There is nothing complicated about our putting off this tent in which we live....by dying physically. Resurrection speaks of the body (which goes back to the dust), and is raised a spiritual body. That is not my "theology", that is God's written word. It's the Bible you're disbelieving and arguing against....not me and my "theology". I'm a bit disappointed in you, Oats. I really thought you were on the brink of believing that Christ died, was buried, and rose from the dead. That's the Gospel, and that's exactly what you are denying with your foolish questions.
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. :think:
Did Jesus die? According to your theology death is not death, but life.
I am not disappointed in me nor is God, for I did Romans 10:9 I confessed with my mouth the lord Jesus and believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead.
God raised him from the dead, because if he was not raised from the dead, he would still be dead, lifeless.
II Corinthians 4:14
" Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you."
God raised up the Lord Jesus and it will be God that shall raise up us as well
There is no reason to raise someone from the dead if they are still alive, now is there?
II Corinthians 5:6-8
6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight
8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
Paul was willing to be absent from the body and present with the Lord.
Does those verses say that once we are absent from the body, we are immediately present with the Lord?
No, if it did, it would contradict I Thessalonians 4:13-18
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
especially verse 17 the last phrase
"and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
The dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught together with them ...
SO, shall we ever be with the Lord
How shall we be present with the Lord, what meets the criteria of "SO shall we ever be with the Lord"
"SO" in that manner, not in any other manner.
When Jesus Christ returns to gather us up, Paul is not there now. Paul is dead, He is not with the Lord, He will not be with the Lord until the dead in Christ rise from the dead.
How much plainer could God make it?