Robby, your claims contradict the words of Jesus.
In John 3:13, Jesus clearly says that NO ONE has ascended into heaven except the One who came from it—Jesus, Who is in heaven.
There are several places that reference the dead, which indicate that the dead are ASLEEP, as it is put, and that the dead will be called to life on the LAST DAY, the Day of the Lord, when the dead will be judged.
You are misinterpreting Hebrews 12:1. It does not refer to dead people actually floating around us. You must look back in the preceding text to understand the context of that verse, which has to do with faith and perseverance.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that when we die, we immediately encounter the Lord. Instead, it says we sleep until the Day of the Lord.
What about Elijah?
As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.”
II KINGS 2:11
and Mary?
n the early Church the relics of saints and martyrs were zealously sought after and prized, but no one ever claimed to have the bones of Mary. In fact, St John Damascene tells us:
“St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon [AD 451], made known to the Emperor Marcian and Pulcheria, who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven” (St John of Damascus, in Migne’s Patrologia Graeca Cursus Completus 96:1).
Your are interpreting Hebrews in the light of Protestant theology, which rejected the cult of Mary and the saints. The Transfiguration story, however, which involved the shades of Moses and Elijah, does not support your view that these worthies were “dead to the world,” Nor does the visionry language of Revelations. Any study of early Christianity tells us about the cult of the martyrs, and how as early as 1240 we have pilgrims visiting the supposed tomb of Peter in Rome. This is what Semites do. They visit holy sites. Jews, Christians, Muslims. The dead are indeed, waiting for the Resurrection, when their souls shall be joined to their bodies.But “soul sleep”is a construct of Protestant theology, an inference from their rejection of invocation of the saints.
P