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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).
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 that 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:”
Closely examine these three parallel
passages:
1 Thessalonians
5:10 says, “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
says, “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 says, “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
exists consciously.]
Notice
how being awake corresponds to living and
asleep corresponds to being dead:
God is God of both the living and the
dead in 1 Thessalonians 5:10.
Jesus is
Lord of both the living and the dead in
Romans 14:9.
We live together with Him
whether we are living or dead in 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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