New Testament Saints: A Short Historical Account
Truth Requiring Revision of My Romans Writings To Date
INTRODUCTION
When you look at say the first 50 hits in a search of saints across the internet, there is very little controversy regarding the topic of saints in the new testament (NT). My review and sensemaking of verse from the King James Bible involving saints does not agree with what appears to be the common understanding. In fact, it presents a much richer picture of the events surrounding the Apostle Paul’s life and ministry. The first occurrence of the word saint or saints in the NT is:
Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; 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. - Matthew 27:50-53
What happened to these saints after this? The consensus of the sites on the internet suggests the answer to be that we do not know. To the contrary, below is a short historical account of the intertwining of the Apostle Paul’s life and ministry with that of these arisen saints.
NT SAINTS, SAUL OF TARSUS, AND THE APOSTLE PAUL
Hebrews Chapter 11 pictures the kind of people found in the Old Testament who answered the call to be saints of the true and wise God. Were some ever part of the 7,000 remnant revealed to the prophet Elijah? That part of the history is not know to me at this time. I estimate their number in the tens of thousands for reasons found in the Bible.
When Jesus yielded up the ghost the earth quaked. This earthquake opened graves, and the bodies of many saints arose. They came out of the graves after Christ’s resurrection. The Mount of Olives contained a large grave yard, and I am sure that many of these saints came from there, and entered into the holy city, Jerusalem.
These saints appear to and were seen by many. The Sanhedrin and the Pharisees felt successful because of the elimination of their perceived enemy Jesus Christ. That feeling of success waned after the resurrection; especially so after his appearances to various people. There may have been some resurgence of that feeling after his ascension, but many had followed him and had permanently rejected the religious leaders of Israel. The problem faced by the likes of the Sanhedrin and Pharisees was compounded by these many saints who had arisen and came into Jerusalem.
Faced with a large number of these saints, their power was further eroded. So, the chief priests began a campaign to eliminate them with same tactics proven to have eliminated the Lord Jesus. They recruited one Saul of Tarsus to their campaign, and they gave him authority to imprison the saints. Lawyers employed by the chief priests would seek to get the saints to either deny that they arose and to deny that they had been in paradise when Jesus Christ preached to them. It appears that Peter knew this based on his epistles. Failure to deny these things led to the conviction of captured risen saints for blasphemy and sentencing to death. Saul of Tarsus would corroborate the conviction with his testimony and agreement to their death penalty.
The persecuted saints began to flee from Jerusalem to other cities. Saul’s persecution caused them to flee to many other cities across the Roman empire. Damascus was one such city. Saul was given authority to pursue them to Damascus and imprison the refugee saints. The Lord Jesus Christ interrupted his mission as Saul traveled the road to Damascus. Saul was converted and immediately undertook a mission to minister to the saints whom he had formerly persecuted. The saints were initially afraid of him, but began trusting as they had some rest from persecution.
Meanwhile, Saul traveled through the valley of death of the people of Israel who spent forty years in the desert en route to the promised land while on his way to Arabia. During this time , Saul received many revelations from the Lord Jesus Christ. After spending three years with Jesus Christ unlearning his training from Gamaliel and receiving revelations and instruction, Saul returned to Damascus.
While preaching and teaching in Damascus, Saul and Barnabas were given a new mission to preach and teach the gospel of Christ to not only Jews and Gentiles, but also, to the risen saints who had further dispersed throughout the Roman empire. The saints would begin attending the synagogues of these far flung cities. When Saul, soon to be called Paul, would arrive in a new city, he would begin preaching and teaching his gospel in the synagogue. One purpose of this approach was to gain trust and following of the risen saints whom he had persecuted. This tactic would eliminate the animosity toward Paul and attempt to prevent them from negatively influencing the Gentiles of the area.
Nevertheless, many risen saints remained in Jerusalem. The local economy could not absorb so great an increase in population. Plus, the risen saints would not have skills and abilities to make a living for themselves. To help the risen saints, Paul and some of his disciples worked with the new churches to minister to the saints at Jerusalem. Paul would accept the donations from the churches and deliver them to the saints in Jerusalem. It is not known whether the donations were accepted, but Pual prayed that they would accept the donations. One church even addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.
The whole world spoke of the faith of these saints. No wonder! They were people from OT times perhaps claiming to be the likes of Abel, and Noah, and Abraham. They were people who had arisen from the dead. Perhaps the greatest event in world history second only to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I write this a not far from my 70th birthday. It might seem that I have disappeared from ... among other things my writings here on substack. I guess that I have, but I am now re-emerging.
A lifetime of Bible study has taught me among other things that putting things together is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle on (an old fashioned one now) card table. Every once in a while God reaches down and smacks the bottom of it and sends the pieces flying. And you sit back down and begin putting the pieces back together with the new understanding. That is where I have been.
This metaphor does not represent the fact that I was stuck at about Romans chapter 10, and that now I have progressed up to the middle of chapter 15. Once the word of God alters your understanding, then many more pieces go together naturally according to their shape.
The tough part is that the "picture on the box" did exist, but was destroyed, discounted, or people were blown about by every wind of doctrine.