by Mary Byfield

Created on: May 18, 2009

How the Doctrine of Soul Sleep Does Injustice to the Fullness of Jesus' Atonement

Throughout the centuries, since there have been Christians who believe in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus' death and in the hope of eternal life through His resurrection, only a very few have believed the idea that the soul sleeps in the grave until the Second Coming. Most Christians have understood that the spirit within them goes on to be with the Lord, and that the spirit of those who are not Christian go into a place of punishment. Whether they believe that the righteous go straight to heaven or to an intermediate paradise, or that the wicked go straight to hell or to purgatory or to the nether world of unrighteous spirits, they still believe that the spirit is in conscious existence and not extinguished when their body expires and is buried, eventually turning to dust. Those who have believed that the soul is in a state of "sleep", their assumption based on certain Biblical passages that call death a "sleep", have still only applied this belief to all mortal creatures of the earth, whether they be of man or of animal. Not to Jesus, Himself, as God Incarnate, whose Spirit has been and always will be eternal. Not until the coming forth of Saturday Sabbath denominations, has the doctrine of soul sleep applied itself to the very Saviour, who Himself said, "I am Lord of the Sabbath." Their reasoning is: "Because Jesus is the one who, in the Old Testament, instigated the Seventh Day Sabbath as a command in the Fourth Commandment, then He was obliged to follow His own Law even in the Grave, resting on the Sabbath Day before rising to work on the First Day of the week, Sunday." But Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, called the religious leaders hypocrites, and then went on to explain how to keep the Sabbath: (Matthew 12:11-12) "What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." (Mark 3:4) "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" (Luke 13:15-16) "Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it? So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound - think of it - for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?" Christians who understand that Jesus

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