Mike,

Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Could you please comment on this?

Thanks,

S____

Hi S____,

Thank you for your question.

You say, as I once quoted Paul myself: “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” This is actually a very common mistake. Here is what Paul actually says in this verse:

2Co 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

There is a huge difference between Paul saying that he is “willing to be absent from the body and … present with the Lord,” as opposed to making a statement that flatly states that “to be absent from the body IS to be present with the Lord.”

There is no doubt that Paul wanted to be present with the Lord, but he tells us specifically that if there is no resurrection from the dead then the dead in Christ are perished:

1Co 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. 1Co 15:18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

Why did Paul use the words “fallen asleep” to describe someone who was, at that very moment, very much awake and “present with Christ?”

Paul knew, as you and I know, that the dead are not conscious of the passing of time. Adam will wake up in his resurrection thinking that he had just died. So it is with all the dead. That is why he said “AND to be present with the Lord” instead of this oft misquoted ‘is to be present with the Lord.’ Here is what the scriptures with which Paul was so familiar teach:

Gen 2:17 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.
Gen 6:17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath [ Hebrew- ruach- same word is translated ‘spirit’] of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
Eze 18:4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
Eze 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing…

All these scriptures are in accord with Paul’s doctrine concerning the dead in Christ:

1Co 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

I hope this is of some help to you.

Mike