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Verse 6: so true!

Verse 8 reads "...willing rather to be ..." NOT "...going to be..."

If you want to argue with these writers of biblical text; then be my guest...

1 Thessalonians 4:13
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.

Daniel 12:2
Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52
Listen, I tell you a mystery:

We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

Looks like Scripture disagrees with the Catholic (and others) claim that believers are in heaven RIGHT NOW; doesn't it!

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 King James Version (KJV)

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.

Can you explain to me just where the dead in Christ are located right now?

LC, do you believe we have a body, a soul / behavior mechanism, and a spriit? Can you find any scripture that shows a person sins AFTER the body is dead? Do you believe what John taught, that God abides in our spirit after He births us from above?

Your confusion posting indicates you do not have a proper understanding of the spiritual characteristic of every human being. Jesus did not go to the cross to redeem your soul / behavior mechanism. He went to that cross to redeem your spirit. That spirit has a spirit body, according to Paul. That spirit is not held in the ground upon death. The soul probably is, in some way. Ask yourself, where is Jesus now? What does PAul write in 1 Thess 4:13-18? The Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven ... those who have died in Christ GOD will bring with Him as He descends from Heaven with a shout. If GOD is bringing the dead in Christ WITH Jesus, where are those spirits coming from?

Their spirit, because the Holy Spirit is abiding therein, are IN HEAVEN with The Lord, without a glorified body. The transformation is the receiving of a glorified body and behavior mechanism.

1 Thess 4:13-17 And I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, that ye may not sorrow, as also the rest who have not hope,
for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also God those asleep through Jesus he will bring with him,
for this to you we say in the word of the Lord, that we who are living -- who do remain over to the presence of the Lord -- may not precede those asleep,
because the Lord himself, in a shout, in the voice of a chief-messenger, and in the trump of God, shall come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise first,
then we who are living, who are remaining over, together with them shall be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in air, and so always with the Lord we shall be;

So you see TWO locations of the dead in Christ! The spirit has God abiding therein, so the born again spiriut is not asleep in the earth. God wuill bring them, their spirit, WITH JESUS as He descends from Heaven. [The verses are from the Young's Literal Translation]