The Bible calls death “sleep” fifty-four times. In the Old Testament, when Scripture records that Moses, or a certain King, had died, it says that he “slept with his fathers.” Other than Moses having been later resurrected and taken to heaven, and appearing with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mat. 17:1-9), there is never any indication that any of these men are anywhere other than sleeping in the grave:
Deuteronomy 31:16: “The Lord said to Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers.”
II Samuel 7:12: “When thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers.""
I Kings 1:21: “When my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers.”
I Kings 2:10: “David slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 11:21: “David slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 11:43: “Solomon slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 14:20: “Jeroboam...slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 14:31: “Rehoboam slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 15:8: “Abijam slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 15:24: “Asa slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 16:6: “Baasha slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 16:28: “Omri slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 22:40: “Ahab slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 22:50: “Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers.”
II Kings 8:24: “Joram slept with his fathers”
II Kings 10:35: “Jehu slept with his fathers”
II Kings 13:9: “Jehoahaz slept with his fathers”
II Kings 13:13: “Joash slept with his fathers”
II Kings 14:16: “Jehoash slept with his fathers”
II Kings 14:22: “The king slept with his fathers”
II Kings 14:29: “Jeroboam slept with his fathers”
II Kings 15:7: “Azariah slept with his fathers”
II Kings 15:22: “Menahem slept with his fathers”
II Kings 15:38: “Jotham slept with his fathers”
II Kings 16:20: “Ahaz slept with his fathers”
II Kings 20:21: “Hezekiah slept with his fathers”
II Kings 21: 18: “Manasseh slept with his fathers”
II Kings 24:6: “Jehoiakim slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 9:31: “Solomon slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 12:16: “Rehoaboam slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 14:1: “Abijah slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 16:13: “Asa slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 21:1: “Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 26:2: “The king slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 26:23: “Uzziah slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 27:9: “Jotham slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 28:27: “Ahaz slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 32:33: “Hezekiah slept with his fathers”
II Chron. 33:20: “Manasseh slept with his fathers”
Whether a good king or a bad king, none of these kings are in heaven (or in a burning place); all lie asleep in their graves awaiting the resurrection of the dead.
In Job, believed to be the oldest book in the Bible, death is again referred to as sleep:
Job 7:21: “Now shall I sleep in the dust”
Job 14:12: “They shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep”
In the Psalms, death is a sleep:
Psalm 13:3: “Lest I sleep the sleep of death”
Psalm 90:5: “Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep”
Daniel promises a resurrection of the sleeping dead:
Daniel 12:2: “Many of they that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake”
Jesus described death as “sleep”:
Matthew 9:24: “The maid is not dead but sleepeth.”
Mark 5:39: “The damsel is not dead but sleepeth”
Luke 8:52: “She is not dead but sleepeth”
John 11:11: “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth”
At Jesus’ crucifixion:
Matthew 27:52: “Many bodies of the saints which slept arose”
Luke reiterates I Kings:
Acts 13:36: “David...fell asleep, and was laid unto his fathers”
Paul describes death as sleep:
I Cor. 15:20: “Christ is risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that sleep”
I Cor. 15:51: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed”
I Thess 4:13: “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope”
I Thess. 4:14: “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus”
Points To Consider
1) When in a deep sleep a person is not conscious of events taking place around him, just as the Bible teaches a person who is dead is not conscious of things taking place. Ecclesiastes 9:5 “The dead know not anything.” Ecclesiastes 9:10 “There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” Psalm 146:4 “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Job 14:21 “His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not.”
2) When in a deep sleep a person is not conscious of the passing of time. You might awake out of sleep and think it’s time to get up when it’s only 1:00 a.m., or vice versa. When Adam is called from the grave, it will seem to him that he had just closed his eyes in sleep, though some 5,000 years have passed since he died.
3) The etymology of our English word “cemetery” is instructive. Cemetery comes from the Greek a word, koimeterion, which is derived from the very same Greek word for sleep, koimao, in the passages we have listed above (Matthew 27:52, John 11:11, Acts 13:36, I Cor. 15:20, I Cor 15:51 and I Thess. 4:14). So, in both English and in biblical Greek, cemetery means “sleeping place”, much as the word “dormitory” is from the Latin word for sleep.
4) God would not have believers fear death (Hebrews 2:15), because a glorious resurrection awaits them, just as we do not fear sleep because we anticipate waking up refreshed. Job 14:12 “If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee.”
Answers to Objections
Since it is divinely inspired (theopneustos, “god-breathed” 2 Tim. 3:16), the Bible will not contradict itself when rightly interpreted. Hence, harmonious interpretation of all passages that bear on a topic is the goal and end-point of doctrinal Bible study. When two ideas appear to be in conflict, we interpret what is ambiguous or unclear by reference to what is simple and clear, just as when we are assembling a jigsaw puzzle, we begin with the easiest fits, and leave the more difficult sections for later.
A clear and unambiguous teaching emerges from the 54 passages that describe death as a sleep combined with the several verses stating that the dead are not conscious and not doing anything (Eccles. 9:5, 10; Job 14:21; Psalm 6:5, 146:4). That clear teaching is that death is an unconscious, dreamless sleep. Of the passages that seem to point in another direction, we should ask, “Is there a way I can understand them and still maintain the inspired harmony of Scripture?”
1. What about the story about the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), which seems to teach that you go to your reward when you die? This account is a parable; a story told to teach a specific lesson. In parables, only the point of the story matters. We are not expected to take the details literally, only the main point, or teaching. We are not intended to take literally that the dead are all taken to Abraham’s bosom {Luke 16:22}, spending their time in heaven sitting on Abraham’s chest? It would get pretty crowded! Likewise, one drop of water on the tongue (Luke 16:24}) would not given anyone relief from the fires of hell.
The lesson Jesus wanted to teach was that it is in this life that we make our decision for or against God, and after that a “great gulf is fixed (v. 26)” which finalizes our destiny for eternity. A secondary lesson in this parable is that if we choose not to believe the truths that God has given to us in His Word, we would not believe “though one rose from the dead (v. 31).” Note that one did rise from the dead, and his name was Lazarus, and they still didn’t believe!
Jesus used a story that was in common circulation at that time to make an important spiritual point; he did not invalidate the well-documented Bible teaching that when one dies he rests unconsciously in the grave till Christ’s return, when He will come with His reward (Revelation 22:12). What purpose would it serve for Christ to come with His reward if all had already received theirs at death?
If we base our understanding of God on what is referred to in parables, the story Jesus told in Luke 18:1-8, the parable of the persistent widow, would seem to teach that God doesn’t really want to listen to His children, and answers their prayers only to get rid of them. Jesus used this story to teach us that we should persevere in our prayers, though at times it might seem like God is like the unjust judge.
2. What about the Bible verse that says “absent from the body, present with the Lord (II Cor. 5:8)?” A careful reading of this passage, beginning with II Cor. 4:7, reveals that Paul is speaking about the trials and pains of this life, experienced in our mortal bodies. Referring to our earthly bodies, He speaks of the treasure of the gospel in “earthen vessels” (II Cor 4:7--a metaphor of our mortal bodies). We do not “lose heart” though (II Cor 4:16), because God has planned something so great that our present affliction will seem like nothing compared with what God has planned for us. Paul, the tentmaker, compares our present mortal body to a tent, portable and temporary (II Cor. 5:1) which will fail one day and we will die. But we look forward to the “house” (that is, our heavenly body) which God will give to us then. Notice the contrast between “earthly tent which can be destroyed” and “heavenly house which is eternal.”
Paul makes it very clear that our heavenly existence will be in a body, (the “heavenly house”) like the one Jesus had following His resurrection (Phil. 3:21), which will be given us at His second coming (I Cor. 15:51-55). We look forward with eager anticipation to receive that new body, free from the ailments and frailties of our present condition -- “to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven” (II Cor 5:2). Notice very clearly that it is the changed, immortalized body and the life that goes with it, that Paul is focusing on.
Between this present life, with its sorrows and tribulations, and the second coming of Jesus when the glorious new body will be received, for most of the saints is the period of death, when the body returns to dust as God promised Adam (Genesis 3:19). This intermediate condition Paul describes as “naked” (II Cor 5:3), that is, without a body. But note clearly that it is not the “nakedness” that Paul is eager to receive (II Cor. 5:4 “we groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life”). Immortality is inseparably connected with the new body, which is received at Christ’s coming (I Cor. 15:51-55). Paul is not describing a future life which exists apart from a tangible, real body.
Because death is an unconscious state, when one dies the next thing he will be conscious of will be the resurrection. For the believer who closes his eyes in death, the next thing he or she will know will be coming to life when Jesus returns, so as far as their own conscious reality is concerned, it is as if the future life, in the heavenly body, follows right after this present life in the mortal body. With this in mind, of course Paul could proclaim he would rather be absent from this body (the word “the” in verse 6 is the same Greek article as in verse 1 and verse 4 where the translators rendered it “this tent”) and to be with Jesus (in that heavenly body), but this statement in no way nullifies the clear Bible teaching that one rests in the grave between the two conditions of this mortal existence and that future immortal life.
A comparison of the message and the words of I Corinthians 15 (Paul’s earlier letter to the same people) and this passage demonstrates that Paul is obviously looking forward to the resurrection at Christ’s coming as the fulfillment of the believer’s hope, and not an existence apart from a body during death.
“put on” I Cor. 15:53, 54 (same word as “clothed” in II Cor 5:2,3,4
swallowed up in victory” I Cor. 15:54 (same word as “swallowed up by life” II Cor 5:4
“mortal” I Cor 15:54 (same word as “mortality” in II Cor 5:4)
What difference does it make?
The Bible cautions believers against any attempts at communication with the dead. God called it an abomination (Deut. 18:9-12). A belief which ascribes a conscious life apart from a physical body during death opens the door to a dangerous opportunity for the devil and his angels to masquerade as departed loved ones and teach false doctrines.
Today the seance is popular, with mediums, clairvoyants, spiritualists and others who claim to reach beyond the curtain of this life being in high demand. These practices are rooted in the devil’s first lie to the human family “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4) God would have His children trust in Him, and get their knowledge and wisdom from His Word, rather than other dubious, unreliable and dangerous sources.
As tokens of His power to give humans immortality, there are some who have been resurrected or translated, and thus are in heaven now. But these examples are clearly documented in the Scripture (Enoch -- Genesis 5:24; Moses -- Jude 9; Matthew 17:3; Elijah -- II Kings 2:11; Matthew 17:3; the unnamed saints who arose at Christ’s resurrection -- Matthew 27:52. 53;). The vast majority of the saints are asleep in their graves and await the life-giving call from Jesus at His coming.
The Bible doctrine that our loved ones who have passed away are at rest is a very comforting teaching, one that puts friends and family at ease in their faith that the departed ones are no subject to this world’s trials, and that one day soon we will be reunited with them in that eternal kingdom.
John Anderson pastors the Mentone SDA Church in southern California