Were the OT saints that came out of their graves when Jesus died on the cross in glorified bodies or were they visible spiritual bodies? Look at Matt 27:52-53
If they were spiritual, then how could there have been witnesses to their "bodies being raised"? There is only one recorded account of a Spiritual body being raised and that is Samuel called by Saul through the witch at Endor. Samuel prophesied what would happen to Saul and admonished him for disobeying the Lord and seeking out the witch and trying to communicate with the dead. This is highly unusual because look at the witch's reaction! She screeches like a banshee! Nope. These OT Saints are not in Spiritual Bodies because that is exactly what God forbids and calls abhorrent.
If they were glorified, then humans could see them. Matthew is careful to record they came out of their graves after Jesus was resurrected from the dead.
They had to be glorified bodies and that means there are at least 2 First Resurrections. Jesus was firstfruits, then the OT saints, next will be the dead in Christ at the Rapture. Paul talks about that twice, I think. First in Corinthians then again in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
As I understand it, at death our souls leave our body and Jesus meets us or perhaps angels escort us (Luke 16) to heaven. Then when it's Time and God says, "Go get Your Bride, Son." All the souls will accompany Jesus. Re: 1 Thess 4:14 -- "even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus." In a piece of time that cannot be divided, the bodies of the souls will rise and be changed into incorruptible bodies -- New Temples, if you will, for the souls to inhabit. And in another piece of time that cannot be divided, the human Christians alive in Christ will be changed into their glorified bodies and we will meet Him in the air and will always be with the Lord.
Then next will be those that died during the Great Tribulation. Recall, the souls under the altar that cry out for vengence from God because of their beheadings... "How long, oh Lord? Then they were given white robes and told a little while longer."
According to my count, we have 3 resurrections of the First Resurrection kind or type of resurrection.
If you look at it any other way, those OT saints walking around Jerusalem in front of countless witnesses that recognized them for who they were, sort of sits out there around Pluto with no organized explanation and certainly not Biblical. Unless you have a better explanation?
4 comments:
these saints, are they the 24 elders around the throne in revelation that john saw?
Hi Earl...
No, these saints that came out of their graves were many, which means there were a lot of them.
Mat 27:52 And the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 53 And coming forth out of the tombs after His resurrection, they entered into the holy city and were revealed to many.
They were recognized by many, which means that they were known by their loved ones, I believe.
So, I do not believe these are the 24 Elders surrounding the Throne written about in Revelation.
could it be they recognized them because many had paintings of those from the past, knew their story and because the went into the "holy city" and Rabbis Priests saw them but wouldn't give Jesus the recognition of a the real savor
That is entirely possible. Although, the Jews were extraordinarily shy about "engraved images" because this was the forms of idols. I do not think there were many paintings of Jews, or sculptures. However, with God anything is possible :)
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