No one has ever gone into
heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man [even the Lord Jesus
Christ]. …I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how
then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? …"The one who comes from
above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and
speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all… For
I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who
sent me… They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose
father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"… What
if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! [Gospel of John 3:13 , 31; 6: 12 , 38, 42, 62]
“Do not let your hearts be
troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many
rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a
place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back
and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the
way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know
where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am
the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on,
you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and
that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me,
Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen
me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you
believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say
to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is
doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the
Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles
themselves. [Gospel of John 14]
When he had led them out
to the vicinity of Bethany , he lifted up his hands and blessed
them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into
heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually
at the temple, praising God. [Gospel of Luke 24: 50-53]
Then I saw a new heaven
and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and
there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City
He who was seated on the
throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for
these words are trustworthy and true.” He said to me: “It is done. I am the
Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will
give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who
overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. …
One of the seven angels … said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the
wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain
great and high, and showed me the Holy City Jerusalem , coming down out of heaven from God. It shone
with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious
jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with
twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written
the names of the twelve tribes of Israel . There were three gates on the east, three on
the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city
had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of
the Lamb.
The angel who talked with
me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its
walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He
measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length,
and as wide and high as it is long. He measured its wall and it was 144
cubits thick, by man’s measurement, which the angel was
using. The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as
glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of
precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third
chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian,
the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth
chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve
gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of
the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.
I did not see a temple in
the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The
city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God
gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its
light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day
will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory
and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever
enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only
those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. [Book of Revelation
21]
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