Mike,
Will anyone from the Old Testament be in the first resurrection? Abel, Seth, Noah, Job, Abraham, David etc…. Is there a difference between tribulation and wrath? Thanks,
M____

Hi M____,
You ask if anyone from the Old Testament will be in the first resurrection. The answer is very simple, and it is given to us by Christ and His apostles:

Luk 7:28  For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

“Among those that are born of women, there is not a greater than John the Baptist.” That would include Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, King David and all of the prophets. “He that is least in the kingdom of God is greater” than anyone who was born and who lived before Christ came to die for our sins and give to mankind the gift of God’s spirit. It is God’s spirit that gives us life, and that spirit was not available to mankind until the sacrifice for sins was made by our Lord:

Joh 16:7  Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

“Expedient” means ‘absolutely necessary.’ God’s spirit comes to us in the person of Christ, living His life in us. If He is not in us, then we will not be in the first resurrection. God’s spirit in the person of Christ was not available to mankind until after Christ’s sacrifice:

Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Chris t, he is none of his.

Christ tells us “I and My Father are one” and that all His Father has, including His Father’s spirit, have been given to Christ to be given to whomsoever Christ wills.

Joh 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
Joh 16:14  He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
Joh 16:15 All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it [ God’s spirit] unto you.
Mat 11:27  All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

The use of the pronoun ‘He’ is a reference to Christ Himself, simply because Christ makes it clear that “the spirit of Truth” is “the comforter,” and He also makes it clear that His Father has given His spirit to Christ. Christ so identifies Himself with His Father that  He says “I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.”

Joh 14:18  I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

Just to make it perfectly clear that no one before Christ will be in the first resurrection, Peter tells us this about everything that was said and done by the Old Testament prophets:

1Pe 1:12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

” Not unto themselves.” The Old Testament did not minister to those who were writing it. “But unto us they did minister.” And notice this verse of Heb 11:

Heb 11:40  God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

“Not unto themselves but unto us… God having provided some better thing for us,” not them, because “he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than… John… [ who is] as great as any man born of women.”
I hope those scriptures help you to see just how much Christ thinks of His elect and helps you to understand that those in the first resurrection are “greater than John the Baptist who is as great as any man born of women.”

Your second question was:
“Is there a difference between tribulation and wrath?”

The answer is certainly. Not every trial we endure is because of God’s wrath against our ungodliness and unrighteousness and sins, but all tribulations, and all of our trials are for the purpose of helping us to overcome our sinful nature. So whether we are suffering as a result of our own sins, or if we suffer at the hands of our brothers, both are used by God to burn out all the “wood, hay and stubble” in our lives.
Don’t allow any false prophet to convince you that there is any such thing as flesh which is not sinful and that sin is only in your heart and your soul but not in your flesh. That is the voice of a double- tongued serpent. This, on the other hand, is the voice of the True shepherd:

Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, [ you and me] If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:40  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Joh 8:41  Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, [ even] God.
Joh 8:42  Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? [ even] because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

So when Christ called Peter, “Satan”, that was much more than a rhetorical statement. It was a true statement that was borne out when Peter spit on Christ’s teaching to “love thine enemies,” when Peter cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest. Just hours later Peter was cursing the air blue as He denied His Lord. At that moment His Lord also had to deny Peter before His Father. But God had mercy on Peter and led Him to repentance.

Mar 8:33  But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

Christ spoke to Peter, but He looked on all of His disciples who He knew would all forsake Him in just a few days.

Mar 14:50  And they all forsook him, and fled.

I have written dozens of letters on 1Co 1:1-3:4 which demonstrates and affirms Christ’s words in Joh 8. Just like the entire nation of Israel, who were all baptized in the Red Sea, we still rebel against our heavenly father “ten times.” The fact that Israel rebelled ten times means that they, and therefore we, think we are righteous as we do so. Ten is the number of perfection of the flesh. Read the study notes on the number ten.

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

All of us are still carnal when we first come to Christ. And we all serve our Father the devil as we rebel against our Father in heaven even as we “believe on Him.” Eph 2:2-3 is not speaking of people who do not know Christ. It is rather speaking of Christ’s own apostles who forsake him to save themselves from the hatred of the rest of His disciples who are calling for His crucifixion, and that is a statement that applies to us all at our own appointed time:

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye [ carnal babes in Christ] walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

So we are “all… by nature children of wrath, even as others” who will not repent while in these sinful vessels of clay and will experience God’s wrath in the lake of fire. Here is what God’s Word has to say about our flesh:

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

So flesh is “shapen in iniquity and is sinful… by nature.”

Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

I hope that answers your question about God’s wrath. If not I feel sure you will have any other questions on this subject answered by the letters listed below: If you cannot find an answer in these letters, then please let me know.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike