Feel free to respond to my post 573.
I will.
But I am going to do it carefully.
Remember when Jesus says that God is not the God of the dead but the God of the living, in the context of the God of Abraham and of Isaac?
Apparently Isaac and Abraham are still living, somewhere, and are not dead at all. That's the point.
Remember Jesus' parable of the man who dies and speaks to Abraham? Is Jesus making up a story?
Anyway, a proper, more fleshed out response will follow in time. The short answer is that the holy dead are not dead.