Question: Your recent...Q & A...seemed to include Israel...in the Rapture and thus in the church. ...

Question [Excerpts]: Your recent response in the Q & A section seemed to include Israel—a term I will use interchangeably with Old Testament saints—in the Rapture and thus in the church. Such a view automatically nullifies any distinction between Israel and the church. To my mind, 1 Thes:4:14-18 [14] For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. [15] For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. [16] For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: [17] Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. [18] Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
See All... applies only to the church. Israel’s resurrection must come at the end of the Tribulation along with those tribulation believers who were martyred for not receiving Antichrist’s mark. What is your response?

Response: You ask, “But exactly who will be resurrected at the time of the Rapture?” First Thessalonians 4 says it will be “The dead in Christ.” You don’t think any Jews could be included in this number? Why not? Jews who believe in Christ today are in the church. Jesus said, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad.” Abraham looked forward to Christ and though he didn’t understand as fully as we do today, he is, therefore, “in Christ.” Surely all saints, Old or New Testament, must be “in Christ.”

When Jesus returns to the Mount of Olives, “all the saints” come with Him (Zec:14:5And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
See All...). The Old Testament speaks of saints as much as the New. You say the Old Testament saints were Israel. What about Adam, Enoch, Noah, et al.? When Christ cried, “It is finished,” and the veil of the temple was ripped from top to bottom, “many bodies of the saints which slept arose” (Matt:27:51-53 [51] 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; [52] And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, [53] And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
See All...). These were Old Testament believers redeemed by the blood of Christ. I see no reason why they cannot be part of the church and thus resurrected at the Rapture. If not resurrected then, when?

You say they will be resurrected “at the end of the Tribulation along with those tribulation believers who were martyred.” But Revelation:20:4And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
See All... specifically limits that resurrection to the tribulation martyrs who believed and were slain after the Rapture. Furthermore, for Old Testament Jews to be part of the church no more nullifies the distinction between Israel and the church than for Jews who believe today to be part of the church. It is the Jews who are alive at the Second Coming and believe in Christ at that time who will inhabit the land of Israel under Christ’s reign during the Millennium.