Secrets from Beyond The Grave

remains are placed above the ground and the body is encased in a stone covering (rectangular box) above the surface, with the remains wrapped in the shroud and touching the earth itself. When a physical body remains in the earth long enough, the remains will return to dust. Eventually even bones will become dry and brittle and become a form of powder, which mixes back into the earth. Those who have been dead since the time of the early church have already gone though a decaying process. Will the fact that their physical remains are mixed with the dust of the earth impact their resurrection? Certainly not in any way. The physical remains of the person are only the outer shell, which will return to the dust of the ground from which the original man, Adam, was created and to which all men will return (Gen. 2:7). The real believer is with the Lord. I recall being with some close family members as we were relating humorous stories at the funeral of a loved one who had passed and was now with the Lord . I said, "Well, you know, the departure of a believer reminds me of a person who has just eaten a peanut." Everyone looked at me as if to say, "Where did that concept come from?" I continued, "The shell is still here, but the nut is gone!" My granddad laughed until he was almost crying. Someone may say, "That was distasteful!" Well, you didn't know my Italian grandparents and their relatives. They loved life, they loved the Lord, and they loved to laugh. The departed relative would have "split his sides" upon hearing that comment. We knew he wasn't in that funeral home in his coffin--but he was actually with Christ at that very moment. Therefore we can rejoice, for as the Bible says: "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints" (Ps. 116:15). My father, who pastored a small church in rural southwestern Virginia, took me as a child with him occasionally when he preached a funeral. I sat near the front as believers passed the coffin for the viewing. They would comment, "Praise God, he is not here; he's with the Lord!" Remember, I was only about five or six years old, and I thought to myself, "Are you blind? He is lying in front of you!" I didn't understand until years later that the saints meant that the believer's soul and spirit had long departed, and the real person was not in the wooden box. It is true that the DNA can fall apart and eventually be destroyed by fire. Would this fact hinder the resurrection and recreation of a new body of a person, since the Bible teaches, "But then shall I know even as also I am known" (1 Cor. 13:12, KJV)? The human spirit has the same exact appearance as the human body; therefore, the features of the person would be recognized in paradise just as they would be recognized by those living on Earth. Thus the spirit form is the same as it was on earth, and the DNA is not needed to bring forth the original appearance of the person. The spirit is a mirror image of the person. In ancient times religious articles like Torah scrolls and prayer books that were no longer usable (such as the ink becoming unreadable on a Torah scroll) were placed in hiding in special rooms in a synagogue. Later it was customary to bury religious articles in a cemetery. A Torah scroll is considered a living thing since it holds the Word of God, and the Word of God is eternal and has the power of life. Thus, just because the scroll becomes unreadable in places as the ink fades does not take away from the sacredness of the scroll. Because of this reason, there are records of Jewish men running into a burning synagogue to rescue a scroll. The scroll is treated like a living human.4 The custom of placing a grave marker over the grave is based upon Genesis 35:20. When Jacob's wife Rachel died on the road to Bethlehem, he placed a pillar upon her grave. The original reason was to honor the departed, but marking a grave was also done so the priests