I wonder many things.  Among these is whether the dead in Christ have been rising over the years.  The reason for this is a situation that occurred in 1992.  In the spring of that year, in Illinois and Missouri, where the Mississippi River courses down through the countryside separating the two states, is a little town called St. Genevieve.  It is a very old town and is on the Missouri side of the river.

There is an old church on the banks of the river at St. Genevieve, a Church of Christ as I remember.  Many of the passed away are buried in the cemetery which is the yard of the church.  The church historian is a nice lady who is the 3rd generation of historians for the church.  As part of her duties, she keeps the records of who is buried where and of course their names and when they were interred.

The great Mississippi flooded in the spring of 1992.  It washed 20 caskets out of that cemetery as a result.  These caskets were metal and all were sealed.  They floated down the river toward Chester, Illinois, which is on the Illinois side of the river.  In front of Menard State Penitentiary the river widens and becomes relatively calm.  It was there that frogmen recovered the floating caskets, loaded them on trucks and returned them to St. Genevieve.  (How they knew where to take them, I do not know).

The caskets were lined up on a dock built for that purpose at the church cemetery.  The caskets were not numbered but the area from which they came was stamped on the side.  In order to identify the bodies, the lids needed to be opened.  This was done.

Now the interesting part.  This was reported on CNN Headline News that when the lids were opened on 20 caskets retrieved from the river, only 15 had bodies in them.  Five were empty, clothing and all were gone. The bodies could not have fallen out, since the caskets were sealed and were watertight, which allowed them to float.  THE FIVE EMPTY CASKETS WERE THE FIRST FIVE PASTORS OF THE CHURCH.  None of the 15 were pastors, but rather laymen.

When questioned, the church historian said that "there were bodies in those caskets attested to by members of her family and a couple of which she personally knew about.  She was startled to say the least.  The news ran twice and suddenly there was no more mention of the incident.  I never saw a follow-up either.

So, what did it mean?  I certainly wondered at the time I heard the report on CNN.  What do you think, assuming this is a true account?

YBIC

Gerry Almond