Hell: What the Bible REALLY Teaches
 

IV.

THE "SLEEP" OF THE DEAD IN SHEOL

The Holy Spirit inspired Moses, Job, kings David and Solomon, Isaiah, Daniel, our Lord Jesus Christ, Luke, Paul and Peter to euphemistically refer to the dead as being "asleep."

In Deuteronomy 31:16 we read:

And the Lord God said unto Moses, 'Thou shalt sleep with thy fathers.'(KJV)

This same expression- --"sleep with thy fathers"- --occurs 36 times in the books of Kings and Chronicles alone! It would seem that our God desires that His people be familiar with this phrase. As we shall soon see, the sleep metaphor is often used in the New Testament as well. But first let us examine a sampling of Old Testament passages that employ "sleep" and related terminology.

So man lieth down, and riseth not; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. (Job 14:12, KJV)

Consider and hear me, 0 Lord my God; lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. (Psa. 13:3, KJV)

As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness.(Psa.17:15, KJV)

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake....(Dan. I2:2a, KJV)

But go thy way until the end be; for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of days. (Dan.12:13, KJV)

... for now I shall sleep in the dust; and Thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be. (Job 7:21, KJV)

Now let's look at a sampling of New Testament Scriptures:

Now all wept and mourned for her; but He said, 'Do not weep; she is not dead, but sleeping.(Luke 8:52-53, KJV)

These things He said, and after that He said to them, 'Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that / may wake him up.' Then His disciples said, 'Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.' However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly: 'Lazarus is dead.'(John 17:11-14, KJV)

For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen ... And if Christ is not risen ... then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.(l Cor. 15:16-18, NKJV)

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.(I Cor.15:20, NKJV)

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.(1 Thess. 4:14, NKJV)

For this we say to you by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.(I Thess.4:15, NKJV)

At this point we would like to introduce one more piece of evidence for the sleep of the dead. In I Corinthians 15:7 the apostle Paul states that, after His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His brother James. As this incident is not recorded in our canonical Gospels, it is usually assumed that Paul's source for this information must have been oral tradition (perhaps from James himself --- cf. Gal. 1:18-19). It is also possible that Paul's source was the lost Gospel of the Hebrews, sometimes called the Gospel of the Nazarenes. A fragment of this lost apocryphal "Gospel"---if not the written source of Paul's information in 1 Corinthians 15:7 --- at least appears to draw on the same oral tradition. Here is the fragment:

Now the Lord, when He had given the linen cloth to the servant of the priest, went to James and appeared to him (for James had swore that he would not eat bread from that hour wherein he had drunk the Lord's cup until he should see Him rise from among them that sleep). And again after a little while, 'Bring you,' said the Lord, 'a table and bread'....[and immediately it is added He took bread and blessed and broke and gave it to James the Just and said to him, 'My brother, eat you bread, for the Son of Man is risen from among them that sleep." (15)

 So we see that in both the Old and New Testaments, as well as in early Jewish-Christian tradition, death is likened to sleep. This is because both in deep sleep and in death the subject is unconscious and wholly unaware of the passage of time and events.

Unfortunately, this inspired and revealing terminology did not long survive apostolic times. It soon disappeared from the teaching of the Latin and Greek churches. While farther East, in the Aramaic (Syriac) speaking churches, it continued to be used and often understood until after the Hellenizing reforms of the fourth and fifth centuries.(16)" In the medieval West it was seldom used, until at the time of the Reformation, it was briefly revived by William Tyndale and Martin Luther. It also enjoyed a brief resurgence among the early Anabaptists.' (17)

 Martin Luther, the Prince of the Reformers, wrote concerning the sleep of the dead believer:

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 relief 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 call and 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...

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 resurrection, together with the saints who preceded them in death. (A Compend of Luther's Theology ed. Hugh Thompson, p.242) (18)

Luther's views on the sleep of the dead were soon suppressed by his followers; no doubt under the influence of his colleague Melancthon, who along with Swiss Reformer John Calvin, continued to teach the traditional Catholic view. Calvin's first book, titled Psychopannychia which he wrote against certain Anabaptist teachers, was an attack on the doctrine of the sleep of the dead. Heinrich Bullinger, another Swiss Reformer and a prolific author, popularized Calvin's views both in England and on the Continent, thereby insuring that the traditional Catholic view became the official stance of the Protestant Reformation.(19) And this, of course, is the historical source of this false teaching among the evangelical churches of today. But thanks be to God! Due to the persistent and painstaking efforts of certain critical and evangelical scholars, the Scriptural doctrine of the sleep of the dead and related truths are once again seeing the light of day!"(20)  

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