WHERE ARE THE DEAD?

THE PLACE OF DEAD BEFORE CHRIST'S RESURRECTION

       There was a certain rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously everyday:  and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, who was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table:  moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.  And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom:  the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and seeing Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 
       And he cried and said, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame." 
       But Abraham said, "Son, remember that you in thy lifetime received good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and you are tormented.  And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed:  so that those who would pass from here to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, who would come from there."
       Then he said, "I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house:  for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment."
       Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them."
       And he said, "Nay, father Abraham:  but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent."
       And he said unto him, "If they would not believe Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." (Luke 16:19-31).

THE PLACE OF THE DEAD AFTER CHRIST'S RESURRECTION

       But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who cunningly shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.  And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom The Way of Truth (see John 14:6) shall be evil spoken of.  And through covetousness shall they with deceptive words make merchandise of you:  whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their damnation slumbers not.  For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those who afterward should live ungodly.... (2 Peter 2:1-6).


       For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:  if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.  For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened:  not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.  Now He Who has wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, Who also has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.  Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:  For we walk by faith, not by sight:  so we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:1-8).


       But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have died, that ye sorrow not, even as others who have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so those who have died believing in Jesus will God bring with Him.  For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who have died.  For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17).

PRECIOUS IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD IS THE DEATH OF HIS SAINTS!