•4:36 PM
Are the dead, before the resurrection, conscious, or do they just sleep?
Bob PrichardTopic(s): Death, Eternity & Judgment
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:20, But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
Paul refers to the dead as them that slept, but refers not to the soul, but the body of the dead.
The body, separated from the soul, or spirit by death, sleeps. The soul, in Hades, awaits the judgment. John writes, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them (Revelation 14:13).
The dead rest from their labours on earth, but they are not unconscious.
Some teach a doctrine called soul sleep, saying that the soul loses all consciousness at death. But this would require not only a resurrection of the body at the judgment, but also a re-creation of the soul, because it would have ceased to exist as it was in life.
The scriptures do not teach this hopeless doctrine.
Paul told Timothy, I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better (Philippians 1:23).
How could Paul say that it was better for him to die, and leave his vital ministry, if death would mean a cessation of all consciousness?
Paul also wrote, We are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6, 8).
Certainly Paul would not be confident about death, if death is an unconscious state. Paul spoke of being absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. This would be meaningless if the soul were unconscious.
In examining the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31, it is obvious that both the rich man and Lazarus were conscious, able to communicate, and able to remember.
The rich man was conscious of where he was, and why he was there.
He communicated to Abraham.
Though God may have specially permitted the rich man to speak across the great gulf fixed by God, nevertheless, he did communicate. He remembered the brothers he left behind, and he knew he suffered. I am tormented in this flame (Luke 16:24). He certainly was not unconscious, or soul sleeping.
Revelation 6 records the scene of the souls of martyrs under the altar. These souls were conscious, crying out for vengeance on those who had killed them.
They were not soul sleeping.
The psalmist wrote, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Psalm 116:15).
Would God really want his followers to cease their work in His behalf and sink into an unconscious existence?
Undoubtedly, the dead are conscious.
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