Throughout my most recent series of posts on this blog, I have expounded and defended the doctrine of universalism, which argues that all beings will eventually be reconciled to God and saved. However, there is another doctrine which is also pivotal to a proper understanding of judgment and salvation, and this is the doctrine of soul sleep.
Throughout most of Church history, the majority of theologians have believed that after death, one’s soul either goes to ‘heaven’ to be with Christ and God, or a place called Sheol or Hades to wait for the final judgment and the Lake of Fire (notable exceptions include the apostolic fathers, Justin Martyr, and a large number of Reformers including Martin Luther, who all believed in soul sleep). In opposition to this view is the idea of soul sleep, the belief that souls also die upon death, and consciousness only resumes at the resurrection of our bodies. Through my study of scripture, I have come to believe that the latter option, soul sleep, is the correct view. In this article, I will explain why I think that soul sleep is clearly taught in the Bible, and why the traditional Christian view cannot be derived from scripture alone.
What is a soul, and is it immortal?
The word “soul” (nephesh in Hebrew and ψυχη in Greek) has a large range of meaning. See these lexicon entries for Hebrew and Greek to understand why I say this. It can simply mean any living being, whether animal or human (Gen. 1:20-24; 46:26; Lev. 11:46; Josh. 10:37; 1 Kings 19:4; Prov. 12:40; Acts 2:41; Rom. 13:1; 1 Pet. 3:20; Rev. 8:9; 16:3; 18:13; etc.). It can mean someone’s life; for example, when someone is killed, it is often said that their soul has been taken (Gen. 19:20; Exod. 4:19; Deut. 19:21; Judg. 18:25; 2 Sam. 4:8; 1 Kings 19:10; Prov. 7:23; Matt. 2:20; 20:28; Mk. 10:45; Jn. 10:11; 15:13; Acts 15:26; Jas. 5:20; 1 Jn. 3:16; etc.) However, “life” is not the inherent meaning of either nephesh or ψυχη, otherwise the phrase nephesh chayyah would mean “a living life” (clearly redundant), and Job 10:1 would say “my life loathes my life” (another meaningless statement).
Another clue to the true meaning of “soul” is the fact that it is often used to describe one’s desires and wishes. For example, Abraham says, “If it is your soul that I bury my dead from before me, hear me and meet for me with Ephron son of Zoar” (Gen. 23:8). Further examples of this meaning of “soul” as the seat of emotions and desires can be found in Exod. 15:9; 23:9; Lev. 26:16; Deut. 12:15, 20; Judg. 10:16; 1 Sam. 23:20; Job 23:13; Prov. 31:6; Lk. 2:35; Jn. 10:24; 12:24; Php. 1:27; Acts 15:24; 2 Pet. 2:8; etc.
Finally, the last meaning of the word “soul” (and more rarely used, although it still appears throughout scripture) is referring to desirable or pleasurable experiences, for example, in Matt. 6:25 where “soul” is glossed by “what you may eat and what you may drink”. Further examples from the New Testament are Matt. 10:28 (where it is used to describe the blissful experience of the Messianic kingdom); 11:29; 16:25; Lk. 12:19; Acts 20:24; Php. 2:30; Heb. 12:3; 3 Jn. 2; Rev. 12:11. Interestingly, the adjective form of “soul” in Greek (ψυχικος) describes those who are swayed by physical sensation or worldly-minded (Jas. 3:19, Jude 19).
Although this list of definitions is certainly not all-comprehensive (indeed, there are nearly a thousand instances of “soul” in the combined Old and New Testaments), these four definitions cover virtually every instance of nephesh or ψυχη in scripture. It seems from these examples that “soul” (nephesh and ψυχη) is simply used in scripture as a figure of speech for the idea of “consciousness” (sensation, sentience, etc.), especially when connected to life itself. Contrary to the use of the word in Christian theology today, the “soul” in scripture is not something limited to human life only, but is present in animals as well - this confirms the recent scientific consensus that animals also possess consciousness (although humans clearly possess higher reasoning above animals, which is also a fact reported by scripture).
But the important question is, is the soul (or consciousness) an immortal substance, and does it live on after death? As a matter of fact, there is zero evidence from the Bible that human souls or consciousnesses are immortal, and quite a lot of scriptural evidence against it. We are repeatedly told that it is possible to kill one’s soul (Num. 31:19; 35:11, 15, 30; Josh. 20:3, 9; Matt. 10:28; Mk. 3:4), a soul can be dead (Lev. 21:11; Num. 6:6; 19:11, 13; Josh. 2:13; Jas. 5:20; Rev. 16:3), and “the soul that sins shall die” (Ezek. 18:4, 20). Souls, or consciousnesses, are simply the emergent property of a union between a body and a spirit (Gen. 2:7), and so cease to exist when the body and spirit separate at death (Ecc. 12:7).
The idea of the immortality of the soul, such a clearly unbiblical notion, was introduced into early Christianity by Platonic philosophy. In the earliest days of the Church, the apostolic fathers (late first century) thought of immortality as a gift bestowed by God upon the resurrection, as did the later apologists Justin Martyr and (probably) Irenaeus of Lyons. Rather than incorrectly assuming based on tradition and philosophy that every human soul is immortal, we should recognize that God is the only one who is inherently immortal (1 Tim. 6:16).
Are we our bodies?
This may seem like a particularly inflammatory question, especially to those who have always been taught that we will remain alive after our bodies die. However, although there is definitely a duality of some sort in scripture, it is not between the soul and the body, but rather between the spirit (or “breath of life” which is given by God) and the body (Gen. 2:7; Ecc. 12:7). The soul, or consciousness, does not seem to exist apart from either a body or a spirit. And furthermore, although most Christians would be shocked to hear this, when someone dies, according to the Bible, they are represented by their (dead) body.
This claim, although surprising to Christians today, is repeatedly substantiated throughout the Old Testament. We are told that a person’s body returns to the ground after death (Ecc. 12:7), and yet it is the person themself who returns to the ground, not merely their body (Job 10:9; Ps. 90:3; 104:29; 146:4). Likewise, to be “gathered to [one’s] people” or “return to [one’s] fathers” (which is said of almost every single Israelite and Judean king upon death) simply meant to be buried in the same place as one’s ancestors:
“Now as for you [Abraham], you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age”... Then Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, the field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth. There Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife. (Gen. 15:15, 25:8-10 NKJV)
Notice here that it is actually Abraham himself - the same person who would “go to [his] fathers” and be “gathered to his people” - who was buried, not merely his body.
Then he [Israel] charged them and said to them: “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite... There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah.” (Gen. 49:29, 31 NKJV)
Again, it is Israel himself who is to be “gathered to [his] people” and yet it is also he himself - not merely his body - who is to be buried with his fathers in the cave of Machpelah. Likewise, Isaac, Rebekah, and Leah are themselves said to be buried, not merely their bodies.
And so it was, as her [Rachel’s] soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin. So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. (Gen. 35:18-20 NKJV)
This is perhaps the most important passage that demonstrates that, after death, a person is represented by their body (not a disembodied consciousness). We see here that Rachel’s soul departed from her, and then Rachel herself (not merely her body) was buried on the way to Bethlehem Ephrathah. That is, after she died, Rachel was not represented by her soul that left her body, but by her body itself.
I could continue with many more examples of the body being the representation of a person after death, including Moses (Deut. 34:5-6), virtually every Israelite and Judean king, entire generations (Judg. 2:10), and even “all the earth” (Josh. 23:14 cf. 24:29-30), all of whom are either said to be buried or “gathered to their fathers/people”. Furthermore, this is not a truth that changed between the Old and New Testaments, because it is also said of Lazarus (Jn. 11:17) and Jesus (Jn. 19:33, 42; Acts 13:29; 1 Cor. 15:4) that they themselves were buried, not merely their bodies. However, in the interest of keeping this article relatively short, I will leave only these few examples which should suffice to demonstrate that, biblically, a person is considered the same as their body after death.
What is Sheol/Hades?
At this point, the argument is usually made that souls go to Sheol (or its Greek equivalent, Hades) after death, and so the soul cannot merely cease to exist upon death. It is true that scripture says that souls go to Sheol or Hades after death, or more accurately, that souls can be delivered from Sheol/Hades (Ps. 16:10; 30:3; 49:15; 86:13; 88:3; 89:48; Prov. 23:14; Acts 2:27, 31). However, to say that this means that souls do not cease to exist at death misunderstands the meaning of the words Sheol and Hades. Both of these words simply mean “the unseen”, as Sheol is derived from sha’al (to ask) and Hades from α-οιδα (not-seen).
Although these words are often translated in the KJV as “hell”, this is simply a false translation (at least based on the modern meaning of “hell”, which used to also mean “unseen” in Old English). Both the wicked and the righteous alike go down to the Unseen at death (Gen. 37:35; Job 3:11-19; Ecc. 3:20; 9:10; Jon. 2:2; Acts 2:27; 31). The Unseen can also be representative of the grave, at least in a figurative sense, as everyone who goes to the Unseen also goes to the grave. It is considered to be a place of maggots (Job 17:13-14; 24:19-20; Isa. 14:11) and a place of corruption and decay, i.e. of bodies (Ps. 16:10; 49:14; Hos. 13:14; Acts 2:27, 31), and it is said to be under the earth, that is, beneath the ground where bodies are buried, synonymous with “the pit” (Num. 16:30-33; Deut. 32:22; Job 11:8; 17:16; Ps. 30:3; Prov. 1:12; Isa. 14:15; Ezek. 31:16; Amos 9:2).
Further evidence that going to the Unseen is simply a figurative way of describing something that ceases to exist is the usage of Hades in Matt. 11:21-23 and Lk. 10:13-15. Here we are told by Jesus that the cities of Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida will be brought down to the Unseen because the people within did not believe the miracles that He had done. These cities did not go down to “hell”, whatever that is supposed to mean, but they were completely abandoned and largely ruined during the Middle Ages; that is, they ceased to exist as cities. Thus, the fact that souls are said to go down to the Unseen in the Old and New Testaments simply means that they cease to exist as consciousnesses at death.
The state of the dead in the Old Testament
Throughout the Old Testament, we are repeatedly told of the state of those who have died, and the nature of existence in the Unseen. Rather than being a place of conscious torment or bliss to the dead, however, the frequent message of these writers is that the dead simply have no conscious existence anymore. In fact, one of the most common terms in the Old Testament to describe those who have died is “no more” (Gen. 37:30; 42:13, 36; Job 27:19; Ps. 37:10, 36; 39:13; 104:35; Isa. 17:14; Jer. 31:15; Lam. 5:7; Ezek. 26:21; 27:36; 28:19; Matt. 2:18).
Here are a number of specific passages that demonstrate that the dead are no longer conscious at all:
Return, O YHWH, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake! For in death there is no remembrance of You; In the grave who will give You thanks? (Ps. 6:4-5 NKJV)
I cried out to You, O YHWH; And to YHWH I made supplication: “What profit is there in my blood, When I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your truth? Hear, O YHWH, and have mercy on me; YHWH, be my helper!” (Ps. 30:8-10 NKJV)
YHWH, I have called daily upon You; I have stretched out my hands to You. Will You work wonders for the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise You? Shall Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave? Or Your faithfulness in the place of destruction? Shall Your wonders be known in the dark? And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? (Ps. 88:9-12 NKJV)
In these passages, David asks YHWH to deliver him from death, saying that if he died, he would no longer be able to praise Him. David’s logic here would lose all force if it were possible for those who have died to praise God. Thus, the traditional depiction of heaven as a place in the afterlife to praise God between death and the resurrection is biblically impossible, seeing as the dead cannot praise or know God.
The dead do not praise YHWH, Nor any who go down into silence. (Ps. 115:17 NKJV)
Trust not in princes — in a son of man, For he hath no deliverance. His spirit goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, In that day have his thoughts perished. (Ps. 146:3-4)
“Indeed it was for my own peace That I had great bitterness; But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, For You have cast all my sins behind Your back. For Sheol cannot thank You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth. The living, the living man, he shall praise You, As I do this day; The father shall make known Your truth to the children.” (Isa. 38:17-19 NKJV)
These passages confirm that the dead cannot praise God. Furthermore, we are told that on the day someone dies, “in that day have his thoughts perished”. This makes it impossible that any person’s consciousness could live on after death.
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. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished; Nevermore will they have a share In anything done under the sun. Go, eat your bread with joy, And drink your wine with a merry heart; For God has already accepted your works. Let your garments always be white, And let your head lack no oil. Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going. (Ecc. 9:5-10 NKJV)
This is certainly the clearest passage of all as to the nature of the dead. We are told that the dead have no knowledge, no reward, no love, no hatred, no envy, no work, no device, and no wisdom; can there be any more obvious assertion that there is no conscious existence for those who have died?
The testimony of the Hebrew scriptures as to the nature of existence for the dead, those who have gone to the Unseen, is as clear as can be. People who have died simply do not exist consciously; they are no more, with no knowledge, emotion, or ability to do anything. Souls, as much as they exist after death (if at all), only subsist in the form of unconscious ‘shades’. Therefore, the idea of soul sleep is suggested, if not demanded, by the Old Testament.
Is our hope in the afterlife, or the resurrection?
Despite the clear testimony of the Old Testament that souls (consciousnesses) are not immortal and cease to exist at death, that a person is represented by their body, not a disembodied soul, after death, and that there is no conscious existence for those who have died, many theologians have suggested that this truth somehow changed by the time of the New Testament. They cite progressive revelation (the idea that God revealed new truths to His people at different times) as a possible reason for this. Even ignoring the fact that progressive revelation never contradicts previous revelation and only builds upon it, there is actually still nothing in the New Testament to suggest the traditional view of the immortality of the soul and the afterlife.
As noted already, in the four gospels, when Lazarus and Jesus died, their personhood was considered to be represented by their dead bodies, not by any disembodied soul (Jn. 11:17; 19:33, 42; Acts 13:29; 1 Cor. 15:4). Furthermore, in the Greek scriptures, the nature of Hades (“the Unseen”) is still considered to be a place where things decay and/or cease to exist (Matt. 11:21-23; Lk. 10:13-15; Acts 2:27, 31), notwithstanding the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, for which see part 2 of this series. But there is an even stronger proof that the writers of the New Testament believed in soul sleep, which is their treatment of the topic of the resurrection.
Throughout the New Testament, we see that the hope of believers for life after death rests solely on the resurrection, and not on any pre-resurrection ‘afterlife’. Here are a number of passages that demonstrate this fact:
And if Christ is preached, that out of the dead he hath risen, how say certain among you, that there is no rising again of dead persons? and if there be no rising again of dead persons, neither hath Christ risen; and if Christ hath not risen, then void [is] our preaching, and void also your faith, and we also are found false witnesses of God, because we did testify of God that He raised up the Christ, whom He did not raise if then dead persons do not rise; for if dead persons do not rise, neither hath Christ risen, and if Christ hath not risen, vain is your faith, ye are yet in your sins; then, also, those having fallen asleep in Christ did perish; if in this life we have hope in Christ only, of all men we are most to be pitied...
Seeing what shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? why also are they baptized for the dead? why also do we stand in peril every hour? Every day do I die, by the glorying of you that I have in Christ Jesus our Lord: if after the manner of a man with wild beasts I fought in Ephesus, what [is] the advantage to me if the dead do not rise? let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die! (1 Cor. 15:12-20, 29-32)
This passage is in the middle of Paul’s greatest treatise on the resurrection, in which he vehemently defends the doctrine of the resurrection of believers against certain Corinthians that denied it. However, his entire argument is rendered void if there is even the possibility of an afterlife prior to the resurrection. Would any Christian today say, “what is the advantage to me if the dead do not rise”? Certainly not, because with the belief in a blissful afterlife, there is infinite gain for believers even without a resurrection. The idea of bodily resurrection has been reduced from our greatest hope to merely a peripheral and inconsequential doctrine of Christianity.
For we have known that if our earthly house of the tabernacle may be thrown down, a building from God we have, an house not made with hands — age-during — in the heavens, for also in this we groan, with our dwelling that is from heaven earnestly desiring to clothe ourselves, if so be that, having clothed ourselves, we shall not be found naked, for we also who are in the tabernacle do groan, being burdened, seeing we wish not to unclothe ourselves, but to clothe ourselves, that the mortal may be swallowed up of the life. And He who did work us to this self-same thing [is] God, who also did give to us the earnest of the Spirit; having courage, then, at all times, and knowing that being at home in the body, we are away from home from the Lord — for through faith we walk, not through sight — we have courage, and are well pleased rather to be away from the home of the body, and to be at home with the Lord. (2 Cor. 5:1-8)
Surprisingly, this passage is often used as a prooftext against soul sleep when vv. 6 through 8 are taken out of context. However, when this passage is considered as a whole, it is clear that it is referring to the resurrection as our hope, not a disembodied afterlife. Paul uses much of the same language here as he does in 1 Cor. 15:51-54 to explain the resurrection, from describing this event as a “clothing” (ενδυο) to saying that, in it, mortality is swallowed up by immortality (2 Cor. 5:4 cf. 1 Cor. 15:53). Furthermore, Paul specifically says in v. 4 that he is not hoping for death (“to be unclothed”, i.e. without a body) but rather for the resurrection (“to be further clothed”, i.e. in a resurrection body).
With this in mind, it is clear that when Paul said he was pleased to be “away from the home of the body and to be at home with the Lord”, he was talking about being away from the pre-resurrection body (his “earthly house”) and being in his resurrection body (his “dwelling that is from heaven”) together with Christ. Thus, this is another passage that demonstrates Paul’s hope for the resurrection rather than death, which is further evidence that there is no blissful afterlife prior to the resurrection.
And I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, that ye may not sorrow, as also the rest who have not hope, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also God those asleep through Jesus he will bring with him, for this to you we say in the word of the Lord, that we who are living — who do remain over to the presence of the Lord — may not precede those asleep, because the Lord himself, in a shout, in the voice of a chief-messenger, and in the trump of God, shall come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we who are living, who are remaining over, together with them shall be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in air, and so always with the Lord we shall be; so, then, comfort ye one another in these words. (1 Thess. 4:13-18)
Paul is here dealing with the great concern of the Thessalonian church that those who had died would not partake in the second coming of Christ. Rather than pointing out what would be the obvious if the traditional view of the afterlife were true, which is that the dead are already with Christ, Paul points to the resurrection as the hope for those who have died. Like in 1 Corinthians 15, if there were an afterlife prior to the resurrection, Paul’s entire point in this passage would be rendered void.
Conclusion
According to the traditional Christian view of the afterlife, after death, a person’s disembodied soul either goes to ‘heaven’ to be with God and Christ if they are a believer, or to ‘hell’ where one is tortured in preparation for the Lake of Fire, if they are not a believer. However, contrary to this traditional depiction, the biblical definition of a “soul” is simply a consciousness that cannot exist apart from a body and a spirit (or “breath of life”). The only one who inherently has immortality is God, and every other soul (apart from Christ’s) is currently mortal (and will remain such until the resurrection). Furthermore, after death, a person is considered to be represented by their dead body, not a disembodied soul. The clear testimony of scripture is that the dead have no conscious existence, and that our only hope for life after death is bodily resurrection from the dead.
This picture of death may seem bleak, and it certainly is. But however uncomfortable it may be, it is what is clearly taught in the Bible, and there is very little evidence - either scriptural or scientific - to the contrary. In fact, if death is merely a transition to a better state of existence, then it would not be considered the greatest and final enemy to be defeated (1 Cor. 15:26). Rather than looking forward to a disembodied afterlife, we should comfort one another with the biblical truth of the resurrection, as Paul tells us to (1 Thess. 4:18).
Part 2: https://universalistheretic.blogspot.com/2022/03/defying-death-defense-of-doctrine-of_13.html
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