Absent From the Body

Other than a jaunt with charismatics, my whole Christian experience has been with Seventh-day Adventists, who showed me from Scripture the nonimmortality of the soul and its two corollary truths (the dead sleep, and the lost are destroyed, not tormented, forever)—truths that most other Christians are determined to reject. (I have to hand it to them, though: it takes a lot of faith to love a God who will torture for eternity someone who committed temporal sins only.)

Regarding the state of the dead, meanwhile, who hasn’t had this verse, “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8), thrown back at them?

Absent from the body and present with the Lord. How much clearer could it be? The saved dead go right to Jesus in heaven.

Not really. If Paul at his death immediately went to be “present with the Lord” in heaven, how can that text be reconciled with all the verses about the faithful dead asleep until the resurrection, such as 1 Corinthians 15:50-55, where, talking about the redeemed dead at the Second Coming, the apostle writes: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’ ” (verses 53, 54)? If it’s at the resurrection that the “mortal must put on immortality” and death is “swallowed up in victory,” how can “absent from the body and to be present with the Lord” mean that the immortal soul ascends right to glory after the last heartbeat?

It can’t, and it doesn’t.

In 1 Corinthians 15:53, 54 (referenced above) Paul contrasts two forms of the human body: the corruptible and the incorruptible, the mortal and the immortal. Earlier, in 1 Corinthians 15:35-47, he presents this same contrast: celestial and terrestrial (verse 40), corruption and incorruption (verse 42), dishonor and glory (verse 43), weakness and power (verse 43), natural and spiritual (verse 44), earthly and heavenly (verse 47)—all in the context of the difference between human bodies before, and after, the resurrection. “And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man” (verse 49). This “heavenly man” image is created only at the resurrection, when “we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” when we will be “raised incorruptible” and when the “mortal must put on immortality” (verses 51-54).

In 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 he presents the same dichotomy as in 1 Corinthians 15, between the body before the resurrection—and afterward.

“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”

The apostle is contrasting two different material existences, not a physical existence with an immaterial one.

Our “earthly house, this tent,” mortal and corruptible, will be exchanged for the eternal and incorruptible, a house “not made with hands” but “a building from God” and “eternal in the heavens.” Until this new body, “we groan,” preferring to be clothed “with our heavenly dwelling” (2 Cor. 5:2, NIV). Though now clothed in this mortal tent, at the resurrection we will be “further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.” And these mortal tents will be made immortal at the Second Advent. “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17). Always “be with the Lord” or “present with the Lord.”

In 2 Corinthians 5, after talking about being rid of this earthly house and then clothed “with our heavenly dwelling” (verse 2, NIV), Paul writes: “So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord” (verses 6-8). The phrase “absent from the body” means absent from this corrupted and temporal earthly body here, but then—clothed in our new heavenly bodies—we will be “present with the Lord.” He does not say that he will immediately be present with the Lord, only that he would prefer it. Is it not better to be “absent from the [corrupted earthly] body” and, instead, be in “a habitation which is from heaven . . . present with the Lord”? Of course!

The apostle is contrasting two different material existences, not a physical existence with an immaterial one. The texts concern pre- and post-resurrection bodies, not immortal souls in heaven, despite popular belief to the contrary.

This contrast between pre- and post-resurrection bodies also explains another supposed immortal soul text: Paul’s desire “to depart and be with Christ, which is far better” (Phil. 1:23). Far better than what? If not as starkly, Paul in this letter is contrasting the same thing as he did in Corinthians: between being here “in the flesh” (verse 22) as opposed to being clothed in “a building from God” (2 Cor. 5:1) and being “with Christ” (Phil. 1:23). Paul, of course, would rather be with Christ, in his new body in heaven, than to stay here, especially in jail, “but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body” (Phil. 1:24, NIV).

Therefore, “I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body” (verses 23, 24, NIV). He did not say “to depart and immediately be with Christ.” If he does not remain here, in this body, but instead sleeps in death, “in the twinkling of an eye” “the dead will be raised incorruptible” (1 Cor. 15:52), and he would, indeed, be “with Christ.” Paul is, again, contrasting pre- with post-resurrection bodies, not pre-resurrection bodies with immortal souls. Departing to be with Christ was no more about an immediate ascent to heaven than was being absent from the body and present with the Lord, as well.

Despite the biblical testimony (see Ps. 5:6; Dan. 12:2; 1 Cor. 15; 1 Thess. 4:13-17; etc.) that the dead sleep until the resurrection, these verses in Corinthians and Philippians are commonly viewed through the error of the soul’s immortality, leading to a host of other errors, including eternal torment in hell. And unfortunately, most Christians have no desire, it seems, to change their minds about any of it, either.