A Refutation of the Abominable
Doctrine of
“Soul Sleep.”
On this page, I
have presented for your consideration a number of opinions expressed by
others. My own opinion is at the bottom of the page.
“Soul Sleep” as defined in “Wikipedia, the
Free Encyclopedia.”
Teachers of the soul sleep doctrine
What does the Bible say about soul
sleep?
Soul Sleep by Tal Davis
What is Soul Sleep? [from About.com]
What Happens to Believers When
They Die? by Mary Fairchild
“Soul sleep” and the nature of the
afterlife by James Patrick Holding
Soul Sleep vs The Truth Of Scripture
by Ed Tarkowski
The False Doctrine Of Annihilationism
by Ed Tarkowski
Famous Supporters of Soul Sleep
Famous Opponents of Soul Sleep
My Personal Opinion
[It should be remembered that Wikipedia articles can be
created and/or edited by anybody, and should therefore not
be considered as authoritative.]
Soul sleep is a belief that the
soul sleeps
unconsciously between the death of the
body and its
resurrection on Judgment Day. Soul sleep is
also known as psychopannychism [from
Greek psyche (soul, mind) +
pannuchizein (to last the night)].
A similar belief is thnetopsychism [from Greek
thnetos (mortal) + psyche (soul, mind)], the view that the
soul dies with the body to be recalled to life at the
resurrection of the dead, or that the
soul is not separate from the body and so there is no “spiritual” self to
survive bodily death.
In both cases, the deceased does not begin to enjoy a
reward or suffer a punishment until Judgment Day.
The more
common Christian belief about the
intermediate state between death and
Judgment Day is particular judgment, that the soul is
judged at death. In
Roman Catholicism, the
soul is judged to go to heaven or hell immediately after death, a belief also held by most
Protestants. In Catholicism some temporarily stay in
purgatory to be purified for
heaven.
In Eastern Orthodoxy, the
soul waits in
the abode of the dead until the
resurrection of the dead, the saved
resting in light and the damned suffering in darkness.[1]
This Eastern Orthodox picture of particular judgment is similar to the
1st-century Jewish and early Christian[2]
concept that the dead either "rest in peace" in the
Bosom of Abraham or suffer in
Hades. This
view was also promoted by
John Calvin in his treatise attacking soul sleep.[3]
[Top of Page]
Teachers of the soul sleep doctrine
[4]
This doctrine is propagated dogmatically by
the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses). In their
widely distributed book, Knowledge That Leads to Everlasting Life
(Brooklyn: Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1995, p.
82) they state:
“When somebody dies, the spirit (life force) ceases to animate the body
cells, much as a light goes out when the electricity is turned off. When
the life force stops sustaining the human being, man-the soul-dies.”
Further, in the same publication (p. 83) they
assert:
“Therefore, God’s Word refers to the dead as being asleep. For example,
upon learning that his friend Lazarus had died, Jesus Christ told His
disciples ’Lazarus our friend has gone to rest, but I am journeying there
to awake him from sleep.’”
Another faith group that teaches the same
view is the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church. In their official
doctrinal publication, Seventh-Day Adventists Believe … A Biblical
Exposition of 27 Fundamental Doctrines (Hagerstown, MD: Review and
Herald Publishing Assoc., 1988, p. 353) they state:
“The grave is not a place of consciousness. Since death is a sleep, the
dead remain in a state of unconsciousness in the grave until the
resurrection, when the grave (Hades) gives up its dead (Rev. 20:13).”
Both the Jehovah‘s Witnesses and the SDA base
this “Soul Sleep” doctrine on their interpretations of certain key
biblical terms and passages. For example, both agree that both the Old
Testament Hebrew sheol and the New Testament Greek term Hades
refer to the common grave of mankind. Thus, they do not infer any concept
of natural immortality of the soul at physical death. Old Testament
passages like Ecclesiastes 3:19-21; 9:5, 6; 12:7; Job 14:10-12; Psalm
115:17; and others are often quoted to buttress this position. New
Testament passages such as Matthew 9:24; Mark 5:39; John 11:11-14; Acts
7:20; 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; and 2 Peter 3:4,
where dead people are referred to as “sleeping” or “asleep”, are also
utilized as proof that the dead are now in a sort of unconscious state of
nonbeing. The term “sleep” (Greek: Koimao or Katheudo) was a
common biblical euphemism for death. Paul used it only in reference to
believers in Christ who had died.
[Top of Page]
What does the Bible say
about soul sleep?
“Soul sleep”
is a belief that after a person dies, his/her soul “sleeps” until the
resurrection and final judgment. The concept of “soul sleep” is not
biblical. When the Bible describes a person “sleeping” in relation to
death (Luke 8:52;
1
Corinthians 15:6), it does not mean literal sleep. Sleeping is just a
way to describe death because a dead body appears to be asleep. The
moment we die, we face the judgment of God (Hebrews 9:27).
For believers, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2
Corinthians 5:6-8;
Philippians 1:23). For unbelievers, death means everlasting punishment
in hell (Luke
16:22-23).
Until the final
resurrection, though, there is a temporary heaven—paradise (Luke 23:43;
2
Corinthians 12:4) and a temporary hell—Hades (Revelation
1:18;
20:13-14). As can be clearly seen in
Luke 16:19-31, neither in paradise nor in Hades are people sleeping.
It could be said, though, that a person’s body is “sleeping” while his
soul is in paradise or Hades. At the resurrection, this body is “awakened”
and transformed into the everlasting body a person will possess for
eternity, whether in heaven or hell. Those who were in paradise will be
sent to the new heavens and new earth (Revelation
21:1). Those who were in Hades will be thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation
20:11-15). These are the final, eternal destinations of all
people—based entirely on whether or not a person trusted in Jesus Christ
for salvation.
[http://www.gotquestions.org/soul-sleep.html]
See also:
http://www.letusreason.org/7thAd22.htm
http://www.letusreason.org/Doct15.htm
[Top of Page]
By Tal Davis
"To be or not to be: That is the question."
— William Shakespeare
One of the most vexing questions every person faces in
life is, "What happens when I die?" The answer to that question is,
therefore, one of the most crucial for any religious faith to provide for
its adherents.
One answer some have proposed has been called "Soul
Sleep" or, more accurately, the doctrine of "Conditional Immortality."
This view asserts, simply put, that when people die, their physical body
ceases to function and the life force of the spirit is removed. This means
that their conscious existence ends while they wait in the grave for a
resurrected body restored by God at the end times. Their perspective is
that human beings are not naturally immortal and do not survive, in any
sense, after physical death.
This doctrine is propagated dogmatically by the
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses). In their widely
distributed book, Knowledge That Leads to Everlasting Life
(Brooklyn: Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1995, p.
82) they state:
"When
somebody dies, the spirit (life force) ceases to animate the body cells,
much as a light goes out when the electricity is turned off. When the
life force stops sustaining the human being, man — the soul — dies."
Further, in the same publication (p. 83) they
assert:
"Therefore, God’s Word refers to the dead as being asleep. For example,
upon learning that his friend Lazarus had died, Jesus Christ told His
disciples 'Lazarus our friend has gone to rest, but I am journeying there
to awake him from sleep.'"
Another faith group that teaches the same
view is the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church. In their official
doctrinal publication, Seventh-Day Adventists Believe … A Biblical
Exposition of 27 Fundamental Doctrines (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald
Publishing Assoc., 1988, p. 353) they state:
"The grave is not a place of consciousness. Since death is a sleep, the
dead remain in a state of unconsciousness in the grave until the
resurrection, when the grave (Hades) gives up its dead (Rev. 20:13)."
Both the Jehovah’s
Witnesses and the SDA base this "Soul Sleep" doctrine on their
interpretations of certain key biblical terms and passages. For example,
both agree that both the Old Testament Hebrew sheol and the New Testament
Greek term Hades refer to the common grave of mankind. Thus, they do not
infer any concept of natural immortality of the soul at physical death.
Old Testament passages like Ecclesiastes 3:19-21; 9:5, 6; 12:7; Job
14:10-12; Psalm 115:17; and others are often quoted to buttress this
position. New Testament passages such as Matthew 9:24; Mark 5:39; John
11:11-14; Acts 7:20; 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; and
2 Peter 3:4, where dead people are referred to as "sleeping" or "asleep",
are also utilized as proof that the dead are now in a sort of unconscious
state of nonbeing. The term "sleep" (Greek: Koimao or Katheudo) was a
common biblical euphemism for death. Paul used it only in reference to
believers in Christ who had died.
We need to ask, however, do these passages actually
prove unquestionably what the Jehovah’s Witnesses, SDAs, and others
holding this position, assert? Obviously, we do not have space here to
exegete every passage above. However, we can look carefully at a few
Scriptures, particularly from the New Testament and the words of Jesus,
that may lead us to a different conclusion than that summarized above.
Jehovah’s Witnesses, SDAs, and others holding to "Soul
Sleep" are basically correct in saying that there is no dualism taught in
the Bible between the human soul and physical life. Certainly the Hebrew
view is not that man "has a soul," totally separate from his body, but
that he "is a soul" which includes his mortal body and immortal spirit.
Several significant passages indicate that a person has a conscious
spiritual existence after death and prior to the resurrection of the body.
For instance, in Matthew 22:31-32, Jesus, in response
to a pointed question about marriage, life after death, and the
resurrection, quoted Exodus 3:6 and then added His authoritative comment
to it. "Have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying 'I
am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is
not the God of the dead but of the living." Jesus' words clearly imply
that the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were even at that point in
Jesus' day still alive, in some way. Would he have made such an assertion
were they totally dead spiritually?
Likewise, in Luke 16:19-31 Jesus told the story of
Lazarus and the rich man. According to His story, the righteous poor
Lazarus died and went immediately to "Abraham’s bosom," while the wicked
rich man (unnamed) died and went to Hades. In both cases, they were
presented as conscious, aware, and communicative. Soul Sleep advocates
sometimes argue that the story was only a parable and not to be understood
literally. If that is so, then it would be the only parable Jesus ever
told that could not have been at least conceivably possible in real life.
Even Jesus' other parables were true to life, even if they were not actual
events. So, why in this case alone would the Lord use false information to
convey such a critical truth as that regarding the fate of the dead?
Another key event wherein Jesus' words contradict Soul
Sleep is when He spoke to the repentant thief on the cross (see Luke
23:39-43). Following the thief’s confession and appeal to Him for mercy,
Jesus answered, "Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in
Paradise." This statement begs the question of the Soul Sleep position.
What did Jesus mean by "today you will be with me." if the thief would
have no conscious life when he died? Some have argued that translators
have misrepresented the passage by placing a comma between the word "you"
and "today." Their view is that since the original Greek text had no
punctuation it could just as well correctly be read, "Truly I say to you
today, you will be with me in Paradise" (a promise of the resurrection).
This interpretation seems unlikely, however. Jesus used the phrase "Truly
I say to you" many times as recorded in the Gospels as a validation of His
divine authority. In no instance did He ever attach to it any temporal
conditionality such as "today." Clearly the term "today" in the context
was to be attached to the promise--that day the thief would be with Jesus
in Paradise.
One of the most dramatic events that weighs on this
issue was that of Jesus' transfiguration (see Matt. 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8;
Luke 9:28-36; and 2 Pet. 1:16-18). Peter, James, and John all personally
heard the voice of God and witnessed the visible appearance of Moses and
Elijah talking with Jesus. The obvious problem for Soul Sleep advocates is
to explain how Moses, who had died centuries before (see Deut. 34:5, 6),
could suddenly appear and converse with Jesus and Elijah (Elijah had not
died but was taken to heaven in a fiery chariot--see 2 Kings 2:11).
Perhaps Jesus' classic statement in this regard was
when He received the news of His friend Lazarus' death. Told by his sister
Martha of her brother’s demise Jesus comforted and answered her by
stating, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall
live even if he dies."
The apostle Paul in his letters, likewise, presents
evidence that there is no cessation of conscious life at death, at least
for the believer in Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 (NASB) Paul was contemplating
death.
"Therefore,
being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the
body we are absent from the Lord--for we walk by faith, not by sight. We
are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body
and to be at home with the Lord." (NASB)
Paul implies that if he died he would be
separated from his physical body for a time but, nonetheless, present with
the Lord-that is Jesus Christ-in some spiritual sense. Thus, for Paul,
anticipating death held no terror. This clearly contradicts the Soul Sleep
perspective.
Later in the same epistle (see 2 Cor. 12:2-4) Paul
described "a man" who, fourteen years before his writing, had been caught
up "to the third heaven" or "Paradise." Most New Testament scholars
believe he was talking about himself. In any case, Paul twice stated, that
he did not know if the man "had been taken up in the body" or "out of the
body." If no conscious existence apart from the body can exist, then he
would have to have been "in the body." But Paul said only "God knows,"
implying at least the possibility of an immaterial conscious state of
life.
In a similar light, Paul mulled his possible martyrdom
in Philippians 1:12-26. He evidently did not think that he was going to be
killed at that point since God still had much work for him to accomplish.
Nevertheless, he acknowledged that, even if he were to die, it would
actually be to his advantage:
"For to me,
to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the
flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to
choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to
depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on
in the flesh is more necessary for your sake" (Phil. 1:21-24, NASB)
Those advocating Soul Sleep are hard put to explain why
Paul would make the above statements if he did not believe he was going to
be with Jesus immediately upon his death, whenever and however it was to
happen, but not in the flesh.
Another of Paul’s epistles also gives us some clue as
to the fate of dead believers. In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Paul wrote about
those who were "asleep" or "the dead in Christ." Those were believers who
died before the Lord’s return. He states that they would accompany the
Lord at His return and be the first to be resurrected from the dead. Those
who advocate Soul Sleep would likely say this fits their perspective well.
However, in chapter five of the same letter Paul, in speaking of the
present state of both the living and dead, in expectation of the Lord’s
future return says,
"For God has
not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord
Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are [present tense] awake
[alive] or asleep [dead], we may live together with Him." (I Thess.
5:9-10, NASB).
Conclusion
Bible students may sincerely differ on some doctrinal
issues. In the case of "Soul Sleep" (or Conditional Immortality) it is our
position that the doctrine contradicts the balanced survey of New
Testament teachings, and especially the Words of Jesus. They teach that
spiritual life, for believers in Christ, continues after death in an
intermediate state of conscious being until the general resurrection of
the dead at the return of Christ.
http://www.4truth.net/site/c.hiKXLbPNLrF/b.2951425/k.2D41/Soul_Sleep.htm
[Top of Page]
What is Soul Sleep?
[from About.com]
"Soul Sleep," also known as the doctrine of
"Conditional Immortality," is primarily taught by Jehovah’s Witnesses and
Seventh-day Adventists. It refers to the belief that when we die, the soul
ceases to exist, or "sleeps." During this period of soul sleep the
believer is not conscious of anything and the soul is completely inert
until the time of the final resurrection of the dead.
Ecclesiastes 9:5 and 12:7 are also verses used to
defend the doctrine of soul sleep.
In the Bible, "sleep" is simply another term for death,
because the body appears to be asleep. I believe, as I stated, the moment
we die our spirit and soul go to be with the Lord. Our physical body
begins to decay, but our soul and spirit go on to eternal life.
The Bible does teach that believers will receive new,
transformed, eternal bodies at the time of the final resurrection of the
dead, just before the creation of the new heavens and new earth. (1 Corinthians 15:35-58).
A Few Verses that Challenge the Concept of Soul Sleep
- It came about as her soul was departing (for
she died), that she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him
Benjamin. [Genesis
35:18]
-
“Now there was a rich man, and
he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in
splendor every day. And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate,
covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were
falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming
and licking his sores. Now the poor man died and was carried away by the
angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. In
Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away
and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham,
have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his
finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this
flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you
received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he
is being comforted here, and you are in agony. And besides all this,
between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish
to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross
over from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you
send him to my father’s house — for I have five brothers — in order that
he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of
torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them
hear them.’ But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to
them from the dead, they will repent!’ But he said to him, ‘If they do
not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if
someone rises from the dead.’ ” [Luke
16:19-31]
- And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today
you shall be with Me in Paradise.” [Luke 23:43]
-
Jesus said to her, “I am the
resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he
dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you
believe this?” [John
11:25-26]
-
For Christ also died for sins
once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God,
having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in
which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison,
[1
Peter 3:18-19]
-
When the Lamb broke the fifth
seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain
because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had
maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long , O
Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our
blood on those who dwell on the earth ?” [Revelation
6:9-10]
http://christianity.about.com/od/christiandoctrines/f/whatissoulsleep.htm
[Top of Page]
What Happens to
Believers When They Die?
By
Mary
Fairchild, About.com Guide
One reader, while working with children was presented with the
question, "What happens when you die?" He didn't quite know how to answer
the child, so he submitted the question to me, with further inquiry: "If
we are professed believers, do we ascend to heaven upon our physical
death, or do we ’sleep' until our Savior’s return?"
Most Christians have spent some time wondering what happens to us after
we die. Recently, we looked at the
account of Lazarus, who was raised from the dead by Jesus. He spent
four days in the afterlife, yet the Bible tells us nothing about what he
saw. Of course, Lazarus' family and friends must have learned something
about his journey to heaven and back. And many of us today are familiar
with the testimonies of people who have had near-death experiences. But
each of these accounts are unique, and can only give us a glimpse into
heaven.
In fact, the Bible reveals very few concrete details about heaven, the
afterlife and what happens when we die. God must have a good reason for
keeping us wondering about the mysteries of heaven. Perhaps our finite
minds could never comprehend the realities of eternity. For now, we can
only imagine.
Yet the Bible does reveal several truths about the afterlife.
This study will take a comprehensive look at what the Bible says about
death, eternal life and heaven.
What Does the Bible Say About Death, Eternal Life and Heaven?
Believers can face death without fear.
Psalm 23:4
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort
me.
(NIV)
1 Corinthians 15:54-57
Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that
will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its
power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our
Lord Jesus Christ.
(NLT)
Also:
Romans 8:38-39
Revelation 2:11
Believers enter the Lord’s presence at death.
In essence, the moment we die, our spirit and soul go to be with the
Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:8
Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these
earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.
(NLT)
Philippians 1:22-23
But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really
don’t know which is better. I’m torn between two desires: I long to go
and be with Christ, which would be far better for me.
(NLT)
Believers will dwell with God forever.
Psalm 23:6
Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and
I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
(NIV)
Also:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Jesus prepares a special place for believers in heaven.
John 14:1-3
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.
In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have
told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me
that you also may be where I am."
(NIV)
Heaven will be far better than earth for believers.
Philippians 1:21
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
(NIV)
Revelation 14:13
And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this down: Blessed are
those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are
blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good
deeds follow them!”
(NLT)
The death of a believer is precious to God.
Believers belong to the Lord in heaven.
Romans 14:8
If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord.
So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
(NIV)
Believers are citizens of heaven.
Philippians 3:20-21
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from
there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to
bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so
that they will be like his glorious body.
(NIV)
After their physical death, believers gain eternal life.
John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who
believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and
believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
(NIV)
Also:
John 10:27-30
John 3:14-16
1 John 5:11-12
Believers receive an eternal inheritance in heaven.
1 Peter 1:3-5
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his
great mercy he has given us
new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish,
spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by
God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be
revealed in the last time.
(NIV)
Believers receive a crown in heaven.
2 Timothy 4:7-8
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept
the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and
not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
(NIV)
Eventually, God will put an end to death.
Revelation 21:1-4
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the
first earth had passed away ... I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God ... And I heard a loud voice from the
throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live
with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them
and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be
no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things
has passed away."
(NIV)
Why are believers said to be "asleep" or "fallen asleep" after
death?
Examples:
John 11:11-14
1 Thessalonians 5:9-11
1
Corinthians 15:20
The Bible uses the term "asleep" or "sleeping" when referring to the
physical body of the believer at death. It is important to note
that the term is used solely for believers. The dead body appears to be
asleep when it is separated at death from the spirit and soul of the
believer. The spirit and soul, which are eternal, are united with Christ
at the moment of the believer’s death (2
Corinthians 5:8). The body of the believer, which is mortal flesh,
perishes, or "sleeps" until the day it is transformed and reunited to
the believer at the final resurrection. (1
Corinthians 15:43;
Philippians 3:21; 1
Corinthians 15:51)
1 Corinthians 15:50-53
I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be
changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For
the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we
will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the
imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
(NIV)
http://christianity.about.com/od/whatdoesthebiblesay/a/deathandheaven.htm
[Top of Page]
“Soul sleep” and the
nature of the afterlife
by James Patrick Holding
"Soul sleep" is a
fairly unobjectionable doctrine that supposes, quite simply, that between
the time of our individual deaths, and the time of the final resurrection
and judgment, we will be in an "unconscious" state. There are undoubtedly
many variations on the theme, and the doctrine is held generally by a
number of groups (both orthodox and unorthodox), but we will concern
ourselves here with the core contention of unconsciousness between death
and new life.
The following arguments
in favor of it are taken from a wide variety of sources, and we will
organize by Scripture cite. We will not address cites tied in with the
doctrine of annihilation, which hold that the wicked soul "dies" without
returning to consciousness, as we consider such arguments covered by the
this article.
Coverage of this issue
begins well with consideration of a broader and related issue, that of the
nature of the relationship between what is called the body, soul,
and the spirit. Soul sleep advocates speak disparagingly of a
"dualist" line of thinking which sees these as separate entities, and
regard these entities as a holistic total that is inseperable.
Previously and in other
contexts we have noted that under the Semitic Totality
Concept a man is a unity. But this does not necessarily equate with
the constituent elements being inseparable; it simply means that to make a
whole man, the elements "belong" together. The question would remain as to
whether the elements can indeed exist separately and whether a
practical dualist view is warranted in terms of the afterlife.
In this regard I have
noted some confusion of terms. Our primary source for support of this
doctrine, Adventist scholar Samuel Bacchiochi, in an essay called The
Human Soul, at first says, "Those who believe their nature is
wholistic, consisting of an indivisible whole where body, soul, and spirit
are only characteristics of the same person, generally envision a destiny
where their total mortal person will be resurrected either to eternal life
or eternal death." But in the next paragraph he says:
On the other hand,
those who believe their nature is dualistic, that is, consisting of a
material, mortal body and a spiritual, immortal soul, generally envision
a destiny where their immortal souls will survive the death of their
body and will spend eternity either in the bliss of paradise or in the
torment of hell.
What happened here?
Bacchiochi turned the three (spirit, soul, body) into two (body, soul) and
left the spirit in the dust, so to speak, or collapsed it adverbially into
the soul. Later he seems to regard "soul" and "spirit" as synonyms: "The
body and the soul, the flesh and the spirit, are characteristics of the
same person and not detachable components that come apart at death."
It is perhaps true that
"soul" and "spirit" are used interchangeably today, and may have been used
thusly in NT Greek (cf.
Luke 1:46-7 [?!?]), but that clearly was not the case in the OT. Note
even to begin the variation in the Hebrew words: "spirit" is
ruach, and "soul" is
nephesh.
In general and by
appearances, we would suggest the thesis that the "soul" as defined here
is the combination of the body and spirit, which creates the
unified whole of a person (or an animal -- cf. Gen. 1:21).
Bacchiochi speaks of combating the idea that the "soul" is an immortal
substance, but if that is his argument, he seems to be fighting the wrong
battle.
Bacchiochi offers a
thorough and informative analysis of the various uses of "soul" (nephesh)
in the OT, and every one of these supports the idea of the nephesh
as the combined body and spirit. If these two elements were a composite
that made a man a man, it is quite sensible that both are affected in
times of trouble, experience emotion, and sin, and that the nephesh
dies when the body is killed, as Bacchiochi clearly shows.
Indeed, he quotes one
commentator as saying, "The Hebrew did not divide and assign human
activities. Any act was the whole nephesh in action, hence, the whole
person." This matches as well with the NT triple-combo of
psyche (soul), soma
(body), and
pneuma (spirit) as the words are used by the writers of the NT
(though the Greeks seem to have overlapped the words in usage somewhat,
and some dictionaries and resources, in defining the words, uses them to
define each other -- perhaps reflecting our own modern confusion of the
terms.
The question we wish to
pose, then, is not, according to the Bible, "Does the soul survive death?"
but, "Does the spirit survive death?" Bacchiochi correctly notes
that the NT distinguishes soul and spirit (1
Thess. 5:23, Heb. 4:12)
and also rightly decries those who regard "spirit" and "soul" as complete
synonyms. But he never gets around (where we have read) to a full
discussion of what exactly man’s "spirit" is and what happens to it after
death.
The word is often used
figuratively of one’s emotional attitude (i.e., a "revived spirit") but it
is clearly also used to refer to sentient entities (both good and evil)
and -- as classically formulated in James 2:26
("For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is
dead also.") is clearly a separably identifiable entity within a human,
whatever its condition after a body dies.
2 Cor. 5,
Paul’s excursus on the resurrection body compared to the old one, uses the
metaphor of a tent, which suggests, obviously, an "inhabitant" -- though
where exactly the "inhabitant" rests and in what state is not stated.
Hebrews 4:12
confirms this, speaking of the "division of soul and spirit" comparably to
bones and marrow -- the latter being a component of the former.
It should be noted first
of all that "spirit" being described in terms of "breath" should not by
any means be taken to assume that the two are the same thing. As various
organs are connected with certain things by the Hebrews (see more
here so it is that
we would expect the spirit to be linked to a certain part of us -- the
equation no more makes the two the same thing than we may assume that
kidneys do not exist because they are called "reins".
One of Bacchiochi’s few
statements about the spirit concerns Eccl.
12:7, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the
spirit shall return unto God who gave it." He quotes the Interpreter’s
Dictionary of the Bible as saying that the spirit "is not, properly
speaking, an anthropological reality, but a gift of God which returns to
him at the time of death."
One is hard pressed to
see how this reasoning plays out. There is nothing here that shows that
the spirit is not an "anthropological reality" at all; if angels and evil
spirits and the Spirit of God are anthropological realities, whence is the
spirit of a man not so? (Eccl.
12:7, of course, does not say what happens to the spirit when it
returns to God, or whether it has any consciousness; the word "return" has
as many broad meanings as our modern word.)
Another verse pressed
often into service in this regard is Gen. 3:19,
"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the
ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust
shalt thou return." This is taken to say that man is dust with no
remainder at all, giving the idea that there is nothing else to survive
death. (Eccl.
3:19-20 is also used similarly, but for reasons we will note below,
using Ecclesiastes to support this doctrine is not a valid option.)
Taking this as a
statement of complete identity, however, is rather too literalistic.
Gen. 3:16-19 forms a metrical pattern and cannot be expected to be
providing a full anthropological outline. If all man is is dust, what has
happened to the breath of God that was put in him? Eccl.
12:7 answers, as does Elihu in
Job 34:14-15, for what his answer may be worth: "If he set his heart
upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; All flesh
shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust." The latter
seems to be an OT version of James 2:26.
We conclude therefore,
for now, that "soul sleep" advocates may need to fine-tune their case and
take the ruwach into consideration. They (as well as respondents)
seen to have erred in taking "soul" and "spirit" as synonyms. (In fact,
one of Bacchiochi’s sources, Wolff’s Anthropology of the OT [34],
notes what I have about "spirit" above, but Bacchiochi oddly says nothing
about this part of Wolff’s book in the pieces we have read.)
Our primary source for
the next part of this work is Philip Johnston’s Shades of Sheol: Death
and Afterlife in the Old Testament, which collects and collates data
on belief in death and the afterlife as expressed in the OT. We may begin
by summarizing some of Johnston’s relevant conclusions that will be taken
into consideration as proceed:
-
One of the key words
associated with the afterlife is Sheol, translated "grave" in
modern versions like the NIV. Johnston disputes this interpretation and
maintains that "Sheol" refers to the underworld.
-
Johnston summarizes
the nature of Sheol, and among his findings are that persons in Sheol
are inactive and weak, yet still can be conscious. We will test
this conclusion against any cites made favoring the doctrine of "soul
sleep" as this would obviously disagree with such a doctrine. [76]
-
Sheol is primarily a
destination for the ungodly. The righteous only envisage Sheol as their
destiny at times when they are afflicted or in great danger, or face an
unhappy or untimely death. However, mention of Sheol is conspicuously
absent from accounts of those who die at the end of a full and happy
life. [81-2] The location, abilities, and destiny of such persons after
death is not specified.
Psalms 6:5
For there is no mention of Thee in death; In Sheol who will give Thee
thanks? (cf. Psalm 30:9)
Psalm
115:17 The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into
silence.
Psalm 146:4
His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his
thoughts perish.
Though not strictly used
to absolutely prove soul sleep, the first two verses may be appealed to as
persuasive evidence of it. Practically speaking they only tell us that the
dead do not thank or praise God. That’s only two activities out of many,
and it is obviously possible to be conscious and not do these things for
other reasons. (Eccl. 9:10 does note that "there is no work, nor device,
nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave," but as we will see below, it is
questionable to use Ecclesiastes for this doctrine.)
The question raised is
whether we have any sign that those in death are indeed conscious.
Johnston [76] has collected all references to Sheol and notes these very
verses as indications that Sheol cuts the person off from Yahweh, and that
it is a place of silence. Only two texts describe any sort of activity in
Sheol:
Is. 14:9-11 Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy
coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the
earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the
nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become
weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to
the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee,
and the worms cover thee.
Ezek. 32:31
The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell
with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised,
slain by the sword.
These verses speak of
the dead as being roused to greet a newcomer, and speaking from Sheol.
This is not what one would call an active retirement, of course, but it is
clearly a conscious retirement, or at the least, a state in which
consciousness is a possibility.
This would meld well
with the consistent use of the metaphor of sleep with reference to the
dead that is found throughout the Bible; there is no need to press the
metaphor into indicating a permanent or absolute state (see below). Note
particularly in Isaiah that the dead mock the newly arrived dead and their
"weakness".
In reply one may perhaps
argue that Isaiah speaks figuratively of the dead only as though
they were capable of conscious thought. On the other hand, if this is so,
then Isaiah’s choice of the "fellow dead" as the speakers, as opposed to
those still alive or the Lord himself, seems particularly unfortunate for
proponents of soul sleep.
It is the third verse
from Psalms that seems most definitive. If one’s thoughts "perish" then
that implies that there is an unconscious state. It is of some note,
however, that the word for "perish" is not the same as words found
elsewhere: karath, a word which explicitly indicates punishment or
destruction (Gen. 41:36,
"And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of
famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish
not through the famine.") or naphal (Ex. 19:21,
"And the LORD said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break
through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish.").
The word used, 'abad,
has a primary meaning of wandering away or losing one’s self. Here is how
it is used elsewhere:
Ex. 10:7
And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare
unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest
thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?
Deut.
4:26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that
ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go
over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but
shall utterly be destroyed.
Consider this in light
of the point that Israel’s ultimate punishment was exile.
Deut.
26:5 And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian
ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and
sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty,
and populous.
1 Sam. 9:20
And as for thine asses that were lost three days ago, set not thy
mind on them; for they are found. And on whom is all the desire of
Israel? Is it not on thee, and on all thy father’s house?
The sense of this word
suggests that the state of death is not exactly unconscious, but one in
which your mind wanders and focus is extremely difficult (which may make
sense if your brain is missing.). In essence, if we understand 'abad
correctly, those in Sheol do not lose consciousness, but rather,
concentration. And if that is so, little wonder "sleeping" is the main
activity.
Eccl.
9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not
any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them
is forgotten.
Nearly every defense of
"soul sleep" I have seen thus far begins with or contains this verse. If
it could be taken at face value, it would offer substantial evidence that
the dead are in a state of unconsciousness. However, it is precisely
because we cannot take it at "face value" that its use for "soul sleep" is
unjustified.
As we have noted in
other contexts, the nature of Ecclesiastes is paradoxical. It is a book
filled with statements regarded as being in tension (for example, on one
hand mulling over the despair of life, then shortly thereafter encouraging
the enjoyment of life) and has been variously identified as either a
dialogue of a man debating with himself, "torn between what he cannot
help seeing and what he still cannot help believing," [Kidner, Wisdom of
Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes, 91], or else as the author’s "challenge to
the man of the world to think his own position through to its bitter end,
with a view to seeking something less futile."
In either case, the
compositional principle is the same, and derives from the ancient Near
Eastern methodology, which we might loosely compare to a Hegelian case of
combining thesis and antithesis, to arrive at a synthesis.
In this regard
Ecclesiastes is related to other ANE literature with the same, or similar,
content and methodology. Works like A Dialogue About Human Misery
and Pessimistic Dialogue Between Master and Servant from Babylon;
The Man Who Was Tired of Life from Egypt; and the book of Job from
the OT, are all examples of this genre in which problems were discussed
and resolved via dialogue.
It is therefore
incautious to use Eccl. 9:5
as a doctrinal foundation passage. It is like quoting, alone, Eliphaz or
Bildad in the book of Job (or even Job himself, as some do: cf.
Job 14:12),
as Ecclesiastes is a whole is a "dialogue" document and, even if this
understanding of 9:5 is able to be maintained, it arguably comes from the
"negative" side of the dialogue and only represents a perception of the
arguer from the negative side rather than being an affirmation of fact.
To the bewilderment of
modern men who need all their answers in summary fashion, the above offers
all that the Old Testament explicitly says about our subject. There are
many other passages about Sheol and death, but no other passages give any
explicit information about the state of the dead, and with particular
reference to consciousness.
The only other relevant
data from the OT is that which tells us of the illegal practice of
necromancy (communication with the dead). The OT explicitly forbids this
practice (Lev. 19:31//Deut.
18:10; cf. 2 Kings 21:6,
23:24)
but that it is indeed practiced clearly suggests a belief in the ability
to contact and speak to the dead in the first place. The most complete
account, 1 Sam. 28,
shows us that Saul clearly expected Samuel to be able to be contacted and
therefore conscious. Nevertheless, this is not hard enough evidence, for
of course it is arguable that Saul was acting upon a mistaken belief, and
whether indeed Samuel himself was called up (or whether it was some other
impersonation, natural or supernatural) cannot be determined from the
text.
Such is the work of the
OT; now what of the NT? The data is more plentiful pro rata, but little
more specific. References to the dead being "asleep" on one hand, and Paul
referring to being "present" with the Lord on the other (2 Cor.
5:8), harbor few specifics in terms of what the state of the deceased
is (is "asleep" merely a euphemism, based on the bodily similarity of
death to sleep, or are we to take it as reflecting a state of
consciousness -- most of the time? all of the time? is one "with" the Lord
in an unconscious state, being kept ready for resurrection?) and where
they are "located".
As noted, it is
difficult to invest too much meaning into the figurative use of "sleep" to
refer to death. If the analogy has to be pressed, then during sleep, we do
dream, and we do thereby have a sort of conscious life even in the
intermediate state. We also have "light sleepers" who get up in the middle
of the night, and go back to sleep. Yet proponents of soul sleep do not
seem to press the analogy that far.
Proponents of "soul
sleep" will inevitably point out that Judaism of this time, which
apparently did believe in a conscious afterlife, had been tainted by
Hellenistic thought, from whence it is supposed this idea came of a
consciousness that could live apart from the body. While some would argue
this in line with the Semitic Totality concept, that concept only, again,
suggests that the material and immaterial parts of the body rightly belong
together, not that they cannot exist independently. The immaterial part
divorced from the material may, of course, be in less than optimal working
order (as the "dizzy Sheolites" paradigm may suggest) because it is not in
its proper place, but this would still not mean that there might not be
some degree of consciousness after death.
Here are a few points
about certain relevant passages:
Matt. 22:31-2 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye
not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God
of the dead, but of the living.
Opponents of "soul
sleep" would argue that this passage indicates that the patriarchs are
"alive" and in some sense conscious even now. Proponents respond that
because Jesus' original answer had to do with the resurrection body, this
says nothing about a conscious state prior to that time.
The contextual data
favors the former position. The same passage cited by Jesus, Ex. 3:6, was
also used by Philo (Abr. 50-55) and 4 Maccabees (7:18-19, 16:25) to say
that the patriarchs are still living, and later rabbis used a similar
passage, Ex. 33;1, to say that "the righteous are called living even in
their death" [Keener, Matthew commentary, 529].
However, it must
nevertheless be granted that nothing specific is said here about the state
of consciousness of the deceased. A "sleeping" soul might well be reckoned
as "living" after the manner of a person in a cryogenic freeze. We need to
seek more specific descriptions.
We will save Luke 16 for
next to last. Last will be an special end-around.
John 11:11
These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend
Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
Perhaps the most
peculiar argument I have seen for "soul sleep" comes from Bacchiocchi. In
the item called "The State of the Dead" he writes:
Lazarus' experience
is significant because he spent four days in the grave. This was not a
near-death experience, but a real death experience. If, as popularly
believed, the soul at death leaves the body and goes to heaven, then
Lazarus would have had an amazing after-life experience to share about
the four days he would have spent in paradise. The religious leaders and
the people would have done all in their power to elicit from Lazarus as
much information as possible about the after-life, especially since this
topic was hotly debated among the Sadducees and Pharisees (Matt
22:23, 28;
Mark 12:18, 23;
Luke 20:27, 33).
But Lazarus had
nothing to share about life after death, because during the four days he
spent in the tomb he slept the unconscious sleep of death. What is true
of Lazarus is also true of six other persons who were raised from the
dead: The widow’s son (1
Kings 17:17-24); the Shunammite’s son (2
Kings 4:18-37); the widow’s son at Nain (Luke
7:11-15); the daughter of Jairus (Luke
8:41-42,
49-56); Tabitha (Acts
9:36-41); and Eutychus (Acts
20:9-12). Each of these persons came out of death as if it were out
of a profound sleep, with the same feeling and individuality, but with
no afterlife experience to share
Bacchiocchi is wrongly
taking silence in texts as an affirmation. We do not know what if anything
these persons experienced, and the narrators of each document had other
concerns, and didn't
have reams of paper to spare to write about it. Moreover, only Lazarus
spent any significant amount of time dead (the Shunammite’s son and
Tabitha may have been dead for half a day or one day), and the powers that
be didn't want his story -- they wanted to kill him. (John 12:10)
Bacchiochi is imposing modern fascination with "near death experiences"
unto the texts.
Acts 2:34
For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The
Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand...
This has been used to
declare that David is not in heaven, but still asleep in his grave;
however, the context of this remark is a comparison to Jesus, who did
ascend to heaven, and to make the point that Ps. 110:1
is fulfilled by Jesus, not by David. It really doesn't make a clear point
saying that David is not in beatific bliss somewhere, though it
doesn't make a positive affirmation about where he is, either.
1 Peter 3:19-20 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits
in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering
of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing,
wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
This passage should
never be used against the doctrine of soul sleep. As we have
shown in Chapter 5 of The Mormon Defenders, and
here, the
"spirits" referred to are not human spirits.
Luke 16:23
And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham
afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
I have purposely saved
this cite for near last. If any passage gives us a clear view of the
afterlife one way or the other, it is this one; yet it still lacks
specifics enough to develop a full-fledged picture of the afterlife. The
rich man is conscious in hades; Abraham is conscious in paradise, and
Lazarus presumably is as well (or can be) if he is being asked to run an
errand.
This would seem clear
evidence of an afterlife in which consciousness is at least possible (of
course they could just all have been awake for a short time) but
Bacchiocchi objects on the following grounds:
-
If we take this view
literally, then what of that "the rich man is described as having 'eyes'
that see and a 'tongue' that speaks, as well as seeking relief from the
'finger' of Lazarus-all real body parts"?
Also, there is a gulf
between the two that cannot be crossed, yet does allow conversation. Are
we to see these as being literal? Hence Bacchiochi implies that perhaps
the state of consciousness is figurative as well.
This is rather an odd
argument from an author who wants to press the "sleep" metaphor for
death. We have no idea what these deceased men were "made of" so we can
hardly say reference to eyes and tongue aren't appropriate or might not
refer to parallel sense organs/capabilities (see below). Nor can we say
that it is impossible they could communicate long distance. Jewish
apocryphal literature envisaged no such problem. The rich man, however,
may have been wrong to think Lazarus could come over to him, which seems
to be the point of Abraham’s rebuke.
Other than that Bacchiocchi has
an emotional objection about how we could not be happy in heaven if we
could see people tormented in hell, but that’s rather off base from
Jewish perceptions (which saw true "peace" when everyone was where they
were supposed to be, and anyway, he’s not fully
up to date
on the rich man’s condition anyway -- see also
here) and
amounts to anachronzing his modern individualism on the text.
-
Next he tells us that
if we take this literally, it contradicts
Matt. 25:31-32. But he’s not reading the passage right
in the first place.
This reflects not a single "judgment day" but a continuing process.
-
Bacchiocchi then
brings out the OT verses noted above and claims they would be
contradictory. (I.e.,
Eccl. 9:5-6). He then notes descriptions of hades by Josephus which
match Jesus' account. This leads to his last argument:
-
If this is an
incorrect depiction, why did Jesus use it? We are told that "Jesus
capitalized on the popular understanding of the condition of the dead in
hades, not to endorse such views, but to drive home the importance of
heeding in this present life the teachings of Moses and the prophets
because this determines bliss or misery in the world to come."
Really? Then why
didn't Jesus place the parable in the setting of "the world to come"?
Bacchiocchi tries to draw a parallel thusly:
It should be
noted that even in the preceding parable of the Dishonest Steward (Luke
16:1-12), Jesus uses a story that does not accurately represent
Biblical truth. Nowhere, does the Bible endorse the practice of a
dishonest administrator who reduces to half the outstanding debts of
creditors in order to get some personal benefits from such creditors.
The lesson of the parable is to "make friends for yourselves" (Luke
16:9), not to teach dishonest business practices.
The parallel, however,
holds no water: The issue is not "Biblical truth" per se but reality.
Dishonest stewards obviously existed, even if they were poor moral
examples. Nothing Jesus told in that parable reflected a non-reality.
Thus the steward parable only lends credence to the suggestion that
Jesus is illustrating real conditions in the afterlife and using them as
a "template" for a moral story.
In closing, though, we
might add that we have no idea whether Abraham, Lazarus, and the rich man
were always active like they are depicted, or whether they were all in a
sleepy state most of the time, or what. This parable doesn't give us more
than a sliver of a view regardless of what we make of it.
Now for the last verse I
want to look at, and it is an "end around" that I have seen no "soul
sleep" advocate deal with -- because it doesn't mention death, they would
probably never think to mention it. Here it is:
2 Cor. 12:2-4 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago,
(whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I
cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I
cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and
heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
This proves that Paul
believed that a man could have a conscious life apart from a body. He
didn't die (most commentators think he is referring to himself obliquely
here, and his conversion experience on the road to Damascus, as a means of
not assuming too much honor) but he allows that he may have been "out of
the body" and yet was still conscious and able to hear things (in
spite of having no "ears"). None of this proves this state was static or
permanent, but it is clear that he allows for the separation of two
elements with consciousness remaining even in the separation.
The conclusion:
It is clear that consciousness is possible in the intermediate
state before resurrection; whether it is a steady or a changing state is a
matter of speculation. Not that we need to be concerned. I suspect the
Bible spends little time on the afterlife (including the silence
Bacchiochi mistakenly sees as problematic) precisely in order to keep our
minds where they should be -- on the here and now, serving the Lord Jesus.
Related subject:
Why are the
doctrines of heaven and hell not found in the OT?
-JPH
http://www.tektonics.org/qt/sleepy.html
[Top of Page]
False Doctrines On The Intermediate State After
Death
PART
1 - Soul Sleep vs The Truth Of Scripture
By Ed Tarkowski
"Soul sleep" means that when a
person dies, they have no conscious existence from that time on until the
day of resurrection. Another definition I have come across is that the
"soul sleep" of the deceased is an existence of silence, inactivity and
entire unconsciousness.
Mark 12:26-17 And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not
read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I
am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is
not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do
greatly err.
When God spoke to Moses, Jesus
said said to him that He was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In other
words, when God spoke to Moses at the burning bush, Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob had already lived and died. Yet Jesus said God was their God even
now, the God of the living in the present, meaning, though these three had
died physically, their spirits were not dead. Nor did He mention their
spirits were asleep. In other words, their spirits were alive, God was
their God, even while their bodies laid in the ground.
The bodies of these three were
dead and buried at the time Jesus spoke of them. He spoke of them
spiritually, though, as being alive. He mentioned God as the God of the
living, not the God of those asleep whether in or out of their bodies, as
some propose, that after death men’s spirits slept in their bodies until
the resurrection and were basically unconscious. No, He said that God
meant He was "the God of the living" when He spoke to Moses and when Jesus
spoke to the men of His time, "living" meaning,
LIVING 2198. zao, dzah'-o; a prim. verb; to live
(lit. or fig.):--life (-time), (a-) live (-ly), quick.
James described the dead of a person:
James 2:26
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is
dead also.
In other words, when a person dies, his body dies
and the spirit leaves the body:
WITHOUT 5565. choris, kho-rece'; adv. from
G5561; at a space, i.e. separately or apart from (often as
prep.):--beside, by itself, without.
In Genesis 35, we read this about the soul
departing from Rachel when she died, making soul sleep an impossibility:
18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in
departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his
father called him Benjamin.
19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is
Bethlehem (parenthesis in the original).
That the spirit goes to be with the Lord is stated
by Paul in Philippians 1:
Philippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain.
22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what
I shall choose I wot not.
23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to
be with Christ; which is far better:
24 Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
25 And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue
with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith;
26 That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my
coming to you again.
Paul’s choices were two in number: either
(1) stay in the flesh and continue to live on
this earth serving God’s people, or,
(2) depart and be with Christ.
Where is Christ? Is He in the ground in some type
of soul sleep? No, He is in heaven until He returns and the believer joins
Him there when each departs at death, that is, when their spirit leaves
the body at death as James described. Paul again repeated himself in 2
Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 5:6 Therefore we are always
confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are
absent from the Lord:
Simply stated. while he is in his body, he is
absent from the Lord’s heavenly presence. When he will be absent from the
body, he will no longer be 'absent from the Lord." There is no mention of
an intermediate state of soul sleep.
One of the most important scriptures refuting soul
sleep is found in Ephesians and it concerns Christ and His resurrection:
Ephesians 4:7 But unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity
captive, and gave gifts unto men.
9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first
into the lower parts of the earth?
10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all
heavens, that he might fill all things.)
Jesus lead captivity captive when He descended
into the lower parts of the earth. In other words, He descended and then
ascended out of their taking with Him a host of captives (those who waited
for His coming). That they were there waiting to be lead out shows the
non-existence of soul sleep:
LED CAPTIVITY 161. aichmalosia, aheekh-mal-o-see'-ah;
from G164; captivity:--captivity.
LED CAPTIVITY From 164. aichmalotos,
aheekh-mal-o-tos'; from aichme (a spear) and a der. of the same as G259;
prop. a prisoner of war, i.e. (gen.) a captive:--captive.
LED CAPTIVITY From 259. halosis, hal'-o-sis;
from a collateral form of G138; capture:--be taken.
LED CAPTIVITY From 138. haireomai,
hahee-reh'-om-ahee; prob. akin to G142; to take for oneself, i.e. to
prefer:--choose.
LED CAPTIVITY From 142. airo, ah'ee-ro; a prim.
verb; to lift; by impl. to take up or away; fig. to raise (the voice),
keep in suspense (the mind); spec. to sail away (i.e. weigh anchor); by
Heb. [comp. H5375] to expiate sin:--away with, bear (up), carry, lift
up, loose, make to doubt, put away, remove, take (away, up).
At death, the spirits of men of faith were held
captive at death in Hades and released from there when Jesus descended
there after His death (see 1 Peter 3:19 and 4:6). Jesus preached to
spirits held captive, whether they be the spirits of those in Noah’s days
or not. He didn't preach to a sleeping crowd.
Finally, Revelation clearly indicates that the
souls of the martyrs and the saints are in heaven before the resurrection
on the last day, again refuting the idea of soul sleep:
Revelation 6:9 And when he had opened the fifth
seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the
word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and
true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the
earth?
11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said
unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their
fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they
were, should be fulfilled.
[Top of Page]
PART 2: The False
Doctrine Of Annihilationism
By Ed Tarkowski
The doctrine of Annihilationism has various forms. Some, not believing
in an afterlife at all, believe man exists during a life on this earth,
but at death simply ceases to exist. But, those who are sincere concerning
this doctrine believe man was made to live forever, a free gift that can
be forfeited by continuing in sin by rejecting Christ. These do not suffer
eternally, but only temporarily and then are annihilated and cease to
exist.
An example of this doctrine is that which is proposed by the Jehovah
Witnesses. They do not believe in the separation of the spirit from the
body at death as described in James 2:26:
James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith
without works is dead also.
WITHOUT 5565. choris, kho-rece'; adv. from G5561; at a space, i.e.
separately or apart from (often as prep.):--beside, by itself, without.
"Without" means separately." The spirit is separated from the body at
death. This is much different than believing the soul and spirit become so
infused with the body at death that the entire person is annihilated.
They believe each person’s life ceases to exist, both those who believe
in Christ and those who don't, when the body is placed in the grave. God
then supposedly re-creates them as they were for their life in Paradise.
There are basically three forms of this belief. One is that at death,
everyone ceases to exist, but those who do believe in Christ receive
immortality. A second form of this belief is that the wicked are given
another chance after death to accept Christ, but if they do not, they then
cease to exist and are annihilated. Another form is that the wicked are
thrown into hell for a short period of suffering and are then annihilated.
Annihilationism denies the existence of an eternal hell as Scripture
describes it because the doctrine denies the eternal existence of man. If
one is immediately or eventually annihilated when life on earth ends,
there is no need for a place of punishment. But, Jesus said,
Matthew 25:46 And these shall go away into EVERLASTING punishment:
but the righteous into life eternal.
Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of
life was cast into the lake of fire.
Notice the word "everlasting" in Matthew 25:46. It is the same word
used in this verse concerning the New Covenant:
Hebrews 13:20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of
the everlasting covenant,
21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you
that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom
be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
This denies annihilationism because the wicked will suffer forever in
the lake of fire. If this is not so, then the New Covenant is also
nullified because it cannot be eternal as we understand it. The result of
this type of nonsense concerning annihilationism is that all will
eventually be lost and annihilated, the saved and the unsaved (because of
the definition of "everlasting" in everlasting covenant). But, don't
worry, the New Covenant is forever.
http://www.velocity.net/~edju/web/SoulSleep2.htm
[Top of Page]
Adapted from
Wikipedia
William Tyndale (1484-1536), English Bible
translator
"And ye, in
putting them [the departed souls] in heaven, hell and purgatory, destroy
the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection... And
again, if the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be not in as good a
case as the angels be? And then what cause is there of the resurrection?"
—William Tyndale, An Answer to Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue (1530)
Martin Luther (1493-1546), Anti-Semitic German
reformer and Bible translator
"Salomon
judgeth that the dead are a sleepe, and feele nothing at all. For the dead
lye there accompting neyther dayes nor yeares, but when they are awoken,
they shall seeme to have slept scarce one minute." —Martin Luther, An
Exposition of Salomon’s Booke, called Ecclesiastes or the Preacher
(translation 1573)
"It is
certain that to this day Abraham is serving God, just as Abel, Noah are
serving God. And this we should carefully note; for it is divine truth
that Abraham is living, serving God, and ruling with Him. But what sort of
life that may be, whether he is asleep or awake, is another question. How
the soul is resting we are not to know, but it is certain that it is
living."[4]
"But the soul
does not sleep in the same manner (like a person on earth.) It is awake.
It experiences visions and the discourses of the angels and of God.
Therefore the sleep in the future life is deeper than it is in this life.
Nevertheless, the soul lives before God."[5]
John Milton (1608-1674), English poet and Latin secretary to
Oliver Cromwell
"Inasmuch
then as the whole man is uniformly said to consist of body, and soul
(whatever may be the distinct provinces assigned to these divisions), I
will show, that in death, first, the whole man, and secondly, each
component part, suffers privation of life...The grave is the common
guardian of all till the day of judgment." —John Milton, De Doctrina
Christiana (never published)
Isaac Newton (1642-1727), English polymath
Present-day defenders of these doctrines include the
Seventh-day Adventist Church,
Jehovah’s Witnesses,
Christadelphians, the
Church of God
(Seventh Day), the
Church of God
Abrahamic Faith, and various other Church of God organizations
including most
Related Denominations
which adhered to the older teachings of the
Worldwide Church of
God. Some authorities within
Conservative Judaism, notably
Neil Gillman, also support the notion that the souls of the dead are
unconscious until the Resurrection.[6]
[Note that most of the organizations listed in this paragraph are
considered to be outside of mainstream Christianity — Ari]
[Top of Page]
Adapted from
Wikipedia
Opponents of psychopannychism and thnetopsychism
include the Roman Catholic Church,
most mainline Protestant
denominations, and most conservative Protestants, Evangelicals, and
Fundamentalists. The Roman Catholic Church has called soul "mortality" a
serious heresy:
Whereas some have dared to assert concerning the nature of the
reasonable soul that it is mortal, we, with the approbation of the
sacred council do condemn and reprobate all those who assert that the
intellectual soul is mortal, seeing, according to the canon of
Pope Clement V, that the soul is [...]
immortal [...] and we decree that all who adhere to like erroneous
assertions shall be shunned and punished as heretics.
Fifth Council of the Lateran
(1513)
Calvinism and Eastern Orthodoxy both affirm a conscious
interim state, and both deny that the interim state of rest or suffering
is the final state of 'heaven' or 'hell'.
John Calvin
"As long as
(the soul) is in the body it exerts its own powers; but when it quits this
prison-house it returns to God, whose presence, it meanwhile enjoys while
it rests in the hope of a blessed Resurrection. This rest is its paradise.
On the other hand, the spirit of the reprobate, while it waits for the
dreadful judgment, is tortured by that anticipation. . ."[3]
Contemporary opponents include
Millard Erickson.[7]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_sleep]
[Top of Page]
Of all of these articles, I believe that
Holding does the best job by far of
presenting the scriptural basis upon which to refute the concept of soul
sleep.
To add to his quite capable study, I wish to present my
personal conclusion upon the matter; however, as unusual as it may be for
me to do so, I am going to base this opinion primarily upon human logic,
using Holding’s conclusion as the foundation stone for that logic. My
argument is going to be presented as a series of logic statements, each of
which builds upon its predecessor to the final conclusion.
1. HaShem,
the God of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya'akov (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), is
clearly presented in the Scriptures as being the Creator of all things
that exist.
2. Inasmuch
as HaShem created both time and space, then clearly He must exist outside
of both; He obviously cannot exist in, and be bound, by that which He
created.
3. The
Scriptures clearly teach that He became a Man and walked among us in the
Person of Yeshua HaMashiach.
4. The
Scriptures (particularly 1Cor 8:6
and Col 1:16)
declare that HaShem, in the Person of Yeshua HaMashiach, created all
things, and by Him everything created continues to exist.
5. Since
HaShem is the Creator God, and since Yeshua created and sustains all
things, then Yeshua is HaShem.
6. Since
Yeshua is HaShem, Who exists outside of time and space, and HaShem is the
Creator, then Yeshua the Creator must now exist outside of both time and
space.
7. The God of
Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya'akov, in the Person of Yeshua, taught His
talmidim that He was going to prepare a place for them (and for us who
believe in Him).
8. Yeshua
told the thief on the cross that he would be with Yeshua in
Paradise, not at some time in the distant future, but that very day.
9. Under the
inspiration of Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit of God) Rav Sha'ul taught
that “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”
10. From
statements 7, 8, and 9 we can determine that immediately upon the death of
the body we should expect to be with Yeshua in Paradise.
11. Since
Yeshua exists outside of time and space, and to be absent from the body is
to be with Him where He exists, then when we are absent from the body we
must of necessity be with Him, ourselves outside of time and space.
12. Since
immediately upon our death we exist outside of time and space, then for us
there can be no “time” between our physical death and our resurrection.
Our resurrection must therefore of necessity occur instantaneously,
precisely at the instant of our physical death.
This scenario, however, can only apply to those who
have experienced, or will experience, physical death subsequent to Yeshua
HaMashiach’s resurrection. Prior to that event, the spirits of the
deceased were conscious (not asleep) in sheol, the land of the
dead, as described by Yeshua and recorded in
Luke 16:19-31. We can be sure that this teaching was not merely
a parable, since in the Master’s parables nobody was ever specifically
named; yet in this account the poor man is Lazarus, a real person and not
some fictional character invented for the sake of the illustration.
The Rich Man and Lazarus
“Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine
linen, joyously living in splendor every day. And a poor man named Lazarus
was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the
crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the
dogs were coming and licking his sores. Now the poor man died and was
carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died
and was buried. In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw
Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said,
‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the
tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in
this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you
received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is
being comforted here, and you are in agony. And besides all this, between
us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come
over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from
there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to
my father’s house — for I have five brothers — in order that he may warn
them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ But
Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ But
he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead,
they will repent!’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and
the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the
dead.’ ”
From Yeshua’s description we know that in
sheol there are (or were at the time of His teaching) two separate
areas or compartments, Avraham’s Bosom where the righteous dead, with
Avraham, awaited their resurrection to eternal reward, and Hades where the
unrighteous dead likewise, in conscious torment, presently await their
resurrection to eternal punishment. We also know that these two areas are
separated by a “great chasm” across which none may pass.
From
Ephesians 4:8-10 we learn that when He ascended, he led a host of
captives from the lower parts of the earth (sheol), and ascended
with them far above all the heavens.
From these two passages we may draw the
assumption (though not a firm conclusion by any means) that upon Yeshua’s
resurrection and ascension, He led all the righteous dead from Avraham’s
Bosom to go to be with Him in that place outside of time and space that He
has prepared for us.
We may likewise assume (though not conclude
with certainty) that all the unrighteous dead from all ages continue in
conscious torment in Hades until the time of their resurrection to the
Final Judgment.
[Top of Page]
1. “Because some have a prevision of the glory
to come and others foretaste their suffering, the state of waiting is
called ‘Particular Judgment‘’ (What Are the Differences between
Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism?, 11) [RETURN]
2. “Several places in the New Testament we
clearly find the notion that the dead are conscious, dwelling somewhere in
the heavenly realms beyond, and awaiting, either in torment or comfort,
the final judgment (Luke 16:19-31, 23:43; 1 Pet. 3:18-20; 4:6; Rev. 6:9-1
l; 7:9-12).” James Tabor
[1] [RETURN]
3. John Calvin,
Psychopannychia, @ lgmarshall.org
[RETURN]
4. Tal Davis, “Soul
Sleep” @
4truth.net [RETURN] [It should be noted that most Evangelicals consider the JW’s to
be a pseudo-Christian cult and the SDA to be outside the scope of
Mainstream Christianity.]
5. Tal Davis, “Soul
Sleep” @
4truth.net [RETURN] [It should be noted that most Evangelicals consider the JW’s to
be a pseudo-Christian cult and the SDA to be outside the scope of
Mainstream Christianity.]
[Top of Page]
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