If "Soul Sleep" Is Correct Doctrine?

Do you realize that historians are not necessarily trustworthy?

Yes Soul Sleep is indeed a false doctrine. There are no souls sleeping six feet under the soil. Upon death, the body goes into the grave (and may give the appearance of repose or sleep). But the soul and spirit are either in Heaven (for those who are children of God) or Hades (for those who are not). At the same time sleep is used as a metaphor for the death of the saints.

When Christ died His body was placed in a tomb but His soul and spirit went to Hades for three days and three nights. He preached unto the spirits in prison at that time. All the OT saints were in Hades in a virtual prison when He got there. However, when Christ rose from the dead, He took all these saints with Him to Heaven (including that thief on the cross). He took "captivity captive".

Paradise is in the New Jerusalem in Heaven (not in Hades), but Christ went there only after three days and three nights, after being "in the heart of the earth" or "the lower parts of the earth" (Hades). Therefore what He said to that malefactor was that surely he would be with Him in Paradise at the appropriate time (after three days). That thief also went to Hades with Christ, and he was not an exception to be in Paradise on that same day of crucifixion.

The Greek text has no punctuation, so it was imperative that the translators place the punctuation at the right spot, or omit it altogether. But because that did not happen, there is an incorrect understanding of what was said. All English translations follow the KJV in this regard.

"For to me to live is Christ, and to die IS GAIN!" (Philippians 1:21)+
"For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to DEPART {soul},And To Be WITH CHRIST; which IS FAR BETTER!" (Philippians 1:23)+
"Now He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, Whoalso hath given unto us The Earnest of The Spirit. Therefore we arealways Confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body,we are absent from The LORD: ( For we walk by faith, not by sight: )We are Confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body,and to be Present With The LORD!" (2 Corinthians 5:5-8) Where?:"...Paradise in The Third Heaven!..." (2Co 12:1-4) = VERY Comforting, Correct?:

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Bears repeating! Correct?:

"I AM The God of Abraham, and The God of Isaac, and The God of Jacob?

God Is not The God of the dead, but of the living." (Matthew 22:32) Amen.

2 Peter 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

I believe Paradise is synonymous with Abraham's Bosom, and still exists to this day.

The Saved 'rest' there until the Marriage Supper.

Witnesses (martyrs) dwell in the very throne room of heaven.

That should have been TARTARUS

It (tartarus) means place of outer darkness.

That is incorrect. "In Greek mythology, Tartarus was a "place of punishment under the earth, to which, for example, the Titans were sent" (Souter)."

That should have been TARTARUS, not "hell". There is no one in the Lake of Fire right now. But Tartarus is the SPECIFIC prison of the angels which sinned before the Flood. Εἰ γὰρ ὁ θεὸς ἀγγέλων ἁμαρτησάντων οὐκ ἐφείσατο ἀλλὰ σειραῖς ζόφου ταρταρώσας [tartarosas = Tartarus] παρέδωκεν εἰς κρίσιν τετηρημένους·

Those angels are chained in the prison called Tartarus: And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. (Jude 1:6)
This is from the man who is "under the sun". We know from the rest of Scripture that upon death souls and spirits go to Sheol/Hades, not back to God.

So there are three separate regions, and because they were all called "hell" we have much confusion.

SHEOL/HADES = THE ABODE OF DEPARTED SOULS AND SPIRITS
TARTARUS = THE SUBTERRENEAN PRISON OF ANGELS
GEHENNA = EVERLASTING HELL = THE LAKE OF FIRE

Even though I have been on this journey a bit some things are not fully settled in my mind through the harmony of the word.

One is after death........ View attachment 248381

If Jesus said Lazarus was asleep.....why do we dispute "soul sleep"?

If Jesus said Lazarus was asleep.....why do we dispute "soul sleep"?

A human soul is either dead or alive.
Ezekiel 18:20
20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

The context says it is at the timing of the RESURRECTION that those who have died in Christ Jesus will "THEN" be "WITH" Him:


Like them, you do not know the scriptures, nor the power of God, either.