Jesus | cruxchfaithformation

Apologetics Minute: Jesus

"Why did Jesus ascend to heaven?”

The Ascension of Jesus gave us a glimpse of our bodies when they are reunited with our souls at the Second Coming. However, another more important reason is that if He hadn't, the Holy Spirit would not have come to guide the Church (Jn 16:7). The Ascension is also intimately tied to His death and resurrection. In death, Jesus fulfilled the role of Passover lamb, which would be slaughtered and eaten (Num 9:11), then burned with incense, which would rise to God in heaven (Num 28:16-25). Just as Jesus, the “Lamb of God” (Jn 1:29), would be killed, so also would that offering be completed in rising to heaven, which Jesus did at the Ascension.

“What is the evidence of the literal, physical Resurrection of Jesus?”

The clearest evidence is the written account of Jesus, the four Gospel writers as well as the testimony of those in the Acts of the Apostles. Jesus eats with His Apostles in Lk 24:43 and tells Thomas touch His wounds in Jn. 20:27. A physical Resurrection of Jesus is attested in Mat. 28:6; Mk. 16:6, and many claim to have witnessed it in Lk. 24:34, Acts 3:15. Many early Christian martyrs sacrificed their lives for the belief that Jesus rose from the dead. There is also written testimony by non-Christians like Josephus, Tacitus and Pliny the Younger claiming that Christians believed in a literal Resurrection. Finally, St. Paul in 1 Cor. 15:12-19 said that if the Resurrection was only symbolic, Christianity would amount to nothing, yet, 2,000 years later, here it is.

“Why does the Apostles’ Creed say that Jesus, ‘descended into hell’?”

When the Apostles Creed states that Jesus descended into hell, it is not referring to the place of fire and brimstone that we think of, which the Jews during that time would have called “Gehenna” (see Mat. 10:28). What the early Christians meant by hell was called “Sheol” or the “land of the dead,” which is where everyone went after they died. When the Creed says Jesus went there after His death but before His Resurrection, it is referring to Jesus making Himself known to all those who had died before His coming and could not have heard the Gospel. Based on 1 Pet. 3:18-20, it states that Jesus “preached” to “imprisoned spirits”. It is because of this descent that a Christian can have confidence those who lived before Christ had hope for heaven just like those who live after Him.

"Did Jesus really claim to be God?"

While it’s argued by some that Jesus never really claims to be God in the same way that the Father is God, this completely ignores the evidence and its context. He claims repeatedly to have God’s name (Ex. 3:14; Jn. 8:58), to be God’s Son (Mat. 26:64), to claim the divine title of “Lord” (Mat. 4:7), to have power and authority equal to God (Jn. 10:30) and to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophets (Mat. 15:7-9). This is compounded by the fact that in many of these occasions, those who heard Him were so convicted that they prepared to stone Jesus, a punishment for blasphemy, which is claiming to be God if you’re not (Lev. 24:16; Jn. 8:58-59). Jesus died for His claim of Godhood (Mat. 26:63-66). If He was not serious about this claim, why did He not correct those who “mistook” Him?