“Death is a Sleep. Death is not complete annihilation; it is only a state of temporary unconsciousness while the person awaits the resurrection” … “The Abode of the Dead.” The Old Testament calls the place where people go at death Sheol (Hebrew), and the New Testament hades (Greek). In the Scripture, Sheol simply means the grave. The meaning of hades is similar to that of Sheol. The grave is not a place of consciousness. Since death is a sleep. The dead will remain in that state until the resurrection, when the grave (hades) gives up its dead (Rev. 20:13).”
Seventh-Day Adventists believe…A Biblical Exposition of 27 Fundamental Doctrines, pp 352-353.
“Seventh-day Adventists accept the Bible as their only creed and hold certain fundamental beliefs to be the teaching of the Holy Scriptures.”
http://www.adventist.org/beliefs/fundamental/index.html
The wages of sin is death. But God, who alone is immortal, will grant eternal life to His redeemed. Until that day death is an unconscious state for all people. When Christ, who is our life, appears, the resurrected righteous and the living righteous will be glorified and caught up to meet their Lord. The second resurrection, the resurrection of the unrighteous, will take place a thousand years later. (Rom. 6:23; 1 Tim. 6:15-16; Eccl. 9:5-6; Ps. 146:3-4; John 11:11-14; Col. 3:4; 1 Cor. 15:51-54; 1 Thess. 4:13-17; John 5:28-29; Rev. 20:1-10.)
http://www.adventist.org/beliefs/fundamental/index.html
Psychopannychy or Soul-sleep is the denial of man’s conscious existence between when he dies and the resurrection day. It’s what is called the intermediate state of the believer, in which their view is both the body and the soul lay rest in the ground.
The following are a few of the passages that disprove that a person upon death is unconscious until the resurrection.
In the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) we read of the dead being conscious. In the face of this obvious contradiction to their theology, the SDA claim that this story is a parable; therefore, they do not have to consider what Jesus says as literally true. Even if one accepts this story as a parable, does it follow that one can dismiss what it says? The answer is: no. In what other parable does our Lord use a falsehood to teach truth? The answer is: none. So whether this story is a parable of not the fact remains that Jesus speaks of the dead as conscious, and he never used a falsehood to teach a truth.
Another passage that shows that Jesus believed that the dead were conscious is found in the story of the Good Thief (Luke 23:39-43). Jesus indicates the consciousness of the dead with his statement, “I assure you: this day you will be with me in paradise” (v. 43). So strong and clear is this statement of our Lord that the SDA tries to manipulate the very words of our Lord. They make a slight, but important change. “I assure you today: you will be with me in paradise.” It may be informative to know that no Bible scholar translates v. 43 in that manner. Firstly, it would be ridiculous of our Lord to be informing the Good Thief that he was speaking to him this day! Secondly, Jesus uses the phrase, “I assure you” (also translated as “Verily, verily”, “Truly, truly”, or “Amen, amen”) over 70 times in the gospels. Never once does he add to the phrase what day it is that he is speaking. He always uses the phrase followed by a promise or statement of fact. Therefore, the SDA has no legitimate grounds for changing the traditional rendering of this passage.
The two greatest Apostles, Peter and Paul, both believed in the consciousness of the dead. St. Peter tells us what Jesus did while his body lay in the tomb.
“He was put to death as far as earthly existence goes, but was given life in the realm of the spirit. It was in the spirit also that he went to preach to the spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:18-19).
Peter relates that Jesus went to preach the gospel to those spirits in Hades who had died before his saving ministry began (see also 4:6). St. Paul believed that he would be with the Lord upon death. “I repeat, we are full of confidence and would much rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:7). The nonsense of the SDA’s position on soul sleep is highlighted by: “If on the other hand, I am to go on living in the flesh, that means productive toil for me-and I do not know which I prefer. I am strongly attracted by both; I long to be freed from this life and be with Christ, for this is a far better thing, yet it is more urgent that I remain alive for your sakes” (Philippians 1:22-24).
Could anyone truly believe that St. Paul would consider it “a far better thing” to be unconscious rather than to be preaching the saving message of his Lord? St. Paul is clear that he believed that upon death one would be “at home with the Lord” not unconscious.
Even in the Old Testament that did not have the complete revelation (see Hebrews 1:1-2) we still see indications of knowledge of the consciousness of the dead. Isaiah relates how the dead in Hades react to the death of the King of Babylon. “The nether world below is all astir preparing for your coming…All of them speak out and say to you, ‘You too have become weak like us, you are the same as we’” (Isaiah 14:9-10). Ezekiel relates a similar scene, “Then from the midst of the nether world, the mighty warriors shall speak to Egypt” (Ezekiel 32:20). Further, he tells us that the deceased Pharaoh sees and is comforted (v. 31).
An amazingly clear account of the consciousness of the dead occurs in 1 Samuel 28. Here the deceased Samuel appears to King Saul. This passage is so clearly opposed to the SDA position that they have taken to saying that Samuel really wasn’t Samuel, but a demon. The text, however, does not even remotely support such an interpretation. The inspired author is extremely clear in his belief that Samuel was Samuel. For example, “When the woman saw Samuel…” (v. 12), “Samuel then said…” (v. 15), “To this Samuel Luke 12:4. And I say unto you my friends, “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.”
Here we see that Jesus says that murderers kill only the body, and cannot harm the soul at all. In other words, our soul stays alive, despite anything a murderer might try to do.
Matthew 22:31-32 …have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?” God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
Luke 24:37-39, But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, “Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.”
If a spirit apart from its body is dead, then surely the Apostles would know this and thus would not have thought that a living Jesus would be a spirit. Also, if the Apostles had been incorrect in believing that a person’s soul survives apart from that person’s body, then why didn’t Jesus correct them instead of encouraging them in this “erroneous” belief they held? In fact, Jesus here says that the spirit exists independently of the body.
Genesis 35:18, And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) …
Note that, when Rachel died, her soul departed. It didn’t “fall asleep”.
John 11:25-26, Jesus said unto her, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”
Revelation 20:4, I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus… they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Note that John saw only the souls of the martyrs.
Jude 1:7, Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Note that they are presently suffering, and thus not unconscious.
These passages make it abundantly clear that the Bible doesn’t support the SDA doctrine of Soul Sleep. It may be informative to know that whenever the Bible speaks of sleep in death it is speaking of the body never the soul. The body is in need of resurrection. Never does the Bible indicate that the soul will be resurrected. The body will be awakened from “sleep” when the conscious soul is reunited with it at the resurrection.
said…” (v. 16), and “…shaken by Samuel’s message” (v. 20). Since the inspired author is so clear we dare not hold a contrary opinion.
A later writer commenting on 1 Samuel 28 wrote, “Even while he (Samuel) lay buried, his guidance was sought, he made known to the king (Saul) his fate, and from the grave he raised his voice as a prophet, to put an end to wickedness” (Sirach 46:20).
Another passage which disproves Soul Sleep is Matthew 17:1-8. Here Jesus appears on the Mount of Transfiguration speaking to Elijah and Moses. While Elijah may not have died (see II Kings 2:11; I Maccabees 2:58), Moses certainly did. “So there, in the land of Moab, Moses, the servant of the Lord, died…” (Deuteronomy 34:5). Yet we read, “Suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared to them conversing with him” (Matthew 17:3). Once again, the evidence is so strong against them that the SDA church resorts to an illogical, unbiblical attempt to keep their doctrine. They state that Moses must have been resurrected! This is no where found in the Bible.
Revelation 6:9-10
When he broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of all the people who had been killed on account of the word of God, for witnessing to it. They shouted aloud, “Holy, faithful Master, how much longer will you wait before you pass sentence and take vengeance for our death on the inhabitants of the earth?”
The Bible is saying that martyrs go to heaven before the Judgment. Note that this takes place before the resurrection, before the end of the world, before the Judgment, while life is going on as usual on the earth. Also, the martyrs, despite being “dead”, have their own memories, and remember that they have been martyred. So, to say that these martyrs “know nothing” (Ecclesiastes 9:5) in the sense of being unconscious, or something like that, would be incorrect.