The the term
"soul sleep" refers to the dead being
"unconscious" until either resurrection - as opposed to conscious. Well, like John 8:32 above, I too disagree with the JWs
(all denominations for that matter), but let's see what the Bible says about this.
When our spirit returns to God, is it conscious?
Genesis 2:7 explains the process:
"God formed the human out of soil from the ground, and He blew into his nostrils the breath of life; and the human became a living soul."
We consist of two basic elements: body and spirit, and the resultant consciousness
(soul). Adam was not called a soul until the breath (spirit) entered his body. A human doesn't have a soul, but
becomes a soul when the breath of life enters his body.
James confirms:
"For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." (James 2:26)
Ecclesiastes 9:9-10 confirms this decided lack of activity in the grave:
"For this is your portion in life and in your toil that you are toiling under the sun. All that your hand finds to do, do with your vigor, for there is no doing or devising or knowledge or wisdom in the unseen where you are going."
And:
John 3:13 - "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, the Son of man which is in heaven."
Psalms 115:17 - "The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence."
Ecclesiastes 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."
John 5:28-29 - "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice."
Matthew 27:52 - "And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose."
Psalms 6:5 - "For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks."
Daniel 12:13 - "As for you, go your way till the end. You will sleep, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance. "
John 11:11-14 - "These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
Mark 5:39 - "And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth."
And of course, the Kings:
1 Kings 2:10 - So "David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David."
2 Chronicles 9:31 - And Solomon slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead.
2 Chronicles 12:16 - And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David: and Abijah his son reigned in his stead.
2 Kings 24:6 - So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.
And so on, and so on........ ALL of the Kings "SLEPT" with their fathers.
I think the confusion comes from 3 passages of Scripture:
Revelation 6:9-10 - " When he opened the fifth seal, I saw UNDER THE ALTAR the souls of those WHO HAD BEEN SLAIN because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. THEY CRIED OUT in a loud voice, 'How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?'"
Many use this text to demonstrate that when martyrs die for Jesus, they go to Heaven and live under the altar. They say,
"John heard them speaking, so these martyrs must be conscious and not unconscious (asleep)." But look here:
Genesis 4:10 - "The Lord said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood CRIES OUT TO ME from the ground."
Did Abel's blood audibly speak? No. The Lord used personification in Genesis 4 to describe the justice that Abel's innocent blood demanded and the same is true in Revelation 6. The Altar of Burnt Offering is the altar where these souls are crying out in the Fifth Seal. Look at these verses:
Leviticus 8:15 - "Moses slaughtered the bull and took some of the blood, and with his finger he put it on all the horns of the altar to purify the altar. He poured out the rest of the blood AT THE BASE OF THE ALTAR. So he consecrated it to make atonement for it."
Exodus 29:12 "Take some of the bull's blood and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and pour out the rest of it AT THE BASE OF THE ALTAR."
Leviticus 4:18 "He is to put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is before the Lord in the Tent of Meeting. The rest of the blood he shall pour out AT THE BASE OF THE ALTAR of burnt offering at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting."
Leviticus 9:9 "His sons brought the blood to him, and he dipped his finger into the blood and put it on the horns of the altar; the rest of the blood he poured out at THE BASE OF THE ALTAR."
In the wilderness temple, the blood of animal sacrifices was poured on the
base of the Altar of Burnt Offering. The reason their souls are represented as being under the altar is because that is the place where the
blood of sacrifices was stored. This has nothing to do with these martyrs
"literally speaking" because they are
conscious, this is symbolic and a parallel to the services that took place in the wilderness temple with regard to sacrifices.
The second passage is:
2 Corinthians 5:6-8 - "We are confident, I say, and WILLING RATHER to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."
There is a huge difference between Paul saying that he is
"willing to be absent from the body and ... present with the Lord," as opposed to making a statement that flatly states that "to be absent from the body IS to be present with the Lord." But unfortunately, most of orthodox Christianity doesn't think about anything other than what their church tells them. Paul did not LIE when he taught us that He, like all saints, would be resurrected from the DEAD, not at his death, but
AT THE LAST TRUMP (1 Corinthians 15:52).
See here -
"For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed," (1 Corinthians 5:3)
"For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ." (Colossians 2:5)
To be absent from the body in the
proper context of what Paul is addressing is to
deny the flesh and therefore present with the Lord as we walk in the Spirit. Romans 6:6-8 put it ever so plainly when it said,
"Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him."
John 3:6 says,
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
And let's not forget Romans 8:1 wherein it says,
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
It's quite obvious then, that this often misquoted passage has nothing to do with the dead passing on to paradise immediately. After all –
"All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. All" (Ecclesiastes 3:20)
The third is obviously:
Luke 23:43: "And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise."
The KJV is an unfortunate translation of scripture lending credence to all sorts of unscriptural, contradictory nonsense.
No. Jesus didn't say
'TODAY' you go to paradise, nor did the thief! After Jesus DIED, He was
DEAD (a Scriptural and scientific truth denied by most of Christendom). God the Father
"raised Jesus 'FROM THE DEAD'" (Galatians 1:1), which is proof that Jesus WAS DEAD! And if He was DEAD in the tomb, he was not LIVING at some other location called
"paradise." How could the thief be with Jesus in paradise TODAY, when
Jesus didn't rise from the dead until three days later?
The King James says:
"And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise."
Oh what a difference a single COMMA can make! The verse should properly read:
"And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee today, shalt thou be with me in paradise."
Was that an intentional misplacement of the comma in the KJV? I don't know.
Notice how the Greek scholar
Joseph Bryant Rotherham renders this verse:
"Verily I say unto thee this day: With me shalt thou be in Paradise."
Good Lord, no wonder most Christians are such easy prey for the devil! It's a good thing
John tells us in
Revelation 20:5 that,
"The rest of the dead do not live until the thousand years should be finished." Guess what folks:
Dead people do not live. Thank you, John, for clearing this up!
If the "religious term" soul sleep means being unconscious until the resurrection, then of course, it is Biblical. In fact, how anyone can believe otherwise when studying the Scriptures is a miracle. The power of religious tradition. Unbelievable.
2
. I don't care what religion teaches what, or what the JWs say that doesn't agree with what Baptists or Methodists or whoever happen to say. I don't get involved with denominations or sects. They are all self-exalting and infested with man's leaven. The Bible is very clear on the state of the dead. If you disagree, take each verse of those Scriptures from my previous post and explain them, one by one. Can you do that?