Revelation contains a series of visions given to John. Instead, the choice is between a physical life of service for the Lord and leaving this life behind and living with Christ. For Paul, the choice is not between physical life and soul sleep. He believes that dying will be better for him, because then he is with the Lord. In Philippians 1:21-24 he shares his feelings about continuing to live physically verses dying. Verse 9 emphasizes that point when he says that “we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.” How can we have a goal of pleasing the Lord if we are unconscious?Ī third passage that speaks to this issue comes from Paul’s letter to the Philippian church. This very much seems to be a conscious state. In verse 6 Paul says, “that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.” And in verse 8 he goes on to say that he “would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” The contrast here is between being at home in the body and at home with the Lord we are either living in our bodies or living with the Lord. In 2 Corinthians 5:1-9, Paul contrasts his earthly life with what is to come. It is a place of conscious awareness and experience. And it seems to be what is referred to as the bosom of Abraham in Luke 16:22, the abode of the righteous dead awaiting the judgement day. Paradise translates the Greek word used for the Garden of Eden in the Greek Old Testament. In this passage Jesus assured the repentant thief on the cross that they would be together in Paradise that day. One of these passages that implies a conscious state comes from Luke 23:43. That would seem to imply a conscious state in fellowship with Jesus. The primary problem with this view, at least in my mind, are the passages that refer to our being with Jesus when we die. In all three of these passages the reference to sleep is referring to physical death. And, in 1 Corinthians 15:51, in his discussion of the resurrection, Paul says that we will not all sleep. In 1 Thessalonians 4:13 Paul gives comfort and instruction to the church concerning those who had fallen asleep. In John 11:11, after Lazarus death, Jesus tells his disciples that Lazarus is merely asleep. There are a few Scriptural passages that hint at this state. This “sleep” comes to an end at the trumpet call of the archangel when our souls are reunited with newly resurrected bodies. Our bodies lie rotting in the ground while our souls sleep, unaware of the passing of time. There is one school of thought on this topic that holds to something often called “soul sleep.” This is essentially like suspended animation. But what about that period between the death of our bodies and our resurrection? Where are we during that time and what, if anything, are we doing? Soul Sleep
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