Were Old Testament believers expected to believe that Christ would die and rise again?
No. That truth remained hidden in God’s sovereign plan and was not revealed until much later. People are not expected to believe something until God says it; only what God reveals belongs to them and their children, even though the Old Testament contained it by innuendo.
Les teaches that the secret things belong to the Lord our God. He is sovereign and does not tell us everything we might like to know, but He tells us what we need to know in His own time. He rejects the idea that Adam and Eve or Abraham understood the Gospel, because God had not yet revealed it; it was kept secret in the mind of God. Therefore Old Testament believers were not expected to believe that Christ would die, be buried, and be raised from the earth, even though the Old Testament was full of it by innuendo at least. Why? Because you do not believe something until God says it. When God later revealed the Gospel of grace—that Christ died, shed His blood, was buried, and rose from the dead—He expected people to believe it, since faith comes by hearing the Word of God.