[SkyDancer]

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. No Biblical prophet ever spoke of a Purgatory or for people to be either prayed out or bought out of it.

[Antoninus]

No Biblical prophet ever spoke of a Purgatory or for people to be either prayed out or bought out of it.

No Biblical prophet spoke of the Trinity, either.

But plenty of Church Fathers and early Christian martyrs did. Is their witness worthless? I think not. It is certainly worth more than the made-up theology of the "johnny-come-latelys" of the last 500 years.

[Alberta's Child]

No Biblical prophet ever spoke of a Purgatory or for people to be either prayed out or bought out of it.

Where did the souls of the holy people of ancient Israel go after they died?

[SERE_DOC]

Neither has there been a deification in scripture of Mary.

Yet here we are.

[Elsie]

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

Such a truncation of Scripture leads to faulty concepts of it.

---

2 Corinthians 5:8

(ASV)  we are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.

(CJB)  We are confident, then, and would much prefer to leave our home in the body and come to our home with the Lord.

(DARBY)  we are confident, I say, and pleased rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord.

(ESV)  Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

(KJV)  We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

(NASB)   we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

(NIV)   We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

(NKJV)   We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

(RSV)  We are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

 

 

Leaving out man's PREFERENCE when 'quoting' this verse leaves a vastly different impression in the minds of people.

Nothing indicates that a person WILL be with the Lord immediately after death.  

 

This begins in childhood when the kid is told that little Fluffy is now 'with Jesus' when her cat is flattened by a car,

or that Gramma is 'with Jesus' when she died.