Dr Paul Allen

Can you explain the apparent contraction that Luke has the ascension of Jesus happening the night he resurrected, but Acts has it happening forty days later? Question: Could you help me to understand this apparent contradiction? Did Jesus ascend to heaven Easter evening (Luke 24:13-52) or forty days later (Acts 1:3-9)? This is one of the apparent bible contradictions which has led many sceptics to say the Bible is not the word of God. But there must be a way to harmonize Luke and Acts about the time of the ascension. Answer: You should remember that Luke wrote both Luke and Acts, so if there were a contradiction (there definitely is not!), then it would be Luke contradicting himself!  This is not likely.  In Luke 24:50-52 we have a record of the ascension of Jesus in “the vicinity of Bethany,” which is very close to Jerusalem, not far from the Garden of Gethsemane.   This was not “Easter evening.”  It was several weeks after Jesus was killed.  In the book o...

Many Christians reflect often on how the resurrection impacts the everyday life of believers. Because Jesus lives, we will live too. But what about the ascension of Jesus? Is it a doctrine we return to? In the following excerpt from Patrick Schreiner’s forthcoming book, The Ascension of Christ: Recovering a Neglected Doctrine, we see reasons that we sometimes overlook the ascension—and why Jesus’ resurrection isn’t complete without it. 1. The Bible speaks little of it Christ’s ascent can be overlooked for many reasons, but one of the most obvious reasons is that it seems that the Bible speaks little of it. Nowhere does the New Testament use the customary Greek word for “ascent” (anabasis). Only two places in the Scriptures narrate the event—the end of Luke and the beginning of Acts (Luke 24:50–53; Acts 1:9–11). The ascension narrative account covers a mere seven verses in the Bible, which, if you are counting, is 0.03 per cent of all the verses in the Scriptures. Some read...