Before we proceed, because this study is very important,
it is recommended that you be comfortable with the Bible version being used.
If you would prefer to use a version other than the King James Version,
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There is something that has always made me scratch my head. Imagine being at a funeral where they are burying uncle Igor, and someone comes out with a magnificent pearl of wisdom like "Oh well, Uncle Igor is up there looking down at us now.", and we ponder the statement with thoughts that mystify us. Thoughts like:-
This is the Uncle Igor that always had his shed full of someone else's stuff.
The Igor that had been to jail eight times.
The one that caused everyone to keep their children close when he was around.
The first person the neighbours thought of when something bad happened in the neighbourhood.
The guy that caused people to hide under the bed when he was at the door.

So if he is "up there looking down" at us, do we want to go there too?

Anyway, is he REALLY there? Maybe he went "down there"? Maybe he went to that imaginary place called "Purgatory"?
If he did, who is going to pay the money into the catholic church coffers to get him out? If he gets out, where will he go? Up? Or down?
There is also another imaginary place called "Limbo". Maybe he went there?
Besides, I always believed that no one steals and no one hurts anyone else in Heaven.
Would Igor REALLY be happy there?

Then you visit a friend who lost his mother recently, and his son asks "Where's Grandma?" How do you answer that?

So, thinking about it, WHERE is Grandma? Is she with Igor? I certainly hope not! Or is she some place else? Does ANYONE know?

Well, if ANYONE knows, then it would be God Himself. I have no doubt that God would know and also no doubt that He would tell us, and that He would tell us in His book of love to us, the bible.

Someone said "Igor is up there looking down". Can that be true? Let's look firstly at that.

He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
 This is at the completion of the judgement. Those who come up short have no further opportunity to repent. It is finished!
 
And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.  This passage is referring to the second coming of Jesus and says "my reward is with me".
What reward?
How was it decided what our reward is?
Judgment comes first, and THEN the reward. Our reward is either a place in Heaven or the place of destruction. If the reward comes with Jesus, how could Igor be there already?
The fact is, he is NOT there already.


The same is true of the place of destruction, called Hell. No one would be sent there before their destiny was decided by judgement.
It will not be known till Jesus comes whether we are rewarded with Heaven or Hell, so how could anyone be sent to EITHER place before that?


For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.  The surest things in this world, death and taxes.
 
But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming .
 It says here that those that are going to Heaven (those that are Christ's) do so at His coming, so again we have to ask
"How could Igor be there already?".
 
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,  This is happening at Jesus' coming.
Not everyone has died. The last generation is still alive on the earth.
 
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.  Hmmm. The dead are raised? Is this the dead who are supposed to be either in Heaven or Hell ALREADY?
 
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.  We get beautiful new bodies at the coming of Jesus.
It is pretty safe to say that if the dead are raised to life when Jesus comes and given their reward which consists of a new body and a place in Heaven, then they are not already there.
Notice also, man is mortal, so he does not live forever in hell and only lives forever in heaven with the gift of God.


So, if they are not already in either Heaven or Hell, then WHERE are they?
Are they ANYWHERE at all? What does the word of God say?

Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;  The psalmist says death is a sleep.
 

Otherwise it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders.  Here death is again referred to as sleep.
 


Jesus referred to Lazarus' death as a sleep.

These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep,.  Jesus has plainly said that Lazarus is asleep.
 
Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.  His disciples saw that if it was normal sleep, Lazarus was Ok.
 
Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.  Jesus had referred to Lazarus as asleep meaning permanent sleep, but the disciples thought he meant normal sleep.
 
Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.  Then Jesus advised them this was the SLEEP of death.


Martha understood what death is.

Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.  Jesus reassured her that Lazarus would rise from the dead, but WHEN?
 
Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.  Martha understood that the dead are NOT raised immediately, but at the end of time, or, as she put it, at the last day.


Read John 11:43-46 This is the account of Lazarus coming out of the tomb.
Did you notice what Lazarus said when he came out? NOTHING!
Think about it. If he was dragged back from Heaven, he would have been kicking and screaming
"No, No, don't take me back there!!"
And if he was brought back from hell, he would have fallen at Jesus' feet
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!"
He said nothing because he was confused.
He closed his eyes on his bed and fell "asleep" and next conscious moment he was standing outside a tomb wrapped up in toilet paper.
He had nothing to say because he had been NOWHERE! He had been ASLEEP!

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.  Paul is saying not to sorrow for those sleeping in the dust. We, unlike others have hope in the promises of Jesus.
 
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.  Jesus will return, raise the dead first, and then bring up the living to meet them in the air. 1Thessalonians 4:16

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.  Speaking of a resurrection, yet to happen, where some will be woken from sleep in the dust (death) to be taken into God's kingdom, and some to a place not so nice. They were asleep in death until specially woken.
 


If we look at what constitutes a living soul.

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground , and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.  So, the recipe to make man is dust of the ground plus the breath of God.
Notice, this combination IS a living soul, not HAS a soul.
 

All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;  The word translated "spirit" here means "breath". It is the breath if God that keeps us alive.
 

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.  This is simply the reverse of Genesis 2:7 where God used dust plus breath to make a soul.
When a soul perishes, the dust goes back to the ground and the breath (spirit) goes back to God. Again, the original word here means "breath".
 

His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.  The psalmist says our thoughts perish, no consciousness. All thought stops.
 


Solomon also brings this point forward showing the dead have no conscious thoughts.

For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.  He simply says "The dead know not anything", no conscious thought.
 
Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun  No love, nor hate, because no thoughts at all.

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.  Once again, there is no conscious thought in death.
 

The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.  Why would not the dead praise the God that brought them to Heaven?
Because they have no conscious thought. That's why!
 

For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.  The dead can not praise, nor celebrate, nor hope. All thoughts totally gone.
 


David, a man after God's own heart, is still in the grave.

Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.  David's tomb is still there at the time Peter was speaking.
 
For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,  And David is still in that tomb, not raised to Heaven yet.


Jesus described the sequence of events to take place at the end of time.

And hath given him authority to execute judgment  Judgement takes place first also, because he is the Son of man.
Judgement is assigned to Jesus.
 
Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,  This is the event that Martha was referring to when she said that Lazarus would be raised up "at the last day".
After judgement, Jesus returns "with His reward" of eternal life or eternal death.
When He arrives, all His saints will be raised from the sleep of death and then the living saints will be taken up.
 
And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.  Self explanatory.


Some might ask "What about the thief on the cross?"
"Did he not go straight to heaven with Jesus on the day he died?".
The first thing we have to come to grips with here is the fact that the Bible NEVER contradicts itself.
If the thief on the cross went to Heaven on the day he died, that would be a contradiction to what we have just learned, so there must be a logical explanation. There is.
The way it is worded in our bibles is:-

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.  
 


This is a very plain statement saying that the thief would be in Heaven with Jesus that day.
But is that what Jesus said?
Let's look at what happened.
There is another verse that directly conflicts with this verse the way it is written, and the problem with the verse we just read is in the way it is written, not in the content of the verse.

Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.  This is the sunday morning when Jesus appeared to Mary, and this is 2 DAYS LATER.
 
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.  So, sunday morning, Jesus has only just come out of the tomb and has not yet ascended.


This is two days AFTER He had promised the thief that they would be together in Heaven the very same day, and Jesus still had not gone there.
In fact, if you read the whole account, Jesus had rested the whole sabbath in the tomb, so went NOWHERE!
Did Jesus LIE to the thief? Doubt it!
So what is the explanation?
The answer is simple. The original Greek has no punctuation. That was inserted during translation where they thought it should go, and they got it wrong. They put the comma (,) after "I say unto you" instead of after the word "today".
This totally changes the context of the verse and brings it into line with the rest of the bible.
The verse should read:-

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee today, shalt thou be with me in paradise.  Jesus was assuring him "then and there" that he would be with Jesus in Heaven EVENTUALLY, or as Martha described it "at the last day".
 


Another question that arises is
"Didn't Samuel come back from the dead to see Saul?".
 Obviously, from what we have learned, the answer can only be "No.".
We can read the complete writing about the event in 1Samuel 28.
Saul had ordered that all those that dealt with "familiar spirits" be put to death in accordance with the will of God, because God is vehemently adverse to this practice. It is deceit, because, as we have found out, the dead know NOTHING.
Saul, knowing that no necromancer (spirit medium) would deal with him because of the death decree against them, disguised himself and asked the Witch of Endor to raise up Samuel to provide some information.
The first thing the witch saw was "gods ascending out of the earth".
This is interesting, because, as we know, there is only one God, and no other "gods". Isaiah 46:9. So who can these "gods" be?
The fact that she saw them " ascending out of the earth " gives us a clue. They are satan's demons.
She said that this "Samuel" appeared to "COME UP" from below, not "DOWN FROM ABOVE". This was a counterfeit by one of satan's goons.
Note also that Saul "perceived" it to be Samuel. It was not Samuel, but an evil spirit impersonating him.

We are seeing a dramatic increase in necromancy in modern times.
In other words, spiritualism is on the rise.
satan is very busy promoting spiritualism in our time. Why?
Right at the very beginning, the big lie he promoted was that humans are immortal and can not die.
God said that if Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree they would "surely die" Genesis 2:17.
Then satan countermanded the word of God and said "thou shalt not surely die" Genesis 3:4.
 satan is still telling the same lie. He says that when we die, we don't "surely die", but continue to live either in Heaven or in Hell. This is a lie.


God says quite clearly that the soul dies. It does NOT live on in another form, as satan claims.

Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.  Quite plainly, the soul of the sinner shall die, not live on in Hell.
 

Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;  This is talking about Jesus.
 
Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.  Jesus is the only flesh that has immortality. All others live conditionally, based on the love and gift of God.


Other than satan being a compulsive liar, why is he so blatantly lying about where the dead are?

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;  Notice it says "in the latter times". It is referring to the last days, the period we are living in now.
People will take heed of "seducing spirits" , satan's demons. How are they going to do that?


In the last days, satan and his demons will talk to humans, feeding them lies (what else?), but the interesting question is "How will he communicate?".
In some rarer cases, he will talk directly to humans that have sold their soul to him, but in the majority of cases he will use a medium to communicate.
When he deceived Eve, he did not talk directly to her. He used a medium, his preferred means of communication with humans.
In Eve's case he used a serpent as the medium. In modern times, as he did with Saul, he uses the counterfeit form of a lost loved one or acquaintance.
We must constantly keep in mind that the dead "know nothing" , so any appearance by a dead person can only be a satanic forgery. Don't be fooled by how much the apparition looks like the original person, or that they know things only that person would know.
All through our lives, there are always several angels around us. There are two assigned by God, one to protect you and one to document your life.
There are some assigned by satan to take notes also. These latter angels are evil and use what they learn about you for nefarious purposes, including for impersonating dead people. These evil demons know more about you than you do yourself. They have your voice copied perfectly. They have your walk, your talk, your actions, your knowledge all exactly duplicated on file.