The Bible makes it clear in 2 Corinthians ch. 5, that our body is only a home, that WE leave at death.
2Co 5:1 For we know that if our earthly HOUSE of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2Co 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are AT HOME in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
2Co 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be ABSENT FROM the BODY, , and to be PRESENT with the Lord.
Scripture further makes that clear that at salvation, the Holy Spirit comes into our house, the body, and changes it from just a house, into the TEMPLE of the Holy Spirit.
1Co 6:19 What? know ye not that your BODY is the TEMPLE of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
It further makes it clear that our body is a house when Jesus gives an example of a demon possessed man, who had a demon cast out of him, but the demon went out and got more demons, and returned to the man, and found his HOUSE swept clean, and moved right back in and brought the other demons with him, so that man was worse off than he was before.
Mat 12:43 When the unclean spirit is gone OUT OF a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
Mat 12:44 Then he saith, I will return into my HOUSE from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
Mat 12:45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they ENTER IN and DWELL there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.
In 1st Kings, Elijah raises a dead boy. He stretched his body over the dead child and prayed three times for the dead child’s soul to come BACK into the child’s body. When the soul RETURNED to the body, the dead child came back to life.
The dead child’s soul wasn’t hanging around with the child’s body - the soul had LEFT and had to RETURN for the child to live again.
1Ki 17:21 And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's SOUL come into him again.
1Ki 17:22 And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the SOUL of the child CAME INTO HIM AGAIN, and he revived.
When Rachel was dying, her soul was departing.
Gen 35:18 And as her SOUL WAS DEPARTING (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.
Gen 35:19 So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem),
When Stephen was stoned to death, he looked into heaven and saw Jesus, and said, Lord Jesus, receive my SPIRIT.
He expected to be absent from his body, and to be present with the Lord, right then, not later on after taking a dirt nap first.
Act 7:56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
Act 7:57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,
Act 7:58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
Act 7:59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, RECEIVE MY SPIRIT
Hell, aka the place of everlasting fire, was originally created for satan and his angels, not for man. Jesus made it clear that the same everlasting fire that condemned humans go to, was created for the devil and his angels.
Mat 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into EVERLASTING FIRE, prepared for the DEVIL and his ANGELS:
Some teach hell is the grave, yet it’s clear that hell is a PLACE that some of the fallen angels are in right now, in chains, awaiting judgment.
Jud 1:6 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.
Fallen angels are spirits - they have no BODIES to bury in the dirt, but yet they ARE in a place called HELL right now.
2Pe 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;
Notice that they aren’t SLEEPING in hell, or they wouldn’t need to be chained to prevent their escape.
Angels are spirits. Heb 1:13 But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?
Heb 1:14 Are they not all ministering SPIRITS sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
Spirits have no bodies to bury in the ground, so hell cant be the grave.
Before the Messiah, Jesus, came and atoned for our sins, there were two compartments in the heart of the earth at that time. One compartment, called Abraham’s bosom, aka paradise, held all of the righteous dead, because no soul could go to heaven until Messiah atoned for sins.
It was separated by a great chasm from the torments compartment that the damned were put in, called Hell.
Jesus tells us about this in Luke 16 starting in verse 19.
When Jesus died His spirit descended into the heart, middle of the earth, and He preached to those spirits held in captivity there, most likely telling them He is Messiah and the Son of God who died for sins.
1Pe 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
1Pe 3:19 By which also he went and PREACHED unto the SPIRITS in PRISON.
Eph 4:8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, HE LED CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE, and gave gifts unto men.
Eph 4:9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also DESCENDED first into the LOWER PARTS OF THE EARTH?
Eph 4:10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
When He rose from the dead he emptied out paradise and took their spirits with them, which is why many dead people also rose and went into the city, after His resurrection.
Mat 27:52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
Mat 27:53 And came out of the graves AFTER HIS RESURRECTION , and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
Now those who die in Christ go to heaven - He moved paradise from in the earth, to heaven because He atoned for sins.
John the revelator was caught up into heaven, and saw SOULS there.
Rev 6:9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the SOULS of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
When Jesus returns from heaven to resurrect the dead, He brings those souls John saw in heaven with Him to reunite with their risen and immortal bodies:
1Th 4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
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 andremain 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:
Some claim hell is the grave. It’s not. It’s a place in the earth that holds conscious beings in it, and when when every knee bows to Jesus on judgment day, even those in hell bow down.
Php 2:9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
Php 2:10 That at the name of Jesus EVERY knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and THINGS UNDER THE EARTH.
Php 2:11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Rev 5:3 And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither UNDER THE EARTH, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
Rev 5:13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, AND UNDER THE EARTH and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I SAYING , Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.
Soul sleep, aka dirt nap doctrine, is unbiblical, and wrong doctrine.
