Monday, July 14, 2014

"called his father Jacob to him" - Christ Jesus after Resurection in Reality



Around Tokyo Bay


Christ Jesus after Resurection in Reality

Where did Christ Jesus go after resurrection as a matter of reality?

From a religious point of view, we can simply believe what the Gospels tell: Christ Jesus ascended to Heaven while followers were watching.  But in reality, where did he go?

Probably He was in Damascus.  And He met Saul coming from Jerusalem to persecute followers of Christ Jesus.  Then Saul got through the well-know conversion process to change his name to Paul.  And Paul started to travel preaching the gospel as if he had been guided by Christ Jesus.

In other word, Christ Jesus needed somebody to act as his locum tenens.  As Christ Jesus became an enemy of the Roman Empire, He could not act overly.  So, He chose Paul for a large scale mission to gentiles or to those who lived outside Palestine.  But, it is considered that Christ Jesus traveled and moved along with Paul and his followers.  That is why Paul sometimes heard voices of a holy spirit on his way so as to change a route and an itinerary.  Christ Jesus gave warning to Paul so that Paul could avoid unnecessary troubles and dangers.

With this strong direct support from Christ Jesus, Paul could carry out his mission to regions covering Asia Minor and Greece in three times.  

http://worldlink.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/doing-pauline-missions/

Paul probably could not spot Christ Jesus walking with him or traveling with him.  But in a village ahead of Paul or in a town behind Paul, Christ Jesus in a very humble form must have been working so as to work miracles to support Paul's efforts to preach the gospel.  Therefore, voices of a holy spirit or an angel Paul sometimes heard, according to the the ACTs of the Apostles, must have been actually from Christ Jesus.

But Paul traveled to Rome eventually.  Did Christ Jesus go with Paul to Rome?  Probably yes.
Paul remained in Rome for at least two years (Acts 28:30), where, despite being a prisoner, he wrote a very large part of what we now have as the New Testament (see New Testament Fact File) - epistles to the Ephesians (see also Ephesus), Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and possibly Hebrews. Although the Bible record does not include his fate, most scholars believe that he was eventually acquitted of the charges and released in 63 or 64 A.D., upon which he made his way back through Greece and Asia Minor (i.e. Turkey) before again being arrested and returned to Rome where he was martyred, by beheading, or torn apart by wild animals in the arena before a cheering crowd, about 67 A.D., during the time of Emperor Nero.
http://www.keyway.ca/htm2000/20000203.htm
In the meantime, probably Christ Jesus went back to Jerusalem to lead believers out of the city with Peter before the start of the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE).
At Pentecost in 66 C.E., however, the sign of God’s abandonment of the Temple at Jerusalem was given to the 24 chief priests who ministered in the inner sanctuary: “We are leaving from here.” This was a signal to Peter (and to the remaining Christians in Jerusalem) to flee the city — and they did. Most retired to Pella about 60 miles northeast of Jerusalem, from where they probably were quickly transported by their Greek neighbors into safer areas. In some regions east of the Jordan the Gentiles “escorted to the frontiers any who chose to emigrate” of those Jews “who showed no revolutionary designs.”

The apostle Peter may have been with these last remnants of Christians to leave Judaea. But he did not remain in Pella, or any area of the Middle East. He had an important mission to perform before he died. The apostle Paul was at that time in prison at Rome. And since it was then apparent that Christ was not returning in that generation, it became imperative to bring together a set of standard books (like those of the Old Testament) for later Christians which would have the authority of the apostles behind them.

The maintenance of purity within Christian doctrine required a diligent effort of the leading apostles to provide a canon of New Testament scriptures which would last “until the day dawn” (2 Peter 1:19). Thus, it appears that Peter in the summer of 66 C.E. journeyed, via Pella, to Rome to see the apostle Paul about this very matter. Indeed, there would have been no other reason for Peter to have gone to the capital city of the Empire, other than to consult with Paul before his death concerning the canonization of the New Testament which was the most important endeavor that the apostles could leave for future generations.

Peter and Paul in Rome

There can really be no doubt that Peter finally went to Rome and that he and Paul conversed together shortly before their deaths. About 170 C.E. Dionysius, who was the minister in charge of the Corinthian church, mentioned that both apostles “taught together in Italy and were martyred about the same time.” 8 Irenaeus also said that the congregation of Rome was established and founded “by the two most glorious apostles Peter and Paul.” 9 Then there was Gaius, a Roman elder who lived near the end of the 2nd century. He said that it was possible to point to the very tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul in the vicinity of Rome. These were the tombs “of those who founded this church [the church at Rome].”
http://www.askelm.com/restoring/res022.htm
Then after death of St. Paul and St. Peter, where did Christ Jesus go? At least something grave must have happened to Christ Jesus in the Italian Peninsula in 79 AD.
In the year of 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted in one of the most catastrophic and famous eruptions of all time. Historians have learned about the eruption from the eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger, a Roman administrator and poet.

Mount Vesuvius spawned a deadly cloud of stones, ash and fumes to a height of 33 km (20.5 mi), spewing molten rock and pulverized pumice at the rate of 1.5 Mt/s, ultimately releasing a hundred thousand times the thermal energy released by the Hiroshima bombing.[1] The towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed by pyroclastic flows and the ruins buried under dozens of feet of tephra.[1][32] An estimated 16,000 people died from the eruption.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Vesuvius#Eruption_of_AD_79    
With a great pillar of fire from Mt. Vesuvius, Christ Jesus might have ascended to Heaven eventually.





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Act 7:13 And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
Act 7:14 Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
Act 7:15 So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,
Act 7:16 And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.
Act 7:17 But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
Act 7:18 Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.