Acts 1:9-11 and the Hyper-Preterism Debate by Keith A. Mathison

The traditional view of Acts 1:9–11 is also found in numerous commentaries.
Simon Kistemaker is representative of those who teach this view. Commenting on the
promise of the two angels in Acts 1:11, he writes,
The angels’ place Jesus’ ascension and his return in equilibrium. As he has
ascended, so he will come back. Jesus will return physically, in the same
glorified body with which he went to heaven. 8
As Dennis Johnson explains,
With respect to his resurrected body — the body that his friends touched and with
which he ate among them (Luke 24:39–43) — Jesus is now in heaven. God’s
messengers promise that he will return physically, visibly, as he departed (Acts
1:11), but not until the divinely scheduled season of total restoration (3:21). 9
There have been numerous other commentators and theologians who have taught the
traditional view of Acts 1:9–11, but since this is readily acknowledged by all, there is no
need to belabor the point
The Rationalist View
With the advent of the Enlightenment, rampant skepticism toward the teaching of
Scripture arose throughout the Western world. Critical scholars ransacked Scripture,
radically reinterpreting or simply dismissing anything they found that couldn’t be squared
with the dictates of dogmatic rationalism. Of course, the traditional interpretation of Acts
1:9–11 was quickly dismissed. The interpretation presented by the rationalist H.E.G.
Paulus (1761–1851) presents a striking example of what was offered in place of the
traditional view.
He [Paulus] believed that Jesus had not died on the cross but had only slipped into
a coma. After the crucifixion, not being mortally wounded by the spear thrust, he
was moved from the cross and placed in the tomb where aromatic spices soon
made him regain conscience [sic]. He could leave the grave because an
earthquake removed the stone. He then stayed forty days in the company of his
disciples. At the end of this period he departed from them and with his last
strength walked off into a mist cloud on the mountain, where he finally
succumbed to the injuries of his body. The disciples then mistook two casual
8 Simon Kistemaker, Acts, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1990), 57.
9 Dennis E. Johnson, The Message of Acts in the History of Redemption (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing
Company, 1997), 18–19.
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