In Acts
2:34 Peter states that David is not ascended at that point in time. I see this as David’s ascension with Christ. Do you agree that Christ’s ascension with paradise is different from his ascension to be high priest in Acts 1:9?
Acts
2:34
For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself,
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
You are correct in saying
that Christ’s ascension with paradise and the souls of the saints is different
from his ascension in Acts 1 to be high priest.
I believe that paradise had been transferred to heaven before Acts 2:34. In Acts 2, Peter is
dealing with the men of Israel, the Jews who were assembled in Jerusalem to
worship at Pentecost.
Acts 2:22a
Ye men of Israel, hear these words;
Peter gives proof of the messiahship of Jesus
of Nazareth—that God raised him from the dead.
Notice what he says:
Acts 2:25
For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always
before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
David is prophesying about the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Psalm 16:10
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption.
Acts 2:27
Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou
suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Hell is the place of the departed dead in
prophecy/Old Testament times. It contained paradise or Abraham’s bosom on one side (for believers) and torment and flames
on the other side (for unbelievers) with a great gulf fixed (Luke 16:22-26). It was all hell. Today, paradise is not down in the heart of
the earth; it is in the third heaven.
2 Corinthians 12:2-4
I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I
cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an
one caught up to the third heaven.
And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I
cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he
was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is
not lawful for a man to utter.
Now the
only thing down in the heart of the earth is the flames of hell – the place of
torments.
Matthew 25:41
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Revelation 14:11
And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever:
and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and
whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Acts 2:27
Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou
suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Corruption,
in the bible, has to do with the physical body.
That is the point. Peter is
dealing with the physical, bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Acts 2:29-36
Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you [Jews] of the patriarch David, that he
is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
David is dead and buried;
his physical body was still there in his sepulcher.
Therefore being a prophet, and
knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his
loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his
throne;
The issue is not David himself, but the fruit of his loins – the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
He seeing this before spake of the resurrection
of Christ
The issue is the physical,
bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Watch this:
that his
soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
So when Christ’s soul went to hell (Paradise),
it wasn’t left there; and his flesh in the grave did not corrupt. His body walked out of that tomb with his
soul and the Spirit of God. He was
Spirit, soul and body when he came out of the grave.
This Jesus
hath God raised up, whereof
we all are witnesses. Therefore being by
the right hand of God exalted,
That is the key: the physical resurrection and ascension of
Jesus Christ was to exalt him.
and having
received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this,
which ye now see and hear. For David
is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto
my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know
assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both
Lord and Christ.
Peter
is saying that when David is giving those prophecies in the Old Testament, they
weren’t about David; he wasn’t the issue.
He was prophesying about the Son of David – the Messiah.
Matthew 1:1
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the
son of Abraham.
Matthew 9:27
And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and
saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us.
Your question states that Peter is not saying
in Acts 2:34 that David ascends at that point time. I believe that Paradise and the Old Testament
saints went up into the third heaven sometime between Christ’s death on the
cross and his soul going down into Paradise, and soon after his resurrection
when he ascended unto his Father. He
tells Mary he couldn’t be touched until he had ascended.
John 20:17
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my
Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my
Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
Mary
could see the resurrected Christ, but obviously she wouldn’t see the souls of
the Old Testament saints that he would take to heaven with him. We know that after eight days he was touched by hands:
John 20:26-27
And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas
with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and
said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he
to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither
thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
I
believe it was after Christ spoke with Mary outside the tomb that he took the
saints and Paradise with him to the third heaven, but there is no verse that
actually says that. We do know that between
the time Christ went into the heart of the earth at his death and the writing
of 2 Corinthians 12 by the Apostle Paul years later, Paradise had been moved
from the heart of the earth to the third heaven.
So regarding
David’s ascension mentioned in Acts 2…
Acts 2:34
For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself,
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
…I believe that David’s soul
was already in the heavens at this time; but his soul is not the only issue. David won’t receive his resurrected body
until Christ returns at his second coming/advent to the earth and the earthly
Kingdom.
1 Corinthians 15:22-24
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ
the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have
delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down
all rule and all authority and power.
Daniel 12:13
But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand
in thy lot at the end of the days.
Hopefully this helps!
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