Wednesday, June 5, 2024

Sleep of Death

"Paul writes to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 4:13, 14), that he would not have them ignorant concerning them which are asleep. In verse 14 he speaks of them as asleep in Jesus, and explains what he means, in verse 16, by calling them "dead in Christ.
And the advocates of the conscious state cannot dispose of these expressions by saying that they apply to the body merely; for they do not hold that the consciousness which we have in life (which is the same we lose in death) pertains to the body merely. 
Job plainly declares that they will not awake till the resurrection at the last day. 
"Man dieth and wasteth away; 
yea, man giveth up the ghost, 
Q: and where is he? 
As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up, so man lieth down and riseth not: 
till the heavens be no more, 
they shall not awake, 
nor be raised out oftheir sleep.
If, therefore, there is no resurrection, these dead are destined to sleep in unconsciousness forever." 
Uriah Smith