Addressing The Myth of Soul Sleep

Hello everyone, today I will be going over a certain popular belief that the souls of those that die enter into a coma like or uncouncsious state until the resurrection. Some groups that teach this doctrine are SDA's and Jehovah's witnesses. The goal of this article is simply to refute that idea.




Since the belief of what goes on in the afterlife is outside the realm of science, (since science is the study of the material realm), we must therefore turn elsewhere to get our answer here. So where can we turn to get our answer regarding the soul and the afterlife? The hindu vedas? The Quran? No. The only place we can get our answer here is the Christian scriptures.

Where Does the Idea of Soul Sleep Come From?

The Creation of the soul sleep doctrine comes from a misinterpretation or misunderstanding of bible verses such as 1 King 2:10, 1 King 11:43, 1 King 16:6, Mar 5:39, Joh 11:11, Act 7:60, 1 Cor 15:6,
and 1 Cor 15:51, etc. These verses tell the reader that certain people fell asleep when referring to their death, people such as David, Solomon, Baasha, the damsel, and Lazarus; or they refer to death as sleeping in general. This is because to the living, dead bodies look as if they are asleep.

The following are some of the best verses that people will but forward to defend the idea of soul sleep.

Psa 6:5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
Psa 115:17 The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.
Psa 146:4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
Dan 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Joh 5:28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Ecc 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.
Ecc 9:6  Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.

Refuting Soul Sleep

So are there any scriptures that might disprove the idea of soul sleep? The answer is yes we have Moses and Elias appearing before Jesus in Luke 9:28-36, Jesus telling the thief on the cross that today he would be with him in pardise (Luk 23:43).

2 Cor 5:6-8 declares that we a willing to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord

Phili 1:23 further illustrates this point.

The seeming contradiction between these bible verses regarding the state of the soul after death is cleared up when you take into account that man is made up of three parts (the body, soul, and spirit). It is the body that appears to be sleeping until the resurrection. Next we come to the biggest (IMO) refutation to soul sleep....

Concerning The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luk 16:19-31)

I made a comment on a youtube channel called little light studio, the specific video was covering the CGI movie Coco. I believe it was several months later that someone responded that the story of the rich man and Lazarus wasn't literal but a parable. The only reason I figure that they said this is because this story utterly refutes the idea of soul sleep, thus to prove it literal is to prove soul sleep false. Therefore I have come up with seven points to show why the story of the rich man and Lazarus is literal. 

1. Jesus usually if not always tells us that he is speaking in parables when he is going to do so.

Here are a few examples of Parables in the bible.

• The Parable of  the sower Mat 13, Mar 4, Luk 8
• The parable of the householder who planted a vineyard Mat 21, Mar 12, Luk 20
• The kingdom of heaven is like Mat 22
• Parable of the fig tree Mat 24, Mar 13, Luk 21
• The food parable Mar 7
• Garment Parable Luk 5
• The parable of the rich man who hoarded his crop Luk 12
• The Parisee and the Publican Luk 18
• The Pound Parable Luk 19

You can see from these passages that it is clearly stated when something is referred to as a parable.

2. Unlike the Parables mentioned above this story has a person's actual name in it (Lazarus). This further indicates that it is not a parable but literal.

3. Hell is cast into the Lake of fire (Rev 20:14), this indicates that Hell is not the lake of fire.

This is significant because...

4. Hell contains fire, that is there is such a thing as hellfire (Mat 5:22, mar 9:47). 

5. The story could not have been about the lake of fire.

This is because the rich man's brothers were still alive when this event was taking place, but all the damned get thrown into the lake of fire at the end of the world.

6. If you believe that the story of the rich man and Lazarus was just a parable can you provide another instance in the gospels where Jesus tells a parable withous stating it's a parable?

7. If  you believe that this story is a parable than what is it's interpretation?

I am quite certain that nobody can interpret it as it is meant to be taken literally.

In conclusion the idea that the soul "sleeps" until the resurrection is false and should be discarded.