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When I was younger I remember going to a drive-in theater on a fall night. 

The movie opened with hands coming up out of graves then dead people sat up out of the graves.  At some point in the movie a hand walked across the floor.  It was some kind of horror flick and I cannot remember the name of it, but there was darkness. I had a young impressionable mind, “How can things that are dead still be alive?”

As Jesus died on the cross the word records, “When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He yielded up His spirit. At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split. The tombs broke open, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After Jesus’ resurrection, when they had come out of the tombs, they entered the holy city and appeared to many people.” (Matthew 27:50-53)

Can you imagine the “dead man walking” playing out before your very eyes?   

This definitely bolstered my mind.  Since Jesus was dead, why did the saints come back to life? From a person on the outside looking in,  on all accounts it appeared the King was dead.  So where was all this back to life manifestation coming from?

Investigating the scripture we find that “at that moment the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom.” The veil was enormous 60 feet long, 30 feet wide, and was four inches thick. The veil was so massive and heavy that it took 300 priests to manipulate it.  The purpose of these curtains was to block the entrance to the Most Holy Place. The tearing of the veil from “top to bottom” showed that only God himself could have split the veil. Now, all of humanity had personal access to God.  God was present.

Evidently those “saints raised from the dead,” were given glorified bodies. They appeared to lots of people, enough to establish the reality of the miracle; and then they no doubt ascended to glory — a kind of foretaste of I Thessalonians 4:16. Thessalonians establishes, the dead in Christ will rise first. Look at the Scripture in Matthew.  It says that “after Jesus’ resurrection.”  It was three days, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40).

On the third day, Jesus rose with his glorified body. 

For those that choose to believe in God, you have access to Him in the natural body and in your future — gloried body.

Yvette Perrin is a columnist for The Charlotte Gazette. She can be reached at theword2yvette@gmail.com.