In the first part of this two-part series, we looked at the difference between the soul (the person) and the spirit in man. We quoted from an article about “soul sleep” which rejected the concept that the soul is mortal, that the person is the soul, and that when a person dies, the person (the soul) sleeps in an unconscious state. The quotation from the article taken is in italics, followed by our comments below in roman type.
Let us continue with quoting from the article under discussion, and with our comments.
Until the final resurrection, there is a temporary heaven—paradise (Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4)—and a temporary hell—Hades (Revelation 1:18; 20:13-14). According to Jesus’ account in Luke 16:19-31, neither in paradise nor in Hades are people sleeping. The three individuals in Jesus’ story—Lazarus, Abraham, and the rich man—are quite conscious and active in the afterlife, prior to the resurrection.
There is no temporary “heaven” for anyone when they die! We have covered this understanding many times in our writings over the years. Let us look at the article’s Luke 23:43 assertion. This is about the thief on the cross which reads: “And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.’”
In short, the Companion Bible states in its appendix, in paragraph 173, that the interpretation of this verse depends exclusively on the punctuation, which is totally dependent on human authority. They explain that until the 9th century, Greek manuscripts had no punctuation at all, and even after that time, they only had a dot separating words from each other. The Broadman Bible Commentary admits: “It is possible to place the comma after today…” In effect, Jesus was telling him “I say to you today…” Further, he could not have been in Paradise the same day with Jesus because Jesus was in the grave for 3 days and 3 nights. We explain this in great detail in our free booklet “Jesus Christ – A Great Mystery!”.
Let us look at the biblical references made to support the idea of going to heaven at death.
In the quoted article, 2 Corinthians 12:4 is mentioned: “… how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”
It is generally recognised that this was the Apostle Paul writing about a profound experience he had which is usually thought to refer to his vision of heaven. In it, he describes hearing “inexpressible words,” meaning that this vision was so incredible that it was beyond human expression and understanding. However, nowhere is it even suggested that he was in heaven as a human being. Rather, it was a vision.
One commentator stated that “a vision is a supernatural revelation of God given to a person in the form of a dream or trance-like state usually for the purpose of revealing the glory of God or the meaning of past or future events.” Paul was not in heaven because “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven” (John 3:13).
Other references in the above-quoted article to prove their point, which in fact prove the exact opposite, are:
Revelation 1:18: “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death’” and Revelation 20:13-14: “The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”
In our free booklet “Is That In the Bible? The Mysteries of the Book of Revelation,” we can read the following on page 129:
“Revelation 20:13–15 describes the THIRD resurrection, which will occur some time AFTER the judgment period of the second resurrection: ‘The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.’”
“God refers to the coming THIRD resurrection in the book of Daniel. In contrasting the FIRST resurrection with the THIRD resurrection, we are told, in Daniel 12:2: ‘And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to EVERLASTING life, Some to shame and EVERLASTING CONTEMPT.’
“Notice, it does not say that they will live forever in everlasting contempt. But it says that they will WAKE UP ‘to’ everlasting contempt—their fate will be one of everlasting consequences.”
Then, the article includes a reference to Luke 16:19-31 about Lazarus and the rich man. The Scripture reads as follows:
“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”
This parable speaks about the resurrection from the dead. The psychological punishment of the unrepentant incorrigible sinner is vividly portrayed by Jesus Christ in this parable. While Lazarus and Abraham are resurrected in the First Resurrection, the rich man faces his fate in the Third Resurrection. When he is raised back to life, he has had no consciousness of time. The “great gulf fixed” is the gulf between immortality (for Abraham and Lazarus) and mortality (for the rich man who is raised to a temporary physical existence to be burned up in the Lake of Fire). We discuss this parable at great length on pages 29-32 of our free booklet, “Do We Have an Immortal Soul?”
Continuing with the above-quoted article denying that there is “soul sleep”:
Moses and Elijah were not “sleeping” when they appeared with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. Far from it. They were “talking with Jesus” (Matthew 17:3). Luke gives some additional detail, relating the subject of their conversation: “They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31).
We discussed this issue in our Q&A, titled, “…You explained that Enoch did not go to heaven. You also stated that no one has gone to heaven, except Jesus Christ. What about Elijah? Does not the Bible state that Elijah ‘went up by a whirlwind into heaven’ (2 Kings 2:11)?” https://www.eternalgod.org/question-and-answer-85/. We said this:
“Some believe that Elijah was alive at the time of Christ, as he appeared, in a glorified state, to three of the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, together with the glorified Moses and Jesus (Matthew 17:1-9; Mark 9:2-10; Luke 9:28-36). We explain this account in detail on pages 14 and 15 of our booklet ‘The Gospel of the Kingdom of God.’ In that booklet, we show that the whole experience was a VISION — the disciples were given a foretaste of the kingdom of God in power. They saw, in a VISION, the time when Christ, Moses and Elijah would be powerful God beings in the Kingdom of God. Elijah and Moses are not glorified yet, as Hebrews 11:39-40 explains. They will receive the promise of eternal life and glory in the kingdom of God at the time of Christ’s return — not before then.”
Hebrews 11:39-40, mentioned above in our Q&A, reads: “And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.”
The book of Ecclesiastes has something to say on this matter where we read in Ecclesiastes 9:5: “For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing…”
Back to the article we are reviewing:
In Revelation 6, John sees “the souls of those who had been slain” in heaven (verse 9). These souls are not sleeping; rather, they are crying out “in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’” (verse 10). They are given white robes and “told to wait a little longer” (verse 11). Nothing in this heavenly scene hints at a state of unconsciousness, oblivion, or sleep prior to the resurrection. The souls in heaven are wide awake.
In our booklet “Is That in the Bible? – The Mysteries of the Book of Revelation!,” we read the following on pages 50 and 51 under the heading “The Souls Under the Altar”:
“How are we to understand that there are souls under the altar who speak—and that they are then told to ‘rest’ a little while longer (Revelation 6:9–11)? Doesn’t this show that our souls go to heaven when we die, while they are resting at the same time?
“Now, that would be a pretty confusing teaching, don’t you think?
“First of all, it does not say that the altar is in heaven. Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible maintains that ‘The altar is upon earth, not in heaven.’ The ‘souls’ are under the altar because, as the Nelson Study Bible explains, ‘sacrificial blood was poured beside the base of the altar in the temple (see Exodus 29:12).’
“We must realize that the fifth seal with the souls under the altar describes a vision, as do the other seals. The four horsemen do not REALLY ride—they REPRESENT certain events, which will take place on this earth. In the same way, the ‘souls under the altar’ are not really alive and do not really cry to God with a loud voice. Neither did the ‘dry bones’ in Ezekiel’s vision in Ezekiel 37:11 really speak, nor did Abel’s shed blood (Genesis 4:10). This is symbolic language, as we also read in Hebrews 12:24 that the blood of Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, ‘speaks better things than that of Abel.’
“Notice also what is said in Revelation 20:4, 6 about the ‘souls’ of those who were killed for Christ:
“‘… I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads and on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years… Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection…’
“These souls were brought back to life in a resurrection. Before that, they were dead…
“Just imagine what it would mean if we were to take this symbolic vision in Revelation 6:9–11 literally: Souls of killed saints would need to ‘rest’ under the altar for several more years—and that in a conscious state, being able to speak and to have emotional pain—until other servants of God were killed as well (Revelation 6:11). This does not sound like a very blissful and happy state of affairs for the souls of righteous people!
“To use the vision of the souls under the altar as evidence for the teaching that our souls don’t simply sleep but do go to heaven when we die, is without any biblical basis whatsoever.”
Finishing off the article we have been addressing, we read:
Still, it can be said that a person’s body is “sleeping” while his soul is in paradise or Hades. And that is just how the Bible pictures it. At the resurrection, the body is “awakened” and transformed into the everlasting body a person will possess forever, whether in heaven or hell. The redeemed, made righteous by the blood of Christ, will inhabit the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21:1). The unredeemed, who remain in their sin, will be thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15).
It is quite ridiculous to assert that “a person’s body is ‘sleeping’ while his soul is in paradise or Hades.” We have already shown, many times in our literature, sermons and sermonettes over many decades that, at death, we neither go to heaven, limbo, purgatory or hell but that the soul (the person) dies and the spirit in man goes back to God to be stored in heaven until the person is resurrected at a later time.
It is true that the righteous will inhabit the new heaven and the new earth and that those who reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and refuse to live the Way of Life set before us will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. However, mainstream Christianity often states that this is the only day of salvation when it is but “a day of salvation” and those who have never heard about the true God and His Son, Jesus Christ, will rise in the Second Resurrection and be given their first opportunity in the Great White Throne Judgment to accept Jesus Christ as their Personal Savior. God is fair and everyone will be given their chance for salvation and eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
In 2 Corinthians 6:2, we read “For He says: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” This is quoting Isaiah 49:8 where in the Authorized Version it states “a day of salvation”. If today was the only day of salvation, all those who had never heard the only Name by which we must be saved, the Name of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12), would be doomed to eternal death.
Today is indeed THE day of salvation for those who have been predestined to be called today. But these are only very few—the firstfruits. Most people were simply never given the chance to be called now. For them, today is NOT the day of salvation. It will come later. It would be unfair to those who lived in the 4,000 years before Christ’s birth and for all those others who have never heard His Name in the last 2,000 years to be lost! But God is fair!
The article which we are quoting finishes off by saying:
Present-day advocates of the doctrine of soul sleep include Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christadelphians, and some others.
In addition to the many mistakes and omissions contained in the article, we are not mentioned.
In conclusion, the false concept of the immortal soul is the beginning point where mainstream Christianity goes off track and teaches that the “immortal soul” has to go somewhere at death, purgatory, holding places, heaven and hell. This is unbiblical and unnecessary. The soul is mortal and sleeps an unconscious sleep—a sleep without any consciousness and awareness—when the person (the soul) dies. The spirit in man returns to God on death and will be used when God raises all who have ever lived at the resurrection. A brief comparison below shows the difference.
A person dies and his/her body (the soul) is buried or cremated while the spirit in man returns to God. We read in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 that at the return of Jesus Christ, the dead in Christ will be raised. That will be the First Resurrection, followed by the 1,000-years reign of Jesus Christ on earth after He sets up the Kingdom of God.
Then there is the Second Resurrection (the Great White Throne Judgment) where everyone who have not had their opportunity to accept Christ and God’s Way of Life, will then have their chance. The indication is that this will be over a 100-year period.
Then there is the Third Resurrection where the Lake of Fire awaits the incorrigible wicked even after being given a chance during their lifetime in times past, now, or at a later time.
Doesn’t that make a lot more sense than death, purgatory, indulgences, people going to heaven, or a waiting place or to hell for eternity even if they have never heard the Name of Jesus Christ?
The Bible spells out the Truth despite the fact that man so often seems to come up with his own version which usually turns out to be very wide of the mark!
We have a free booklet entitled “Why This Confusion About Life After Death?,” which is freely available upon request. This 77-page booklet covers many of the items raised in this two-part Q&A, such as the false concept of hell and the immortal soul as distinguished from the spirit in man; numerous Catholic myths; indulgences and purgatory; and much more. Please ask for a free copy.
Lead Writer: Brian Gale (United Kingdom)