State of the Dead...

WOW - this is a TOUGH subject. Hard to talk about with friends and most of my family...When I am in a conversation and someone brings up a ghost or spirit...I find myself without words...well, no I don't - I find myself without knowing how to speak to anyone about the state of the dead because I do not want to offend them. I love my family! I love my friends! I do not want to take away someone's hope they have in a loved one but I know that hope is false - based on the Bible. I was raised to believe my family member, when they died, went straight to Heaven - they were able to watch over me as I went on with my life...this is actually a little creepy thinking about it...Take my dad for instance - He died several years ago - if his spirit was able to "hang around" or watch from Heaven - he would be able to see all that I do - good and bad...At first this idea seems warm and cozy but then not so much.  Think about my dad - if he could see the state of his family over the past 13 1/2 years - how could he possibly he in Heaven and be happy?  He would not be happy seeing the struggles that we go through - seeing the pain we feel from time to time, yet in Heaven, he is supposed to only be happy. SO - I went searching all the Bible Verses I could find on this subject. There are MANY websites already dedicated to this same research - obviously, I am not the only one wondering! I am sure if I look at the websites and listen to people who believe that the spirits of loved ones are able to wonder the Earth, they think they are right and have Biblical proof to back it up - I cannot find BIBLICAL proof to back up this theory, instead - all Bible Verses that I have found state clearly that when someone dies their state is like a sleep, they know nothing, their thoughts vanish...UNTIL the Resurrection of The Lord! :-)


Psalms 6:3-5 My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long? Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies' sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?


Psalms 115:17 The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.


Psalms 146:4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish


Ecclesiastes 9:5,6  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. 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.


Isaiah 38:18-19, "For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth."


Psalms 13:3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;


Job 14:12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep


John 5:28-29, "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,  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."


Many people say that Jesus himself proves the theory of a person going to Heaven immediately after death - On the cross he told the thief next to him:


"And Jesus said unto him Verily I say unto thee today shalt thou be with me in paradise." [Luke 23:43] 


It is argued that placing the comma before or after the word today changed the context - Jesus is either saying - I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise OR I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise...take it how you will but one verse and it's punctuation over all other verses in the Bible doesn't prove that to me...Also - later, after Jesus is Resurrected, He tells Mary that He has not yet ascended to Heaven - 3 days later (John 20:17 KJV -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, why would Jesus tell the thief on the cross that he would be in Heaven with Him on that very day if three days later He still had not gone to Heaven yet? Punctuation was put into the Bible when translated...I for one will not let punctuation marks be the foundation for my beliefs, rather I would like to take all accounts of the Bible and make a  decision based on that :-)