“...Christ brings WITH him those who have died:”
Yes, another good example of the care needed with literal words like ‘asleep’ - which are now in English and out of context. It sounds like somebody is snoozing. But Paul’s literal meaning is simply people who are dead physically but certainly alive in their spirit body with Christ.
Which, of course, is Paul’s main point - why would somebody want to believe in Jesus and resurrection if His ‘dead’ followers are stuck in the ground somewhere instead of alive in spirit bodies like Christ?
It’s kinda ironic that Paul spent so much time trying to clear up basic doctrine for people, yet the various interpretations of his writings are a source for many confusions today. Not his fault. Partly just the nature of people and language to get things muddled over time. And partly just due to the fact that Paul wrote such a large percentage of the NT that, by the numbers, he is most likely to get misinterpreted.
I like how Paul goaded people to get beyond the ‘milk’ of salvation bits and dig into the ‘meat’ of the existing scriptures and new Christian doctrine.
It’s also an further example of literal English -vs- figure of speech. Obviously he meant not literal milk and meat.