Hope for the dead.

 Romans4:17KJV"(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were." 

No syncretism of the biblical concept of the resurrection of the dead with Greco Roman philosophical speculation about a purported afterlife of a reductive spirit soul is possible.  

Acts17:32KJV"32And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter." 

So Paul's audience was sensible enough to understand that the concept of an afterlife and that of a resurrection of the dead were mutually exclusive. Thus while  there was a division between those willing to pursue truth no matter where that pursuit led and those dogmatically clinging to the old modes of thought,all understood that they were being presented with a new concept that was irreconcilable with their previous notions about death and what followed. 

As romans4:17 quoted above suggest the resurrection involves the bringing into being of what was not or to be more specific the restoring of what used to be. 

So rather than look to those denounced by scripture as being in darkness mentally for hope re: the state of the dead we chose to share brother Paul's hope 

Acts24:15KJV"And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust."