John Piper rejects ‘soul sleep,’ says believers are with Christ immediately after death

Michie said:

Pastor and theologian John Piper has pushed back on the idea that Christians enter a state of unconscious “soul sleep” after death and stressed that instead, believers go immediately into the presence of Jesus.

In a recent episode of Ask Pastor John, the 80-year-old Desiring God founder addressed a question about what happens in the moments after death, a topic that has long generated confusion among Christians seeking to reconcile passages like 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17with 2 Corinthians 5:6–8.

Responding to a listener named Jessica, Piper said the Apostle Paul’s writings leave no room for the notion that the soul remains dormant until the resurrection. The North American Mission Board defines "soul sleep," a belief held by groups such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and some Seventh-day Adventists, teaches that human consciousness ceases at death until the resurrection.

“We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord,” Piper said, quoting 2 Corinthians. “Paul did not conceive of a time when the body dies and we are not at home with the Lord.”

Continued below.

John Piper rejects ‘soul sleep,’ says believers are with Christ immediately after death

Pastor and theologian John Piper has pushed back on the idea that Christians enter a state of unconscious soul sleep after death and stressed that instead, believers go immediately into the presence

www.christianpost.com

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mindlight said:

The mainstream global historical church has always believed in a conscious intermediate state where the soul is detached from the body.

9 When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; 10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O [k]Lord, holy and true, [l]will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who live on the earth?” 11 And a white robe was given to each of them; and they were told that they were to rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers and sisters who were to be killed even as they had been, was completed also. Revelation 6:9-11

See also: Luke 16:19-31

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David Lamb said:

True, but the soul being separated from the body does not mean soul-sleep.

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mindlight said:

Which is what I thought I just said. The souls of the martyrs are clearly conscious during the intermediate state as are parties on both sides of the unbridgeable chasm in the case of Lazarus and the Rich man.

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