The empty tomb and the hundreds of eye witnesses to Jesus walking the earth for 40 days after coming back from the dead testify to his overcoming death. His accession to heaven shows Jesus returned to whence he came (yes, I said whence!) Blinding Saul on the road to Damascus shows Jesus can act upon people here on earth, but is anyone else in Heaven right now or are all “asleep” awaiting the second coming?
The Old Testament saints are discussed by Mark in Chapter 12 where he writes of Jesus correcting the Sadducees misunderstanding about the afterlife. They did not even believe there was an afterlife. They recognized only the Torah (first five books of the OT) as sacred and since no one is documented in those books as going to heaven, they concluded there is no afterlife. Jesus sternly corrects them saying “And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.” Ouch! So did anyone else go to heaven before Jesus?
Conclusion; True! Jesus could have also mentioned (not that I have notes for him) Genesis 5:24 which references the fate of descendants of Adam stating “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” Had the Sadducees braved to read a few books more into the OT, 1 Kings captures the fate of Elijah while walking with Elisha which states “As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.” Not a bad exit!
I continue to be inspired by the references and reassurances this author exhibits in his writings