What does the Bible say about death? Do we immediately go to heaven, or is our soul in an interim existence?
A text like 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 makes evident that Paul believes that for the believer, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Since the Lord is in heaven, this suggests that a faithful believer immediately goes to heaven when he or she dies.
—Ben Witherington III