Misusing 2 Corinthians 5.8

"We are confident, [I say], and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5.8).

Carnal Christians and false Christians deludedly think this verse means that a Christian when he dies automatically goes to heaven. It is not so. Moreover, this passage does not say absent from the body is immediately to be with the Lord, only that Paul would rather be absent from and be with...

Compare Gen. 2.17 which reads, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

Did Adam literally die the day he ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? No, of course not. He lived on for hundreds of years more. What is meant by this passage is that his spirit has lost its sensitivity and communication with God which over time brings about the death of the body. He could have been translated if he ate of the tree of life, but he chose not to.

In similar fashion when a person dies physically, time is again a factor, because 1 Thess. 4.16-18 says "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the ["last trumpet", c.f. 1 Cor. 15.52] trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

I for one am comforted by the fact the saints will be resurrected together (some at the 1st trumpet but most at the start of the 7th trumpet) and not some have gone up beforehand. That seems fair. And that no human being can be in heaven naked without a resurrected body.

From now to when the last trumpet occurs, a person asleep in hades waits to be resurrected just as a person who died in his spirit to God waits for years before he dies physically.

Consider some negative implications of the false teaching of when someone dies they automatically go to heaven or hell rather than waiting to be resurrected together of those like kind.

I can understand the teaching that we are in a soul sleep until Jesus calls for us. I just don't know where I stand on this.

I am already called by God foreknowing my free choice. What waits is resurrection and rapture. People get resurrected from sleep not from being awake. How silly.

Your problem is just not trusting in God when Peter said, "For David is not ascended into the heavens" (Acts 2.34), and "we which are alive and left shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4.15). Instead of "comfort one another with these words" (v.18), like Satan you try to cast doubt.

It doesn't say we will be with the Lord a second time; it says, "and so shall we ever be with the Lord." It says those who are left, because they had not been raptured at the first rapture according to readiness, will be raptured with those who are asleep. This is a simple matter so how you can you have difficulty with it if you are a Christian?

Man is spirit, soul and body. Anytime you propose 2 parts in heaven leaving 1 part without is no longer abiding in the tripartite nature of man. You place man naked before the high priest. No one can come before the high priest naked without a body. When God breathed in the breath of life directly creating man's spirit about 4000 years ago, the spirit made contact with the body producing the soul so man became a living soul with a spirit and body. Man was not spirit and soul, nor body and spirit, but spirit, soul and body (Heb. 4.12, 1 Thess. 5.23).

God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Gen. 2.7).

Since there are no Scriptures to suggest otherwise, what's the problem? I see a party spirit in those who think people have been in heaven for centuries while others are yet to join the party. No doubt this creates problems of further false teaching such as necromancy and communicating with evil spirit posing as loved ones alive who in actuality are still asleep.

"We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5.8). Absent from what body? Absent from the fleshly body. Nowhere does this passage say absent from the fleshly body of sin does man immediately receive the resurrected body. To think otherwise indicates a strange spirit in you. "And to be..." doesn't mean "immediately". I would rather lose 10 lbs. and have my perfect weight. It doesn't happen immediately. Praise the Lord!