"Quote" it correctly:
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.
Only the redeemed are with the LORD when they die. All others go to Hades/Sheol.
There are thousands of reports out there by those who've had a near-death experience.
There is the thief on the cross with Christ. There are Enoch and Elijah, the firstfruits who rose along with Christ.
But there are scriptures which point to time spent in the grave. The prophet Daniel was to "go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days." Paul teaches the Thessalonians, "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first" indicates even Christians will spend time in the grave until Christ returns.
We can make general assumptions but let's not put the Almighty or those beings who serve Him in a box by claiming something is either-or. I doubt we know all there is to know about their powers or how things work in the domain they control.
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.
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Such wishful misinterpretations of Scripture are a major reason there are currently thousands of Christian sects and more of them proliferating everyday!