, is said to bear the imprint of Jesus' right foot as he left Earth and ascended into heaven. The
Christian Old Testament, which is based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible, follows the Jewish narrative and mentions that Enoch was "taken" by God, and that Elijah was bodily assumed into Heaven on a chariot of fire. Jesus is considered by the vast majority of Christians to have died before being resurrected and ascending to heaven. Most Christians believe
Jesus did initially die, but was then
resurrected from the dead by God, before being
raised bodily to heaven to
sit at the
Right Hand of God with a promise to someday
return to Earth. The fringe views that Jesus did not die are known as the
swoon hypothesis and
Docetism.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, is considered in
Eastern Orthodoxy to have died prior to being assumed (translated) into heaven. In like manner,
Roman Catholicism affirms that Mary had suffered death prior to
her assumption, which has been "expressly affirmed in the Liturgy of the Church" and is expressly seen in paragraph 20 of the
proclamation of this teaching.
Protestants generally believe that
Mary died a natural death like any other human being and subsequently entered heaven in the usual manner, though certain adherents belonging to the
Evangelical Catholic tradition of
Lutheranism and the
Anglo-Catholic tradition of
Anglicanism affirm the Assumption of Mary, while others in these traditions reject the Assumption of Mary. Since the adoption of the
Nicene Creed in 325, the
ascension of Jesus into heaven, as related in the
New Testament, has been officially taught by all orthodox Christian churches and is celebrated on
Ascension Thursday. In the Roman Catholic Church, the ascension of the Lord is a
Holy Day of Obligation. In the Eastern Orthodox Church the ascension is one of twelve
Great Feasts. In the Reformed Churches, which teach
Calvinist theology, belief in the ascension of Christ is included in the
Westminster Confession of Faith, the
Heidelberg Catechism and the
Second Helvetic Confession. The
dispensationalist belief in a "rapture"—a belief rejected by
Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and most Protestants—is drawn from a reference to "being caught up" as found in
1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be caught up in the clouds to meet the
Lord, though Christians differ on interpretation.
Catholicism The
Old Testament indicates that
Enoch and
Elijah were assumed into heaven while still alive and not experiencing physical death. There is also an idea that
Moses was assumed bodily into Heaven after his death; this is based on the
Epistle of Saint Jude, where
Saint Michael the Archangel contends with
Satan over the body of Moses. The
Catholic Church distinguishes between the
ascension of Jesus, in which he rose to heaven by his own power, and the
assumption of Mary,
the mother of Jesus, who was raised to heaven by God's power, or the assumption of other saints. On November 1, 1950,
Pope Pius XII, acting
ex cathedra, issued
Munificentissimus Deus, an authoritative statement of the official dogma of
Roman Catholicism. In Section 44 the pope stated: Some theologians have argued that Mary did not die, while others maintain that she experienced death not due to
original sin, but to share in her son's own death and resurrection. It is a pious belief in the Catholic Church, but not a dogma, that
Saint Joseph, too, was assumed into Heaven, since he is among a few saints who left no bodily relics. This pious belief is called the
Assumption of Saint Joseph. Many Catholic saints,
doctors of the Church, as well as several Popes, such as
John XXIII, supported this belief. When the tomb of
John the Evangelist (who is
John the Apostle according to Christian tradition), located in the
Basilica of St. John in
Ephesus, during
Constantine the Great's reign supposedly yielded no bones, this gave rise to the belief that his body was assumed into heaven (other accounts say that only
manna or the saint's
sandals was found in the tomb).
Augustine of Hippo spoke against the tradition in his
Treatises on the Gospel of John (AD 406–420), and
Dante attempted to refute the belief in his
Paradiso. Altogether, the Catholic Church has taught by the
universal and ordinary magisterium that Saints Enoch and Elijah were assumed into Heaven, and it teaches dogmatically and therefore
infallibly that Virgin Mary was assumed into Heaven; that it is acceptable as a pious belief that Saint Joseph was assumed into Heaven; and that it is a pious belief that Moses (after his death) and Saint John the Apostle were assumed into Heaven (though the assumption of Saint John the Apostle has generally been considered much weaker and less probable).
Eastern Christianity of the
Dormition of the Theotokos (1392,
Theophan the Greek) The
Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that three other persons were taken bodily into heaven:
Enoch and
Elijah (Elias) entered without dying. However, the
Theotokos (Virgin Mary) died, was resurrected, and taken to heaven, unlike the Western Assumption of Mary. However, the Orthodox also celebrate the
Dormition of the Mother of God on August 15. The Orthodox teach that Mary died a natural death like any other human being, that she was buried by the
Apostles (except for
Thomas, who was late), and three days later (after Thomas had arrived) was found to be missing from her tomb. The church teaches that the Apostles received a revelation during which the Theotokos appeared to them and told them she had been resurrected by Jesus and taken body and soul into heaven. The Orthodox teach that Mary already enjoys the fullness of heavenly bliss that the other saints will experience only after the
Last Judgment. ==Mandaeism==