Nab B.
November 4, 2022
(updated Oct 5, 2025)
Being "Absent from the body!" may sounds like "disembodiment" of sorts, doesn't it? But it isn't for reasons I discuss here.
Most churches teach that when believers die, their "disembodied souls" go to heaven, while their bodies remain in the grave. Is this what Paul meant in 2 Corinthians 5:6-8? Be aware that early believers did not believe in a partial existence after death; heathens did.
So as not to keep you in suspense, the passage in focus has to do with the glorious "bodily resurrection" of believers. I hope to prove this by the scriptures, which may comfort some and disturb others!
"Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.
"We are...willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."
( 2 Cor 5:6,8 )
┈❳❲┈
Nothing in the above passage is about a "disembodiment" of souls! Paul was exhorting us to look forward to the glorious resurrection by comparing our human condition before the resurrection and after.
Before the resurrection, we remain in the old body, away from the Lord. (verse 6)
After the resurrection, we are free from the old body—given a new one (v.1)—and present with the Lord. (verse 8)
Don't let the four phrases in 2 Corinthians 5:6,8 confuse you. They do not refer to a "disembodiment" of souls. Here is their meaning:
"At home in the body"
(Means not resurrected)
┈┈┈┈┈┈
"Absent from the Lord"
(Means not resurrected)
┈┈┈┈┈┈
"Absent from the body"
(Means resurrected)
┈┈┈┈┈┈
"Present with the Lord"
(Means resurrected)
┈┈┈┈┈┈
What Paul and "true believers" were fully confident of, not the disembodiment of souls but the glorious "full bodily resurrection hope," because God both planned it and guaranteed it.
"We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (1 Cor 5:1, ESV)
"He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee." (1 Cor 5:5, ESV)
"The Spirit" given to a believer is only a foretaste of things to come after the bodily resurrection, making all present sufferings amount to "less than nothing", as J.B. Philips brilliantly echoed it...
"In my opinion, whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us." (Romans 8:18, J.B. Philips)
You will be hard-pressed to find any mention of "disembodiment" of souls in scripture. Instead, you will either find a complete unconsciousness at death or a full bodily resurrection at once, with nothing in between, as verified by these passages,
“Marvel not...all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth” (John 5:25-29)
“For the Lord himself shall descend...with a shout...and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” (1 Thess 4:16-18)
“I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” (John 11:24-25)
“So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption...It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” (1 Cor 15:42-44)
It might interest you to know that our word "resurrection" is 'anástasis,' in Greek, which means "stand up," or "stand again." It presupposes a dead person (body, soul, spirit), who will stand up again. But if the dead souls remain undead, a resurrection would be moot and unnecessary!
Does it bother you that when we die, we wait in the graves until the Resurrection Day? Are you disappointed that there is no disembodied conscious soul-spirit after death?
"The dead know nothing," wrote Solomon. In death, not only do we "know nothing," but we are also unconscious of anything, even time and space. For example, Abraham wouldn't know that thousands of years have passed if resurrected today! For him, it would be like an instant! "There is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going."(Ecc 9:5,10 NKJV)
We get a glimpse of this during deep sleep, under anesthesia, or in a coma when time ceases to exist until one is awakened. So it is with death, however long, it will be an instant when resurrected.
"Ye shall not surely die," lied the father of lies. The lie has taken hold of pagans and Christians alike, believing that after death, the soul remains 'undead' in bliss or torment. It conjures up, if not an unhealthy fear of death, then a fanciful expectation.
If we die in the Lord, we wait, unconsciously, till we hear His call to a "New Life". We won't know, we were dead. It will be like "the twinkling of an eye," an instant that just passed by!