Did Old Testament Saints Go to Heaven?

When Old Testament believers died they went to the temporary “heaven” called Paradise, or Abraham’s bosom. This was a place of peace, but it wasn’t yet heaven. Then something incredible happened on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday that changed everything. Jesus, though His body rested in the grave, descended in spirit to the place of the dead. And He didn’t go there to suffer. He went to declare victory! He stepped into the unseen world and announced the triumph of the cross.

We know this because of what Jesus said to the repentant thief: “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). Remember, at that time Paradise was the temporary place where the souls of the righteous dead were gathered.

Jesus went there and “proclaimed to the spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:19 ESV). Ephesians 4 says He “descended into the lower parts of the earth” and “led captivity captive” (verses 8–9). And in Revelation 1:18, Jesus declared, “I have the keys of Hades and of Death.”

What did Jesus do in the place of the dead? He preached victory to the fallen angels, the unrighteous dead, and to the Old Testament saints who had long waited for the Messiah. And then, in triumph, He led the righteous out of that waiting place and into the very presence of God.¹

In other words, Jesus took the Old Testament believers from Paradise into heaven. Since then, believers no longer pass through an intermediate heaven at death. The soul and spirit of every believer now go directly to heaven because Paradise is now in the presence of God (2 Corinthians 12:2–4).

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For more on this topic, see chapter 21 from Dr. Jeremiah’s book, The Promise of Heaven: 31 Reasons to Get Excited About Your Eternal Home.

¹Adapted from Phil Cotnoir, “He Descended to the Dead? Recovering Holy Saturday,” The Gospel Coalition, April 19, 2025, . See also Matthew Y. Emerson, “He Descended to the Dead”: An Evangelical Theology of Holy Saturday (InterVarsity Press, 2019).