Originally posted by Julie
Acts 1:11
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Hiya Julie, and Christ's riches.
Consistent within the book of Acts itself, Luke was refering to Christ's appearing to them as in Acts 7:55-59 and Acts 9:3-6 and Acts 10:11-16/11:7-11. These appearances of Christ came to them
from Heaven (7:55; 9:3; 10:11; 11:9,11:5) exactly as he had went
into Heaven (Acts 1:11).
You also might have picked up on the "clouds" language in the Acts 1 passage.
The mention of clouds is another consistent theme of the comings and goings of divine beings and saints (see: Dan 7:13; Rev 11:12). Yahweh was famous for his
cloud-comings and apocalyptic comings down to earth (Isaiah 19:1-2; 2 Sam 22:10-14; Deut 33:2; Psalm 97:2-5; Ezek 30:3; Ps 104:3; Nah 1:3; Ex 34:5; Judges 5:4-7; Jer 4:13; Zeph 1:14-15; Psalm 68:32-35).
Finally, we have another example in Revelation 14:14-20 where Christ is depicted in a "cloud-coming" that is clearly
in the heavenlies -- while Christ comes in the heavenlies in that passage, it causes calamities upon the earth. This is how the jews understood Yahweh to come, and so the apostle John is depicting Christ as equal to Yahweh and doing exactly as Yahweh had always done in His judgments upon nations. So, Rev 14:14-20 shows us what a "cloud-coming" means and its precise nature.