"... new age esoteric pagan occult teaching..." Oh my.
Lots of Christians don't believe in soul sleep. Err... I mean...
Lots of "... new age esoteric pagan occult teaching..." Christians don't believe in soul sleep. - LOL
However, lots of Seventh Day Adventists believe in "soul sleep". (maybe JWs too?)
So, maybe it's okay? Not sure.
Wait, what's this? The "realm of the dead"?
The realm of the dead, where you are going? What?
Doesn't sound like unconscious nonexistence to me.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 NIV
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might,
for in the realm of the dead, where you are going,
there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
Doctrine ought not to be judged as true or false based on who believes it, but on what the Bible teaches.
The Bible declares death to be but a sleep from which believers will be awakened at the first resurrection (John 11:11-14, 25, 26; 1 Cor. 15:20, 51-54; 1 Thess. 4:14-17; 5:10). It is not until then that both the living and the resurrected saints will be with the Lord (see 1 Thess. 4:16-18). Neither group precedes the other (cf. Heb. 11:39, 40).
Notwithstanding what I said above about judging doctrine, it must be noted surely that all false religions, all pagan occult religions, of every hue and shade, all share one common theme... Dead people are not "surely" dead.
KJV Genesis 3:3-4
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.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman,
Ye shall not surely die:
Interesting don't you think, that Christian pulpits throughout the world echo the words of Satan as opposed to the words of God? That Satan has built his kingdom based on that first lie in Eden? And that it took the
sure death of the Son of God in a legal sense to win back that kingdom?
So does Ecclesiastes 9:10 make void Daniel 12:2? Or is Solomon confirming in his own words the truth that the dead wait on a state of unconscious existence until the resurrection?
KJV Psalms 115:17
17 The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence
KJV Psalms 146:3-4
3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
By the way, adventists and JWs weren't the first to teach that the dead are unconscious in the grave.
Martin Luther put it this way...
We should learn to view our death in the right light, so that we need not become alarmed on account of it, as unbelief does; because in Christ it is indeed not death, but a fine, sweet and brief sleep, which brings us release from this vale of tears, from sin and from the fear and extremity of real death and from all the misfortunes of this life, and we shall be secure and without care, rest sweetly and gently for a brief moment, as on a sofa, until the time when He shall awaken us together with all His dear children to His eternal glory and joy...For since we call it a sleep, we know that we shall not remain in it, but be again awakened and live, and that the time during which we sleep, shall seem no longer than if we had just fallen asleep... Hence we shall censure ourselves that we were surprised or alarmed at such a sleep in the hour of death, and suddenly come alive out of the grave and from decomposition, and entirely well, fresh, with a pure, clear, glorified life, meet our Lord and savior Jesus Christ in the clouds...Scripture everywhere affords such consolation, which speaks of the death of the saints, as if they fell asleep and were gathered to their fathers, that is had overcome death through this faith and comfort in Christ, and awaited the resurrection, together with the saints who preceeded them in death.
