27. The Seventh-day Adventist view of "soul sleep" is contrary to Scripture.


Resources:

For this doctrine as taught by various individuals through the Christian era, see LeRoy E. Froom, The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vols. 1-2, 1965, 1966.

Seventh-day Adventists Believe . . . , 1988, (see esp. pp. 349-358).

For the most recent publication on this subject by a Seventh-day Adventist, see Samuele Bacchiocchi, Immortality or Resurrection: A Biblical Study on Human Nature and Destiny.

I've studied many books written from both points of view, and I believe that the "soul-sleepers" have it right. Here's why:
The Bible contains about 15 verses that are used by those who teach the immortality of the soul and the belief that the dead go directly to heaven or hell after death. Even the many study Bibles that I have do not list many verses in defense of the immortality of the soul. The strongest arguments for that view in the Bible are found in Phil. 1:23 and 2 Cor. 5:8.
However, those verses can be more easily harmonized with the verses that teach the non-immortality of the soul than the other way round. That is to say, the relatively few verses that appear to teach the immortality of the soul can be harmonized easily with those that do not, whereas it is impossible to harmonize the many verses that teach the non-immortality of the soul with the view that the Bible actually teaches that the soul is immortal.
If the Bible does indeed teach the immortality of the soul, then it contains many contradictions on that subject because most verses teach clearly that the dead sleep in their graves and that the dead do not know anything until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The strongest arguments, in my mind, for this view are found in 1 Cor 15: 17, 18; Gen. 2:7; 3:22-24; Eccl. 9:5, 10 and John 14:1-3.
First, there's nothing in the Bible that shows that God made people with immortal souls or immortal spirits.
Second, the emphasis in the Bible is on the Second Coming, not death, as the hope of the Christian and as the time when we will see Jesus. If we go immediately to be with Jesus after death, then why the need of the Second Coming? Why then didn't Jesus tell his disciples they would see Him at death? Also, if the dead go to heaven, how could Paul have possibly said what he did at 1 Cor 15:17, 18? Why also wouldn't Paul have told the people of Thessalonica that they'd all meet together in heaven when they died? Why did he say instead that the way we will be with the Lord forever is by means of the Second Coming?
Third, if God created Adam and Eve with immortal souls, and if they therefore would live in spirit form forever, it doesn't make sense that (according to Genesis 3:22-24) God was concerned about keeping them from eating of the tree of life in order to prevent them from living forever. It makes much more sense that God would do what I believe the Bible says he did, which was to create us with the possibility of living forever but after proving our worthiness.
Fourth, I believe that the doctrine that humans have mortal souls and that they sleep unconsciously in the grave until the resurrection harmonizes best with what the Bible teaches about God's love, wisdom, and justice.
I don't believe this or any other doctrine because it is the position of Seventh-day Adventists. I hope people, including Adventists, don't accept beliefs simply on the basis of who believes or teaches them. The Bible and the Bible alone is the basis of my faith and my beliefs. Jim