The "rapture" is a reference to "being caught up" as found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord, though Christians differ on interpretation. In the Reformed Churches, which teach Calvinist theology, belief in the ascension of Christ is included in the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Heidelberg Catechism and the Second Helvetic Confession." In the Eastern Orthodox Church the ascension is one of twelve Great Feasts. In the Roman Catholic Church, the ascension of the Lord is a Holy Day of Obligation. Since the adoption of the Nicene Creed in 325, the ascension of Jesus into heaven, as related in the New Testament, has been officially taught by all orthodox Christian churches and is celebrated on Ascension Thursday. The Anglo-Catholic tradition of Anglicanism typically affirms the assumption.
Protestants generally believe that Mary died a natural death like any other human being and subsequently entered heaven in the usual manner. In like manner, Roman Catholicism affirms that Mary, the mother of Jesus, suffered death prior to her assumption which has been "expressly affirmed in the Liturgy of the Church" and is expressly seen in paragraph 20 of the proclamation of this teaching. Mary, the mother of Jesus is considered in Eastern Orthodoxy to have died prior to being assumed (translated) into heaven.The minority views that Jesus did not die are known as the swoon hypothesis and Docetism. Most Christians believe Jesus did initially die, but was then resurrected from the dead by God, before being raised bodily to heaven to sit at the Right Hand of God with a promise to someday return to Earth. Jesus is considered by the vast majority of Christians to have died before being resurrected and ascending to heaven.The Christian Bible, in the Old Testament, records that both the prophet Elijah and the patriarch Enoch were bodily assumed into Heaven on a chariot of fire. See also: Ascension of Jesus, Assumption of Mary, Rapture, Biblical cosmology, and Translation (Mormonism)
0 kommentar(er)
