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...

Proponents of soul sleep often argue that the idea of a conscious soul existing independently of the body diminishes the purpose of the resurrection. They reason that if a person remains fully conscious and aware after death, then the resurrection would seem unnecessary or redundant. After all, if one's existence continues consciously without a body, what meaningful purpose would reuniting the soul with a physical body actually serve? Answering this question involves understanding the three body types. The Three Bodies 1Co 15:21For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 1Co 15:40 There are also celestial (heavenly) bodies and terrestrial (earthly) bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. The Apostle Paul speaks of earthly bodies, heavenly bodies, and the resurrected body. While it can be argued that the 'heavenly bodies' of 1 Corinthians 15:40 refer specifically to astronomical bodies, Paul...

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 a common accusation that Christians adopted the concept of the soul from the Greeks, most notably from Plato. There’s a variation of this argument that Christians adopted ideas about the soul and the afterlife from the Egyptians. By soul, I’m referring to the immaterial essence of humans that encompasses consciousness and continues on after physical death. But just how true is this accusation? How much did the Greeks influence Christian theology? And can it be established that the mainstream Christian concept of the soul is not purely the product of Greek philosophy? We will seek to answer these questions. It should first be established that Israelite/Jewish thought had already allowed for a postmortem existence prior to Greek influence. One very prominent example can be found in 1 Samuel involving the story of the Witch of Endor. King Saul had gone to visit the witch to summon Samuel from the grave. Much to the witch's surprise and dismay, she summoned what appeared to be...

Soul sleep proponents believe that Greek philosophy significantly influenced traditional Christian ideas about the soul and the afterlife rather than Scripture alone. For that reason, they reject the continued existence of the soul after death, also known as the intermediary state. Instead, they have a more Hebraic worldview that places far less emphasis on heaven and the afterlife than later Jewish and Christian theology. It is founded on the belief that humans don’t have a soul; we are souls. This belief is interpreted from Genesis 2:7: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul ( nephesh ).” The Hebrew word for “soul” is “ nephesh ” and is broadly defined as the whole living being or person. The question is, are we only nephesh ? “ Nephesh ” is translated to “psyche” in the Septuagint. If nephesh were strictly biological, they could have used the Greek word “bios,” from which we get the Engl...