"them that slept" above is in reference to the body, not the spirit. If you have scripture that refers to the dead sleeping and you have scripture that demonstrates that the spirit/soul is conscious and aware, you don't adopt one side and discredit the other. You have to cross-reference all related scriptures in order to come to a proper conclusioin.
[/B][/I]When the Lord descends to gather the church, He will bring with him the spirits/souls of those who have died in him, where at which time they will be reunited with their resurrected bodies. The word "anastasis" translated "Resurrection" properly means "to physically stand up again." As for those who are still alive at the time of the resurrection, they are transformed into their immortal and glorified bodies and caught up with those who will have just previously resurrected.
Just out of curiosity, how do you reconcile these scriptures to your thinking that the spirit is still conscious after death and before the resurrection?
Eze 18:4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
Eze 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
Psa 6:5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
Psa 30:9 What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?
Psa 49:12 Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.
Psa 49:13 This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
Psa 49:14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the
Psa 49:20 Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.
Psa 104:29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.
Compare to...
Gen 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.
Psa 115:17 The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.
Why not? They cannot, they are dead and unconscious.
Psa 146:3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
Psa 146:4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Ecc 3:21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
The spirit of man returns to God but is it conscious?
Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
Ecc 9:6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.
Ecc 9:10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
Ecc 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
The word for spirit here is the same word for spirit used in Eccl 3:19 and 21...
רוּחַ
rûach
roo'-akh
From H7306; wind; by resemblance breath, that is, a sensible (or even violent) exhalation; figuratively life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extension a region of the sky; by resemblance spirit, but only of a rational being (including its expression and functions): - air, anger, blast, breath, X cool, courage, mind, X quarter, X side, spirit ([-ual]), tempest, X vain, ([whirl-]) wind (-y).
the breath of life.
Dan 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
The dead are sleeping in the dust of the earth. Some awake to eternal life at the resurrection, some awake to be put to death.
Joh 11:11 These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
Joh 11:12 Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
Joh 11:13 Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
Mat 9:23 And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,
the custom at funerals at this time...
Mat 9:24 He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
Mat 9:25 But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.
Luk 8:51 And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden.
Luk 8:52 And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.
Luk 8:53 And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead.
Luk 8:54 And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise.
Luk 8:55 And her
spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat.
breath.
So, were Lazarus, the maid and others mention in the scripture that were physically resurrected, jerked out of fellowship with God in heaven and put back in the diseased body that had just died? That makes no sense at all and is unscriptural.
Jesus says that death is death and that we are made alive again at the resurrection...
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all
be made alive.
1Co 15:23
But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward
they that are Christ's at his coming.
1Th 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
1Th 4:15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the
voice of the archangel, and with the
trump of God: and
the dead in Christ shall rise first:
1Th 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
At the last (seventh) trump.
What was the first recorded lie?
Gen 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
What had God told them?
Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die.
Gen 3:3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,
lest ye die.
Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
We are not an immortal soul, we are dust with the breath of life and we can and do die. Without a resurrection to eternal life through Christ, we die for all eternity.
The real question is who do you believe? The serpent who says...
"Ye shall not surely die"
or God Who says...
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
