I heard a preacher say that when Jesus comes back, dead Christian's bodies would have life again. But this isn't true.

Great question you raise! That preacher was not confused or mixed up. He was actually quoting 1 Thessalonians 4:16-16, which reads, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

When Jesus returns, all who died prior to Jesus’ Second Coming, who have accepted Him as their Lord and Savior, their physical bodies will be resurrected. Remember, we have a spiritual body (our souls) and a physical body. When we die, our spiritual bodies instantly go to Heaven but our physical bodies are still here. Anytime the Bible speaks of a resurrection, it is a physical event involving a physical body. So, those who area dead in Christ will receive resurrected bodies.

Don’t ask me how this works because it is one of the mysteries God chose not to reveal. However, we can be assured that those who died before Christ’s return will be first to ascend then those who are alive will go up to meet them. All of the believers will receive resurrected, “glorified” bodies.

Can dead people talk to people?

The answer is no. As much as we’d like to believe our loved ones can somehow communicate with us, the Bible is pretty clear that dead people cannot communicate with us. In Isaiah 38:18 it says, “For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise.” Also, the Book of Ecclesiastes puts it this way in chapter 9, verses 5 and 6, “For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.”

BUT, take heart, that doesn’t mean that they’re not in Heaven. It just means they don’t communicate with us.

Is bringing back the dead a sin? If it is, it doesn't harm anyone or does it? Why is it a sin?

Wow…now that is a very interesting question. Let’s look at this Biblically, okay? First, there is only one person who has the power to create life and that is God. Nobody else can do that, not the angels, not the disciples, not Moses, not Abraham…not even Satan. Jesus was a man and He was also God. I know that is a very difficult concept to understand but it’s the truth. So, because Jesus was God-in-flesh, He had the power to bring back the dead.

There are several examples in the Bible where Jesus raises the dead: In Matthew 9:18-23 Jesus brings back a little girl who had died. In Luke 7:11-15 Jesus brings back to life a widow’s son as he is laying in his coffin. And, my favorite, is in John 11:1-43 where Jesus brings back to life Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha.

Now, it is very important to remember that Jesus lived His entire life without ever sinning. He lived a perfect life. Because Jesus is God and God hates sin, Jesus was incapable of sinning. Therefore, His miracles of raising people from the dead cannot be seen as sin.

Remember, God is the only person who can create, or give, life. No one else can do it and no one else will ever do it except God and Jesus.

What if God worked through the disciples to raise the dead? Is it still a sin?

That is a very intriguing question! First, we have to see if the disciples ever raised someone from the dead. The answer is: yes! If you read Acts 9:36-42, you will see that Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples, raises a young girl named Tabitha (also known as Dorcas) from the dead. The question now is, was that a sin?

Remember, Peter did this under the authority of God. God worked through Peter. Only God has the power and the authority to create or give life. And God cannot sin. God allowed Peter to raise this young girl from the dead to make people believe in Him. So, that means that it wasn’t a sin to raise Tabitha from death.

What’s also remarkable about this act is that it shows the level of Peter’s faith too! Earlier in the Bible, Peter couldn’t even cast out a demon! He whined to Jesus and asked why he couldn’t do it. And do you know what Jesus said to him? He accused him and the other disciples of not having enough faith! (Matthew 17:20)

Peter was also the disciple who denied knowing Jesus three times, including one time to a servant girl, because he was so scared and didn’t have faith in Jesus! (Mark 14:66-72)

BUT, once he saw the resurrected Christ, Peter changed and his faith was powerful. He became a bold believer in Jesus and preached about Jesus even at the cost of his own life.