2719.—No Man Hath Ascended into Heaven.
By Editor
If Enoch and Elijah were translated, and Moses raised from the dead and taken to heaven, please explain John 3:13. L. J. S. John 3:13 is not so difficult of understanding if we will remember the context. Jesus is telling not of things earthly, but of things heavenly. He says in the 12th verse, "If I told you earthly things and ye believed not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things?" and then verse 13: "No one has ascended into heaven," that is for the purpose of ascertaining heavenly things, and brought them back again to earth, but "the Son of Man which is in heaven." That does not mean that no one has ascended into heaven and stayed there, but no one has gone into heaven and brought those things back to men. Christ Jesus is God's revealer of His Gospel, and He descended out of heaven and brought it to a dying world. To put the thought in the simplest language, no one has ascended into heaven to obtain God's message and bring it back to mankind. The only one who gives us that message is He who descended out of heaven. The message is from heaven just as the birth must be. Men must be born from above; the message comes from above; the life is received from above.