When R.J. Rushdoony discusses
the ascension and the session he lists the Scriptures that support it in the
Old and New Testaments.[1]
But he omits the one passage on which many of the New Testament verses are
based. It is Daniel 7:13.
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the
clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient
of Days and was presented before him” (Daniel 7:13 ESV).
In this
chapter Christ is ascending, not descending. The scene in the vision is the
heavenly court session in which “thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days
took his seat… and the court sat in judgment” (7:9-10). Then the Son of Man
came and “judgment was given for the saints” (7:22). Then verses 26 and 27
summarize in saying, “But the court shall sit in judgment, and his dominion
shall be taken away, to be consumed and destroyed to the end. And the kingdom
and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall
be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; his kingdom shall be an
everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him” (Daniel
7:26-27 ESV). It is obvious that this judgment took place when the Son of Man
came with the clouds to the Ancient of Days. He came in judgment when He
ascended and sat down at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. As the
Creed says, “From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.”
When was
this judgment to be made? Just a couple of days before Jesus went to the cross
He told when it would be. He said, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will
the ruler of this world be cast out” (John 12:31 ESV). Now does not mean later.
He ascended in the clouds to the Father and a judgment was made. That “…through
death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil…”
(Hebrews 2:14 ESV).
Through
His death He cast Satan down to earth. This event is depicted in vision form in
Revelation 12. “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting
against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was
defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great
dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and
Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his
angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,
“Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority
of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down,
who accuses them day and night before our God” (Revelation 12:7-10 ESV). Notice
that the words of Jesus in John 12:31 are echoed here. “Now… the accuser… has
been thrown down…”
When did
this happen? It happened when One like the Son of Man ascended to the Ancient
of Days and judgment was made.
The war
in heaven depicted by Michael was prophesied in Daniel 12. “At that time shall arise Michael, the great
prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble,
such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that
time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written
in the book. [2] And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth
shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting
contempt” (Daniel 12:1-2 ESV).
At what
time was this war in heaven? For the answer, we must go to the preceding verse
in Daniel 11:45. “And he shall pitch his palatial tents between the sea
and the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end, with none to help
him” (Daniel 11:45 ESV). What enemy of God pitched his tents in the holy land?
Was it not the “king” of Daniel 11:36? Both Rushdoony and Calvin say this
“king” was Caesar. When Rome invaded Palestine in A.D. 66 the Jewish war began.
For more details on this read my book, “The Visions Of Daniel.”
Again,
this places the timing of Satan’s defeat. A.D. 70 took place because of the
judgment made when One like the Son of Man ascended in the clouds to the
Ancient of Days. Rome later fell for the same reason. Christ must “must reign
until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25 ESV). His
reign began when He ascended to the Ancient of Days. At that time “A stream of fire
issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him [in the
court session], and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court
sat in judgment, and the books were opened” (Daniel 7:10 ESV). This took place
when He ascended and He is still judging and making war. “For he must reign
until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25 ESV).
Jesus
Christ is the conquering Bright and Morning Star that is putting out all the
other stars. The Father promises Him, “For the nation and kingdom which
will not serve you shall perish, And those
nations shall be utterly ruined” (Isaiah 60:12 NKJV). The father says to Him, “Ask of Me, and I
will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of
the earth for Your possession” (Psalm
2:8 NKJV). But He is doing this “little by little.” “And
the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by
little; you will be unable to destroy them at once,
lest the beasts of the field become too
numerous for you” (Deut 7:22 NKJV). All of this until His final coming is the
result of the judgment that was made when He ascended. The court is still in
session. “Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He
puts an end to all rule and all authority and power” (1Cor 15:24).
Because of this judgment session,
Jerusalem the harlot and Caesar the Beast were destroyed. Because of His coming
with the clouds to the Ancient of Days Constantine was converted and Rome fell.
Because of this coming and His session in court, Christendom came and changed
the world forever. Because of His death, burial, ascension, and session the
whole world has adopted the Western culture brought by Christendom. For the
same reason the Reformation came. Revelation 19 depicts this by Christ coming
on the conquering white horse. He is always coming and doing this not just in
history past, but also now and finally when He comes to judge the living and
the dead. “In righteousness he judges and makes war” (Rev
19:11).
God did this also when He delivered
David from all his enemies. “He bowed the heavens and came down” (Psalm 18:9).
He also did this when Egypt was conquered. “Behold, the LORD is riding on a
swift cloud and comes to Egypt” (Isaiah 19:1 ESV). He is always coming in the court session. This is what
history is all about.
The Judgment Day
Daniel
says, “The court was seated, and the books were opened”
when the Son of Man came with the clouds to the Ancient of Days (Dan 7:10).
John also saw that day. “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before
God, and books were opened. And another book
was opened, which is the Book of
Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which
were written in the books” (Rev 20:12).
If the
judgment was made when One like the Son of Man ascended to the Ancient of Days
in the clouds, why does Paul say, “he has fixed a day on which he will judge
the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has
given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31 ESV)? Did
he mean that day was still future? Of course it was still future for the events
in history and also for the final Day. God has fixed a day of judgment for
every individual and for every nation because of the judgment that was made
when He ascended in the clouds to the Ancient of Days. “For we must
all appear before the judgment
seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he
has done, whether good or bad” (2Co 5:10 NKJV).
Where
Do People Go When They Die?
The
story of the rich man and Lazarus show that people in Old Testament times went
to Hades to await the coming of “The Resurrection And The Life.” Hades was
divided into Paradise and Hell fire. Abraham was there in Paradise. The thief
on the cross was with Jesus there when they died.
The early church fathers
(before 300 A.D.) such as Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Hippolytus
all rejected the teaching that disembodied spirits go to heaven when they die
as a gnostic and Hellenistic pagan notion.[2]
They believed that disembodied souls still go to Hades at death to await the
coming of Christ to raise their bodies. "...the
hellenization process by which Christianity adopted many Greek [pagan] thought
patterns led in a different direction as the eschatological hope came to be
expressed in Hellenistic categories.”[3]
I agree that it is a gnostic notion.
God “will transform our lowly body that it may be
conformed to His glorious body, according to the
working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (Php 3:21
NKJV). When He arose He said, “Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I
Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does
not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke
24:39 NKJV). Our bodies will be spiritual bodies of flesh and bones like His
body that appeared in a room with locked doors and floated through the clouds
to the Ancient of Days. The Resurrection And The Life arose leading
captivity captive with resurrected bodies. “The tombs also were opened. And
many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of
the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to
many” (Matthew 27:52-53 ESV).
“For we know that if the tent
that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to
put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found
naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that
we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is
mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing
is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good
courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the
Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we
would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians
5:1-8 ESV).
Notice that Paul contrasts the
earthly home with the house not made with hands. If the new house is not put
on, we are deemed naked. We shall not be unclothed but shall be “further
clothed” with a new body. While we are at home in the earthly body we are away
from the Lord. Also, if we were naked, we would be shamefully unclothed. Paul
clearly says that we receive new bodies when our earthly home is destroyed. We
do not go naked to Hades. We go to the judgment and then to the resurrection. He
would rather be away from the earthly body and at home with the Lord in the new
body not made with hands. When?
Daniel 12 tells when. He says
when the “king” (Caesar) would invade the glorious mountain “many of those who
sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some
to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2 ESV). Both saved and unsaved
would be raised. When? Daniel tells when 5 verses later. “…when
the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished. (Daniel 12:7).
This clearly pinpoints the time of the resurrection. Since that
die, “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment”
(Heb 9:27). The popular view says that people go to heaven or hell as
disembodied spirits to await the final judgment. Stop and think about that a
moment. Why do they go there without even going first to the judgment???
John saw the dead stand before God. Death and Hades were cast into
the lake of fire (the second death) at that time. These were not disembodied
spirits. The “pop” teaching is that this has still not happened. Just before Jesus
died and ascended He said, ““Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler
of this world will be cast out” (John 12:31 NKJV). This happened when through
death Christ destroyed “him who had the power of death, that is, the devil”
(Heb 2:14). When He cast out Satan loud voices in heaven could say, “Now the
salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his
Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who
accuses them day and night before our God” (Revelation 12:10 ESV). “Behold, now
is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2 NKJV).
With what kind of body do they come?”
1 Corinthians 15 goes into more detail about the resurrection. “Now
if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that
there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the
dead, then not even Christ has been raised” (1 Corinthians 15:12-13 ESV). Jews
like Paul did not consider disembodied spirits as raised from the dead. In
these verses Paul is combatting the typical pagan idea of death as going to
Hades as disembodied spirits. He uses Christ’s resurrection as the model for
ours. Jesus said, “Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me
and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke
24:39). As long as they thought they were seeing a spirit they were still in
unbelief. “But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said
to them, “Have you any food here?” (Luke 24:41). Belief in spirits is pagan and
dualistic. Plato is still with us. He being dead yet speaks.
“But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of
body do they come?” [36] You foolish person! What you sow does not come to
life unless it dies. [37] And what you sow is not the body that is to be,
but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. [38] But God
gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.
[39] For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans,
another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. [40] There
are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one
kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. [41] There is one glory
of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for
star differs from star in glory. [42] So is it with the resurrection of
the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.
[43] It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in
weakness; it is raised in power. [44] It is sown a natural body; it is
raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual
body. [45] Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”;
the last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:35-45 ESV).
All men are spirits whether they
live in the flesh our out of it. Christ is a life-giving spirit that said He
was flesh and bone after He arose. His body saw no corruption because He knew
no sin. It was therefore impossible for the grave to hold Him. Our
bodies, on the other hand, will rot in the grave. But just as a seed rots when
buried and then shoots forth a new life so it is in the resurrection. Our
bodies rot in the ground, “But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to
each kind of seed its own body.” “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a
spiritual body” (1 Cor 15:44).
Since He who called Himself the Resurrection And The Life came
with the clouds to the Ancient of Days, He made a judgment and cast death and
Hades into the lake of fire (Rev 20:14). “And many of those who [slept] in the
dust of the earth [awoke], some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2 ESV). This was fulfilled when the power of
the holy people was completely shattered (Dan. 12:7).
Since then “It is appointed to men once to die, but after that the
judgment” (Heb 9:27). When men die they are raised from the dead with new
bodies and are judged at the Judgment Seat of Christ. They do not go to heaven
“naked,” nor do they go to the lake of fire without being clothed with the new
body. 2000 years is a long time to wait for judgment when Scripture clearly
tells us when the session began.
Christ sits at the right hand of the God the Father Almighty.
“From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.” When Christ comes
there not all of us will die. He will also judge the living. “Behold! I tell
you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will
sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For
this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must
put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:51-53 ESV). Some call this “the rapture.”
Paul also describes this in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. “For the Lord
himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an
archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ
will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always
be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 ESV).
When Christ comes He will restore all things as they were in the
beginning. There will be no death, no second law of thermodynamics, and no law
of sin and death on earth. “For he must reign until he has put all his
enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians
15:25-26 ESV). This is what One like the Son of Man accomplished when he
ascended to the Ancient of Days and made a judgment. He judged the world and
cast out its ruler.
“Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe
to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath,
because he knows that his time is short!” (Rev 12:12). His time in this case
was 3.5 years. But his time is always limited. Time is on our side.
“And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the
earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.
[14] But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she
might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be
nourished for a time, and times, and half a time” (Rev 12:13-14). The
Christians in Judea remembered the warning of Jesus and fled to Pella while the
Jewish war lasted 3.5 years.
“The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the
woman, to sweep her away with a flood. [16] But the earth came to the help
of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the
dragon had poured from his mouth. [17] Then the dragon became furious with
the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who
keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood
on the sand of the sea” (Revelation 12:12-17 ESV). The earth helped the woman
when Constantine was converted.
