Absent from the Body? Now What?

for we live by faith, not by sight—so we are confident and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:7–8 (LEB)

“Absent from the body, present with the Lord” is a misquoted verse from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. It usually is used to “prove” that when we die we instantly go to heaven in some non-material form if we “believe” in Jesus. Otherwise, we are destined to hell in this same non-material form. I have heard this argued many times, yet it is rarely reconciled with the rest of scripture.

For example, does this mean that a non-material part of a person that dies, similar to a ghost, flies up to heaven? It would then mean at some point this ghost would have to reunite with it’s resurrected body. Would the resurrected body leave the grave to meet it’s ghost in heaven? Some say there is an army of ghosts of dead saints following Jesus on the white horse when he returns, spoken about in the book of Revelation. It becomes more messy when we add the rapture doctrine to this scenario.

John 5:28–29 (LEB): ²⁸ “Do not be astonished at this, because an hour is coming in which all those in the tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and they will come out—those who have done good things to a resurrection of life, but those who have practiced evil things to a resurrection of judgment.

According to Jesus, there will be a time when the dead will be raised where those that have practiced evil will go to a resurrection of judgment and those who have done good things to a resurrection of life. There is no indication of anyone being immortal before the resurrection.

Many churches teach that we should not try to “do good” or be righteous according to the scriptures description of righteousness because it makes us appear like we can save ourselves and diminishes what Jesus did for us. The churches that follow this doctrine will go as far as saying that the gospels were not written to us and we are only to follow the instructions of Paul. According to this theology, we are to ignore all of scripture and only get our doctrine from letters of Paul that were written to specific churches in the first century. However, Jesus told us at the resurrection it will be the people that do good who live.

In the book of Acts, Peter explains that David is still in the grave and never ascended to heaven.

Acts 2:29 (LEB): ²⁹ “Men and brothers, it is possible to speak with confidence to you about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us until this day.

Acts 2:34–35 (LEB): ³⁴ For David did not ascend into heaven, but he himself says,‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, ³⁵ until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” ’

Jesus tells us no one has ascended into heaven except himself:

John 3:12–13 (LEB): ¹² If I tell you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³ And no one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man.

So what does Paul mean when he says, “so we are confident and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord”? Usually people leave out “rather to be”, and is why I say it is often misquoted. The verses are speaking about the resurrection in context and Paul is contrasting the difference between being at home in our earthy bodies compared to when we will have our resurrected bodies, at which time we will “be home with the Lord”, where we would rather be. Paul even refers to “being found naked”, which I assume is without an earthy body or resurrected body.

The idea of one being freed from their earthly body at death, and going to a good place or bad place, comes from mythology and philosophy. This completely leaves out Jesus’ work on the cross to free us from the curse of death and give us eternal life. Jesus conquered death by dying himself and resurrecting. The verses in Acts we looked at earlier showed that David was still in the grave, even after Jesus’ resurrection. Some people confuse the stories in mythologies where the hero goes to the under world and frees the people trapped there by thinking that is what Jesus somehow did when he died.

Jesus made it possible for everyone to resurrect at the appropriate time because he spent three days and nights dead in the grave before resurrecting. If he was dead in the grave, he certainly was not in paradise to meet the thief on the cross as some people also try to use to prove that we are immortal. The thief died and will resurrect with everyone else to be in paradise as Jesus promised at the end.

Revelation 22:1–5 (LEB): 22 And he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming out from the throne of God and of the Lamb ² in the middle of its street, and on both sides of the river is the tree of life, producing twelve fruits—yielding its fruit according to every month—and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³ And there will not be any curse any longer, and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his slaves will serve him, ⁴ and they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ And night will not exist any longer, and they will not have need of the light of a lamp and the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give light to them, and they will reign forever and ever.

What happens then when we die? I don’t think anyone can honestly answer that based on scripture. An emotional response would be something like, “I’m going to be with Jesus!”, without considering anything we just discussed. I prefer to try to understand as best I can what the scriptures actually say about death. It looks to me like when we die we “sleep” in the grave until the resurrection.

Hebrews 9:27–28 (LEB): ²⁷ And just as it is destined for people to die once, and after this, judgment, ²⁸ thus also Christ, having been offered once in order to bear the sins of many, will appear for the second time without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him for salvation.

There are many references in scripture equating being in the grave to sleep awaiting the resurrection. The only place I can find that describes what this will be like, are verses in the second book of Esdras that the New Revised Standard Bible includes in their apocrypha.

2 Esdras 7:88–101 (NRSV): ⁸⁸ “Now this is the order of those who have kept the ways of the Most High, when they shall be separated from their mortal body. ⁸⁹ During the time that they lived in it, they laboriously served the Most High, and withstood danger every hour so that they might keep the law of the Lawgiver perfectly. ⁹⁰ Therefore this is the teaching concerning them: ⁹¹ First of all, they shall see with great joy the glory of him who receives them, for they shall have rest in seven orders. ⁹² The first order, because they have striven with great effort to overcome the evil thought that was formed with them, so that it might not lead them astray from life into death. ⁹³ The second order, because they see the perplexity in which the souls of the ungodly wander and the punishment that awaits them. ⁹⁴ The third order, they see the witness that he who formed them bears concerning them, that throughout their life they kept the law with which they were entrusted. ⁹⁵ The fourth order, they understand the rest that they now enjoy, being gathered into their chambers and guarded by angels in profound quiet, and the glory waiting for them in the last days. ⁹⁶ The fifth order, they rejoice that they have now escaped what is corruptible and shall inherit what is to come; and besides they see the straits and toil from which they have been delivered, and the spacious liberty that they are to receive and enjoy in immortality. ⁹⁷ The sixth order, when it is shown them how their face is to shine like the sun, and how they are to be made like the light of the stars, being incorruptible from then on. ⁹⁸ The seventh order, which is greater than all that have been mentioned, because they shall rejoice with boldness, and shall be confident without confusion, and shall be glad without fear, for they press forward to see the face of him whom they served in life and from whom they are to receive their reward when glorified. ⁹⁹ This is the order of the souls of the righteous, as henceforth is announced; and the previously mentioned are the ways of torment that those who would not give heed shall suffer hereafter.”

Some of the mainstream theologies in Christianity teach that when we die a non-material part of our being goes to a good place or bad place, when the resurrection is consistently taught in scripture. They also teach that we do not need to be concerned with any part of the Bible other than misinterpreted teachings of Paul, and we should not try to follow the instructions of “doing good” or righteousness taught by the Messiah himself. The same system of theology teaches that we are to no longer rest on the Sabbath and we should mix customs of other gods on our special holy days to honor the one true God. This sounds like a lot of deception to me.

Matthew 24:23–24 (LEB): ²³ “At that time if anyone should say to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘Here he is,’ do not believe him! ²⁴ For false messiahs and false prophets will appear, and will produce great signs and wonders in order to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

One could argue that being asleep (dead) in a state of unconsciousness will seem as though there is no time that passes between death and the resurrection. The idea that our body goes into the grave and a non-material form floats away gives us scenarios of loved ones looking down at us from heaven, visiting the living in some form and a host of other fallacies. There are simply too many scriptures that do not allow for this philosophy. So we are confident and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord!

Featured photo by Arto Marttinen on Unsplash.