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       What does Paul mean when he talks about being absent from the body but present with the Lord in 2 Cor. 5:8? To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord -- When a believer dies they have no awareness of time. Paul speaks of it as a moment or a twinkling of the eye. Their next conscious thought is the resurrection and being in God's presence. King David died about 1000 B.C. and the Bible says that he slept with his fathers. In Acts 2 Peter says that David is still dead, is still buried, and is not yet in heaven. It is hard to be any clearer than that. But when Jesus comes King David is coming out of his grave, he will be caught up with the righteous to meet the Lord in the air, he will have his glorified body, but for David when he closed his eyes and Bathsheba and Nathan, the prophet, were around his bedside, the next thing that he is aware of seems to be instantaneous -- to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

       There may also be a spiritual application here also. Paul talks to the Corinthians about living the carnal minded life and the spiritual life. To be absent from the body could be a reference to not living the carnal life and to be present with the Lord could be a reference to living the spiritual life.