Paul's passage--where he is attributed as stating "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord," when the points that Paul asserts in fact are "we live by faith, and not by sight," and "practice pleasing God wherever you are, right now" (both ideals, that few people ever attain, iow)--begins with "we are confident, i say..." but a better interpretation there is likely "we have made up our minds."
iow the truth of the operative statement, "seek to please God where you are right now," is ignored, and the fact that Paul is not even addressing whether "absent from the body = present with the Lord" is true or not--in a very devious way, see, he even precludes this with a discourse on what is meant to culminate in "because we walk by faith," that seems to confirm that "absent from the body = present with the Lord," only from, subtly, a change in perspective that also goes unnoticed, see, and ppl just extract what they want from the passage, not what Paul clearly intends to promote, "live by faith, not sight," (which "sight" is even being lampooned, in the "we have made up our minds" passage) and "seek to please God here/now."
so then a passage famously..."observed," lol, to be about the Big Party in the Sky with Jesus, When We Die, is actually about making fun of that perspective, only it is done so artfully that it must be seen, it cannot be proven, see. I could insist that the points were "live by faith, not sight," and "please God now" until i'm blue in the face, i am not going to convince anyone who believes "Paul said that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord."
