The Stages of Christ's Ascension and Return (Part 7)

Before I jump back to the two passages of scripture I shared in part 6 of this series, I'd like to share this little insight with you which will help to confirm my interpretation of them. It's not often that we can take a single verse or two and build a concept or doctrine based on what it says. On the other hand, it is scripturally sound to base a concept or doctrine upon confirmations from many verses. This guidance can be illustrated clearly in a simple jigsaw puzzle. One piece provides a little bit of detail, but it's only when you join that piece up with many more pieces in the box, where the full picture comes clearly into view.

The Stages of Christ's Ascension and Return (Part 6)

It is important to maintain the context from part 5 in this study and remember that Paul's writings encompass ALL of the coming of Christ, across both Mystery and Kingdom Programs. When Paul writes about Christ's return, he does not always focus exclusively on the Body of Christ! Our rapture only makes up part of the details that Paul lays out as he documents the WHOLE of Christ's return and the order (or sequence) of the raptures and resurrections. Please keep this in mind as we continue in this study.

The Stages of Christ's Ascension and Return (Part 5)

Part 4 concluded with the details of Christ's ascension. We will now turn our attention to the details of the return of Jesus Christ, looking into the stages of His return in the same way, and in the same positions, as how He ascended. I trust that these details will either confirm the wonders and intrigue of the return of 'our blessed hope', or provide you deeper, and meaningful insights, that can strengthen your faith and generate excitement.

Let's continue to look at the return of Jesus, as mirroring (or in symmetry to) the events of His ascension.

The Stages of Christ's Ascension and Return (Part 4)

In Part 3 of this post series, we had a look at the continued ascension of Jesus from the clouds (the position in which Stephen saw Jesus in Acts 7:55-56), to the position in light which He occupied according to 1 Tim.6:16. Between these two scripture references, it clearly identified Jesus in two different places. However, I won't be dogmatic and claim that these two positions are separated by the "waters above the firmament", but based on my current convictions, I'll illustrate it as such in my diagram below. (The purpose of the diagram is simply to show the eventual symmetry between Christ's ascension and return. I don't claim it to be accurate in depicting locations or positions in the heavenly ascension). 

The Stages of Christ's Ascension and Return (Part 3)

As mentioned in Part 2 of this multi-post topic, it is important to look at the ascension of Jesus, and the stages that it occurred in, in order to fully understand the stages of Christ's return. We'll continue therefore, in this part, to look at the details of the second stage of Christ's ascension, and later, when we look at Jesus' whole second coming, we will see how this part will mirror the same stage of His multi-part return. There are some very interesting things to learn from these stages and the events that tie into them.

The second stage of Christ's ascension into a new position and glory.

The Stages of Christ's Ascension and Return (Part 2)

The Ascension of ACTS 1

Acts 1:9-11 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 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.

As mentioned in the opening post of this series, the ascension of Jesus in Acts 1 is only the beginning of Jesus departure back into glory. The bible provides us with much more insights if we study the scriptures and piece together additional verses that detail his return to heaven. The reason for putting focus on Jesus' ascension is not so much to learn what happened here as it is to provide insights into his glorious and soon return. There is so much more to know about His return, and since it mirrors His ascension (as Acts 1:11 suggests), learning about the ascension will bolster our understanding of His return.