From your post, it seems you believe the dead are alive. So get ready,,,,,because Satan has all sorts of devious deceptions for those who believe the dead are alive.
Death = separation from God.
Hades = the abode of the dead.
They who die in their sins are dead.
For those who are in Christ, to be absent from the body is to be present before the Lord.
I will ask that you go back and answer the questions I presented you, thanks.
The Bible teaches that the dead are not aware of anything. Those who go around teaching that the soul is immortal,, that there is a Paradise where the dead go and wait,,, are teaching from the handbook of Satan.
Here we have those dead in Christ COMING with Him:
1Th 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which
sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
Yet, this is satanic? If He is to bring them with Him, then were are they now? If death is the sentencing handed down from the Law, then what of those who are under grace? Did Jesus not bring Life?
If those in Christ are to spiritually know death, then Scripture lies when it tells us that Jesus paid the ransom to deliver those of His from that penalty. Would it not be more satanic to say that He did not pay that penalty?
The false teaching that the soul is immortal will go hand in hand with the false teaching that Sunday is the day we should observe as Sabbath.
Whatever day you observe, do so unto the Lord. If a person hold another day above another, he does so unto the Lord. If a person holds all days the same, he does so unto the Lord. Here is the catch, the Lord of Sabbath is our sabbath and in Him we have our rest from our works. So, whatever day or the lack of a day one have decided on, he is to do it under a good conscience. And this is a true teaching.
These subjects are closely related. Those who beleive the dead are alive,, will soon recieve communications from the dead. Only the messages won't be coming from dead people. The messages will be coming from Demons who masquerade as dead loved ones.
The only Safeguard, is to know the dead know nothing.
Those who believe the dead are alive, have no Safeguard against the deceptions of Satan. They disarmed themselves when they chose to believe the dead are alive.
God says: "the soul that sinneth shall die."
To die is to enter the abode of the dead, namely Hades. Death is the separation from God.
Yet, we understand that the soul which is justified by the blood of Christ shall live. But, if we say that even these souls shall die, then the ransom was never paid and we remain under the Law. God forbid!! Are we not alive in Christ?
Satan says "ye shall not surely die."
But, God says, "the souls who sins shall die." If one desires an eternal separation from God, then Hades (the abode of the dead (death = separation from God)) shall be his abode.
P.S. Michael,
there are two deaths that a human can experience: physical and spiritual.
Of the physical, it is said that their memory is soon forgotten.
Of the spiritual, it is said that death has an eternal consequence.
Let us, therefore, walk about in Christ, seeing that He has paid the ransom needed to deliver those in Him from the penalty of the Law.
The Law brings death, but Christ brings Life.