The Rapture of the Old Testament saints

Matthew 27:50-53: Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

Acts 1:9: And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

There are six raptures recorded of in the Bible; three of them took place in the Old Testament and were of individuals (Enoch [Genesis 5:24], Elijah [2 Kings 2:11], and Jesus), whilst the other three take place in the New Testament and are of groups of people (the Old Testament saints after Calvary [Acts 1:9], the Gentile Bride of seven ages [1 Thessalonians 4:16-17], and Moses and Elijah [Revelation 11:12]). Here, we want to look specifically at the Rapture of the Old Testament saints, for it is a subject not very well understood by most.

Throughout the Old Testament, the righteous Jews at death went to Paradise and entered into their theophanies, awaiting Calvary when the perfect atonement would be made by Jesus’ sacrifice, and thus a way would be made for them to enter into the presence of God. When Jesus’ sacrifice had been accomplished and His blood had been presented before the Father in the heavenly sanctuary, then Jesus could go to Paradise and release the saints from that world or dimension. This is what the Bible speaks of in Matthew chapter 27 when it states that the bodies of the saints came out of the graves after Jesus’ resurrection.

Let us look closely at the wording of Matthew chapter 27 to clarify exactly what is happening here. For the graves to be opened, it meant that the theophanies of the Old Testament saints had come back to the earth to pick up their flesh that had returned to the dust long ago when they died. Then when those theophanies had picked up that dust, it transformed them into a glorified state, and they made appearance to the living saints in Jerusalem. When the living saints saw the sleeping saints, they were seeing them in their glorified bodies.

The wording of Matthew’s gospel would imply at first glance that only some of the Old Testament saints resurrected when he wrote that “many” of the saints which slept arose. But that is not so. Matthew had no idea of what Jesus accomplished in the unseen world after He was put into the tomb. Matthew did not know that Jesus went down to Hell to lay all of sin on Satan’s lap and that He preached to the souls in prison. Nor did Matthew know that Jesus then returned to the tomb and picked up His body, and then ascended to Heaven to present His blood before the Father. Neither did Matthew know that Jesus then went to Paradise and released the Old Testament saints from that holding place after His blood had been presented before the Father and accepted. All of this was unknown to Matthew. It was actually the apostle Paul who by revelation wrote of what Jesus accomplished for us in the unseen world by His death on the cross.

After Jesus’ resurrection, there were all kinds of reports coming in from the believers in Jerusalem concerning visitations to them from the saints that had gone on, thus Matthew records it as being visitations from “many of the saints which slept,” not knowing that “all” of the saints in Paradise had returned to the earth to pick up their fleshly dust that they might be glorified. Although all of the sleeping Old Testament saints had returned to the earth, yet not all of these saints were seen by the many believers in Jerusalem, hence Matthew would say that “many of the saints which slept arose,” because he did not know that there were many other sleeping saints present on the earth at that time, although they were not all seen by the believers in Jerusalem.

These Old Testament saints in their glorified bodies were present on the earth for about forty days after Jesus’ resurrection. This is not very difficult to grasp at all when we consider that Jesus showed Himself alive in His glorified body to His disciples for the space of forty days according to Acts 1:3: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: Then when Jesus ascended to Heaven in Acts 1:9, all of those Old Testament saints were taken up in the Cloud with Him, and are now in the presence of God in the seventh dimension. This great rapture of the Old Testament saints fulfilled the words of David in Psalm 24:7-10, when he saw the Old Testament saints speaking to the angels as they arrived at Heaven’s gates after being taken up with Jesus in the Cloud: Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

In understanding the Rapture of the Old Testament saints, we are able to more fully understand about the Rapture of the New Testament saints. As the Old Testament saints had to wait in another world (Paradise) for the perfect atoning sacrifice to be made on the cross of Calvary before they could return to the earth and pick up their flesh in order to be glorified, so the saints of seven ages that have gone on at death are now in another world too. They are in the sixth dimension which is the Region of the Blessed. In this place they are waiting in their theophany bodies for the living saints to finish their course. The reason for their waiting is quite simple; it is because 1 Thessalonians 4:17 says that we shall “all” be caught up “together!” Then in 1 Corinthians 15:51 he says that we shall “all” be changed at the same moment.

When the living Bride of these last days has fulfilled Her commission of prophesying again (Revelation 10:8-11), then the Dispensation of Grace for the Gentiles will come to an end at the great earthquake which sinks Los Angeles, and for a space of perhaps forty days (like what happened in Acts 1:3), the theophanies of the sleeping New Testament saints will come back to the earth and appear to the living Bride, just as the sleeping Old Testament saints appeared to the living saints in Jerusalem. From this we can see a most striking parallel, that as Paradise was emptied out after the earthquake and Jesus’ resurrection, so the Region of the Blessed will be emptied out after the great earthquake that sinks Los Angeles. Then when the trump of God shall sound (1 Thessalonians 4:16), we shall “all” be changed “together” in our atoms into a glorified condition, and will change dimensions and meet the Lord Jesus in His corporal (glorified) body. This will be the moment when not only do we see Jesus, but we will also see the Old Testament saints, for we will all be together in our glorified bodies with the Lord Jesus in the seventh dimension.