We Shall Not Sleep: A Refutation of the Doctrine of Soul Sleep

Consciousness as a Function of the Body

It is often asserted that awareness is a function of the body; without a body, a soul can perceive neither its environment nor the passing of time. This argument, however, is based on a purely materialistic view of the universe. It fails when faced with the plethora of spiritual beings described in the Bible. Angels, demons, and even God himself have no innate physical form, yet no one would argue that they are unconscious. Therefore, a body is not necessarily required for consciousness.

Death as Sleep

Many verses in the Bible describe the dead as asleep. For example:

The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

Matt. 27:52

After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died,

John 11:11–14

And falling to his knees [Stephen] cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Acts 7:60

For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption,

Acts 13:36

Then [Jesus] appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

1 Cor. 15:6

These are the weakest proof texts for soul sleep. “To fall asleep” was, and today still is, a euphemism for physical death, and has no bearing on the post-mortem consciousness of the deceased.

The Dead Incapable of Deed or Thought

A swathe poetic and prophetic texts describe the dead as incapable of deed or thought:

For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?

Ps. 6:5

The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence.

Ps. 115:17

For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you; those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness.

Isa. 38:18

However, these verses speak metaphorically of the physical death of the body; corpses do not remember, praise, thank, or hope—but souls can. Additionally, the literal interpretation of these passages demanded by the doctrine of soul sleep presents serious difficulties. For example, if Ps. 6:5 does indeed affirm soul sleep, then one must also claim that, according to Ps. 88:5, God forgets the dead entirely:

like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.

Ps. 88:5

God obviously does not forget the dead, so this passage must be taken in a figurative sense; so too must Ps. 6:5, since they are both of the same poetic genre.

Resurrection as Waking

There is frequent confusion among proponents of soul sleep concerning the events surrounding Christ’s return:

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

1 Cor. 15:22–23

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Col. 3:4

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

1 Thess. 4:16

Those who affirm soul sleep misunderstand what is meant by the words dead and alive. Death in these verses is simply the separation of the soul from the body, not a state of spiritual unconsciousness. To come alive, then, is to be reunited with one’s resurrected body—not to suddenly “wake up” from a period of unawareness.

Ecclesiastes

Supporters of soul sleep claim that Ecclesiastes teaches the cessation of all thought and activity at the moment of death:

For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?

Eccles. 3:19–21

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.

Eccles. 9:5

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

Eccles. 9:10

The key to understanding Ecclesiastes is to recognize that its purpose is to encourage the reader to find delight and purpose in God rather than worldly things. The verses cited above accomplish this by using a materialistic perspective to illustrate the futility of a universe without an afterlife. Therefore, they actually have nothing to teach about the true condition of the dead.

Ezekiel

The following passage from Ezekiel is sometimes held forth as a proof text for soul sleep:

The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

Ezek. 18:20

However, this verse has nothing to do with the intermediate state. Rather, it speaks of guilt and judgment in general. Guilt is assigned on an individual basis; God does not hold a child responsible for the sins of their parent, nor the parent for the sins of their child. The word die refers to spiritual death, which is defined as separation from God. When the time comes for God to pass judgment (at physical death and again at the end of time), a righteous person will not be sentenced to Gehenna or the lake of fire on account of someone else’s sin. To use this verse as evidence for soul sleep is to miss its point entirely.

Punishment & Reward

The Bible clearly teaches that the souls of the dead are sorted according to their moral status; the wicked are consigned to Gehenna, and the righteous are welcomed into Paradise. But this is more than just a geographical distinction. The souls of Gehenna are punished for the wrongs they committed in life. Although the biblical descriptions of this punishment are likely figurative (after all, departed souls have no bodies), it is clear that it involves some degree of intense spiritual torment. Jesus said:

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Matt. 5:29–30

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Matt. 18:9See also Mark 9:43–48.

From this it is clear that whatever inconvenience, discomfort, or pain one suffers for avoiding sin, it is better than what awaits the sinner in Gehenna. Jesus also affirmed the torment of the wicked dead in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus:

and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’

Luke 16:23–24

And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’

Luke 16:27–28

The souls of Paradise, on the other hand, are rewarded for their faith in God, experiencing the bliss and comfort of God’s presence. Once again, from Jesus’ parable of Luke 16:

But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.

Luke 16:25

Paul certainly expected a post-mortem existence that would improve upon his present life:

So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

2 Cor. 5:6–8

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

Phil. 1:21–23

And in Revelation, John sees a vision of the righteous dead enjoying the very reward that Paul anticipated:

“Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Rev. 7:15–17

Altogether, these passages form the most decisive argument against soul sleep. The punishments and rewards they describe necessarily require the consciousness of the subjects. One cannot be said to suffer in Gehenna if they are not conscious enough to experience pain and mental anguish; neither can one enjoy the presence of God if they are unaware of his presence.

Jesus’ Words to the Thief

It would have been cold comfort—indeed, no comfort at all—if when Jesus said to the thief on the cross…

And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Luke 23:43

…he meant only that they would both blink out of conscious existence together. Those who affirm soul sleep try to get around this by claiming that the comma (not present in the original Greek) before the word today should instead be placed after it. But this view is refuted by the following points:

• If today was supposed to modify the phrase “I say to you”, then it would be the only recorded instance—out of 87—of Jesus modifying the phrase with an adverb of time.
• Of all the recorded instances of the phrase “I say to you”, this is the one where Jesus would have been least likely to spend breath on an extraneous word.
• The thief seems to be anticipating a future deliverance (“remember me when”), but Jesus’ response almost seems to carry a note of correction, implying that it will be immediate rather than future.

Therefore, Jesus meant that he and the thief would be together in Paradise that very same day.

Paul’s Favorable View of Death

It cannot be denied that Paul viewed death as an improvement over his current life:

So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

2 Cor. 5:6–9

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

Phil. 1:21–24

Such an outlook makes no sense unless he anticipated conscious enjoyment of Christ throughout the intermediate state.

Triumphant Souls in Heaven

The author of Hebrews describes the following heavenly scene:

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Heb. 12:22–24

An image of dead spirits lying in heaven as dead bodies lie in the grave hardly does justice to the triumphant tone of this passage.

Revelation

Finally, Revelation clearly presents the saints in heaven as awake and active:

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

Rev. 6:9–11

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Rev. 7:13–17