V RaptureChrist Newsletter
  December 1, 2015

"No one has ever ascended to heaven, but the one who descended from heaven, the son of man" John 3:13.

Here Jesus states that no person ever ascended to heaven, but himself.  He also says that the one who ascended to heaven had descended from heaven.  Jesus said this before his death, resurrection and ascension to heaven.  How could this be?
How could he have descended from heaven and ascended up there?  When did this happen?  Where does the bible mention this, if ever?

There is NO record in any of the gospels of Jesus going to heaven, as a human person, before his final ascension to heaven.
But we have Jesus' statement of "Before Abraham was, I am" John 8:58

So Jesus is explaining that his existence predates his human birth.

In the newsletter for the month of May, 2014 we stated that Jesus was Melchizedek, the King of Salem, and showed by the preponderance of evidence from the bible, that Salem had to be a territory in Paradise, away from this earth.

John 18:36
Jesus said, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If it did, my servants would fight so that I would not be handed over to the Jewish leaders. No, my kingdom is not an earthly one.”

Notice he says "my servants would fight" for me. Obviously, his servants are not angels, but humans that live in the Kingdom of Salem in Paradise. That is the reason they cannot come and fight for him, because they are human. People are not spirit beings such as angels who can instantly travel throughout the cosmos.

A kingdom implies:
territory
subjects/citizens of the kingdom
military/governmental hosts to protect the kingdom
 
Does the Bible mention any of this?

Hebrews 11
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

As we see from the Bible, God's children here on earth are waiting for a heavenly country and a heavenly city. This country is called Salem (which means peace), and the city is called Holy Jerusalem (holy city of peace).  Now, either you go to the kingdom, or the kingdom needs to come to you.

What does the bible say?
Interestingly..... BOTH!
 
The goal of God is to take people in a rapture to the Kingdom of God in Salem where there are no wars or crime. The place is a paradise where people can live forever because there is a tree that heals diseases -- the tree of life. At this time we go to the Kingdom of God.

Revelation 2:7
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

This tree of life is for those who overcome. People will be able to live forever in physical form. 

When Jesus comes back to this earth to start His millennial kingdom, that is the time when the Kingdom of God comes back to us.  After the millennium, God will create a new earth; on this new earth He will establish His kingdom and will bring the city New Jerusalem to this new earth.

Revelation 21:2
And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

So, let us pray that Jesus, our King and Priest, will come soon to rapture us into Paradise to His Kingdom, the Kingdom of Salem, the Kingdom of Peace.

Elijah was taken to heaven in a flaming chariot, but what was the purpose?

2 Kings 2:11
And it came to pass as they went on, and talked, that behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire; and they parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into the heavens.

God did promise Abraham that his children would be like the stars in heaven and the sand of the sea. That is a lot of grains of sand. Well, God always keeps his promises. Elijah was a descendant of Abraham and after being taken to heaven / paradise, he was able to live in a place without crime where there is the tree of life. If those descendants do not die due to eating of the tree of life, they would amount to trillions by now.

Genesis 22:17
That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

That is too many people to fit on earth, so God spreads them all over our cosmos. Look at our immense universe. It is not empty; it is filled with the children of Enoch and Elijah.

Fact is, 669 years before our lord flooded the earth, he took Enoch to paradise as a kind of back up plan. Actually, there was the possibility that God would simply destroy everybody on earth. However, our lord did decide to save Noah and his family.

Genesis 6:8
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

God keeps his promises. For example, Abraham's wife Sarah laughed at the idea of she becoming pregnant because of her advanced age. She thought it was impossible, but nothing is beyond the all powerful one.

I tell you, expect God to keep all his promises, Abraham's children will be like the grains of sand in our sea. They are so many that a person could not count them.

However, why did God not simply take Abraham like he took Enoch? Please remember that paradise is great because the people are nice. When bad people move into a good neighborhood, in a few years it is in ruins. I have seen this process. It does not take many years.

Although we see that Abraham was a great man, he probably had bad genes. Look at Esau, his grandson. This child was born hairy, and he liked to hunt and kill animals. He was a fornicator and a profane person.

Hebrews 12:16
Lest there be any fornicator and profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birth-right.

God says:
Romans 9:13-14
Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED." What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!

God hated Esau even before he was born because he had bad genes. The introduction of bad genetics started before the flood.  We find that Enoch was taken out of this earth in order to have a continuation of the human race with good genetics in case what was left on this earth was unsalvageable.

Hebrews 11:5
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.

By the time of Noah, three generations after Enoch, the earth was filled with corruption.

Genesis 6:12
God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.

Genesis 6:13
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Please notice that God is destroying all flesh, including animals, not just people.  In contrast, Noah was perfect in his generations; by deduction, we conclude that his great grandfather Enoch was also perfect genetically as Noah was.

Genesis 6:9
These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

Noah was perfect, but I doubt his children were. The result is the world we have now. It is full of corruption and crime. The alternative is to be raptured to paradise, but only those who overcome are going.