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Bible Question: Who
is in heaven today? Does the soul sleep in the grave? What does it
mean to be absent from the body?
Bible Answer: When
a person stops living in this world, he or she goes either to heaven
or to hell and then waits for judgment before God. The soul does not
sleep until some time in the future.
Soul Sleep. There are some passages
in the Bible which seem at first glance to teach that the soul sleeps.
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But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those
who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who
have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep
in Jesus. (NASB) 1 Thess 4:13-14 |
This passage says that believers in Jesus Christ go to sleep and are
raised to life again at the end of the world. But we must be careful,
because Jesus used the same expression about Lazarus. But he did not
mean that Lazarus was just sleeping.
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This
He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus
has fallen asleep; but I go, that I may awaken him out of sleep."
The disciples therefore said to Him, “Lord, if he has fallen
asleep, he will recover.” Now Jesus had spoken of his death,
but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep. Then
Jesus therefore said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.
(NASB) John 11:11-14 |
Jesus meant that Lazarus was physically dead. He used both sleep and
death for the same situation. It is important to know that both Jesus
and the apostle Matthew sometimes used "sleep" to mean "dead"
(Matt. 9:24; 27:52; Acts 13:36). Even the apostle Paul used the expression
of sleep to mean dead.
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But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits
of those who are asleep. (NASB) 1 Cor. 15:20 |
Here the apostle says that Jesus was dead or asleep.
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