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 Because Heaven was closed through sin, and was first to be opened by Christ (Hebr. ix. 6-8).

3. Why did Christ descend into Limbo?

1. To comfort and set free the souls of the just; and 2. To show forth His power and majesty even there in the lower regions (Phil. ii. 10).

4. What means, 'the third day He rose again from the dead'?

That on the third day after His death Christ reunited, by His own power, His soul to His body, as He had foretold, and rose again from the grave. (Easter day.)

5. How did Christ rise again?

He came forth glorious and immortal from the grave, secured as it was by a heavy stone, and guarded by soldiers.

6. Did Christ retain in His glorified body any mark of His sufferings?

He still retained, in His hands, feet, and side, the marks of His wounds; therefore He said to Thomas: 'Put in thy finger hither [into the place of the nails], and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side' (John xx. 27).

7. Why has He still retained these marks?

1. In testimony of His victory over hell; 2. As a proof that He rose again in the very same body in which He had suffered; and 3. To show them on the day of judgment, for the consolation of the just and for the confusion of the wicked.

8. Whence do we know that Christ rose from the dead?

From the testimony of His Apostles and His Disciples, who often saw Him after His resurrection, touched Him, ate, spoke, and conversed with Him; and who everywhere