Old Testament Saints and the Returning Multitude of the Lord

1 Thessalonians 4:14 states:

"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him."

The immediate context is the comfort of believers concerning "them which are asleep" and the "dead in Christ." The question is who falls under the category of those "which sleep in Jesus" or who are "dead in Christ."

In this passage, I take "them also which sleep in Jesus" to refer to those who have believed that Jesus died and rose again—those who are in Christ in the sense Paul uses throughout his letters. At minimum, that would be believers from the time Christ's death and resurrection were proclaimed and believed as the saving message.

I would not, on the basis of this verse, extend "dead in Christ" backward to include Old Testament figures such as Moses, Joshua, David, or Solomon. They were certainly believers in God and recipients of His promises, but they did not and could not believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus as accomplished facts. Scripture gives no indication that Old Testament saints consciously placed their faith in a yet-future, specifically understood crucified and risen Messiah. The details of that work were not revealed in a way that allowed that kind of explicit faith.

There may be some overlap in the early period after the resurrection, such as the believers at Pentecost and others mentioned as being "in Christ" before Paul (for example, Andronicus and Junia). Those would rightly be counted among the dead in Christ if they died before the rapture. But they are post-resurrection believers.

Old Testament saints will, however, be associated with the Lord in His return in another sense. Jude 14 says:

"And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with 10 thousands of his saints."

This language, echoed in other prophetic passages, presents the Lord returning with myriads of His saints. In that larger eschatological picture, I would include Old Testament believers among those who accompany Him. They are His saints in the broad sense: those set apart by God from all ages.

So, to summarize the distinction:

• 1 Thessalonians 4:14 and the phrase "them also which sleep in Jesus" describe the dead in Christ—those who believed in the death and resurrection of Jesus and died before the rapture. This concerns the catching up of the body of Christ.
• Prophecies such as Jude 14, where the Lord comes with "10 thousands of his saints," depict a broader company that, in my understanding, includes Old Testament saints as well as others who belong to Him from different dispensations.

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