It's sometimes pointed out that Jesus said:
John 3:13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he
that came down from heaven, even the Son of man
which is in heaven.
The one pointing out that verse will then also point out
that in the Old Testament, Elijah ascended to heaven,
and that Jesus had to have been wrong about what the
Old Testament had said.
So why would Jesus say such a thing, when the Old
Testament says otherwise?
Simple, that one verse is not the entire context
of what Jesus had said. Jesus did not just say that
one verse above, he said quite a bit more prior to it.
So let's see what Jesus really said, right after
describing how someone must be born again of the
SPIRIT, after already having been born of the flesh,
the stuff discussed that Nicodemus was having
trouble understanding:
John 3:9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can
these things be?
(Nicodemus didn't UNDERSTAND what Jesus was saying)
10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a
master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that
we do know, and testify that we have seen; and
ye receive not our witness.
(Right here, Jesus said he should have understood
the stuff discussed, but wasn't believing it, yet
they'd been saying what they already knew, trying
to tell Nicodemus who didn't see it or understand
what Jesus was saying.)
12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe
not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of
heavenly things?
(Clearly Jesus is right, if Nicodemus didn't understand
even the earthly discussions and hadn't seen it along
with the rest of them, how could he understand or
believe anything being discussed about heaven? And
making it all the worse...)
13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he
that came down from heaven, even the Son of man
which is in heaven.
Right there... see it?
Jesus just then told Nicodemus that the ONLY one
there that could witness what heaven was like, was
Jesus himself, since NO MAN there had been to
heaven to confirm what Jesus was saying to them.
And from the verse just prior, if he couldn't believe
or understand even the earthly... the stuff others
there were witnessing that it was true, then HOW
could Nicodemus understand or believe what only
Jesus was telling him? No one else there had been
to heaven to witness about it, or confirm what was
said by Jesus.
This verse set to the ones claiming it shows Jesus
to have made an error, it should have flagged them
as Jesus saying what they've said all along. In
essence, Jesus told Nicodemus the main reason that
atheist always give to not believing God.
Specifically, there's Jesus saying what the rest
were telling Nicodemus, all witnesses to the stuff
going on that he could have participated in and
also witnessed for himself. In that case, it's
typically easier to have more witnesses be convincing,
yet, Nicodemus didn't understand or believe what
he was being told. But along with that, Jesus had
said some stuff that's of heaven, but the only one
that could witness to it, was Jesus himself.
Jesus's statement was much like what an atheist
might give for a reason to not believe Jesus. He'd
said basically the most common of atheist's statements,
that if you can't believe all the people here, then
how can you believe just one about stuff that you
can't even see or experience until you're there?
This verse set which should have been a rallying
cry for atheists, instead tends to stump them,
them missing the context of the verses and then
going off claiming Jesus didn't know... when he did.
God made it all, Jesus died for our sins.
Note: The above information was written by John P. Boatwright and is freely given. The information is simply my opinion based on how I perceive the content discussed. Anyone reading such should use their own judgement as to whether or not the information has any value to them. You may copy portions of the above opinions as long as a reference to this page is included and no text within said portion is altered. If copied to another medium other than the internet, include the entire text. The above content may change over time.
Best wishes.