The review number 1 and 2, in the most critical review section may have been not quite read their bible in detail. The statements both of you made were false. Doug Batchelor said exactly what the Bible teaches. I'm afraid you have come to the wrong interpretation from those verses. Matter fact why don't you call in to the station and ask Doug Batchelor yourself. He will clear that fog up for you. There is a free book offered from amazing facts called "Absent from the body" it breaks down that particular verse. In the archive of bible answers live he answers the "was Jesus asleep for 3 day question". Furthermore I could careless what denomination they are as long as they tell me Bible truth. They say exactly what the bible says! The bible says Saturday the seventh day of the week is Holy. It will always be Holy. The Bible or anybody in the Bible never said Sunday was Holy. Maybe the Sabbath being one of the 10 commandments may be more important than you think. We are commanded to keep all 10 not 9 of the commandments. Worry about that. By the law is the knowledge of sin and if you break the 4th commandment you are just as guilty of sin as a murderer, adultery,stealer,coveter..etc. Read James 2:10. Now the answer to your statement is in his free book "absent from the body". May God continue to bless us both.
First, let’s clarify what Paul’s “earnest expectation” really was in regard to being with Christ. Did he expect to be with Him at death? Not one text of the Bible teaches such a thing. Let the apostle answer for himself concerning his “earnest expectation.” “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” Romans 8:19. What was that manifestation when the sons of God would be revealed? Verse 23 answers, “… we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Paul’s earnest expectation and hope was for the time when his body would be redeemed.
He did not say one word in Philippians 1:20-24 about the TIME he would be with the Lord. Some have attempted to interpret this text as though Paul said he wanted to depart and be with Christ immediately, but the word immediately is not in the scripture. In these verses, Paul does not specifically state WHEN he will be with the Lord.
He only states his “earnest expectation” to be there. We have found from other scriptures that his expectation centered on the resurrection or translation of the body. Other passages further clarify without any equivocation when the great apostle expected to be with Christ.
Romans 8:23
At the redemption of the body
1 Corinthians 5:5
In the day of the Lord Jesus
1 Corinthians 15:51-55
At the last trump
Colossians 3:4
When Christ our life shall appear
1 Thessalonians 4:16
When the Lord descends with a shout
2 Thessalonians 2:1
At the coming of the Lord
2 Timothy 4:7, 8
At “that day” (by which Paul means the second advent of Christ)
Paul had two conditions in view: to live or to die. Between these two, he was in a strait. The cause of God on earth drew him here, but he was weary from beatings, stonings, and bodily suffering. He almost felt that death would be desirable over the struggle of living. So evenly balanced were the influences drawing him in both directions that he hardly knew which course he preferred. Nevertheless, he said it was more needful for the church that he remain here to give them the benefit of his counsel and labor.
9 How to be with the Lord
Paul positively refuted the idea of an immortal spirit leaving the body at death when he pinpointed the ONLY means of being with the Lord. In 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17 he said, “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: 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.”
Please note the significance of that word “SO.” It means “in this way,” “in this manner,” “by this means.” “SO,” in this manner, by this means, “shall we ever be with the Lord.” By describing, without any limitation, the way and means by which we go to be with the Lord, Paul precludes every other means. If there is any other way of getting to be with the Lord, then Paul’s language is a stupendous falsehood. If we go to be with the Lord by means of our immortal spirit when we die, then we do not go to be with Him by means of the visible coming of Jesus, the resurrection of the dead and the change of the living. Then Paul’s words would not be true. There is no possible way of avoiding this conclusion, except by claiming that the descent of the Lord from heaven, the mighty shout, the trumpet, the resurrection of the dead, and the change of the living, ALL TAKE PLACE WHEN A PERSON DIES—a position too absurd to be considered.
Since Paul himself so carefully defines the manner of going to be with the Lord, why should man try to interpret Philippians 1:23 to mean something contrary to the writer’s own explanation? As we have just noted from 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17, Paul knew of only two ways to be with the Lord—by translation or resurrection.
