The Ascent To The Heavens

Tract #1 in the Truth For Science-Fiction Followers series

Copyright 2006 by Roddy Kenneth Street, Jr. All publication rights and mass-reproduction rights are reserved to the author, but internet users are given permission to duplicate this digital file and distribute it without alteration to friends, relatives, neighbors, co-workers, and acquaintances. Distribution is encouraged, and the file may even be printed out on paper for paper copies, but the text must remain unaltered and the total number of printed copies for each individual tract should not exceed 10,000 unless you have gotten permission in writing from Roddy Kenneth Street, Jr. or a surviving member of his family. You may contact Ken Street (RKSJ) by e-mail using the web-mail addresses that follow: etracts@yahoo.com, or earthtrek1@hotmail.com, or eztraveller@netscape.net. Many more free teaching tracts by Roddy Kenneth Street, Jr. will be found at the internet sites WorldwideChristianTracts.net, OnlineChristianTracts.org, and Christian-Tracts.net. This note must be retained on all duplicate copies that you may make.

Robert Hutchings Goddard was born in 1882 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and by 1898, at age 16, he was eagerly reading the science-fiction novel War Of The Worlds, which had just been written by H. G. Wells. The story was at that time being serialized in The Boston Post, and Goddard read each new episode. Wells’ science-fantasy tale inspired his mind and got his imagination all fired up.

At age 17, on October 19, 1899, this young man climbed a cherry tree in his own backyard... first looking out across a meadow, and then looking upward at the sky above him. His imagination was all fired up again, launching his mind into flight. As the young Robert Goddard looked out from his high vantage point in the cherry tree, he started to think that it would be marvelous to invent a device that had the potential to lift a person up into space... so that people might ascend to the Moon and Mars. He dreamed that he himself might make such a device... a vehicle that could someday ascend even to the planet Mars.

Robert Goddard felt that this day when he climbed the cherry tree was the day when he found his purpose in life, and in upcoming years his diary had many entries that refer to October 19 as his “Anniversary Day”... the day of his ascent into the cherry tree. On that day he dreamed of ascending high into the sky, and felt certain that he had found his purpose in life.

Today Goddard is generally acknowledged to be the father of modern rocketry. In 1919, he published his classic work, A Method Of Reaching Extreme Altitudes. By the year 1926, Robert Goddard had designed and built a prototype for the vehicle of his dreams— the world’s first liquid fuel rocket. On March 16, 1926, he launched this model rocket from his Aunt Effie’s farm in Auburn, Mass., and it achieved a successful lift-off. What took place that day was the short flight of a rocket with the world’s first liquid fuel engine.

Robert Goddard had succeeded in his desire to create the model for a space-bound vehicle. He would continue his rocket experimentation with test flights in Roswell, New Mexico... in the open spaces of the American southwest. By 1935, in the course of his experimentation at Roswell, he also became the first to propel a liquid fuel rocket that traveled at a rate faster than the speed of sound.

Eventually, the rocket technology that Goddard invented took human beings out into space, as liquid fuel rockets carried spacecraft to the Moon, Mars, Venus, and other planets of the Solar System. His device allowed human beings to ascend high into the sky, taking them out into the vastness of space. Goddard’s dream was accomplished, and his vehicle allowed humans to explore other planets... even the planet Mars.

His dream of an ascent into space was accomplished, and he had felt that was his purpose in life.

But in 1945, at the age of 63, Robert Hutchings Goddard died in Baltimore of throat cancer. He died just as the world reached the threshold of the “jet age” and the days of space exploration, so he did not get to see the end-results of his invention, as humanity can see them today.

The really big question is this: Did Robert Goddard really find his purpose in life when he climbed that cherry tree on Oct. 19, 1899?

Was Robert Goddard’s purpose in life merely to “ascend,” to go higher and higher...? Was he destined to be climbing first into the cherry tree, then later to the extreme altitudes and the higher reaches of outer space...? He evidently felt that was the purpose for which he was created.

This lifelong obsession with ascent which Robert Goddard displayed during his life on Earth may remind one just a bit of a Moody Blues song called Higher And Higher, in which the chorus of the lyric declares:

Higher and higher...

Now we’ve learned to play with fire...

We go higher and higher and higher...

When Robert Goddard died, was that the end of his journey? An atheist will insist that Goddard had no spirit and no means for a continuation of existence after bodily death. An Evolutionist will insist that he was correct in thinking that his only purpose was an “ascent” into the Universe, and will say that Robert Goddard was destined to become nothing more than burnt dust in a black sky!

But isn’t it possible that Robert Goddard, when he died on Earth, had not yet reached the “final frontier” at all? Maybe God intends that people should ascend instead to Heaven, so that they may join Him in His Holy Presence... rather than merely ascending high into the physical Universe.

Maybe God desired instead that Robert Goddard should ascend to a higher level in the spiritual sense, and to a New World of the spirit... rather than just trying to reach a higher level in the physical Universe.

If Christians are correct in thinking that Robert Goddard was a human who possessed (and still possesses) an eternal spirit, then only God Himself really knows what his final destination turned out to be — Heaven or Hell. But the Bible certainly seems to refute Goddard’s belief that his purpose in life was merely the successful invention of a vehicular device called a rocket... something capable of achieving an ascent into space.

The Bible teaches that each human being on Earth is created by God with a distinct purpose. A human being’s purpose is that he should glorify his Creator and God’s Son during his time on Earth, then ascend to Heaven, and then praise God eternally. Jesus Christ came to Earth to show us the route to Heaven and to make it easier for us to get there.

If Robert Goddard did not understand that this was his God-given purpose in life, then he was woefully ignorant of the great Science-Truth of our Universe.

Interestingly, Jesus has several times called Hell “the Outer Darkness,” which sounds just a bit similar to the term “outer space.” But Hell is not part of the physical Universe any more than Heaven is.

What is Hell, anyway, and what is Heaven? Hell is actually a place of Eternal Detachment from God, where a spirit can never again have any chance to obtain a proximity to the Holiness of God. The damned spirit is cut off from the Light of Christ and forced to spend eternity in what Jesus calls “the Outer Darkness.”

Heaven, on the other hand, is a place of nearness to God, where a spirit will be able to know an Eternal Presence of the Holy One, enjoying the sunshine of His Presence in a time without end. Heaven is a blissful reward in which a human is allowed to spend eternity in the Presence of God’s Holiness, praising Him and glorifying Him forevermore. Heaven is for those souls who are sanctified by God and able to enter into His Presence for the rest of an eternal lifetime.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem The Raven, the author imagined himself bothered by a raven that kept harassing him with the word “Nevermore!” He heard that word being repeated again and again, much to his dismay, giving him a great sense of gloom and foreboding. “Nevermore! Nevermore!”

But the dove of God’s Holy Spirit says to us instead “Forevermore! Forevermore! Forevermore!” That is how long His followers can expect to be worshiping God and glorifying His Holy Name. That is how long they can expect to be in the Holiness of God’s Presence.

That is the great purpose for which human beings were created. It is our real purpose in life, the reason we were put here on this Earth.

It was so that we might ascend to Heaven! Jesus is the Door to Wisdom, the Gateway to God, and the Stairway to Heaven. He is the Stairway to Heaven, the only means by which we may ascend to heavenly bliss.

Now you know your purpose. It is the same purpose that God gives to every human who is living on the Earth.

If Robert Goddard did understand the great Science-Truth of our Universe... if he did learn his true purpose in life at some point before he died... then Robert Goddard has now ascended to a higher level than any he might ever find on Earth... or in outer space.

This is the real purpose of humankind.

Jump ahead to 1978, after the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at NASA has been named in his honor, and meet the man who founded it.

Dr. Robert Jastrow, the founder and director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at NASA, has been called the greatest writer on science alive today. In his blockbuster book God And The Astronomers (1978), he has suggested that science is preparing a great surprise for those who disbelieve in God.

It is a provocative book which Dr. Jastrow has produced, and in it he describes the scientific enterprise of our Earth as having achieved a new height, after many centuries of arduous endeavor... reaching as well a new level of comprehension. Dr. Robert Jastrow writes this conclusion for his volume:

The scientist has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; and as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.

What is the important knowledge that the scientist will discover when he scales the mountains of ignorance and reaches a higher summit? What is the superior knowledge that the scientist should gladly accept from those intrepid theologians who have already made the ascent, who have been sitting there for centuries?

The Higher Ground Theologians would have to tell the scientist these three things:

1) God is the Creator of all the wide Universe, Almighty and Omnipotent, able to perform miracles and miraculous creations with the greatest of ease. It does not require billions of years of Evolution for Him to accomplish such miracles.

2) Jesus Christ was a human embodiment of God The Son, Who was with God at the Creation of the Universe, and Who exists forever as part of the Divine Trinity that is God. The Son of God is also the Word of God and the Light of the World. He is our only source of knowledge about the Absolute Truths of this Universe. Jesus is the only gateway to Enlightenment and the only Savior of Humankind. Jesus is the only means for getting the Holy Spirit implanted inside a human being, and the only route to Heaven.

3) God’s Son the Christ is the Rock that is higher than all! God The Son is actually the foundation of the Earth and of the whole Universe. He is the Solid Rock upon which all things must be built.

If we build upon anything else at all, our works will not last. If we build on something else, our structure will be swept away in the time of fierce storms and floods, like a house whose foundation is only sand. Christ is the Rock that is higher than all other mountains, and only He can offer us a vantage point of Godlike wisdom and Godlike comprehension.

You’ve heard the evolutionary explanation of Universal development for a great many years, with all of its elaborate details... ever since you were a child. You’ve surely encountered its advocates in every arena of the academic world and in every arena of everyday life. Its proponents are everywhere, and they have already proselytized much of the Earth. You are doubtless thoroughly accustomed to that way of thinking.

But what is the Biblical scheme of Earth's history and direction...? It’s the alternative explanation that God has given us in His Holy Scriptures.

A lot of people on our planet, even some Christian theologians, have tried to make the Bible compatible with their own evolutionary beliefs. But can that really be done? Such people reduce Biblical history to insignificance beside the enormity of their faith in the grand Theory of Evolution.

The Bible paints a very different picture concerning the history and future destiny of the Earth, and it is quite at odds with the beliefs of those who have faith in Evolution.

In the Holy Bible, God offers you a different and superior view of Earth’s development and its future fate. From the Holy Scriptures of the Bible we learn that Jesus Christ makes known to us the great secrets of the Universe— secrets not revealed on Earth from the time of Creation until the time of His arrival on our planet.

What is the Biblical scheme of Earth’s history and direction?

It’s a long-range plan by which God will transform and re-populate the planet Earth...

It's a vision of vast scope and mind-boggling predictions...

God's developmental plan for our Universe is an astounding program of transformations ...!

Here are 12 stages of ascent that should lead you to a genuine comprehension of your purpose and destiny in the Universe. These will help you to reach a higher level of consciousness, a lofty place where you will better understand of the history of the Earth and God’s goal for humanity...

1. A theme of WARFARE runs through the many books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. We see evidence of angelic warfare, of historic military warfare between God's chosen people and the ungodly nations.

There are predictions of further warfare between the elect of Christ and the anti- Christian forces, and of a final great battle of Armageddon.

SPIRITUAL WARFARE devastates this planet until Christ's Kingdom comes !

2. A theme of APOCALYPTIC DESTRUCTION and RE-CREATION runs through the books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. We see this in the Genesis record of Noah and the Great Flood, and in the predictions of the Old Testament prophets.

Jesus himself speaks of this in great detail as he is quoted in Mat. 24, Luke 17:24-37, and other places in the gospels. There are many such references in the epistles, and the final book, John's Revelation of Jesus Christ, is devoted almost exclusively to this subject.

3. A theme of the SURVIVAL OF A REMNANT who are loyal to God runs through the many books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

4. Rather than the Darwinian concept of "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest" (meaning the strongest) in a scheme of evolution, God's system of development is quite different!

God's plan is that there will be "DIVINE ELECTION" of all those who have chosen to accept His system of grace and mercy through Jesus Christ, and His plan calls for a "SURVIVAL OF THE LOYAL" instead.

5. In this scheme which God Himself has formulated, it is not the STRONGEST who survive, but rather the SUBMISSIVE!

(In this regard, it is certainly true that God can make the weak person become strong. But a person who is too strong and egotistical God may choose to crush, in order that he— or she— will be humbled and will become submissive to the will of God!)

6. God is continuously harvesting the Earth as His ever-progressing plan of DIVINE SELECTION goes forward, through a wise and millennia-long program of evaluation— through interminable testing of people and a very lengthy developmental process of SELECTING and REJECTING.

7. Thus, a theme of DIVINE SELECTION through a LONG-RANGE, millennia-spanning DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAM becomes evident.

8. This calls for a MAJOR SHIFT IN THE WORLD-VIEW that is held by any individual.

It truly requires a COPERNICAN REVOLUTION IN THE MIND-SET of a human being.

9. You must comprehend with an entirely new way of looking at the Universe— for to be among the redeemed, to be among the survivors who are granted eternal life with God, you must place JESUS CHRIST AT THE CENTER OF YOUR UNIVERSE, in the very place where once YOUR OWN EGO had ruled supreme!

You need to put the Sun of Heaven inside your heart! Once He is there, He will illuminate your mind and all areas of the Universe with the bright Light of His Presence. His Light will be radiant in your face, in your life, and your actions. Just as Moses’ face was radiant after he was in the presence of God, the follower of Jesus reflects the brilliant Light of the Lord Christ! His Holy Spirit will be inside you forevermore, making you aware of His Lordship and His Truth... giving you eternal access to His Divine Wisdom.

10. You gain an Eternal Life with God when you put the Sun of Heaven in your heart. You can do this by placing Jesus Christ, Who in the Trinity of God created our Universe, upon a throne at the center of your heart! He deserves that position and that kind of respect. He was first God The Son, but when born in human flesh He became the only sinless and righteous person who ever lived. Yet He sacrificed Himself on a cross for your sake, taking all guilt and sins upon Himself— for you and for me, for all people everywhere— so that whoever wishes for salvation might be rescued from the due punishment of sins.

11. If you will do this, you will gain a new contentment and peace as you accept God's organizational plan for the Universe. . . because you'll be letting God be the Ruler of All Things in this world. . . and in your own life.

The Sun of Heaven will then reign in your life as the supreme Power that governs all things. The Bible calls Jesus Christ both “the Sun of Heaven” and “the Sun of Righteousness.” When you place Christ in your heart, He will lead you to a new life of righteousness. The Holy Spirit will start to rebuild you in the image of God, making you more like Jesus. You’ll become a brother (or sister) to Jesus Christ!

12. All it really takes is a simple but sincere little prayer— one that you should make up in your own words. The prayer for deliverance and for God's leadership should come from your own heart!

Some important elements that you might include are:

1) your desire to turn away from the wrongness or evil of your past life, and your remorse over the sins of your previous life,

2) your desire for God's forgiveness and mercy through the act of sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son (Jesus Christ),

3) your desire to know God's leadership in your life,

4) your desire to learn more of God's truth through Bible study,

5) your desire to find fellowship with genuine believers.

This Sunday, don’t just worship the sun, like the followers of Baal, the Roman polytheists, and the pagans. You shouldn’t worship nature like the pantheists and the animists. The supernatural does exist, because God’s Spirit is above and behind the natural world... and superior to it. So don’t worship the sun and the stars like the naturalistic science advocates, the humanists, the evolutionists, and many of our modern-day science-fiction fans!

Don’t go out to worship the sun and stars this Sunday. Instead, go out to a good Bible-believing church and worship the Holy One Who is the Sun of Heaven— Jesus Christ, Who is both the Son of God and God The Son. Jesus Christ is the Sun of Heaven, and He is the Light of the World!

Jesus is the Lamb of God Who suffered and was sacrificed for your sake, was resurrected, and now reigns in Heaven as the Sun of Righteousness. He is the Light of our Universe. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life of our Universe. This Sunday, let blind eyes be opened when you choose to see the Light of God in a house of worship. Praise the Father and His Son by honoring the Holy One Whom God has called the Sun of Righteousness.

When the risen Christ first appeared to Saul, a persecutor of Christians who was on the road to Damascus, the brilliance of His Light actually left Saul blind for 3 days. Saul had fallen to the ground, and he asked the Light, “Who are you Lord?” The Light replied, “I am Jesus Whom you are persecuting.” The being of Light then gave Saul some instructions as to what he should do next.

Saul got up from the ground, but after seeing the Light, he found that he had been left blind by his encounter with the Light of God. Saul remained blind for the next 3 days, and he consumed no food or drink during that time. But that event changed his whole life, forever altering his purpose and his goals. He became the apostle Paul, the greatest missionary the world has ever seen. He had the light of Christ in his heart from that day onward!

When you accept Jesus into your heart, His Light will transform your own mind and heart in a similar fashion. Your purpose and goals will be changed, because you’ll want other people to learn about the good news of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. You’ll want to share the light, and you’ll want to worship the Sun of Heaven in a house of God!

This Sunday, bless the Father in Heaven by honoring His Son, of Whom He is very proud.

When you go to worship in a Christian church this Sunday, you can let it be known and seen by others that you have finally seen the light. You can show everybody else that you are now able to clearly recognize a family-resemblance that exists between these two Holy Persons of the Divine Trinity that is God. People will see that you want His light to shine through you, in your words and actions.

At the same time, you can show God The Father in Heaven that you choose His Truth and have become His child... rather than continuing to follow Satan, the Father of Lies. You can let the Holy Spirit, Who is the third Person of that Divine Trinity, live in your heart and guide you to a more thorough understanding of God’s Universe. God The Spirit will teach you what you need to know and will help you make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life.

God The Spirit then becomes your interface with the Divine Trinity, the Triune God Who illuminates all things. The God of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus will thereafter be your God also. When you accept salvation in Jesus Christ, the Father of Jesus Christ will become your Father likewise... and you will become a brother of Jesus Christ!

Jesus said of the people of God that "The kingdom of heaven is like a net that God has cast into the sea, and it gathers of every kind: When it is full, it will be pulled up on the shore, where they will sit down to sort the catch, and they will collect the good fish in baskets, but the bad things will be thrown away. This is the way it will be at the end of the world: The angels shall come forth, and they will separate the unrighteous persons from among those justified by God. . ."

Excerpt from the Book of Matthew, who was a constant

companion of Jesus and his devoted disciple [13:47-50].

Jesus spoke of the people of God as being like a seed that is growing secretly, saying, "As for the kingdom of God, it is as if a person should cast seed into the ground; and then he sleeps, and he rises up night and day to see that the seed is springing forth and always growing up, although he knows not exactly how. The Earth is bringing forth fruit from itself; first the blade, then the ears of corn, and after that the fullness of the ears of corn. And when all the fruit of the Earth has come forth, immediately God will use the sickle to reap the fields, because the harvest-time has come."

Excerpt from the book of Mark [4:26-29].

It's also important for all of us to remember this:

1) WE SPEAK TO GOD by our prayers.

2) GOD SPEAKS TO US by the words of Holy Scripture.

So we must try to read His words and His Book just as often as we possibly can!!

God wants to bless you for all your long efforts to understand this very confusing and difficult Universe in which we live so let Him reward your search with the grace of His forgiveness and enlightenment!

THIS GUIDE WAS WRITTEN FOR YOU BY. . .

Ken Street, a baptized follower of the Way.

This is one of more than 80 Street Tracts available at:
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God is continuously harvesting the Earth. . . as His long-range plan for the Earth's transformation goes ever forward. . .