IonMic

Many christians believe god is immaterial or a purely spiritual entity or 'everything but nothing' and that god is jesus. This made me wonder if God truly is jesus and God has no form or no physical entity then when jesus ascended to heaven after his ressurection where do you all think his physical body went???

post tenebras lux

<cough>

Firstly, that's: if Jesus existed.

Then, secondly, if he ascended to heaven. (perhaps that should be thirdly, and secondly should actually be 'if heaven exists).

Dean Anderson

When the angels rolled aside the huge boulder that was blocking the entrance to the tomb, there was a bit of a logistical cock-up and they pushed rather than pulling.

Unfortunately, Jesus was helping to push from the other side at the same time, and the result was that the boulder rolled right over him flattening his body completely and squashing it into the tablecloth that he had laid out ready for his "welcome back" picnic with the Disciples.

The tablecloth has been kept to this day - and that is why when you look at it (the "Shroud of Turin" as it is now called) you will see that the image on it is a flat one, rather than the distorted image you would get if it were wrapped around a three dimensional person.




Well, I think my hypothesis has more explanatory power (and is more plausible) than anything the Christian apologists will come up with...

Doug Shaver

You're asking a bunch of atheists that question?

If the story is true, then his body went to heaven. If the story is not true, then the question is meaningless.

Julian

Well, that sounds kinda like docetism. If he had no physical body then it makes no real sense to ask where his physical body went.

Julian

jakejonesiv

Hi IonMic,

You have asked an absolutely essential question. Very good!

As has been discussed previously, the resurrection appearances of 1 Corinthians 15:3-11 are an interpolation. Furthermore, Pauline Christianity originally had no resurrection apart from the ascension.

Philippians chapter 2 contains no separate resurrection of Jesus. It has death, interpolated on a cross, and exaltation.

Philippians 2
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death, [even the death of the cross].
9 Therefore God has also highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

Rising from the dead means rising to heaven as in Romans 8:34. "It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."

The deutero-Pauline passage of Ephesians 4:8-10 describes a descent to the lowest parts of the earth and a subsequent ascension above the highest heavens.

Those resurrected in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 are immediately whisked off to heaven with Jesus. No resurrection apart from ascension.

We find the Pauline author of 1st Corinthians 15 negating a physical resurrection. The resurrection is celestial and spirtual as opposed to terrestrial and natural. http://tinyurl.com/b6yqx . We find the "astral immortality" of Daniel 12:3.

The idea of Jesus' physical resurrection is an outgrowth of Mark's allegorical tale of the empty tomb. The other evangelists apparently did not realize that the tomb was empty for a reason; the resurrection and ascension were for Mark the same event. No eating of fish, no trouncing about with open wounds, just the simple "He has risen; He is not here;" Mark 16:6. He has gone forward into the
metaphorical Galilee whence he came. Mark 16:7. Mark's fictive account has leveraged the language of Enoch, he was not found because God took him up. Gen. 5:24, Hebrews 11:25.

All of the "public appearances" (to use N.T. Wright's language) of the resurrected Jesus, including the interpolation into 1 Corinthians 15, stem from the reluctance of later writers to accept au_GMark's stark ending of his gospel.

Jake Jones

Trout

Christians ate it with a nice Chianti

IonMic

But if his body went to heaven does that not imply heaven is a physical place? does that mean that god is in heaven inside the body of jesus christ? if so that seems rather strange and means that most christians belief in an immaterial supernatural God is wrong as God is a being that is inside the physical body of jesus christ? and if we get to go to heaven with God how come we dont take our bodies? if god needs a body in heaven surely we do to?

IonMic

Again this passage gets confusing when you apply christian logic. God who has no shape or form apparently has a right hand for jesus to stand next to (standing implying he has a physical body) but we already ascertained that jesus who was god physically ascended to heaven which mens this passage is impossible unless once God got back to heaven he got out of jesus's body and stacked him neatly on the right hand side of his formless shapeless being.......

The Architect

Maybe he was just reanimated and is now the christian god of zombies. :funny:

ok, ok its not that funny. sorry. I'll go away now.