The Immortal Soul: A Response to Soul Sleep

In this blog post, we will examine soul sleep proponents' view of the supernatural world and how it actually works against their own theology. For the most part, their concept of the spiritual world is similar to mainstream Christianity with some caveats. They believe heaven is a real place inhabited by angels and where God dwells, but no humans are allowed with few to no exceptions (depending on the denomination). So, let's consider the nature of angels. They are non-corporeal beings, though they sometimes can appear corporeal. That are always described in Scripture has having the appearance of a man. That would infer that they have a body of some sort. One of the arguments against having a soul is that it is akin to being a ghost but angels are not described that way. That would imply that angels have a body, just one made of a different substance than our own. The implication here is that if angels can have non-biological bodies, then so can humans, until the resurrection. T...

Soul sleep proponents argue that the concept of a conscious soul that is able to exist apart from a physical body undermines the purpose of the resurrection. Their reasoning is that if you're already conscious and aware, then what would reuniting with a body serve? In this article, we will address that very question. First, let's define what we mean by "soul." A soul is our mind (consciousness), thoughts, emotions, and will. It is the inner man (or woman) that makes us who we are. It is intangible and subjective by nature. Thus, the soul needs some kind of body to interact with the world around it. Here on earth, we have temporal physical bodies to interact within our three spatial dimensions. After our physical body dies, our soul (consciousness) departs from the body much the same way a hermit crab discards an old shell. Contrary to popular belief, we don't become disembodied spirits any more than angels are disembodied spirits. We will still have a body, just o...

Scripture itself speaks of the soul existing outside the body after death if taken literally. We will divide this between the Old Testament and the New Testament. I will also address common objections to these verses. This is far from an exhaustive list, and I intend to add to it over time. Old Testament Support: The story of the Witch of Endor in 1 Samuel 28 portrays the spirit of the prophet Samuel coming up from the ground. The witch describes Samuel as an elohim. An elohim is any divine being in the spirt realm, including angels. The implication is Samuel is alive and conscious after death in the same spiritual realm as God and the angels. There are those who would dismiss this account as a deception either by the witch or a demon, which I have addressed here . Regardless, it demonstrates that the ancient Israelites had an understanding of the immortal soul at least three thousand years ago, minimum. Enoch walked or pleased God and was taken (Gen 5:24), meaning that he did not die....

Is there a way we can know if the soul persists beyond death? Perhaps the closest we can get to knowing without actually dying is Near-Death Experiences (NDEs). The term "near-death experience" was coined by author and physician Raymond Moody. In his book, Life After Life , Moody recounts the story of George G. Ritchie, who was a U.S. Army recruit in 1943 during World War II. George reportedly died of pneumonia and was declared clinically dead for about 9 minutes. During that time, he recounts leaving his body and encountering a being of light, among other things. He was told it wasn't his time to die and was later revived with an adrenaline injection. George G. Ritchie's story is considered one of the earliest "modern" NDEs, although NDEs are not new or novel but have been recorded in ancient texts for thousands of years. NDEs often have many commonalities among them, including: Having an out-of-body experience and seeing their own physical body apart from ...

Where does consciousness reside? The question is both intriguing and thought-provoking as it poses a particular challenge for both the materialist and soul sleep advocates. If all we are are our brains, then consciousness should be found in the brain. The problem is, science can't explain how an organ that is made up of mostly water (73-80%) and a little fat (10-12%) produces consciousness at all, and it may never. Science deals with the material, tangible world. But consciousness is immaterial and intangible. Therefore, it is unquantifiable. We may understand in part how the brain works. We can detect brain waves, for instance, but it's still a big leap to go from understanding how neurons fire to understanding how the brain produces thoughts. The enigma that is consciousness may, in fact, be the greatest argument for the immortal soul. Before we begin, it should be established what we mean by consciousness so we can rule out what it is not. "Consciousness" can refer...

There is the accusation from soul sleep advocates that Christians adopted the concept of the immortal soul from the pagan Greeks, mainly from Plato. A variation of this is that they got it from the Egyptians. Because of this supposed pagan influence, they reject the soul. Ironically, they have no problems with adopting the use of allegory, which also originates from Greek thought. But just how true is this accusation? First things first, the Greeks didn't invent the soul; they merely philosophized it. The concept of the human soul was universal across all cultures. Soul sleep, on the other hand, was a foreign concept to the ancient world. Also, the Greeks didn't have a universal consensus about the soul. Plato believed the soul continued on after death, but his student, Aristotle, had a more nuanced view and didn't clearly teach that the soul survives death. Second, it's easy to dispel that theory from the story of the Witch of Endor alone. Recall that Saul went to see ...

Soul sleep advocates argue that the Hebrew Scriptures (Tanakh) doesn't teach of an afterlife or an immortal soul. However, this is an argument from silence because it assumes that since the Hebrew Bible does not clearly teach an immortal soul, the Hebrews must not have believed in one. It is also not an accurate understanding of what the Hebrews believed about the grave (Sheol). It shouldn't be presumed that the Hebrews knew it all. In fact, some of their understandings of such things were borrowed from their Mesopotamian neighbors. The Hebrews’ concept of the underworld, Sheol, is very similar to Sumerian ( Kur ) and Akkadian ( Irkalla ) cosmology. The Hebrew Bible's primary focus was on earthly matters, specifically, God's dealings with Israel. It did not concern itself with much outside of that. The reason why much wasn't said of the afterlife was twofold. First, they simply weren't given that revelation (knowledge/understanding) by God. They didn't know,...

Soul sleep is the belief that the soul is unconscious and "sleeps" in death until the resurrection at Christ's Second Coming. Adherents to soul sleep include the Jehovah Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, and Christadelphians, among a few others. They are products of the Restoration Movement and Millerite movement of the 19th century, although the doctrine of soul sleep can be traced back to the third century. It was largely rejected by the early fathers but reemerged during the Reformation. However, it remains a minority view. None of the religious groups in 1st century Judea had any concept of soul sleep. Most believed in an immortal soul, including the Pharisees, Essenes, and early Christians. The Sadducees were the only ones who didn't believe in an immortal soul, but they didn't believe in a resurrection either. The Bible does refer to death as "sleep" on occasion, as someone dead has the appearance of someone being asleep. Soul sleep proponents wou...

What is this blog, and why does it exist? After the passing of my father, I became somewhat obsessed with knowing what happens when we die. Death is something that touches each and every one of us at some point, it's part of the human experience. It's one of the big questions of life, alongside "Is there a God?" and "Why am I here?" So, trying to understand it, or at least the best we can, would seem to be prudent. As a Christian, I've always believed in the afterlife. But how can we really be sure of anything outside of our observational experience? There are many competing ideas. The materialist will say there is no life after death. The proponents of soul sleep will also deny life after death but for theological reasons. Buddhists and Hindus, among others, believe in reincarnation. Mainstream Christians like myself believe in an immortal soul. And of course there are no doubt innumerable other fanciful ideas about what happens when we die. I've sp...