People who refute the sleep concept, ignore all other scripture and hang onto
what Christ said on the cross to the theif. Yet there is only one other verse
which is used to support this theory. So let's examine it:
"...to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."
[ 2 COR 5:8 ]
Actually people even truncate the verse even more reading it as:
"Absent from the body, present with the Lord." This is what will
be quoted to you if you bring it up to anyone.
Does this verse prove that the righteous enter immediately into God's
presence at the moment of death?
...a superficial reading of this text can lead one to this conclusion, but
closer inspection DISPROVES THIS ASSUMPTION instead of supporting it!
In verses 3 and 4 Paul described death as a state of being "naked" or
"unclothed" -- HE HOPED TO AVOID THIS INTERMEDIATE STATE. -- HE DESIRED TO BE
"CLOTHED" WITH HIS "HOUSE...FROM HEAVEN."
In other words, HE HOPES TO BE TRANSLATED WITHOUT SEEING DEATH. Which was a
promise which is made to those people who are alive at the time of the second
coming: they won't die but will be transformed into their new bodies. Paul was
hoping (in writing) he'd be around to see the second coming during his
lifetime.
Paul made it very clear in several of his other writings [ 1 COR 15:51-54;
1 THESS 4:15-17; 2 TIM 4:6-8, etc. ] that men are NOT "clothed" with
immortality individually at death, but simultaneously at the resurrection of
the just. Remember: The Bible will not contradict itself, so Paul's statements
in 2 Corinthians 5 CANNOT CONTRACDICT all other "less complicated" statements
about the true state of man in death. And that includes 2 Corinthians 5:8.