Olli Dürr Society EKD depicts the Ascension of Christ like a children’s story

EKD depicts the Ascension of Christ like a children’s story

17. May 2023 | Olli Dürr | 0 Comment | 13:10

Categories:

Society

Exactly 40 days after Easter Sunday, “Ascension Day” is celebrated in the Christian world. An extremely important event, which is presented by the evangelical church like a story from a children’s book.

Inhalt / Content

1 There is much more to “Ascension Day”
2 The “message” of the evangelical church in Germany
- 2.1 Hoping for the “radical other”.
- 2.2 Use the imagination
3 What message is that supposed to be?
4 Instructions for sleepwalking
5 Ascension is part of Jesus’ work of salvation
6 Catholics and “ecumenists” should prick up their ears
7 The Bible says how it is and how it will be

There is much more to “Ascension Day”

The day “Ascension Day” is of outstanding importance for Christianity. Jesus Christ rose in flesh and blood on the 3rd day after His crucifixion. After that, the Son of God worked another 40 days on earth, or in this world. Then the Assumption of the Son of Man, also in flesh and blood, took place in heaven. This process is described in the Bible only relatively briefly, but “crunchy”. Much more important, however, is the work of Jesus after His return to the kingdom of heaven in the context of God’s entire work of salvation.

The “message” of the evangelical church in Germany

You just have to believe very, very firmly in ‘radical alternative’

If the evangelical church announces something on the occasion of “Ascension Day”, then one has a certain expectation that these connections, which are extremely important for fallen people, will be addressed. The need for reminder or enlightenment has never been more important than in today’s spiritually darkened world. But far from it. Annette Kurschus, the chairwoman of the council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) may have done her “best” on this special day, but her “devotion” has nothing to do with the gospel message of salvation.

Hoping for the “radical other”.

With her message on Ascension Day in 2023, Kurschus wanted to encourage people to hope for “the radically different”, even contrary to appearances, according to the online magazineof the EKD. After all, that’s what the Bible story is about, so the suggestion.

The earthly conditions are not everything, that is the message of “Ascension Day”, according to the EKD Council Chairwoman. Injustice and strife prevailed on earth and the kingdom of heaven describes the “radical alternative“. There is no violence in heaven and it is “completely different from the rulers of the mighty great empires“, according to the Protestant theologian.

Use the imagination

Heaven is our salvation precisely because that is where our “great, daring hope that is not of this world” can be found. We must not allow this hope to be driven out. Rather, it must “take on a concrete and real form among us now“, according to the statement by the EKD council chairmen.

“Imagine there’s no heaven?“, so Kurschus apparently with the use of the English expression for more competence effect, in order to immediately deny this fictitious inspiration. Because “particularly in times when there seems to be no alternative to disaster, it is so important to keep a vision of the radically different“. Now we need a world full of completely different images, “in which the meek own the land, in which those who hunger for justice are fed, and in which God himself dries all tears“, says Kurschus.

What message is that supposed to be?

Instead of “Ascension Day”, “Alice in Wonderland” or “Hans and the Beanstalk” (German children’s story) could also be used as the introductory headline for this message from the EKD Council President, without it really carrying any weight. The fact that the evangelical church gets through with such an “ascension message” at all proves very impressively how things are with this institution, which still carries the name Martin Luther before it. Luther, by the way, predicted such a spiritual darkness. He just underestimated the time frame it would take.

Jesus Christ Himself said that people should walk by faith like children, as in Matthew 18:3:

“And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

But faith is not to be equated with understanding, and Paul already recognized this in 1 Corinthians 14:20:

“Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.”

The message of the EKD council chairmen apparently presupposes that the childlike naivety that encourages faith also applies to the minds of the people they are talking to.

Instructions for sleepwalking

In Christ’s Ascension, however, there is a completely different message than the idea of an imaginative heavenly world, which also seems to be open to everyone who can only imagine it intensively enough. Imaginations of this kind belong in the box of the Ignatian exercises anyway and have no place at all on the subject of the gospel at this point or anywhere else. With such messages one does not announce salvation to the people, but instructions for the sleepwalking crossing of the ship’s plank.

Ascension is part of Jesus’ work of salvation

After His ascension, Jesus Christ ascended the throne at the right hand of God. Since then, Jesus Christ has been the High Priest of all of us (in the manner of Melchizedek), as is also testified in Hebrews 4:14:

“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.”

In just a few verses from Hebrews is a whole package explaining Christ’s ascension and His related work of salvation, as in Hebrews 9:24-28:

“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”

Catholics and “ecumenists” should prick up their ears

Jesus Christ only sacrificed himself once(!) and not at every mass

According to these few verses, devout Catholics should actually start pondering. This also applies to the churches, through which ecumenism has closed ranks with the Roman church.

The Eucharist, also known as “holy mass”, in which the wafer (“host”) after worship (idolatry) and after ingestion is actually supposed to transform itself into the flesh of Christ (“transubstantiation”), represents nothing other than the constant repeated sacrifice (and thereby also mockery) of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ sacrificed himself only once and not several times and certainly not by any priests of the self-proclaimed earthly representative of God. The pinnacle of arrogance is the assertion that Jesus had to sacrifice himself so that the ecclesiastical priesthood could be introduced. Today God has to submit to the decisions of the priests (e.g. after confession). It’s hard to believe, but that’s how it is, here.

The Bible says how it is and how it will be

If you want to know what actually happened after the return of Jesus, you only need to take the Bible in your hands. In the chapters of Revelation 19 to 21 it is right there. In chapter 22 follows a repeated admonition, which, however, does not describe a sufficiently large imagination of the people, but:

“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”
Revelation 22:14-15

Bible verses from King James Version