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The Seventh-day
Adventist Church’s Fundamental Belief,
Number 26 (Death and Resurrection), says
this: “The wages of sin is death. But God,
who alone is immortal, will grant eternal
life to His redeemed. Until that day death
is an unconscious state for all people. When
Christ, who is our life, appears, the
resurrected righteous and the living
righteous will be glorified and caught up to
meet their Lord. The second resurrection,
the resurrection of the unrighteous, will
take place a thousand years later.”
[1]
What is death and is it
an
unconscious state?
In death, we step
outside of our normal existence and enter
into God’s realm which is outside of
normal time and space. The immaterial part
of us, our conscience (or soul), goes into the
presence of God. When we are asleep, we are
not in a state of unconsciousness. Sleep is an altered state
of consciousness. “Sleep is a unique state
of consciousness; it lacks full awareness
but the brain is still active.”
[2] Time is not time in God’s
dimension. God exists outside of our time and
space. Both time and space are elements of
His creation (2 Pet. 3:8).
“Soul sleep”—the
belief that the soul rests after death in an
unconscious state, or ceases to exist, until
the final resurrection—finds its roots in
the common “sleeping” metaphor for bodily
death that the Bible uses. Although this
metaphor appears in Scripture, a thorough
study shows that the metaphor of sleep
refers only to the earthly body’s inanimate
state after death, not to the soul.
[3]
What does the
Bible say happens when we die?
Because of Adam’s
sin, every human being is subject to death.
Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as
sin came into the world through one man, and
death through sin, and so death spread to
all men because all sinned.”
When a
believer dies, they go to be in the presence
of God awaiting the resurrection. All of
God’s people will be raised up together in
the resurrection at the same time (1 Cor. 15:19;
2 Cor. 5:1-10; 1 Thess. 4:13-14;
Heb. 12:23-24).
Sleep is used as a
metaphor to describe the state of a
believer’s body in death (Job 19:23-27;
Ps. 49:15; 71:20; Isa. 26:19; Dan. 12:3;
Hosea 13:14; John 11:24; Acts 23:6; 24:15;
2 Cor. 5:1-10; 2 Tim. 1:10).
When a believer dies, their body is said
to sleep and their soul goes to be with God
(Luke 23:43). Believers are forever safe and
secure in God’s presence (2 Cor. 5:8;
Phil. 1:23; Heb. 12:1; 1 Thess. 5:10; Luke 16:19-31). The term
“sleep” is never applied to the soul or the
spirit, only to the body.
The Christian hope:
Revelation 20:6
says, “Blessed and holy is the one who
shares in the first resurrection! Over such
the second death has no power, but they will
be priests of God and of Christ, and they
will reign with him for a thousand years.”
(cf. Matt. 22:31-32; Rom. 14:8).
The unbeliever has a different final destiny
than the believer. The
second death spoken of in Revelation 2:11
and Revelation 20:6 is the final banishment
of all unbelievers from God’s presence. The
second death is a reference to the lake of
fire where those who are separated from God
by their sin will suffer their final fate.
The Scriptures clearly teach that
after death, man is conscious,
either in the
presence of God, or in hades.
“The Greek word
“hades”
was used in Bible times as the equivalent of
the Hebrew word “sheol”, the name
used in the Old Testament for the world of
the dead. This world of the dead was the
shadowy destiny that awaited all people,
whether good or bad (Acts 2:27; Ps. 16:10).”
[4]
God’s revelation is progressive!
The New Testament gives us more information
and a much clearer picture of the nature of
man in death.
In describing
death, sleep is nothing more than how the
living views the dead. In death we still
exist, think, and experience consciousness
just as we do when we sleep! Dreaming is a
conscious activity while asleep.
In fact, the Bible warns that
we can still sin while we sleep!
Jude 1:8 says,
“Yet in the same manner these men, also by
dreaming, defile the flesh”
Psalms 16:7 says,
“Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.”
Those who teach
soul sleep often
say man does not have a soul, but man “is” a
soul.
Yet, the Bible teaches us that we do have a
separate soul.
Matthew 10:28 says,
“And do not fear those who kill the body but
cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who
can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
“Other biblical events make clear
there is no soul sleep for believers
but rather a conscious, immediate
presence with God after death:
• The stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:54-59).
• The transfiguration of Christ
Jesus
(Matt. 17:1-8; Mark 9:1-8; Luke 9:28-36).
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Two more passages
bear further discussion. |
The
first passage comes from John’s
Gospel.
John 11:23-27 says,
“Jesus said to her, “Your brother
will rise again.” Martha said to
him, “I know that he will rise again
in the resurrection on the last
day.” 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?” She said to Him,
“Yes, Lord; I have believed that You
are the Christ, the Son of God, even
He who comes into the world.’”
Notice Jesus corrected Martha’s
belief that her brother would only
“live” in the resurrection. In
contrast, Jesus revealed that
believers will live even if they
die, and in fact, they will never
die in the way that our bodies do.
The second passage comes from
the book of 1 Peter.
1 Peter 3:18 says,
“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.”
Believers, at the
moment of salvation, are “crucified
with Christ,” and yet they live
(Gal. 2:20). When the earthly body
of the believer dies, he or she
lives on spiritually. Through faith
in Christ, believers have been made
alive in the spirit just as Jesus
lives in the spirit. We who profess
Christ are not destined for soul
sleep or the grave!”
[5]
Man is made up of three
parts: spirit, soul and body:
1 Thessalonians 5:23, “Now may
the God of peace himself sanctify
you completely, and may your whole
spirit and soul and body be kept
blameless at the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ.”
Man’s breath
and his spirit are described as two
separate things:
Isaiah 42:5, “Thus says God,
the LORD, who created the heavens
and stretched them out, who spread
out the earth and what comes from
it, who gives breath to the people
on it and spirit to those who walk
in it:”
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Closely examine these three parallel
passages:
1 Thessalonians 5:10
Christ, “who died for us so that whether we
are awake or asleep we might live
with him.” |
How do you live with the Lord when
you are dead? Obviously, there is
conscious existence after death! |
Romans 14:9
“For to this end Christ died and
lived again, that he might be Lord
both of the dead and of the living.” |
Jesus Christ is Lord of the dead who
must consciously exist! |
Luke 20:38
“Now he is not God of the dead, but
of the living, for all live to him.” |
Jesus refuted the Sadducees by
proving that the dead are not
extinct, but continue to exist. God
is the God of Abraham right now,
because Abraham consciously exists! |
Notice how being awake corresponds to
living,
and being asleep corresponds to being dead:
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God is God of both the: |
living |
dead |
1 Thessalonians 5:10 |
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Jesus is Lord of both the: |
living |
dead |
Romans 14:9 |
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We live together with Him whether:
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living |
dead |
Luke 20:38 |
Notice how the
Apostle Paul describes death:
2 Corinthians 5:1-10
says, “For we know that if the tent that is
our earthly home is destroyed, we have a
building from God, a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this
tent we groan, longing to put on our
heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it
on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we
are still in this tent, we groan, being
burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but
that we would be further clothed, so that
what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
5 He who has prepared us for this very thing
is God, who has given us the Spirit as a
guarantee. 6 So we are always of good
courage. We know that while we are at home
in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for
we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we
are of good courage, and we would rather be
away from the body and at home with the
Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away,
we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we
must all appear before the judgment seat of
Christ, so that each one may receive what is
due for what he has done in the body,
whether good or evil.”
The ESV
Study Bible has a very good commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:
“2 Corinthians 5:1-10: In spite of the fact that
Paul longs to be “at home” with the Lord, he
does not lose heart while he is away from
the Lord (2 Cor. 5:6, 8). His confidence in the
future resurrection and in the reality of
the judgment to come keeps him faithful in
the present as he pursues his goal of
pleasing Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:1:
The tent that is our earthly home refers to
present human bodies that will die. “Have”
refers to the future resurrection, and “the
building from God... eternal in the heavens”
refers to the resurrection body believers
will receive on the last day (cf. 1 Thess. 4:13-18; Rev. 21:1-22:5). The tent analogy
was quite apt since Paul made tents while
living in Corinth (Acts 18:3), and the
Corinthians likely sold tents to sailors or
used them for housing visitors attending the
Isthmian Games.
2 Corinthians 5:2-4:
Paul groans for the resurrection (i.e.,
being further clothed; cf. v. 1) in order to
not be found naked or unclothed, which
likely refers to the intermediate state in
which believers’ spirits are with God but
they do not yet enjoy their resurrected
bodies.
2 Corinthians 5:5: the Spirit
as a guarantee. The presence of the Spirit
in Christians’ lives now is the down payment
or guarantee that they will receive
resurrection bodies when Jesus returns.
2 Corinthians 5:6: at home and away
contrasted.
2 Corinthians 5:7: by
faith, not by sight. This is not a reference
to believing the unbelievable but to living
all of one’s life based on confident trust
in God’s promises for the future, even when
one cannot yet see the fullness of the
coming glory (2 Cor. 4:18-5:1).
2 Corinthians 5:8: Away from the body
and at home with the Lord refers to
the “intermediate state” between a
Christian’s death and the
resurrection of all believers’
bodies on the day Christ returns.
Paul means that when he dies, though
his physical body will be buried
here on earth, he expects that he
(as a “spirit” or “soul” without a
body) will go immediately into the
presence of Christ, and will be
present with Christ in that
condition until the day of
resurrection (cf. Luke 23:43; Phil. 1:23; Heb. 12:23).” |
God’s people
go to be in His presence at the time of
their death (cf. Phil. 1:23). To be
away from the body means to be at home with the
Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). They
can know that they are safe and
secure in God’s presence (cf. Luke 23:43; 1 Thess. 5:10).
“Believers will not float in a state of limbo, or cease to exist. Instead, they will
have a personal encounter with their Lord
and Savior. Then, when Christ returns
believers will be given heavenly bodies that
will be perfect and will last forever
(cf. 1 Cor. 15:51-54; 1 Thess. 4:16-18).”
[6]
Those who
believe in soul sleep often quote Ecclesiastes 9:5-6.
“For the living know
that they will die, but the dead know
nothing, and they have no more reward, for
the memory of them is forgotten. Their love
and their hate and their envy have already
perished, and forever they have no more
share in all that is done under the sun”
(Eccl. 9:5-6).
Notice that
this passage is speaking about what we know
and it is referring to the things of this
world.
“When Solomon says
the dead know nothing and that there is no
work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom after
death, he is not contrasting life with
afterlife, but life with death. After you
die, you can’t change what you have done.
Resurrection to a new life after death was a
vague concept for Old Testament believers.
It was only made clear after Jesus rose from
the dead.” [7]
“The dead do not
know anything” does not mean they are
insensible. Later revelation indicates that
the dead are aware of their feelings, the
past, other people, and other things (cf.
Matt. 25:46; Luke 16:19-31; et al.). In
the context, this clause means the dead have
no capacity to enjoy life as the living can.”
[8]
Ecclesiastes 9:5 “is
not a flat denial of any hope beyond the
grave. The point of view is limited to what
can be known strictly from a human point of
view, “under the sun.” they have no more
reward: The Preacher’s point appears to be
the same as that in the Gospel of John: One
must work while it is still day (that is,
while one is still alive), for the night
will come when no one can work (John 9:4).”
[9]
The Seventh-day
Adventist belief on this subject is
biblically flawed because they define man as
nothing more than body and breath with no actual
spirit, or soul. They believe when the body dies the breath simply
returns to God, causing that person to cease
their existence. This makes the second
coming a re-creation event and not the
resurrection event that the Bible says it
is. Soul sleep is completely false according
to Scripture.
Resources:
1.
The State of the Dead: From Death to Life.
2.
Adapted from:
States of Consciousness.
3.
Awake beyond the Grave: What the Bible Says
about Soul Sleep.
4.
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary: Hades.
5.
Adapted from:
Awake beyond the Grave: What the Bible Says
about Soul Sleep.
6. Adapted from:
The Life Application New Testament
Commentary: 2 Corinthians 5:8.
7. Life Application Study Bible:
Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10.
8.
Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable:
Ecclesiastes 9:4-6.
9. Nelson’s NKJV Study Bible: Ecclesiastes 9:5.
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