Question: Will Old Testament saints be resurrected?

The Berean Call Podcast

Question: If only those in the church are resurrected and taken to heaven at the Rapture, when do Old Testament saints get resurrected? If at the Rapture, then wouldn’t they be in the church?

Response: Before Christ’s resurrection, the souls and spirits of Old Testament believers went upon death to “Abraham’s bosom” (Lk 16:22-23), where Christ’s soul and spirit went upon His death as did the believing thief crucified with Him: “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Lk 23:43). When Christ ascended to heaven after His resurrection, He took these believers with Him.

It cannot only be those who died in faith in Christ since His resurrection, but Old Testament believers as well, who are described as the “saints” who come back with Christ at the Second Coming to the Mount of Olives (Zec 14:4-5; Jude 14), “those who sleep in Jesus” (1 Thes 4:14) and “the dead in Christ” (v. 16) resurrected at the Rapture. If Abraham, who “rejoiced to see [Christ’s] day” (Jn 8:56) and David and Isaiah, who foretold the Crucifixion and Resurrection, are not raised from the dead at the Rapture, they never will be resurrected.

The only other mention of a resurrection of believers is of those who “were beheaded [by antichrist]…which had not worshiped the beast” (Rv 20:4), completing the “first resurrection” (Rv 20:5). Old Testament saints must therefore be resurrected at the Rapture, and are in the church.

All Jews and Gentiles who believe in Christ before the Second Coming are in the church. Those who (whether Jews or Gentiles) only believe when they see Christ return at Armageddon will continue alive into the Millennium as the earthly people.