Soul Sleep - Let's drop the stones and talk

Type in the words, "Soul Sleep" into a Google search engine and you are not in want of blogs and webpage discussions ready to cast their stones at the humble soul that would dare question the "fact" that when we die, we either go straight to heaven or to hell.

Labels such as "heresy," and "false doctrine" are the norm while those that wander into this neighborhood, somewhere between Jerusalem and Jericho, are thrust into a category alongside Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons.

What ever happened to Paul's teaching to the church in Corinth:

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2)

And again...

 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part.   But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. (1 Corinthians 13:8-12)

So, let's take a look at the theory of Soul Sleep and see if there are any merits. 

First, what is sleep?

Is it not both a state and a period of unconsciousness?  For example, if I lay upon my couch, hands clasped, eyes closed, thinking about the day or listening to music; if consciousness remains, I am not sleeping.  Again, should I enter my bed chamber in the dark of night, lay upon my bed with eyes shut, and while I toss and turn from the burdens of life or that late cup of coffee, if I am conscious and awake, sleep evades me (even though my body is resting).

Second, I would propose that the soul (nefesh/psyche) is not the Spirit (Ruach/Pneuma) and vice versa. They are, however, so closely intertwined in life, that the author of Hebrews declares that it is the Word of God that discerns the two:

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

So let's begin with two examples of where Jesus speaks of death as sleep:

And they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saw a commotion, and people weeping and wailing loudly.   And when he entered, he said to them, “Why are you agitated and weeping? The child is not dead, but is sleeping.”   And they began laughing at him. But he sent them all out and took along the father and mother of the child, and those who were with him, and went in to where the child was.   And taking hold of the child’s hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”),   and immediately the girl stood up and began walking around (for she was twelve years old). And immediately they were utterly and completely astonished.   And he commanded them strictly that no one should learn of this, and said to give her something to eat. (Mark 5:38-43)

Certainly, those in the community did not understand what Jesus meant.  Why? Because they considered the death of the body to be a finality, whereas Jesus saw it as a temporary condition, for those that find their "life" in Him.

The second example is the story of Mary and Martha's brother, Lazarus:

He said these things, and after this he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I can awaken him.”   So the disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.”   (Now Jesus had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was speaking about real sleep.)   So Jesus then said to them plainly, “Lazarus has died,  and I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”  (John 11:11-15)

Again, like the community around the ruler of the synagogue's house, the disciples don't understand what Jesus means when He speaks of "sleep" as "death," even though He had just stated:

“This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, in order that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”  (John 11:4)

What no one could understand was that life comes from the Spirit.  And those that die believing in Christ/Messiah, still live on, in Him.  He goes on to explain this to Martha:

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”   Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live,   and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die forever. Do you believe this?”   She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who comes into the world.” (John 11:23-27)

How else do we explain what the Apostle Paul says to the church in Ephesus:

...and raised us together and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6)

 Are we physically seated there now?  By His Spirit, yes!  As the earlier verses reveal:

And you, although you were dead in your trespasses and sins,  in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience,  among whom also we all formerly lived in the desires of our flesh, doing the will of the flesh and of the mind, and we were children of wrath by nature, as also the rest of them were.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us,  and we being dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved).  (Ephesians 2:1-5)

Which is a fulfillment of Ezekiel 36: 

And I will sprinkle on you pure water, and you will be clean from all of your uncleanness, and I will cleanse you from all of your idols.   And I will give a new heart to you, and a new spirit I will give into your inner parts, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give to you a heart of flesh.   And I will give my spirit into your inner parts, and I will make it so that you will go in my rules, and my regulations you will remember, and you will do them. (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

Our life and being exists, and is sustained "in Him" (see Acts 17:28).  As the scriptures declare, no longer I, but Christ lives within me (Galatians 2:20).  Thus, in death, like a baby in the womb, though there is no breath, nor awareness of what is happening on the outside, life is yet sustained and nurtured until the precise moment of delivery.  In this case, of new birth and eternal life in the resurrection of the living. 

Returning to the thought that our souls do not sleep at death (and await the coming resurrection), we are left with a few questions to ponder:

1. If the soul departs at death, with what body does it enjoy the heavenlies...or experience the pain, fire, and suffering of hell?
2. If we are sent to heaven when we die and return with Christ, why does he make us sleep in the dust at that time (Daniel 12:2), only to be raised with our old body, but a newer version?
3. And if, perchance, we should be given a "temporary body" in the realms beyond the grave, wasn't the one we had in heaven better than the dusty one we return to?

Granted, some may not make the case that we are in a "real body" in heaven or hell, but are spirits with forms, like ghosts.  This again leads us to ponder:  Do those spirit bodies then have the capacity of senses such as sight, thirst, and nerve endings that feel heat and pain?

And what about what Paul writes in his second letter to the church in Corinth:

For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.  We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing.  For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.  While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. (2 Corinthians 5:1-5)

(Note: I chose the NLT for both clarity and emphasis)

So, if we go to heaven where our permanent residences (glorified bodies) are located, why wouldn't we get to put them on?  And further, would He leave us "naked" as the NKJV states; as disembodied spirits?

Reformer William Tyndale, labeled as a heretic of his age by the Catholic Establishment, would challenge his opponents in the belief of Christian Mortalism or Soul Sleep, arguing:

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?" (Tyndale, William (1530), An Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue)

Jesus also appears to leave the disciples with a similar message before he departs:

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. (John 14:1-3)

Are these buildings in heaven where we will one day live?  I would suggest, in light of Paul's teaching, that they are our new bodies; houses in heaven not made by human hands that are our permanent dwellings.  And we note, that when everything is ready, he will come (again) and gather us unto himself, that where he is, we may be also.  If we have been with him all this time, this statement is confusing.

Again, if we have been with him since death, and he comes back hallway, in a hidden rapture,  and our bodies rise, and then we go back to heaven for a wedding feast, did he just forget our bodies on earth? Does that thought align itself with Paul's message to the church in Corinth or Jesus' statement to the disciples?

 Turning to Matthew 22, we are told of an encounter Jesus has with the Sadducees. They have come to challenge his read of the law in light of his claim of a resurrection. 

The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him,  saying: “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.  Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after  had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother.  Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh.   Last of all the woman died also.  Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.”Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.  For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.  But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying,   ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”  And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching. (Matthew 22:23-33)

Here we note that Jesus both reaffirms the resurrection and goes on to describe the glorified abodes of the saints in forms akin to the angels.  He doesn't say that we rise with the same bodies that were planted in the dust in Sheol/Hades.

 

John, in his first epistle seems to give us an Amen, declaring:

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1 John 3:2)

 

Paul also chimes in with his first letter to the church in Corinth, saying:

But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.  And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain.  But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. (1 Corinthians 15:35-37)

It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.  The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.   As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly.  And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. (1 Corinthians 15:44-50)

So here again, it appears that the body of the righteous, placed into the ground at death, is not that which is raised. It also appears that we are not first spiritual, but natural. And that we will bear the image of Christ at His return.  The truly "dead," however, are raised (in the second resurrection - see 2 Timothy 4:1) "naked" in their old bodies, to be judged according to what they have done in the flesh. They do not have the Spirit of Christ, but the spirit of the prince of this world, and are sons of disobedience (Ephesians 2:1-4).

So, if it is not the body of the saints that is sleeping and is raised, what is raised?

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. [or sleep through Jesus]

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.  For the Lord Himself will descend  from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-16)

Are we to understand "those" and "the dead in Christ" to mean our bodies? That would seem incongruent with what we read in 1 Corinthians 15.  And if want is raised is not the body that was planted, then what is this seed of life?  Could it not be the soul of man? 

Certainly, we must agree that those that support the theory of Soul Sleep have valid points of discussion for their beliefs.  And even if we should still disagree, can we at least agree to disagree?

 Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. (Philippians 3:15)

 “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. (Revelations 22:12)

Amen! Come Lord Jesus!

For further reading on the subject, may I humbly recommend my new book:

What's Next?  From the Moment of Death to Eternal Life available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

In it, I explore what is the soul and delve into the scriptural challenges that the opponents of Soul Sleep state, make it null and void, to include:

2 Corinthians 5:6-8

Philippians 1:23

The Thief on the Cross

Abraham's Bosom

Sharing the truth in love! Come let us reason together...