Jeanniebeanz:
Sorry I took so long getting back to you. Your scripture at 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 led me on a pretty lengthy search. There is a ton of stuff on the subject, and at times, I thought it would become inexhaustible, making it difficult to focus on your question at hand.
One of the problems of trying to explain what the Apostle Paul meant here is that we need to examine who he was, what he said in a number of his epistles, and even look at the chronology of his missionary journeys over time, because all of this has a bearing on the matter of CONTEXT when interpreting Paul. The other thing we unfortunately have to get into is "textual criticism" which makes some very interesting cases for a number of different viewpoints as to how to interpret what Paul wrote.
Still further, there are questions of authorship. Did Paul really write this? Some say it is all a patchwork that has been cobbled together at a much later date, and then ascribed it to Paul. Others use evidences of internal harmonies of the epistles that bear the stamp of authenticity that this belongs to Paul, and him only.
Then there are the Preterists who believe that the New Testament with all its prophecies about the end-times, saw the fulfillment of all bible prophecy which culminated in the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in A.D. 70. They therefore, have an entirely different perspective on 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 than many others, especially when it come to timing of the resurrection, and what happens when we die.
Then there are the Agnostics. One writer in particular, has devoted a lot of pen and ink to 1 & 2 Corinthians, but has also written about all of Paul's epistles at length. His context, however, is that Paul, from the time of his conversion to the end of his ministry, had actually started quite a different Christianity than that contained within the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Gospels tell of the life of Jesus, about his teachings and the miracles he performed. The Apostles knew him personally and followed him around, and they wrote these things down. Their focus however, was very much to do with the Law of Moses, and how Jesus fit into that scheme of things as the Messiah. This had almost nothing to do with Gentile converts to Christianity. The Apostle Paul, on the other hand, spent his entire ministry on preaching to the Gentiles, particularly the Greeks and the Romans, and taught that the Christ was meant for the whole world, and not just the nation of Israel. The Gospels were very much connected with Jesus in the flesh. Paul was all about a "spiritual conversion", and a "spiritual Christ" and finding inspiration and revelation from God (not Jesus himself).
I find this a real conundrum here, because I am seriously wondering whether the Christianity that Paul taught is the same Christianity that the Apostles taught from when they were with Jesus.
Then there is the Catholic Church and their scholars, who claim they have been there from the start and down thru the centuries, and so they claim to be in a position to know better than anyone else what Paul said and what he meant. Then along comes Protestantism with its many branches like the Pentecostals and Baptists and Evangelicals and Presbyterians and Methodists and Mormons and J.W.'s and on and on and on. Each of these seem to add their own flavor, context, commentary and interpretation. So by the time you wade thru all this stuff, you begin to wonder what Paul meant in 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 after all.
Firstly, I think we need to read 2 Cor. 5:1-5 in conjunction with vs. 6-8.
1 For we know that if our earthly house, a tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 And, in fact, we groan in this one, longing to put on our house from heaven, 3 since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 Indeed, we who are in this tent groan, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 And the One who prepared us for this very thing is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment. (Holman NT)
(Weymouth NT) 2 Cor 5:1 For we know that if this poor tent, our earthly house, is taken down, we have in Heaven a building which God has provided, a house not built by human hands, but eternal. 2 For in this one we sigh, because we long to put on over it our dwelling which comes from Heaven- 3 if indeed having really put on a robe we shall not be found to be unclothed. 4 Yes, we who are in this tent certainly do sigh under our burdens, for we do not wish to lay aside that which we are now clothed, but to put on more, so that our mortality may be absorbed in Life. 5 And He who formed us with this very end in view is God, who has given us His Spirit as a pledge and foretaste of that bliss.
Now, it seems to me the particular scripture you are quoting (2 Cor.5:6-8) is describing the ?hope? that Christians have, for Paul speaks of being "confident" or "of good courage". He describes that "while we are present in the body" or "at home in the body" we are "away from the Lord". But for Christians, since we "walk by faith, not by sight" (i.e. a belief and hope in what happens after this life), we are "willing to be absent from the body and present with the Lord" or "at home with the Lord". In other words, after we die, and leave this body, as Christians, we will be with the Lord. And since the Lord is in Heaven, that is where the Christian will be also.
The question is, does this actually mean that immediately after death we would be with the Lord in heaven? It is possible that Paul means that our future eternal life (after we physically die) is a present possession, because of the hope we have in Christ.
Now, just because we have this hope, as Christians, about being with the Lord after we die, does this mean Paul is saying this will happen immediately after death? I don?t think this particular scripture teaches that particular concept. To interpret it that way would be to read too much into the passage, or going beyond what it really says, even though the idea about being with the Lord in Heaven after death is a correct notion. To understand about the timing of when we would join the Lord in Heaven after death, we must look to other scriptures to answer that question.
There is an intermediate state between the time when we die and the time of our resurrection. During this intermediate state, the spirit or immaterial part of our being continues to exist as a conscious entity apart from the physical state we are in now. We can understand this to be a state of immortality, even though we will not yet have been given an incorruptible and glorious resurrected body, which happens later. Right now we cannot see or discern our own immortality, because of the corruptible physical bodies we possess, which will die. But after our physical death, our immortality will become apparent. Personally, I happen to believe that when we die, we will find ourselves still conscious after death, but we will be a "Spirit Form". I also believe we can be with the Lord before the actual resurrection. Jesus told his apostles "In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you." I believe we will go to an appropriate "mansion" after death, that the kind of life we lived in this life will decide, like a kind of reward, some better or more than others. Then, at the resurrection, we will be given "incorruptible" bodies (i.e. ones no longer subject to death), as opposed to our present bodies, which are corruptible (mortal).
I do not believe that the body we will be given in the resurrection will be the same body that was put in the ground at the time of our physical death, for logical reasons. For one thing, every cell in our bodies gets completely changed about once every seven years. If we lived to be the age of 70, we will have had 7 new bodies in the physical. Which one would get resurrected? Every day we slough off millions of dead skin cells. In one lifetime, our fingernails would grow about 6 or 7 feet. We cut our nails and discard the old. Which cells that formed our nails would be raised in the resurrection, if this is the physical body that gets resurrected? We are of the dust, and we return unto the dust. In the history of mankind since Creation, how many countless billions of cells from hundreds of millions of dead human bodies have been recycled back into other animals and insects and other lifeforms, even other humans (eg. The food we eat)? In other words, it just is not logical that we are talking about the resurrection of our physical bodies which we occupied when we were alive. Instead, we will be given higher, incorruptible bodies in the resurrection, don't you think?
For a more comprehensive description of death and the resurrection, it would be useful to consult 1 Corinthians Chaper 15.
35 But someone will say, "How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come?" 36 Foolish one! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And as for what you sow, you are not sowing the future body, but only a seed, perhaps of wheat or another grain. 38 But God gives it a body as He wants, and to each of the seeds its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same flesh; there is one flesh for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is different from that of the earthly ones. 41 There is a splendor of the sun, another of the moon, and another of the stars; for star differs from star in splendor. 42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead: Sown in corruption, raised in incorruption; 43 sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power; 44 sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth and made of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 Like the man made of dust, so are those who are made of dust; like the heavenly man, so are those who are heavenly. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the man made of dust, we will also bear the image of the heavenly man. 50 Brothers, I tell you this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and corruption cannot inherit incorruption. 51 Listen! I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. 53 Because the corruptible must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal must be clothed with immortality. 54 Now when this corruptible is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory. 55 O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?... (The Holman Christian Standard Bible)
Even so, I think there are many questions left unanswered here as to timing. When exactly will the last trumpet sound? Why does it say "we will ALL be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye?" Does this mean "everyone"? In other words, there is a whole other discussion that we would need to enter into here to get all of the answers to yield a comprehensive picture of everything, and the exact order of things. That is why I do not think we can interpret 2 Cor. 5:6-8 as a stand-alone scripture to "prove" that as soon as we die, we immediately go to Heaven to be with the Lord.
Now, here are a few quotations from some writers along the way:
Max King (1987)
"The question centers in the meaning of these two houses or garments and how the change from one to the other is made. The general practice of equating the earthly house or garment strictly with the physical body rather than with that which determines man's mode of existence, proves to be more of a disruption than an exposition of Paul's pattern of thought. In this view, "putting off" and "putting on" become independent actions that necessitate a time gap between the two houses or garments. But Paul's language here points to something more than just putting on a garment sometime after another garment has been put off... (The Cross and Parousia of Christ, p.597)
Preterist Commentaries:
"Certainly we should believe the statement of Jesus in John 11:25-26; however, this statement provokes more questions than it answers. What is the nature of the resurrection? Is it received before physical death, that one should never taste of death, though the physical body should subsequently die? That seems to be the implication of this statement to those Preterists who believe that the fulness of the resurrection has already been given.
Is the resurrection simply a revivication of our physical bodies, or something else? We know that, whatever the nature of the resurrection, it is not physical, but spiritual:
1 Corinthians 15:44 "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."
The question remains, therefore, is this spiritual body only received after the death of the physical body, as this verse might seem to imply, though John 11:25,26 seems to contradict this? An important key to that answer is found in 2 Cor. 5 and 1 Cor. 15. Paul here seems to declare that our spiritual body, the "eternal house," can be received while still inhabiting the physical body.
2 Cor.5:4 "For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life."
1 Cor.15:54 "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."
In other words, knowing that the resurrected body is a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:44, Paul here seems to teach that it is to be received at the time of individual redemption, which appears to be precisely what Christ taught. (cf. John 3:3,6; 11:25-26)
Nag Hammadi
"The Savior swallowed up death - (of this) you are not reckoned as being ignorant - for he put aside the world which is perishing. He transformed himself into an imperishable Aeon and raised himself up, having swallowed the visible by the invisible, and he gave us the way of our immortality. Then, indeed, as the Apostle said, "We suffered with him, and we arose with him, and we went to heaven with him". Now if we are manifest in this world wearing him, we are that one's beams, and we are embraced by him until our setting, that is to say, our death in this life. We are drawn to heaven by him, like beams by the sun, not being restrained by anything. This is the spiritual resurrection which swallows up the psychic in the same way as the fleshly."
"What, then, is the resurrection? It is always the discosure of those who have risen. For if you remember reading in the Gospel that Elijah appeared and Moses with him, do not think the resurrection is an illusion. It is no illusion, but it is truth! Indeed, it is more fitting to say the world is an illusion, rather than the resurrection which has come into being through our Lord the Savior, Jesus Christ."
But the resurrection does not have this aforesaid character, for it is the truth which stands firm. It is the revelation of what is, and the transformation of things, and a transition into newness. For imperishability descends upon the perishable; the light flows down upon the darkness, swallowing it up; and the Pleroma fills up the deficiency. These are the symbols and the images of the resurrection. He it is who makes the good."
(The Treatise on the Resurrection)
Anyway, I don't know if I have made things more confusing than when you first raised the question. Please regard these comments simply as some food for thought. I still have lots to learn!
Rod P.