DEATH AND BEYOND

(6)	At home in the body – living this present life, not living in the face to face presence of the Lord.
(7)	Walk by faith not by sight – we trust His promises and His word now and one day we shall have the reality of eternal life in a new body. We can be confident in God’s promises.
(8)	Absent from the body – resting in death, asleep in Jesus, relieved of all pain and suffering. Present with the Lord - changed, resurrected, having eternal life and face to face with Christ.
(9)	To be accepted of Him – to live so that we can be resurrected with the righteous and receive the fulfilment of the promise of life given in the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Another way of looking at this passage is to concentrate on the three concepts of being ‘clothed’, v3, ‘unclothed’, v3. and ‘clothed upon’ v2, v4. ‘Clothed’ is temporary, ‘unclothed’ is the waiting time, and ‘clothed upon’ is the change when we are resurrected, given eternal life and an eternal glorious body in which to enjoy that life. When we are clothed, we are groaning under the burden, we are mortal, we are living by faith, having the earnest or guarantee of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We are not able to be face to face with God. When we are unclothed, we are naked, our body is dissolved, we rest in sleep. We are still not with God; we are absent from the Lord. To be clothed upon is for death to be swallowed up in eternal life; we are living by sight in the presence of the Lord; we have been resurrected by the power of the Spirit, we are now at home with the Lord and present with the Lord.

Paul makes it clear that we are all changed together in the twinkling of an eye, that we all meet the Lord together at the same time in the air when He comes. We do not meet the Lord one by one as we die with some receiving their eternal life before others. As Paul gives us most of the Bible information that we have about the resurrection of the dead and the Second Coming with its change to our bodies and the giving of the gift of eternal life, it is just not logical to make Paul contradict himself in these verses.
The reason an alternative view is so often taught, is so that a Bible passage is made to agree with Greek Platonism and provide proof texts for teaching of an immortal soul within each of us that lives on independent of a body after death.

Paul wrote of a vision and used the expression ‘whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell.’ 2 Corinthians 12:2-4. Could not this refer to out-of-the-body experiences of the spirit or soul. Please explain!
These verses have nothing to do with death or near-death experiences. Paul was alive and lived afterwards to record them. The expression cannot be used to prove consciousness in death.

He knows that he has visited the third heaven. He is not sure if he went there bodily or if he was given a vision while remaining on the earth. John also was transported in vision to other places. ‘So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness.’ Revelation 17:3. Ezekiel had similar experiences. ‘And the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem.’ Ezekiel 8:3. Paul is unsure precisely how it happened, but he was there and he heard words that he was not allowed to tell. He actually called these experiences,

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