The Kingdom of God, Student Workbook, SW02

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T H E K I N G D O M O F G O D

d. The image of sleep is used three times in 1 Thessalonians 4.13-15.

e. Soul sleep is a view that takes this imagery literally for the state of the soul after death and before the resurrection.

3. Is this view persuasive? It is a simple view, but has some serious problems.

a. The Bible tends to suggest that the soul survives death, and that we are not merely one united component (body-soul-spirit), but that the soul and body are separate.

b. The Bible teaches in several places of personal conscious existence after death.

(1) The rich man and Lazarus, Luke 16.19-31

(2) Jesus’ word to the thief on the cross, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise,” Luke 23.43

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(3) Jesus’ committal of his own Spirit to God, Luke 23.46

(4) Paul desires to depart and be with Christ, which signifies conscious communion with Jesus after death, Phil. 1.23.

c. We must take seriously the texts which suggest that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, that is, in conscious communion with him, 2 Cor. 5.8.

C. The intermediate state as purgatory

1. Overview of the Catholic view of death