Aineo,
You said,
"John notes that only those beheaded during the great tribulation are with the Lord. Can you give me a Scripture that states otherwise?'
How about 1 Thess.4:14? "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God BRING WITH HIM."
They are obviously in heaven with the Lord, because he is bringing them with him. Are all those saints that he is bringing are just the saints that were beheaded? I say no, I say that every christian that had died whether beheaded or not are with the Lord in heaven right now, for they are absent from the body and present with the Lord {in heaven}.
How about Jude 14? ".........Behold,the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints". Those ten thousands of saints must be with the Lord if they are coming back with him, or were all those ten thousands saints beheaded? I doubt it.
I know about the word "tartarus" that is in 2 Peter 2:4, I just didn't think to use it, that verse is the only time in the NT that "tartarus" is translated "hell".
The Greek word "Hades" translated in the NT as "hell", is not refering to "grave", for if it was, then Jesus would be saying in Luke 16:23, "And in the grave he lift up his eyes being in torments......." There is no torment in a grave. The rich man said that he was tormented "in this flame". There is no fire in a grave. How about Matt. 16:18? If Hades was just a grave, then Jesus would be saying, 'And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of the grave shall not prevail against it." I didn't know that there were gates in graves. When Jesus used the word "Hades", he was not talking about a calm, quiet grave, or a mythical place, he was refering to an actual place of torment where unsaved people who have died are at right now.
Oh another reason why I believe that every dead christian and not just the ones that were beheaded are in heaven, is because Rev. 20:5 mentions the first resurrection, and the first resurrection is talked about in 1 Cor. 15 which is in harmony with 1 Thess. 4.