 | Reverend Terry G. Fox is Senior Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church. He is Chairman of the North American Mission Board, member of its Executive Committee and the FamilyNet Broadcast Communications Committee, as well as numerous other subcommittees. He's listed on the Who's Who Among Outstanding Corporate Executives. He is a sought after speaker and has traveled and ministered in many places in the United States, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Rev. Fox and his wife Barbara have three children. You may contact him at Immanuel Baptist Church, 1415 South Topeka, Wichita, Kansas, 67211; phone (316) 262-1452; or Fax (316) 262-4704. |
***image1:left***QUESTION: Matthew 27:52-53 says, "And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." What happened to them? Are they the only ones in heaven presently with a soul reunited to their body?
ANSWER: This curious incident is related only in the gospel of Matthew. We can only speculate about what happened to them subsequently, as there is no further mention of these particular Saints in either the Bible or Christian tradition. St. Matthew mentions this incident to teach that Jesus conquered death. In dying and rising Jesus overcame the power of the grave. Because of Jesus' life and death and resurrection, death has lost its terror, and is only temporary. At the end of time every human being, who ever lived, will rise for the final judgment, each human soul being reunited to its body. Tradition tells us that Lazarus and other persons, whom Jesus raised from death, lived for a while and then died again, and their bodies disintegrated into dust, like all other mortals. The Christian faith rests upon the fact that Jesus died and later arose from the dead, having been restored to life in his human body, with which he ascended into heaven and is living with his Father, God the Creator, forever.
According to the faith of the Catholic and Orthodox and Anglican Churches, as well as some Protestant communities, a faith based on early Christian tradition, the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, died. Afterwards her soul was reunited to her body, when she was assumed into heaven. Thus we know for certain that Jesus and Mary have experienced death and their souls reunited with their human bodies, now in a glorified state. Jesus is a divine person, who assumed a human nature at the Incarnation; while his mother is a complete human being. Her assumption is a special privilege, granted her by God, wherein she anticipates the general resurrection at the end of the world. So far as we know, only the bodies of Jesus and Mary have been reunited to their souls in a permanent condition, and are in heaven presently and forever.