Unes

John Gospel 20:17 Jesus replied, “Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’

And later we read:

John Gospel 20:27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and examine my hands. Extend your hand and put it into my side. Do not continue in your unbelief, but believe.” 20:28 Thomas replied to him, “My Lord and my God!”

First, Jesus told Mary Magdalene: “Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father” and he informed Mary Magdalene: ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father’. Then, few days later Jesus told Thomas: “Put your finger here, and examine my hands. Extend your hand and put it into my side.” From these verses we can easily conclude that in few days Jesus had ascended to Heaven to see his Father (God) and then descended back to Earth to see his beloved disciples. So, for Jesus, Heaven is not that far.

It is believed after that meeting when Jesus told Thomas to examine his wounds, Jesus revealed himself to five hundred people and he talked to them, and those people saw him ascended to Heaven. Then, this question arises; what stops Jesus to do similar presentation more often? After all Jesus is hearing people’s prayers, and he loves people, and he forgives their sins, and he suppose to have the full control of the Creation, and Heaven is not that far, then I see no excuse for Jesus not to show his Divine Body to the people who are questioning the validity of his Divinity. We can not accept that Jesus loved those 500 strangers more than all the Christian saints since then. Jesus was so generous to those 500 strangers, but since then he has ignored all his devoted worshippers. We can forget about the Battle of Armageddon, but what is so wrong for Jesus just to stop by and affirm people’s faith in his Divinity? He did it once before, and his presumed characteristics demand him to do that act more often.

It is unacceptable that Jesus is having fun in Heaven and he ignores his presumed responsibilities for so long. Many Prophecies about Jesus have failed. It is such a disgrace on the Christianity that Mighty Jesus stays away for so long and he does not embrace people with his tangible physical presence. The Christians have run out of all plausible excuses for those Failed Prophecies! Jesus might not know the exact date for the “End Time”; “the Battle of Armageddon”, but he could have stopped by more often and proved his Divinity to more people.

By the way, if Jesus is in charge of the Creation, then, why doesn’t he know the “End Time”!? Doesn’t this contradict with the claim of his Divinity!?

May God Bless us All,
Unes

judge

Would it reallly necessarily help? There are people who are convinced about Jesus, but who probably leave a lot of room for improvement in their lives.

Also many people do seem to have experiences with Jesus (just check the near death experience section in your local book store. Howard Storm is just one example of many,many, many cases.
Heck even Naomi Wolf had a vision of Jesus

Sheshbazzar

I have met several individuals who state that Jesus had came and talked with them.
One even related how that when he was drowning in a river, Jesus walked right out on the water and pulled him out, and then they sat on the bank and had a long conversation.
Lots of people claim to have personally seen and talked with Jesus, in the flesh.
When he first walked among men, most of mankind did not see him, or even seeing him, they did not recognise him, for whom, and what he was.
Would you recognise him if you saw him today?
What do you expect him to look like?
Could you identify him on sight like these others have?

Unes

Dear Sheshbazzar,
In the incident which 500 people saw Jesus, there was no doubt of Jesus Divinity, no guessing! I ask for similar presentations, and more often!

May God Bless us All,
Unes

LoungeHead

Good point!

Also, why doesn't God change his master plan for the world and humanity. Or at least consult us!? Proverbs 15:22: Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

GenesisNemesis

Are we talking to a skeptic, or a fundamentalist Christian calling all other belief systems "myths"?

RED DAVE

From Unes:
He hasn't learned PowerPoint yet.

RED DAVE

Sheshbazzar

You mean here?

Emphasis mine. He could have appeared to as many as 5,000 or 500,000, but not all of them would have -seen-, and perceived that it -was- him.
So still today, some called "Brethren", testify that they have seen him, and do recognise him, and do perceive that it is him.
But the unbelieving do not see him, cannot recognise him, nor perceive that it is him.
If you were to behold him, you would not recognise him, nor perceive that it was him, because your unbelief blinds you to his presence.

GakuseiDon

According to Pliny the Elder:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin...y=head%3D%2324

"The stadium is equal to 125 of our Roman paces, or 625 feet. Posidonius2 supposes that there is a space of not less than 40 stadia around the earth, whence mists3 , winds and clouds4 proceed; beyond this he supposes that the air is pure and liquid, consisting of uninterrupted light; from the clouded region to the moon there is a space of 2,000,000 of stadia, [p. 1054] and thence to the sun of 500,000,000 . It is in consequence of this space that the sun, notwithstanding his immense magnitude, does not burn the earth."

Assuming that a stadium is 0.18 km:
* Clouds were about 7 km from earth
* The moon was about 360,000 km
* The sun was about 90 million km

So, if heaven was above that, then it would have been over 90 million km away.

Sheshbazzar

How far is heaven? it depends on which heaven you desire to get to