It has always been my understanding from the Bible that the dead who are saved, their spirit goes to be with the Lord at death. There body is placed into the grave. At the Rapture, that believers body is resurrected just as was the body of Jesus and then it is reunited with its spirit and then glorified.
The Greeks believed that the body was just a shell in which the "soul" inhabits and at death when the shell drops off, the "soul" is released to fly off somewhere. It has carried over into Christianity thanks to Catholicism, a belief which Luther and many others rejected. They taught the Biblical idea that the Breath of Life (Spirit) and the Soul are two separate things, where the former is the "life giving principle" of God which animates dead matter and the Soul exists as a "whole" when the two components, Body and Breath, are combined. They taught Genesis 2:7!
"God formed man of
Dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the
Breath of Life, and man
became a Living Soul. It is so important to understand that Adam was not given a "soul" - but that Adam
became a Soul just as in the case of any soul, be it man or beast, according to Genesis and Ecclesiastes.
Body + Breath of Life = Living Soul
Light Bulb + Electric current = Light
The reverse happens at death: "And so the Dust shall
return to earth as it was and the Spirit (whether of the righteous or the wicked) shall
return to God who gave it" and the Soul "passes away" out of existence (death).
Body - Breath = No Living Soul
Light Bulb - Electric current = No Light
Adam, you, or me did not pre-exist in heaven,
we have never been in heaven, so
we cannot
return to heaven when we die any more than we can
return to the moon or any other celestial body. Only that which came from heaven, the Breath of Life, can return to heaven when we die.
In the resurrection of both Life and Damnation, the Righteous and the Wicked are made alive once again by the recombination of Body and Breath, with the Righteous receiving glorious, immortal bodies, while the Wicked receive only mortal bodies that are once again subject to the death they will soon suffer - the Second Death. These wretches are judged and sentenced and then pass out of existence from the presence of God for all eternity, while we enjoy eternal joys with Him.
I'm happy to address any "proof texts" that are used as an attempt to support the pagan idea of the state of the dead, such as "The Rich Man and Lazarus" or 2 Corinthians 5 if you like.