7th day Adventist?
This is where knowing the whole Sheol thing helps. JWs also believe that hell just equals the grave because they misunderstand Sheol and also use Psalms and Ecclesiastes to support their stance.
However, it's quite clear that the OT account of the resurrection, which is pretty much a footnote in Judaism, wound up becoming the centerpiece of Christianity. This also ties into the Sabbath but what with all the revisionist histories out there, I'll bury the issue (punny?).
No one prior to the resurrection went to be with the Lord in His Kingdom but did have presence with the Lord in Sheol, see Abraham's Bosom.
Your NT verses are easily explained but to accept it you have to deconstruct what you've been taught and overcome your Romaphobia (if you suffer from it).
1Co 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Death in this verse doesn't explain the state of our soul nor does it indicate the soul's location. However, it does explain that the body is "dead". The body itself is what will be raised imperishable. The expiration date on our flesh is a reality. Everyone's body pretty much* has a number. The one who sins will die. However, the soul who is found in Christ has no Expiration date.
We also have to understand that early early Jews didn't even have a revelation of the Kingdom as we know it today. That's why there was (and rightly so) so much emphasis on what we do here, now, before going off into the deep sleep*, matters. If you lived long, had children, grandchildren etc. you were considered blessed. For the righteous, God grants years to a life that is like a vapor, a passing dust.
Prior to the resurrection there was a disconnect between men, made in the image of God, and because the gap between God and man had not been bridged, there was no way for man to enter the Kingdom. The sacraments of the past stood in as mere placeholders (shadows) for what, or I should say Who, was to come and replace those placeholders with the real deal. After Jesus those placeholders were replaced, as they are with us today, and no longer is there, even after the physical body "sleeps" is there anything that can separate us from Him. We have a go pass in regards to entering the Kingdom.
Life after death is one thing. Life after, life after death is another thing.
Life after death in the post-resurrection age allows us to, through Christ, have presence with the Lord (any Pauline verses bouncing around in your head?) after we lose the tent (body).
What we are truly truly looking forward to though is when we get those tents back (resurrection of the *dead) and all of the material world is outwardly transformed as we are now being transformed/conformed inwardly.
The old world is passing away, is already dead in fact because of the crucifixion, and the new world is being established. The two worlds are kind of being sewn together, intertwining. That which is truly dead will not remain but that which is found in Christ will be renewed. We look forward to endgame where all disease, corruption etc. will only be a memory or possibly altogether blotted out.
What death and disease? Never heard of it!
1Co 15:53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
When God breathed into the mud mold, Adam became. The body and the soul, "God's breath/life" was 1. Inseparable. However, Adam and Eve disobeyed and Death (of the body and of a spiritual disconnect) occurred. Prior to Death and the disconnect, Adam and Eve were purposed to be in full communion with God and were in a relationship with him where that process was being lived out. Death was never part of the game plan. Death is unnatural. It goes against God's original purpose for humanity. Now that we're in a post-fall world, what is un-natural seems natural. Miracles and all of God's works seem un-natural when they are actually, what are, in regards to our true purpose - 100% grade A natural. The proto-type.
So, whether we admit or not, we are spiritual "beings". If you have breath in you, that breath can be traced back to the Adam and we all know where Adam got his breath.
In reality (God's reality) the body matters. All of creation matters/is spiritual. Everything was and is created to be in communion with Him.
Everything that was made was made through Jesus, in order that, if we are found in him, we can then heal and restore what was lost in the garden. Have communion with God, like in the beginning. Jesus is 2nd Adam, the reversal of the fall. Jesus takes us back to the garden.
However, anything not found in Christ, in this post-fall world, must be found in Christ. Otherwise, it will perish. So, that which is corruptible, the body, creation, etc. can, if found in Christ, in the end, be raised incorruptible. New Heaven, New Earth.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Romans 8:19-21 (New International Version)
19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that[
a] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
Galatians 6:15
Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new
creation.
1Co 15:54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
This is Endgame. This doesn't explain life after death but life after, life after death.
1Co 15:55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Romans 5:12
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and
death through sin, and in this way
death came to all men, because all sinned—
Romans 5:14
Nevertheless,
death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of
Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was
a pattern of the one to come.
Romans 6:3
Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
death?
Romans 6:5
If we have been united with him like this in his
death, we will certainly also be united with him in
his resurrection.
Christ IS resurrected...
2 Corinthians 5:1 (New International Version)
1Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
Revelation 1:18
I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of
death and Hades.
Revelation 2:10
Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of
death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Revelation 2:11
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second
death.
2 Corinthians 4:6-16 (New International Version)
6For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"[
a]made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
13It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken."[
b]With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. 15All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.