How do 'soul sleep' adherents explain Mark 12:27, "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living."?
Upvote:0
Let's make a bit of clarity on terminology, first. If you search "soul sleep" in Wikipedia, you get redirected to Christian mortalism.
Whatever term one adopts (soul sleep, Christian mortalism) or even fancy ones (psychopannychism, thnetopsychism), the concept is quite simple: when one is dead, one is truly dead (certainly unconscious, BTW) and only God can bring back to life one's whole person.
What about the "soul"? The Bible says nothing serious about the soul apart from the body. Of course the standard questions, at this point, are: What about The Witch of Endor (1 Sam 28:1-25)? What about The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)?
As to the former, we are talking about a witch. What she "saw" (and Saul never saw) could easily be a conjuring trick and/or a satanic manifestation.
As to the latter (admitting that the parable is authentic words of Jesus, which there is no way you can say from the text) it could be, on the part of Jesus, a concession to folk tales on the "beyond" (more or less similar to the concessions that the Church has made in the course of time). What matters is the final reply that "Abraham" gives to the "Rich "Man":
‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ (Luke 16:31)
Now we can confront the OP Question. I don't much care for the JW's (I consider them today's heirs of Arianism), but I have looked at the article linked by @Kris, and I find nothing wrong with it, neither logically, nor theologically, nor scripturally. In particular, this statement cannot be objected to:
If there were no resurrection, then Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would remain forever in the clutches of death.
Upvote:1
The answer is in the context of the verse. Jesus was asked about "resurrection." He addressed that specifically, "But concerning the dead rising...". The dead will be resurrected, thus God says they are only "sleeping," from His point of view, for He will raise them from the dead, at which time they will be " awoken " See I Corinthians 15:20-28 for the order in which God will make all who died in Adam alive in Christ.
Without resurrection, there is no life after death according to the testimony of the entire Word of God.
More post
- 📝 How do Jehovah’s Witnesses explain the unique wording of Colossians 1:15-17 in the NWT?
- 📝 Do both officiant and recorder need holy orders to perform a Catholic baptism?
- 📝 What is the current Catholic church's view on Haitian Vodou?
- 📝 How historically accurate are the first 3 books of the Maccabees?
- 📝 Have any Wesleyan theologians compared Outler's Quadrilateral to PaRDeS?
- 📝 Are there any major / orthodox Christian leaders that taught that Paul didn't meet Jesus?
- 📝 What were the ages of the Apostles Peter and John when Jesus was crucified?
- 📝 Do the Jehovah's Witnesses believe the new covenant is for gentiles?
- 📝 What did St. John Chrysostom mean by saying there is no difference between what is demanded from the monastics and the laity?
- 📝 Why is the 4th book of Moses called Numbers instead of “In the Wilderness”?
- 📝 If both the Orthodox and Catholic Church affirm salvation by grace through faith, why did the Protestant Reformation happen?
- 📝 How do Unitarians interpret John 1:1?
- 📝 On what do Mormons base their practice of proxy-baptisms on behalf of the dead?
- 📝 Was Jesus in unity with the Holy Spirit?
- 📝 Is spirituality different than superstition?
- 📝 What is the Rule of Prayer?
- 📝 How do I know whether I am already a Catholic?
- 📝 Interpretation of Exodus 21
- 📝 What was done with animals WITH defects?
- 📝 Did God's essence enter time and space?
- 📝 Jesus speaks about actors/acting?
- 📝 What is the basis for Calvinist double predestination, as opposed to single predestination?
- 📝 Is naturalistic cosmology pointing us back to viewing stars as gods (similar to how pagans did), crediting stars with giving meaning to the universe?
- 📝 Cajetan's view on the canon
- 📝 Exodus as justification for political or religious terrorism?
- 📝 Do Roman Catholics believe Saints are omnipresent?
- 📝 Why do some traditions recite the Lord's Prayer word for word?
- 📝 Did any heretical Christian sect believe money is evil?
- 📝 Is the Dog-Headed icon of Saint Christopher canon in the Orthodox Church?
- 📝 Were Jews allowed to sacrifice to the LORD at altars other than at the tabernacle and temple?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How do 'soul sleep' adherents explain Mark 12:27, "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living."?
- 📝 According to believers in the inexorable damnation of the unreached, how is God not unfair for letting someone be born in unreachable conditions?
- 📝 If the Holy Spirit is God, and God can not be in the presence of sin, then how can the Holy Spirit dwell in me a sinner?
- 📝 How do opponents of Penal Substitution explain God's declaration that He "will not leave the guilty unpunished"?
- 📝 How do sola fide adherents explain The Parable of the Ten Virgins?
- 📝 How do Evangelicals explain when Paul writes "I, not the Lord"?
- 📝 HOW does the existence of the Universe make those who do not worship God to be "without excuse"?
- 📝 Troubled people showing interest in reading the Bible: how to explain to them that faith is a lifestyle and not an "ATM"?
- 📝 How do non-Trinitarians who do not believe Jesus is God Almighty explain how Jesus can effect atonement for all of humanity?
- 📝 How do those who believe the Son is not Almighty God interpret Revelation 2:23?
- 📝 How do Trinitarians explain the almost exclusive use of singular pronouns to refer to God in the Bible?
- 📝 How do Catholics explain the apparent inconsistency between Mary's not experiencing labor pain and Rev 12:1-6?
- 📝 How do Arminians understand the doctrine of Unlimited Atonement in a way that does not make God unjust?
- 📝 Since there is only one God who is not formed then how can the Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that Jesus is a created god?
- 📝 If Satan is not a person, how do Christadelphians explain what "satan" was in the case of Job?
- 📝 How do deniers of Jesus' divinity explain that the angel at Revelation 22:9 did not include Jesus in the list of beings that can be worshipped?
- 📝 How do Trinitarians respond to Mark 13:32 which indicates that the Holy Spirit does not know something?
- 📝 Are there any authors that who believe Eph. 4:11 is not describing titles but general characteristics of how God created the church to work together?
- 📝 Is there a name for the belief that God is not omniscient, but rather is "learning" how to deal with humanity?
- 📝 How did people know that their visions of God were not false before the Bible was as a book compiled?
- 📝 Did the authors of the Westminster Confession of Faith ever explain why they thought God could not be the author of sin?
- 📝 How do proponents of the “free-will defense” against the problem of evil explain that God can be free and immune to moral evil at the same time?
- 📝 How does one explain God being outside the universe yet on the throne in heaven without violating divine simplicity?
- 📝 How do Orthodox Christians explain that the Father and the Son are not two different Gods?
- 📝 How do Cessationists explain Spirit-inspired prophecies whose contents were not recorded in the final canon of scripture?
- 📝 How do different denominations explain the apparent silence or hiddenness of God in our time?
- 📝 If the Ten Commandments say “thou shalt not kill” how can a Christian fight in a war?
- 📝 How can the Son not know what the Father knows?
- 📝 How do Christians understand the omniscience of God in relation to the Uncertainty Principle?
- 📝 How could Jesus be born during the reign of Herod, and when Quirinius was governor of Syria, if those periods were not contemporary?