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Answers to Correspondents.
pp. 158, 159
G.J.P. (Holland) writes an encouraging letter in which a question is asked. To make it
clear, we recast it and hope we have expressed the writer's meaning:--
At the resurrection of Christ (Matt. 27:) many others were raised. Christ and these
raised ones together formed the sheaf typified in Lev. 23: 10, 11. Together they may
have ascended to heaven on the morrow after the Sabbath. Christ's first ascension was
that indicated in John 20: 17.
What is the relation of these raised ones to the church of the one body? Are they also
seated with Christ in the superheavenlies?
While we believe John 20: 17 indicates that the Lord ascended to heaven as the great
anti-typical wave sheaf, we do not find warrant for believing that any others ascended to
heaven with Him. I Cor. 15: 23 says, "Christ the Firstfruits; afterward they that are
Christ's at His coming", which teaches that the saints do not form part of that
"Firstfruits" presented to God on the morrow after the Passover Sabbath.
Further, the church of the one body with its seat in the super-heavenlies is the subject
of a distinct revelation, its calling and sphere being part of the mystery that had been
hidden by God until Paul's imprisonment. This would disassociate the one body from the
type in Leviticus, or from the saints of Matt. 27: Your difficulty arises out of the
words "they may have ascended". As we have no Scriptural warrant for believing this
ascension, we may set it aside, and when we do so your difficulty ceases.