My dad is a priest, and one Sunday during the service, he saw one of his parishioners slumped over and “not doing well,” as he said it. He interrupted the service to check on the man. There were two nurses present in the congregation and neither one could find a pulse (and for some reason neither found it appropriate to begin CPR). My dad called 911 and instructed the congregation to begin praying. By the time the EMS arrived, which was at least ten minutes later, the man had recovered from being dead.
Yes, recovered. From being dead. Which, medically speaking, isn’t a thing. Let me explain. My dad sees this guy breathing strangely, and from what my dad described, it was apparent to me that this is agonal breathing, something that typically occurs as someone is dying. It can last for a few minutes or up to a few hours, and in the case of cardiac arrest or cardiogenic shock, it can last for a few minutes after the heart has stopped. In cardiac arrest a person only has a few minutes to try to reverse the heart’s failure to pump, and this is done primarily through CPR and defibrillation, neither of which happened here. In cardiogenic shock there is more time to treat the problem, but it requires medical treatment that is generally only available in a hospital and the patient almost never spontaneously recovers without medical intervention. If we keep in mind that this man had passed out and had no pulse, combined with the agonal breathing, he was either dead or moments shy of it, and CPR and rapid deployment of a defibrillator are the only things that medically would help bring him back at that point. No one present did either in spite of the presence of two nurses who probably should have known what to do.
In review, a man was agonal breathing with no pulse, the only thing my dad did was call for help and then lead the congregation in prayer. By the time EMS arrived the man was alert, speaking and moving spontaneously, and was unaware of what had just transpired. The only reason he went to the hospital with EMS was at my dad’s urging. Two kids were there during this event and my dad overheard them the next week as they walked into church saying to one another “do you think someone else is gonna die this week?” Even the kids knew what had happened. My dad mentioned that he didn’t realize the gentleman was dead at the time, and only figured it out upon thinking about the situation after the fact—which means my dad raised the dead by accident..
Raising the dead isn’t meant to be the pinnacle of spirituality, nor should it be. In fact, as my dad demonstrated, it can be the result of simply stepping out in faith even when you don’t actually know what the problem is, and in this case, even when you don’t know the man is dead.
Jesus raised multiple people from the dead, and after He died and rose again, He gave us power and authority to do the same. In Matthew 10:8 Jesus said “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” and again in Matthew 28:19-20 He gave the command to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Teaching us to obey everything Jesus have commanded the disciples to do includes raising the dead. In fact, Hebrews 6:1-2 tells us that raising the dead is a basic teaching of the faith, not special advanced-level spirituality.
A friend designed a shirt, of which I have one and quite enjoy wearing and it says “Raising the dead is not a suggestion—it’s a command.”
To learn more about raising the dead, consider the following resources:
