SOUL SLEEP
Soul sleep is the false teaching that one’s soul sleeps in the grave until the resurrection. Though the body sleeps in the grave until the resurrection, the soul goes immediately to heaven or hell, if the person is lost. Soul sleep is tied to another false belief: the belief of no hell (see HELL). The two teachings are linked together, for if one does not believe in an eternal hell, then he has nowhere to send the soul of the lost until the resurrection and judgment. They are forced to come up with this false belief of soul sleep to explain where the soul goes. They cover one lie with another lie and explain that the lost and the saved sleep in the grave waiting for the resurrection and judgment, with the saved going to heaven and the lost then ceasing to exist after the judgment. But the Bible does not teach annihilation (see DEATH). Those who believe this will use Ecclesiastes 9:5: “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing…” However, the next verse tells us this was in regards to “any thing that is done under the sun” but not in heaven.
Several verses teach that our spirit
leaves immediately upon death:
1) In the Bible death only takes place when the spirit leaves the body; if a person’s spirit goes into the grave, then he did not die. “For as the body without the spirit is dead…” (James 2:26; see also Genesis 35:18; 2 Peter 1:14; 1 Kings 17:21–22; 2 Timothy 4:6).
2) Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). In the same chapter, verse 46, Christ himself said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”
3) Paul said, “Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord” and said he would rather be “absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6, 8).
4) “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh [body], this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh [body] is more needful for you” (Philippians 1:21–24).
5) In Luke 16:22–23, Christ explains what happens after death. This passage is not a parable as some believe. (If your Bible has the title to this section saying it is a “parable,” it was added by the translators and is not in the Greek.) There is no parable that has the names of people in it, and this has both Lazarus and Abraham, who we know was a historical person. And of course, Christ would not leave us with the wrong impression by telling us about a place that He knew was not real. “The beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments…”
6) “And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus” (Mark 9:4). In this passage, Moses has been dead for over 1,500 years but is alive and talking with Christ.
7) Revelation 6:9–10 says, “the souls of them that were slain for the word of God…,” and it says they were in heaven (“under the altar”) and they are talking to God.
Soul sleep is the false teaching that one’s soul sleeps in the grave until the resurrection. Though the body sleeps in the grave until the resurrection, the soul goes immediately to heaven or hell, if the person is lost. Soul sleep is tied to another false belief: the belief of no hell (see HELL). The two teachings are linked together, for if one does not believe in an eternal hell, then he has nowhere to send the soul of the lost until the resurrection and judgment. They are forced to come up with this false belief of soul sleep to explain where the soul goes. They cover one lie with another lie and explain that the lost and the saved sleep in the grave waiting for the resurrection and judgment, with the saved going to heaven and the lost then ceasing to exist after the judgment. But the Bible does not teach annihilation (see DEATH). Those who believe this will use Ecclesiastes 9:5: “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing…” However, the next verse tells us this was in regards to “any thing that is done under the sun” but not in heaven.
Several verses teach that our spirit
leaves immediately upon death:
1) In the Bible death only takes place when the spirit leaves the body; if a person’s spirit goes into the grave, then he did not die. “For as the body without the spirit is dead…” (James 2:26; see also Genesis 35:18; 2 Peter 1:14; 1 Kings 17:21–22; 2 Timothy 4:6).
2) Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). In the same chapter, verse 46, Christ himself said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”
3) Paul said, “Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord” and said he would rather be “absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6, 8).
4) “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh [body], this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh [body] is more needful for you” (Philippians 1:21–24).
5) In Luke 16:22–23, Christ explains what happens after death. This passage is not a parable as some believe. (If your Bible has the title to this section saying it is a “parable,” it was added by the translators and is not in the Greek.) There is no parable that has the names of people in it, and this has both Lazarus and Abraham, who we know was a historical person. And of course, Christ would not leave us with the wrong impression by telling us about a place that He knew was not real. “The beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments…”
6) “And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus” (Mark 9:4). In this passage, Moses has been dead for over 1,500 years but is alive and talking with Christ.
7) Revelation 6:9–10 says, “the souls of them that were slain for the word of God…,” and it says they were in heaven (“under the altar”) and they are talking to God.
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