Paradise, Christ’s Descent, and Pre-Cross Believers

Your question takes for granted a common view: that all the righteous who died before Christ were in paradise, and that He went to them. It then assumes that by His visit they became believers in the Pauline sense and so should now be “absent from the body and present with the Lord.’’ Answering that means thinking about two things: the status of believers who died before the cross, and what Christ actually did when He went to the realm of the dead.

subsection*Righteous Dead Before the Cross

It is not an unwarranted assumption that the righteous who died before Christ’s death were in paradise, understood as the blessed side of Sheol or Hades. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16) portrays the righteous dead as comforted “in Abraham’s bosom’’ while the unrighteous rich man is in torment. This accords with the idea that pre-cross believers did not yet go to heaven but were kept in a place of comfort within the realm of the dead.

So, with appropriate clarification that we are speaking of the righteous dead, it is fair to say that those who died in faith under previous dispensations were in paradise, awaiting God’s further work.

subsection*What Did Christ Do in His Descent?

The question then moves to Christ’s descent to the realm of the dead. A key issue is: what did He do there? Did He preach the Pauline gospel to the righteous dead and give them an opportunity to believe as members of the body of Christ?

Several New Testament passages speak of Christ’s activity in this realm. One line of interpretation, reflected here, understands His proclamation in Sheol not as a gospel invitation but as a victory announcement. In particular, Christ is seen as proclaiming to the spirits from the days of Noah that their attempted disruption of God’s plan had failed and that He had triumphed.

On this view, Christ’s descent was not a kind of evangelistic trip to paradise to offer the as-yet unrevealed gospel of grace to the righteous dead. It was a proclamation of victory, showing that God’s plan had prevailed.

subsection*The Mystery Hidden and Revealed to Paul

This leads to the central theological issue: when and to whom was the Pauline gospel revealed? Colossians 1:26 describes it as:

"Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints.’’

Paul elaborates on this in Ephesians 3, emphasizing that the mystery of the body of Christ and the dispensation of the grace of God was made known to him by revelation. It had been “hid in God’’ and was not previously disclosed.

If Christ had already preached this mystery to the righteous dead in paradise, it would be hard to say that it stayed hidden until God revealed it to Paul. We would have to assert that the mystery was actually disclosed in the underworld before being revealed to Paul, a view for which Scripture gives no clear support.

Moreover, the Gospels and early Acts present a message of repentance and remission of sins, not Paul’s later articulation of salvation by grace through faith apart from works of the law for Jew and Gentile in one body.

subsection*Luke 24 and the Post-Resurrection Teaching of Jesus

Luke 24:45–47 sheds important light on what Jesus did reveal:

"Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.’’

After His resurrection, Jesus opens the disciples’ minds to the Scriptures so that they can see that it was fitting for the Christ to suffer and rise again. He then commissions them to preach “repentance and remission of sins’’ in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

This is the message Peter preaches in Acts 2:38:

"Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.’’

This is not yet the distinct Pauline message of reconciliation and non-imputation of sins as later found, for example, in 2 Corinthians 5:19:

"That God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.’’

In Luke 24, the disciples are given clear understanding about Christ’s suffering and resurrection, but what they are commissioned to preach is repentance for the remission of sins, not the fully developed Pauline doctrine of justification by grace through faith for Jew and Gentile in one body.

subsection*Did the Pre-Cross Righteous Become Pauline Believers?

So back to your question: if Christ went to paradise, wouldn’t they now be believers so absent from the body and present with the Lord?

That would mean Christ preached the Pauline gospel to them and made them part of the body of Christ. From the dispensational viewpoint taken here, Scripture doesn’t support that. On this view, the gospel of the grace of God as a distinct mystery awaited revelation to Paul, and Christ’s descent is best understood not as preaching that mystery to the dead but as a victory proclamation. Other Christian traditions understand these passages differently.

Pre-cross believers were righteous in terms of the revelation and covenantal arrangements under which they lived. They are secure, and God will raise them and bless them according to the promises made to them. But that does not mean they became members of the body of Christ as described in Paul’s epistles.

subsection*“Absent from the Body, Present with the Lord’’

The question also invokes the phrase “absent from the body and present with the Lord.’’ That line, taken from Paul, is often used as a general description of the intermediate state of believers. Even if we allow that Pauline text to apply to members of the body of Christ today, it does not follow that all pre-cross righteous automatically share that same status in the same way.

Those in paradise before the cross were already in a blessed state, awaiting God’s further work. After the cross and resurrection, and after the revelation of the body of Christ, the status of believers in this dispensation is described in Pauline terms. But that does not compel us to read back those precise Pauline realities into the experience of all pre-cross righteous.

subsection*A Dispensational Distinction

Dispensational teaching holds that God has dealt with people in different ways at different times, giving them different responsibilities as He unfolds His plan. The body of Christ and the dispensation of the grace of God are tied closely to Paul’s apostleship and the revelation given to him.

Therefore:

• The righteous who died before Christ’s death were in paradise, the blessed realm of Sheol, awaiting God’s fulfillment of His promises.
• Christ’s descent to the realm of the dead is best understood as a victory proclamation, especially to the spirits from the days of Noah, not as an evangelistic presentation of the Pauline mystery.
• The Pauline mystery remained hidden until revealed to Paul; it was not disclosed earlier in paradise.
• Pre-cross saints are secure in their own covenantal context and await resurrection and blessing in harmony with the promises made to them.
• The phrase “absent from the body and present with the Lord’’ functions specifically within the Pauline framework and should not be automatically universalized to all righteous of all ages without careful consideration of context.

Thus, it is not correct to conclude that Christ’s visit to paradise turned all pre-cross righteous into Pauline believers who now share precisely the same status as members of the body of Christ. They remain righteous and secure in God’s plan, but their relationship to the body of Christ and to the specific Pauline promises must be kept distinct.