When Old Testament saints died, their souls could not go into the presence of the Lord because the shed blood of Christ had not yet been offered as a sacrifice for sin. When Christ ascended into heaven after His resurrection, He took the souls of the Old Testament saints with Him into the glory of heaven (Ephesians 4:8).

What happened to these believers that made this rapture possible? When Christ died on the cross, He made it possible for them and all believers from all time periods to be sanctified through spiritual baptism into the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

Rom 6:3-5
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, (NKJ)

Gal 2:20
20 "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (NKJ)

However, being baptized into the death of Christ does not necessarily make one a member of the Church which is the Body of Christ. If God did add some people from ages past to that Church in accordance with His own plan and purpose, they would not have known anything about the true calling of the Church since it was not formally revealed until the Apostle Paul wrote about it in Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians.

All through the book of Acts and Paul’s pre-prison epistles, we find references to the body to which believers belong and to the church and the churches but never to that heavenly institution known as the Church which is the Body of Christ.

In the prison epistles, Paul clearly taught the truths of the Church which is the Body of Christ.

Eph 1:22-23
22 (God) put all things under (Christ’s) feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (NKJ)

Col 1:18
18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. (NKJ)

Believers associated with Israel’s Old and New Covenants had the hope of experiencing the New Covenant Kingdom here on the earth, while members of the Church which is the Body of Christ have no such earthly hope.

Phil 3:20
20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, (NKJ)

Col 3:2
2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. (NKJ)

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:
http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/
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http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/