Molehills: The Doctrine Of Soul Sleep, Part One

What is the doctrine of soul sleep? Soul sleep is a euphemism for the annihilation of the soul upon the death of the body. To wit, this doctrine teaches that the body and soul are indivisible, and if one dies the other dies without it because one cannot survive the death of the other. Cults such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Seventh Day Adventists have propagated this false doctrine for decades, and I firmly believe that its reception and practice in teaching is injurious to the spiritual welfare of those that espouse it. Why is it relegated to being a molehill, then? Because belief in soul sleep does not harm the gospel, which is the foundation of the Christian faith. Therefore, harmful or otherwise, it is not an impediment to one being saved by faith in Jesus Christ.

Soul sleep takes the idea in Scripture that when a believer dies, the writer sometimes states that he sleeps, or sleeps in the Lord, Acts 7:60, 1 Corinthians 15:18, etc. The concept of soul sleep, and the annihilation of the human soul is a teaching seemingly linked to the rejection of conscious, eternal torment in Hell when an individual rejects the gospel of Jesus Christ and dies unsaved. Men such as Charles Taze Russell abhorred the idea of conscious, eternal torment. But rather than allowing that dreadful fear to energize his ministry (2 Corinthians 5:11), he employed human reasoning to drag the doctrine of eternal life and punishment into a realm he could more easily understand, and therefore deal with.

We learn more of the concept of soul sleep from the Jehovah’s Witness book, Let God be True, published in 1946. On page 68 we read, “So we see the claim of religionists that man has an immortal soul and therefore differs from the beast is not Scriptural.” On pages 69, 70 we read, “The fact that the human soul is mortal can be amply proved by a careful study of the Holy Scriptures. An immortal soul can not die, but God’s Word, at Ezekiel 18:4, says concerning humans: ‘Behold all souls are mine…that soul that sinneth it shall die’.” Further, “It is clearly seen that even the man Christ Jesus was mortal. He did not have an immortal soul: Jesus, the human soul, died,” page 71. Finally, “Thus it is seen that the serpent (the Devil) is the one that originated the doctrine of the inherent immortality of human souls,” page 74,75.

Thus speaks the Watchtower in regard to the nature of the human soul. But what of Adventists? The book, Questions on Doctrine, published in 1957, speaks to their collective beliefs. We read, “We as Adventists believe that, in general, the Scriptures teach that the soul of man represents the whole man, and not a particular part independent of the other component parts of man’s nature; and further, that the soul cannot exist apart from the body, for a man is a unit,” page 515. The SDA doctrinal authority also added, “We as Adventists have reached the definite conclusion that man rests in the tomb until resurrection morning. Then, at the first resurrection (Revelation 20:4,5), the resurrection of the just (Acts 24:15), the righteous come forth immortalized, at the call of Christ the Life-giver. And they then enter into life everlasting, in their eternal home in the kingdom of glory. Such is our understanding,” page 520.

But is this view tenable in light of, as the Watchtower put it, “a careful study of the Scriptures”? To determine this we need not apply or appeal to human intellect or reason, which is tainted by the curse of sin, and by nature repelled by God’s truth. What we need to do is model ourselves after the Bereans, to see if these things are so, Acts 17:11. The primary tenet of soul sleep is the unconscious nature of the human soul at death, essentially being annihilated and then resurrected when believers are called out of the grave. This implies an indivisibility between body and soul, wherewith one cannot abide without the other. Bearing this in mind, let us search the Bible and see what it says regarding the spirit, soul, and body.

We begin our search in Genesis. God had given a command to Adam and Eve regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He told them, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die,” Genesis 2:17. The Septuagint records the latter part of the verse as, “but in whatsoever day ye eat of it, ye shall surely die.” The Tanakh says, “for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die.” History attests that Adam ate of the fruit, Genesis 3:6. Yet he did not immediately die; at least he did not physically die. Yet God was clear when He informed our first parents that when they ate of the fruit of the tree that death would immediately result. What did He mean? Spiritual death, of course. Henry Morris pointed out that the verse could be rendered more accurately, “dying, you shall die.” The idea here isn’t a mere wordplay. What God meant was that spiritually dying the instant Adam sinned, he would begin physically dying as a consequence. So in Genesis, in chapter 2 at that, we already see the supposed indivisible nature of body, soul, and spirit being divided. Man, being born in Adam’s image, is physically alive but spiritually dead, which is an oxymoron for those who embrace soul sleep. Because when one component dies the entire man must die. 

We are informed that the word of God is powerful enough to divide soul and spirit, Hebrews 4:12. They are not the same, soul and spirit; just as body and soul are not interchangeable terms. Putting aside semantics, this is a real problem for soul sleep. The body is not the soul and vice versa. They are not one and the same, or parts of a whole, unless we say that a man is body, soul, and spirit, which the Bible attests, 1 Thessalonians 5:23. But that does not mean (nor should we blindly assume) that these words are interchangeable and essentially just mean the same thing, referring to a human being. If that were so, then the Genesis account sounds a little strange, since Adam’s spirit died, but his body lived on for hundreds of years. Spiritual death is the condition all unsaved people live in, according to Scripture.

We find King Saul in 1 Samuel 28 contacting Samuel from beyond the grave to seek counsel since God no longer spoke to him. Samuel rebuked the king, saying, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” 1 Samuel 28:15. Samuel, though merely a spirit, was conscious and cognizant, holding a normal conversation with the still living Saul in the presence of numerous witnesses. Now of course the question will be raised: where was he brought up from? The patent answer for those who espouse soul sleep is that he was awakened from the grave. But Scripture is not silent about where Samuel ACTUALLY rose from. Zechariah spoke of Messiah, who would, “set your prisoners free from the waterless pit,” Zechariah 9:11. This waterless pit is explained in Luke. The story of Lazarus and the rich man details how the spirit of a person lives on after physical death. Lazarus went to Abraham’s Bosom, and the rich man, after being buried, was in torment in Hell, Luke 16:22. The rich man, though merely a spirit, begged for water to be brought to him and we rebuffed for his request, Luke 16:24, 25. The rich man suffered conscious torment in Hades, while Lazarus waited, comforted, for Messiah to come and set the captives at liberty, Ephesians 4:8, 9. Christ would come after His triumphant death and liberate those who waited for Him to fulfill what He promised. This was where Samuel was when Saul called for him, and God permitted the prophet to speak to the wayward king one final time.

The Psalmist says, “For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption,” Psalm 16:10. Referring once more to Ephesians 4:8,9, quoted from Psalm 68:18, Paul explains to the Ephesian church that Jesus, when He died, entered Sheol or Hades, the abode of the dead to lead captivity captive. That was why our Lord could say to the thief who placed his faith in Him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise,” Luke 23:35. Paradise, or Abraham’s Bosom, was located in the earth, seemingly across from Hell, separated by a fixed gulf. It was this Paradise that Jesus said the thief would consciously join Him in that very day, and that our Lord, upon His resurrection, would empty and finally take into His Father’s presence. Our Lord strongly intimated conscious awareness after death. The fate of both our Lord and that thief was physical death on the cross. But the spirit survived it, and descended into Abraham’s Bosom.