And yet they’re stuck sharing the same Wikipedia Page.
Soul Sleep and believing the Soul is just as dead as the body between physical death and physical resurrection have a lot in common, both reject the Platonist/Pythagorean/Essene/Origenist view of The Soul that has become the mainstream popular view. One definitely does and the other still could involve a lack of any concise state between death and resurrection.
But Soul Sleep allows more wiggle room, it could allow Souls in Sheol/Hades/The Grave to be in a sort of Dreamlike state, same with the Martyrs under the Altar in the Throne Room in Revelation 6 at the 5th Seal and later washing their robes in chapter 7. Which gives me flexibility in how to deal with passages that seem to imply a pre resurrection afterlife.
But more importantly the idea that the Soul is just dead is what Annihilationists tend to believe.
What Jesus says in Matthew 10:28 is important here.
“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Annihilationists like Lex Meyer seem to think this verse proves their position even though it contradicts it. If the Soul simply dies when the body dies then anyone who can kill the body can kill the Soul. Instead killing the Soul is something only God can do, and Jesus goes on to assure us God never would do that. And in John 11:26 Jesus promises us that we will NEVER die.
The New Testament refers to the dead as asleep multiple times. That’s why I consider Soul Sleep the face value Biblical View and the burden of proof is on those who reject it. And the verses they most cling to I've already addressed here.
It’s also the most ancient traditional view being implied in Justin Martyr and explicitly taught by Athenagoras. It was also the View of the Smyrna-Lyon tradition of Polycarp-Irenaeus and possibly compatible with what Tertullian taught. Some who actually believe in Soul Sleep may have unwittingly used more Mortalism based language, so I remain unsure what to think of Tatian, Octavius or Marcus Minucius Felix.
The fact that so many mainstream Christians now treat Soul Sleep as a damnable heresy shows how far we’ve fallen into Platonist Error.
Soul Mortalism is still closer to the Biblical Truth then the mainstream view, but I do want the difference to be known as well as that Soul Sleep is where I stand.
Update October 22nd 2024: This Article by a John Anderson provides a large list of times The Dead are referred to as Asleep.
That Author probably holds other Beliefs I disagree with, I haven't read the entire website and even in this article takes the ill advised Tactics of quoting Ecclesiastes at face value, and clearly doesn't seem to believe in Universal Salvation. But regardless it's a good resource.
So I'm gonna copy/Paste the list of Verses from that article here, he doesn't say which Translation he used but I'm confident the KJV agrees with all of these..
Deuteronomy 31:16: “The Lord said to Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers.”
II Samuel 7:12: “When thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers.""
I Kings 1:21: “When my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers.”
I Kings 2:10: “David slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 11:21: “David slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 11:43: “Solomon slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 14:20: “Jeroboam...slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 14:31: “Rehoboam slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 15:8: “Abijam slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 15:24: “Asa slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 16:6: “Baasha slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 16:28: “Omri slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 22:40: “Ahab slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 22:50: “Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers.”
II Kings 8:24: “Joram slept with his fathers”
II Kings 10:35: “Jehu slept with his fathers”
II Kings 13:9: “Jehoahaz slept with his fathers”
II Kings 13:13: “Joash slept with his fathers”
II Kings 14:16: “Jehoash slept with his fathers”
II Kings 14:22: “The king slept with his fathers”
II Kings 14:29: “Jeroboam slept with his fathers”
II Kings 15:7: “Azariah slept with his fathers”
II Kings 15:22: “Menahem slept with his fathers”
II Kings 15:38: “Jotham slept with his fathers”
II Kings 16:20: “Ahaz slept with his fathers”
II Kings 20:21: “Hezekiah slept with his fathers”
II Kings 21: 18: “Manasseh slept with his fathers”
II Kings 24:6: “Jehoiakim slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 9:31: “Solomon slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 12:16: “Rehoaboam slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 14:1: “Abijah slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 16:13: “Asa slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 21:1: “Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 26:2: “The king slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 26:23: “Uzziah slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 27:9: “Jotham slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 28:27: “Ahaz slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 32:33: “Hezekiah slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 33:20: “Manasseh slept with his fathers”
Job 7:21: “Now shall I sleep in the dust”
Job 14:12: “They shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep”
Psalm 13:3: “Lest I sleep the sleep of death”
Psalm 90:5: “Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep”
Psalm 146:4 “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”
Daniel 12:2: “Many of they that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake”
Jesus described death as “sleep”:
Matthew 9:24: “The maid is not dead but sleepeth.”
Mark 5:39: “The damsel is not dead but sleepeth”
Luke 8:52: “She is not dead but sleepeth”
John 11:11: “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth”
At Jesus’ crucifixion:
Matthew 27:52: “Many bodies of the saints which slept arose”
Luke reiterates I Kings:
Acts 13:36: “David...fell asleep, and was laid unto his fathers”
Paul describes death as sleep:
I Cor. 15:20: “Christ is risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that sleep”
I Cor. 15:51: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed”
I Thess 4:13: “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”
I Thess. 4:14: “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus”
And in the comments section 2 Peter 3:4 is added.
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