after death, a person either goes to a place where there is conscious awareness, and separation of saved and unsaved persons, with unsaved persons already being in torment prior to judgement, (Luke 16 v 24,26) or we all enter into a state of no life and no awareness until our being made alive again for judgement. A sort of soul sleep. Our vital principle of life has ceased. A view similar to one held by Martin Luther. Soul sleep, or psychopannychy, has been sporadically held by the church. Some Anabaptists endorsed it. It was included in the Forty Two Articles of Edward VI, which preceded the Thirty Nine Articles.
This case rests on three principles:-
1) If the soul is an entity, and human existence demands the unity of body and soul, then if the body ceases to function, so must the soul.
2) The use of the word 'sleep' in Scripture for death is alleged to point to the cessation of consciousness.
3) A state of consciousness between death and resurrection characterised by bliss or woe unwarrantably anticipates the judgement of the last day, when the basis for our final state is provided.
This interpretation seems to fit the I Samuel passage well. It seems to be the most consistent with this passage. Man is a living soul, a living breathing being, possessing some incorporeal element to his nature, but which is so linked to his body that at death it's consciousness ends, though it appears some people may be able to bring it up and communicate with it. Otherwise, this lack of consciousness is so complete, that to each person, the interval from death to resurrection seems instantaneous, even though in reality it may be a long age.
Certainly, the idea of death being described as sleep is a common one in Scripture. It is recorded that Solomon 'slept with his fathers' (I Kings 11 v 43), and that Christians who have died have fallen asleep. Surely though, this is to lay emphasis on the fact that death is not the end. That there will be an awakening on the resurrection morning, when the spiritual body is received.
Abraham, at his death was 'gathered unto his people', (Genesis 25 v 8). So too Isaac, (Genesis 35 v 29) so too Jacob, (Genesis 49 v 29, 33.) This is an unusual phrase. It is used also in II Kings 22 v 20. 'I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace.'. The phrase 'gathered to thy grave' helps to indicate it's meaning. Wilson [12] argues that some place or situation to which things or persons are taken or gathered. It is probable that this means nothing more than simply dying and being buried; entering into a similar state to those who have died before, a non conscious, intermediate state before the resurrection. But the idea of soul sleep is only really supportable from the passage in I Samuel alone, and that makes the doctrine rather weak, because we can infer alternatives from the information given, such as the work of unclean spirits, though it is not expressly stated.
This leaves us with the interpretation of the passages in Revelation. As in the earlier passage on the abyss, Hendriksen is at pains to point out that all these visions are symbolic. Thus, though souls are seen crying out to God to avenge their deaths, (Revelation 6 v 9) this is seen as symbolic. It is similar to the phrase 'the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground'. (Genesis 4 v 10) Blood has no voice, neither does it cry. The soul is in the blood (Leviticus 4 v 7). Hendriksen suggests that John sees the blood of the slaughtered saints under the altar, crying out to be avenged. [11]. So too in Revelation 20 v 4, Hendriksen emphasises the symbolism of these visions. [13] Certainly, when Paul talks about death and the resurrection in I Corinthians 15, he does not use the idea of wandering or waiting spirits. Rather he refers to a body as a seed, sown in the ground in corruption, but raised incorruptible at the resurrection.
There does appear to be one exception, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. But He is unique as the God-man. Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man, the Word became flesh. He had to be fully God to accomplish what He did. He also had to be fully man to take the sinner's place. Two natures in one Person. I want to suggest that once the Word became flesh, there was formed an indissoluble link between God and man. Indissoluble in the sense that such a link has to be maintained to accomplish the salvation of the elect. God is not confined by or constrained by this link. He can sever this link at any time, but in doing so; the work of salvation will collapse, because He is no longer the God-man, the Mediator and Advocate.
This leads us to the area of Christ's death, and an analysis of what happened during those three days and nights. Where was Christ for three days and nights? He was in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12 v 40). At least His body was. But God is spirit, and immortal. He cannot die. If His spirit had 'died' then the whole creation would have collapsed, because all things are sustained by and through Him. (Colossians 1 v 17). So where was Christ's Spirit? Where was the incorporeal part of the God-man? Did Christ return to the right hand side of the Father, and wait for resurrection? No. I suggest that He remained indissolubly linked to a now dead body, for to separate from it was to cease to be the Word made flesh. The conscious Divine Spirit of Christ was involved in His own resurrection. Not only did God the Father raise up Jesus Christ, which is the usual way in which Scripture describes Christ's resurrection, (Acts 2 v 32, Col 2 v 12, Ephesians 1 v 20) but Jesus was active in His own resurrection, having privilege, authority and right from the Father to lay down His life AND TAKE IT UP AGAIN. (John 10 v 18). He declared that HE would rebuild His own body in three days. (Matthew 26 v 61). So, the body was dead, but the Spirit of Jesus was alive and active in His own physical resurrection. He was not abandoned to the intermediate state of Hades, and His flesh did not see thorough corruption, that is, it did not physically decompose. (Acts 2 v 31).
In addition to this, Jesus was undergoing birth pangs and travail pains of death. (Acts 2 v 24). This does not refer to the crucifixion or act of dying, but the condition or Intermediate state of death itself, to which He was not abandoned. This state of Indissoluble connection between the Divine and human natures, where the human body was dead, but Christ's Spirit still conscious was a condition of pain, like birth pangs, from which He was loosed, unbound or released from at the resurrection, when the body became alive again. This experience is unique to Christ, by reason of His unique nature as the God-man, and forms part of the Atonement.
