Soul Sleep

Just a little over a week ago a brother told me of some believers who hold "soul sleep" to be the truth regarding the departed whether believers or unbelievers. I could scarcely believe what I was hearing. Strangely a number of other references to this delusion of the Devil came to my notice. The matter has so pressed upon me that I felt it to be incumbent upon me to refute this deceit by directing souls to the plain teaching of the Word of God. No such condition will be experienced by either the believer or those who die in their sins when ushered into eternity.

The Lord Jesus Himself spake the narrative found in the Gospel by Luke. (16:19-31.) He never suggests that it is a parable! And if it was such the teaching remains plain. But it is, without doubt, a brief history of the character of the two men. Lazarus a poor man, and an unnamed man of considerable wealth. (That the name of one of these men is recorded should add to the weight of proof that this is not a parable. Some of the most devious of false sects promote the parabolic theory to bolster their lies. Lazarus dies first, perhaps from his bodily weakness, hungry and "full of sores." Immediately upon his decease, we learn that he is in a place of unparalleled bliss and blessing. And simply because he was a man of faith! How do we know this fact? He is identified with Abraham as "the father of all them that believe." Romans 4:11.

"And the rich man also died and was buried;" and with not so much as a pause we read, "And being in hades lifting up his eyes, being in torments..." His body was in the ground, but his soul was in that place of anguish and agony awaiting the consummation of the judgement that will ultimately fall upon him when cast into hell, the lake of fire for all of eternity. 

In this passage of Scripture, we have the authoritative spoken word of Christ as to the destiny of souls at death. Saint and sinner. Final and irreversable.

Later in Luke's Gospel account, we have further proof of this blessedness that is the portion of the believer immediately upon death. Again the Speaker is Christ. There at Golgotha's tree, one of the malefactors that had been crucified alongside Him, his death imminent, exercised simple yet profound saving faith in the Redeemer. Entreating the Lord Jesus to "remember him," the Saviour responded in divine compassion, "Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise." Luke 23:42,43. This needs no explanation! If the thief did not follow his new-found Lord into that place of bliss and blessedness, immediately upon his death, then the promise of the Lord was absolutely hollow! Who would dare venture such a blasphemy? Paradise is the present abode of the spirits of the departed saints, "the dead in Christ." The promise of comfort to those who "fall asleep in Jesus," which necessitates their consciousness!  

Now as to those who "die in their sins." Without controversy, their immediate destiny after death is a place and a condition of uninterrupted and unmitigated torment. The writer to the Hebrews states unequivocally: "And forasmuch as it is the portion of men once to die and after this judgement;" establishing the immediacy of judgement falling upon the sinner thrust into an eternity of loss. (Please note, there is no definite article before the word "judgement," it is not specifically the Great White Throne assize, although that is obviously an irrefutable element of divine judgement to be pronounced on all who die "without Christ.) Hebrews 9:27.

I trust and pray that this might help to liberate some of the Lord's people who have fallen foul of this mendacious falsehood of "soul sleep." For the Glory of the Lord.