Post resurrection? Where is Jesus now? (read the rest, please)?

Question

In the Gospels we find what seems to be a resurrected Jesus, popping in and out of thin air, PHYSICALLY appearing to His disciples. This is not in disagreement with the OT. The question is, if He could do that then, why not now? God is all-powerful...and the OT says specifically that we will appear before the LORD, (a minimum of) three times per year... A staute for all time! Has anyone had that experience?

Answer 1

Please trust me, I am not a religious zealot or a bible thumper, but I am spiritual by nature and Jesus is my closest friend. Maybe his disciples were able to see him because of their love for him.
Nobody should assume that because they cannot see something it does not exist. He may come in a form you are not expecting so it has not been recognized. Maybe he enters lightly so those who are paying attention will not be startled into thinking the world is ending.

Answer 2

Because when Jesus ascended to heaven an angel appeared (if you remember) and said the way you have seen Jesus ascend to heaven is the way he will return (2nd coming). So the next time we see him "he will appear in the clouds with all Glory". Im not quite clear what you are saying regarding the old testament. But I think you're talking about the Jews that needed to go to the temple three times a year for sacrifice. Is that what you are talking about? This idea of going to the temple in Jerusalem stopped for Christians because as a Christian the Holy Spirit resides in us and not in a building. This is demonstrated that as Jesus died on the cross the curtain of the temple was torn. The curtain separated the place where God was and the rest of the temple. This is further demonstrated by the fact that the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70ad.

Answer 3

Popping in and out of thin air? I read also that he ate and that his disciples saw him ascend into the sky until the clouds hid him from view? Now if this is not a physical return to a local heaven, where did he go? Even if he is near the speed of light, he is not that far away yet. Two thousand light years is pretty close, so doesn't heaven have to be located somewhere nearby? I say this because Christians demand that this is a literal and physical resurrection and not simply a spiritual reunion with the divine. This is one of the most difficult facts for Christian Theologians and very few have much to say about it.

Answer 4

God had a plan from the begining until the end he thought all of the plan through then started building, Jesus Christ is the mystery of God unfolded before mankind, he came to give mankind 3-1/2 years to understand himself with. When Jesus Christ died on the cross he did not die to help himself in any way, but he died to make a way back to God in the Spirit so that God could live inside the hearts of Believer. God never came back because he never left us but lives inside people called Christians, not religious people I mean real Christians if you read and understand Jesus words you would know what his purpose was, but Lucifer was already in the minds of all the people so Jesus had to come to make himself not like Lucifer but like God, so even though he was very smart man he did not use his power to make money, fame, or riches. He also put others before his own needs. He purposed not to have a family or children or a wife. And even though the world was fully populated he understood he was Adam, the first of creation starting again. His purpose was to be the firstborn of many brothers that would have God living inside of him; Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Colossians 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Colossians 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

Answer 5

When Jesus rose in the clouds in the sight of Apostles and desciples He went to sit on the right hand of God the Father in heaven. (Mark 16:19) The answer is of course he can do it now. He has revealed himself in person to many since that time. Paul on the road to Damascus was one. Also I have read many testimonies of Jesus apperaring in person to people. He is God, no problem to pop in and pop out!!! The appearing before God 3 times in referring to the commandment to Israel to come to Jerusalem and present themselves before the Lord at the appointed feasts.(Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles) I have not personally since I am not a Jew but a gentile. However I am grafted into the vine of Israel through the blood of the Jewish Messiah ( Jesus Christ).All the promises that God made to Israel concerning everlasting life also belong to me as a Christian. There are still promises made to Israel that have not been fulfilled. As Paul said they the Jews are blind til the fullness of the gentiles comes in, but then all Israel will be saved . ( Romans 10&11) Now lastly you should know that all those who are saved by the blood will go to the feast of tabernacles each year for 1000 years with the Lord Jesus during his millineal reign. Is that awesome or what????

Answer 6

The question isn't can God do that, but does God do that. I would say He does not do it because we live in the age of faith, which is believing without seeing. So for Jesus to appear would be a violation of the principles that he put into effect after the cross. Jesus said, "An evil and adulterous generations seeks after signs, and NO SIGN WILL BE GIVEN."
1 Peter 1:8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

Answer 7

Where in the OT does it say that we will appear before the LORD, (a minimum of) three times per year... A statue for all time!?

Answer 8

The last time Jesus did this was in the early 1800's when he appeared to Joseph Smith. Joseph smith read a passage in the Bible from the Epistle of James 1:5-6
5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
Joseph was wondering which church to join at the time so he did what these verse said. He went to a secluded place in the woods & prayed to Heavenly Father about which church to join. TWO persons appeared to Joseph one stating "This is my beloved Son, hear him." These two people were God the Father & Jesus Christ. When Joseph asked which church was true Jesus stated that none of them were & that Joseph shouldn't join any of them. Over the next few years the TRUE church of Jesus Christ was RESTORED to the earth. The name of that church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Answer 9

Jesus is in heaven (Acts 1). We do appear before the Lord, quite regularly, but we can't see Him. If we saw God's face, it would kill us (somewhere in the first five books of the Old Testament, God told Moses that). Anyway, since Jesus was completely man as well as completely God, we could see His face without dying. I don't fully understand it either.

Answer 10

Rapture has come in and out of popularity since the time of Jesus, and History is filled with religious zealots with dreams of their own theocracy being built over the burnt rubble of an imagined Sodom and Gomorrah. John of Leiden, for example, the Anabaptist Bishop of Munster, made himself King and took 16 wives so that heaven would be filled with loyals. Too bad for John, they chopped him up and left him in a cage at the top of St Lambert's for 400 years. "Let him rant to the Heavens from there."