Elijah didn't die.
A glorified body is not needed to enter heaven.
So you think the OT saints have already been resurrected? Ahead of the NT dead in Christ? Why would they be resurrected before the NT dead? Does any scripture support two resurrections, one being before the cross and one at the second coming?
Yes I did misspeak, when I threw Elijah under the heading of death. He was certainly taken out of time and translated into eternity but he did not die, just like Enoch.
Yes a glorified body or some might prefer a translated body, is needed to enter Heaven which is in eternity with God. Fore we know that flesh and blood, a body made by man, cannot enter because of the sin nature which is present in it. It is also a perishable body that is decaying at this present time. Paul told us we must first put off that which is corruptible and put on that which is incorruptible. A body prepared by God. (1 Cor. 15:51-54).
The three questions you asked about multiple resurrections and the OT Saints proceeding the NT saints are very good questions. Sadly however, to answer them would take hours and hours of study and reading. Additionally, posts on this site are limited as to size and this discussion, to do justice to it, would take up an entire book.
I am going to give some quick answers to them.
1 ) So you think the OT saints have already been resurrected? ANSWER:
Not exactly. One would not call it a resurrection. This question and the others goes to the proper understanding of
ETERNITY and
TIME. A most difficult subject to wrap ones mind around for sure. We as human beings, live a temporal existence. Everything to us, is about time, days, months and years. The past, the present and the future. These are all temporal concepts. None of these things apply to ETERNITY. Many have tried to define eternity. Some say it is a steady state of being. Others, time that never ends. All of these miss the boat.
Eternity, should be expressed as
"The ever present NOW". There is no past or future. There is order in eternity but no time. Peter, under divine inspiration, expressed it like this:
2Pe_3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
In other words, time means nothing to the Lord in eternity. However, His eternal plan is being, in part, executed in our temporal lives. So there are times and dates established by God's plans. A time to be born and a time to die. A time for Christ to come and a time for Him to die. A time for Him to come again. A time to establish the Kingdom and a time for the first resurrection and still another time for the second resurrection. Still with me?
However, in eternity, all of these things have already taken place. Indeed there was never a time when they had not taken place. Again, there is no time in eternity, only the ever present NOW. God from eternity, knows everything at once and everything is with Him in the now. Yeah, I know, mind blowing isn't it? That's because we are temporally bound in our thinking. To put ones mind in eternal gear is very difficult. Took me over twenty years to come to terms with eternity.
I said all that, so I could try to answer the question about the OT Saints and a resurrection.
First, the OT testament Saints are just as much in Christ as we are today as believers. Secondly, all of Christ's work on the cross, could be applied to every person that is being saved because His death, burial and resurrection were a sure and unstoppable thing. 1 )
Because it was already settled in eternity, 2)
Because nothing can thwart God's plan. Knowing this, we know that God could apply the saving work of Jesus Christ to the OT Saints as if Jesus had died already. This is Positional Justification. All of the types and shadows of the Old Testament moved forward, in time, the sins of God's people (Conditional Sanctification) until the actual work of Christ was completed, on their behalf, in time. However, as viewed from eternity, these things had already taken place. Remember - there was never a time when they had not taken place because there is no past or future in eternity.
Therefore, while the resurrection of the dead is future to us who are trapped in a temporal existence, those who have stepped out of time into eternity have already been resurrected from their perspective. They are waiting on nothing. They are with the Lord in His Kingdom and all of the Saints are there too. It is the proper understanding of Eternity, that led Paul to say:
Php 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Php 1:22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
Php 1:23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
Php 1:24 Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
Paul knew better than any man alive, that to die was gain and to be with the Lord was far better. The teaching of a purgatory by the Catholics or the teaching of soul sleep waiting on the resurrection is nothing short of heresy. Paul was expecting to be with the Lord the moment he died. If there was soul sleep, then he certainly would not have said that dying "is far better". The teaching of Purgatory and soul sleep, proves that the ones teaching such error understand nothing about Eternity and Time.
For a good read on this subject, I would suggest Eternity and Time by W. E. Best. You can find it online at WEBBMT.ORG. Where you can read it online and/or download it as a PDF.
It is free.
I hope this helps. If you have any other questions on the subject, I will try to answer them.