Especially to comfort first-century Christians who were bereaved of “those who have fallen asleep in death through Jesus,” the apostle Paul wrote:

7. About which particular dead was Paul there speaking, and how does Revelation 14:12, 13 indicate a special time for them to be resurrected?

⁷ Here the apostle Paul is speaking, not of the dead of mankind in general, but of “those who have fallen asleep in death” through Christ, “those who are dead in union with Christ.”

1 Thess. 4:13-17.