!  Today we celebrate that Jesus, in the words of the Apostle’s Creed,  “ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”  It’s interesting how some Christians use this teaching to deny that the Body of Christ can be really present in Holy Communion–after all, His body is in heaven at the right hand of the Father–while Lutherans use this teaching to explain how the Body of Christ can be present in Holy Communion (He now shares the attributes of Godhead, such as omnipresence).

Here, though, is an ancient Christian holiday that has not become secularized.  What do you say is the true meaning of Ascension Day? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christ, Holidays 2 Comments

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