Soul Sleep? Today Thou Shalt Be With Me in Paradise

Revelation 6:9-11

2 Corinthians 5:1-8

Soul sleep: almost every heresy that is around today found its origins in early church history, there is nothing new under the sun.  Soul sleep originated in Arabia and then raised its head in the times of the Reformation, and even in the present day there are those who believe in soul sleep.  Why would some people believe in it?  Because of faulty human reason, (they say) "God couldn't condemn us until we are proven guilty, or bring us into heaven until we are proven innocent.  So since the judgment is at the end of time,  if we die now our souls must sleep until the judgment and then we either go to heaven or to hell."  That is absolutely faulty human reason.  It assumes that we are innocent until proven guilty at the judgment, but the bible says we are guilty now and condemned already.  John 3:18 "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."   Some people say that the scriptures talk about "sleeping in Jesus" and they take that literally as sleeping but they are wrong.  In the bible, sleep is a metaphor for death.  Lazarus was "asleep" but he was dead.  Jairus' daughter was dead, not just sleeping. 

Those who believe in soul sleep could say regarding these examples,  "we agree but all you are doing is shooting down something that we do not believe.  We agree that Lazarus was dead, that Jairus daughter was dead, we do not believe in body sleep, but soul sleep.  A Christian's body dies but their soul sleeps until the last judgment and you did not refute that view."   This morning I will, by God's grace, prove that soul sleep is wrong. 

The first difference between those who teach soul sleep and those who are believers is the view of death.  Those who teach soul sleep say that death is that the body dies and the soul sleeps.  However, if the body dies and the soul sleeps, where does the soul sleep?  But  Christians, say "what is death?"  Death according to the bible is separation of soul from body.  The body dies and the soul is removed from the body.  Death is not sleep.  It is a separation of body from soul.  Here are 7 bible passages that show that souls do not sleep but live on consciously.

-Solomon says "The soul or spirit returns to the God who gave it.  Eccl 12:6-5-7 "...man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets.  Or ever the silver cord be loosed, ...then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."  The context is getting old, dying.  He is talking about the separation of the soul from body.  Notice it says "then shall the dust return" not after it sleeps until the judgment.   At death the body turns to dust and the soul (spirit) returns to God and it doesn't say anything about soul sleep.  No unconsciousness is mentioned.  



-Hebrews 12:22-23 "But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect."   The spirits of just men made perfect are with God.  The church of which the Hebrew believers are a part is made up of those whose names are written in heaven, and we are part of those, and the spirits of just men made perfect are with God, the spirits of the justified (Christians)..  they are perfect, not sleeping.  They are with God in the heavenly Jerusalem.  If you are a Christian, you are part of that church now, whose names are written in heaven.  Now, not future.  

-The souls of the slain talk to God in heaven.  Rev 6:9-11  "And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, doest thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled."  Here it plainly says that in heaven are the souls of Christians who were slain for the word of God and for their testimony, and they are crying to God to judge and avenge their death.  They are clothed in white robes.  The souls of justified people are in heaven.  They are not sleeping, they are talking to God in heaven.  Soul sleep is not true.  

-When we die we are absent from the body and present with the Lord.  2 Corin 5:6-8 "Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."  The context is the taking down of this earthly body, a temporary dwelling place that sags and falls apart with age.  Our body is dying and when that happens we are absent from the body and present with the Lord.  We do not soul sleep when we are absent from the body.  Where is the Lord now?  Hebrews 9:24, "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:" 10:12 "But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God."  The Lord is in heaven, at the right hand of God's throne, and when Christians die they are absent from the body and present with the Lord.
The bible doesn't teach soul sleep.  Do words have meaning?  if words have meaning soul sleep is nonsense, we will be present with the Lord in heaven when the soul departs from the body.  Soul sleep is a deliberate twisting of the word of God.

-Jesus said to the dying thief "today shalt thou be with me in Paradise:  Luke 23:43  what part of that sentence doesn't make sense? none of it, it makes perfectly plain obvious sense.  These words were spoken to a man who would be dead in hours, and they were spoken by a man who would be dead in hours.  The word "today" in the Greek means "this very day,"  today you, dying thief, shalt, not might be or hope to be, but shalt certainly be with me (Christ) in Paradise.  Does this sound like soul sleep?  Not a bit.   Believe Jesus Christ and his words more than the words of those who dissect and twist God's word.  It is plain speech narrative.  On the day of death believers, thieves included who become believers, will be with Jesus Christ in Paradise.  They do not sleep for thousands of years and then go to heaven.  Its a certainty.  

-Jude says the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah are presently suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.  Jude 7  "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."  This is an example of punishment and suffering.  The sexual perverts of 4000 years ago, that's when they died, Jude says in AD66 "they are presently suffering the vengeance of eternal hell fire.  It is a present, active in the Greek.  Does that sound like soul sleep?  No, they are conscious right now in their suffering.  Soul sleep is not true.

-Jesus in Luke 16 speaks of a rich man who died and is tormented in the flames, "I am being tormented in this flame."  This man sees, his soul is conscious, his soul is in Hell, he is crying, he is thirsty, he is tormented, he is not asleep and he is not at peace because soul sleep is wrong.  It is an error, the protestant version of purgatory, an in-between sort of place.  There is not a purgatory for purifying as there is not soul sleep.  Death is separation, it is not sleep and it is not bliss or peace for the unbeliever.

If you do not believe that soul sleep is wrong after this biblical evidence, you must be rejecting passage after passage of the bible and not taking scripture at face value.  So what will it be?  Death: present heaven, or soul sleep.  

Christians when you die you will be with Christ which is far better.  You are justified now if you are a believer and will gather around the throne and sing the praises of him who died.  When Christ comes back, believers will come with him.  Be assured brethren, there is no ambiguity in the word of God.    Jesus says in John 17:24 "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory...."

Unbeliever, your death will be nothing like sleep.  Your soul will not sleep, no future is needed to condemn you, your sins have condemned you already.  Even your own conscience has condemned you, and the unpardonable sin is believing not that God's Son is Jesus Christ.  Your headstone might read "now at peace, now at rest" they might put flowers on your grave, they may even maintain your grave but you will not be sleeping,  You will be conscious and if you do not repent and  trust in Jesus Christ you will be lost and your only hope is Jesus Christ, He is the only Saviour.  Turn from your sin to him, be changed and cleansed, be washed in his sacrificial blood like the thief who said "remember me"  If you say to Christ "remember me" then when it comes to the day of your death Christ will say to you, today you shalt be with me in Paradise.  Death is not the end and death is not sleep, it is separation of soul from body to live forever.
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The above notes were made by myself from the sermon by Paul Dowling of Whiteabbey Congregational (Reformed) at Sermon Audio

http://www.sermonaudio.com/playpopup.asp?SID=27161026220