I got an interesting call from a couple on the east coast. We talked for hours on many topics from the gospel to man made false religion. The topic of the thief on the cross and what happens at death came up.
Do we go to heaven or hell or as this couple claims, do we soul sleep in an unconscious state till judgement time?
This article biblically explains/tests it from God's Word and it will refute the idea of soul sleep .... as false and unbiblcal!
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The idea of promoting soul sleep is not new. Various unbiblical and heretical denominations promote it like Seven Day Adventists, Jehovah Witness and 7th Day Baptists so it is suspect already!
Lets explore what God's Word says on it:
In Luke 23 Jesus promised the thief on the cross paradise for his repentence and faith:
Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
The man on the phone who called me said we need to move the comma to read:
Verily I say unto thee Today, shalt thou be with me in paradise.
This is a great example of scripture twisting as if you look at the number of times Jesus ever spoke that way saying "today I tell you" you will find he NEVER spoke that at at all.
Jesus meant what he said... today you will be in paradise.
Next, lets look at other verses they use to say we soul sleep after death. 1 Corinthians 11 is a famous one that Paul said.
For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
Soul sleep people say see we sleep but look at the Greek in that verse. The word sleep in Greek is koimao....
it means to sleep / be dead!
Since Paul is NOT talking about believers slipping into some physical sleep, clearly he means they have physically died!
The word sleep is used for died in the bible in other places and here is one:
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
1 Cor 15:20
It is the same Greek word and it means to sleep/be dead. The body is sleeping in death but not the soul. How do we know NOT the soul sleeps?
1) Jesus told the thief today he would be in paradise.
2) Paul said this in 2 Corinthians 5:8
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
This couple tried to tell us that does not mean what it clearly says.
to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
I took them to verse 6 above it that says:
Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
When you read these two together you see we are in the body apart from God and when we part the body, we are with the Lord.
Need more verses to refute soul sleep?
How about Luke 16
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
One man was in heaven and one man was in torment / hell at death, no soul sleep here.Note: the man who called me, his wife said this was just a parable and not true!! So God's parables are lies and not fully biblical? That is blasphemy!
In Matthew 17:1-8 Moses appears at the Mt of transfiguartion.
Was he sleeping? No....
Paul says in Phil 1:23
For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
Finally Revelation 6:10
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
They who were dead were not sleeping were they?
In truth, there are NO bible verses that promote soul sleep when studied correctly and using God's Word and root words to understand its meaning.
Soul sleep is another man made lie that must be rejected when we read God's Word in full and just believe it.
See our biblical resources below.....
God be praised
www.dontperish.com
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