Thank you for your reply. Your objections I answer gladly. Language is given by God for transmitting ideas. It has two vital qualities. (i) The actual words used, and (ii) the rules of grammar. If I took your posting above and gave it a metaphorical meaning you would not agree, and might even be angry that your plain words were abused and made to mean something you did not intend. So also is God's Word. It is literal and plain unless (i) it states that it is metaphorical or a parable, (ii) an absurdity would arise if it is taken literally. This does not preclude layers of meaning, but it sets a rule that we men abide by at the first level of language - the idea it shows. That is, it means what it says unless there are serious grounds to apply another meaning. "Thou shalt not ..." in the Law of Moses means "thou shalt not .... ."
Now, when Moses was called on high to receive instruction on how to built God's Tabernacle, he was commanded to make it according to the pattern of the heavenly Tabernacle. There is no legal way to say that a Physical Tabernacle does not exist in heaven. And when it says that Christ took His blood into a, "... greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building", and that He, "by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having (already) obtained eternal redemption for us", (Hebrews 9:11-14), what is there to say that this did not really happen? The High Priest of Israel did it physically in a "lesser tabernacle". In what way, after having shed His blood physically, was He, the New High Priest of them who believe His ACTIONS, subject to the NON_FULFILLING of these great works?
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I think you add too much commentary to the scripture to weave a narrative that is not necessary about an ascension before the ascension.
They did hold his feet at the morning of the resurrection and their is no space of time for this ascension that could have happened before the holding of the feet. I think you are trying to hard on that one. It is not a natural hermeneutic and should scream "probably not what John was meaning" But I can understand why people are confused.
As to Hebrew 9 just read it in it entirety and you see that the offering of himself fulfilled these requirements especially summarizing it with the final statement...
28So 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.
He is contrasting the inefficacy of the blood of bulls and goats with the blood of Christ.
14How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
His sacrifice on the cross is when his blood was shed. At that time it was accepted. He ascended into heaven and appears before God for us but I see no record of him bleeding again in heaven. That which was done on the cross is what Heb 9 is referring to. People have imagined more than what is being said in Heb 9. Contrasting what they did in the tabernacle and trying to imagine an exact repeat of it in heaven after the cross is not what Heb 9 is saying that is what others are trying to make it say. The cross was the blood that was offered not another additional sprinkling after the ascension. That is made up in peoples minds, not mentioned in this text and not intended. One shedding of blood. ONCE. Not twice. People attempt to say Heb 9 says that Jesus had to spread his blood on the mercy seat in heaven, etc... but just read the text and you see it does not say all that.
6Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service
of God.
7But into the second
went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and
for the errors of the people:
8The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:
9Which
was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;
10Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed
on them until the time of reformation.
11But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
12Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
14How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
15And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
16For where a testament
is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
17For a testament
is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
18Whereupon neither the first
testament was dedicated without blood.
19For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
20Saying, This
is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.
21Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
22And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
23It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24For 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: 25Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;
26For 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.
27And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
28So 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.
