Protestant Reformers – with a Serious Doctrinal Error – Soul Sleep
Little do many ‘protestants’ know that each of these Protestant Reformers (listed below, from whom even the first English Translators of the Bible to the Sola Scriptura advocates, all these being good steps) —> believed and taught a Serious ERROR —> namely that a “soul sleeps” after a man dies thus NOT believing in the Rich Man and Lazarus Story literally at all (Luke 16:19 – 31).
That is, they did NOT believe in ‘afterlife consciousness’ in a ‘soul’ after a man dies but rather believed that the ‘soul sleeps’ at death till Judgment Day (Generally).
This ‘soul sleep error’ was corrected mostly by John Calvin from the ‘same eternal Hell camp’ later.
Prove quotes please consider:
(i) William Tyndale (1494–1536) argued against Thomas More in favour of soul sleep:
And ye, in putting them [the departed souls] in heaven, hell and purgatory, destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection… And again, if the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be not in as good a case as the angels be? And then what cause is there of the resurrection?
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_mortalism#Soul_sleep
(ii) However, the best known advocate of soul sleep was Martin Luther (1483–1546).[97] In writing on Ecclesiastes, Luther says
Salomon judgeth that the dead are a sleepe, and feele nothing at all. For the dead lye there accompting neyther dayes nor yeares, but when they are awoken, they shall seeme to have slept scarce one minute.
Elsewhere Luther states that
As soon as thy eyes have closed shalt thou be woken, a thousand years shall be as if thou hadst slept but a little half hour. Just as at night we hear the clock strike and know not how long we have slept, so too, and how much more, are in death a thousand years soon past. Before a man should turn round, he is already a fair angel.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_mortalism#Soul_sleep
(iii) More here who join this HERESY
A minority of Christians, including William Tyndale, Martin Luther[35] some Anglicans such as E. W. Bullinger, and churches/groups such as Seventh-day Adventists,[36] Christadelphians and others, deny the conscious existence of the soul after death, believing the intermediate state of the dead to be unconscious “sleep”. Jehovah’s Witnesses also believe this with the exception of the 144,000.[37] In this case, the person is not conscious of any time or activity and would not be aware even if centuries elapsed between their death and their resurrection.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermediate_state#Christian_mortalism
(iv) Martin Luther explicitly taught this HERESY of SOUL SLEEP too against the LITERAL Interpretation of the Rich Man and Lazarus Story (Luke 16:19 – 31)
Luther on the left with Lazarus being raised by Jesus from the dead, painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1558.
In contrast to the views of John Calvin[154] and Philipp Melanchthon,[155] throughout his life Luther maintained that it was not false doctrine to believe that a Christian’s soul sleeps after it is separated from the body in death.[156] Accordingly, he disputed traditional interpretations of some Bible passages, such as the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther#On_the_soul_after_death
Conclusion
Even the ‘great protestant reformers’ and ‘earliest authorities in doctrine who translated the first Bible into English’ have made SERIOUS DOCTRINAL ERRORS such as the SOUL SLEEP highlighted here.
Truth is after Death comes JUDGMENT and NOT SLEEP as it is Written in Verse below Irrefutably:
“And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,” (Hebrews 9:27, NASB)
The [afterlife] Judgment depends on what each has done (Galatians 6:7) accordingly:
“For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:13, NASB)
Hence, it will come to pass that EVERY MAN is a LIAR (in some way, (including me) and God Will OVERCOME all our lies as it is Written:
“Never may it be! But let God be true, and every man a liar, as it has been written: “That You [God] may be justified in Your words, and will prevail in Your being judged.” (Romans 3:4, BLB)
P/S: Please don’t be too confident in your protestant reformers even if some of them ‘died for Christ’ as so ‘did the Catholics’ and almost every other Christian Denomination too.
We need to CHECK with HOLY SCRIPTURE ONLY to know TRUTH.
Blessed be the Saviour of the World, Lord Jesus Christ!
P/S 2:
Truth is BODY SLEEPS at Death and NOT the SOUL SLEEPS at Death as it is referred to in such Verses (there is NO Verse in the Bible where the phrase SOUL SLEEPS exists; Can you see it irrefutably?)
To Quote, an example explanation for edification:
“Who knoweth the SPIRIT of MAN that goeth UPWARD, and the SPIRIT of BEAST that goeth DOWNWARD to the earth?” (Ecclesiastes 3:21, KJV)
It is left as a question with ‘no Scriptural answer’ and I will leave it as thus too. Ecclesiastes 3:19 – 20 clearly proves that only the BODY SLEEPS in the DUST of the EARTH during DEATH which is the SAME fate for ‘MAN and BEAST’ while the next Verse (in Context), Ecclesiastes 3:21 mentions that the SPIRIT (proving consciousness after death here too) of the MAN and BEAST may have different fates as one may go UPWARD while the other DOWNWARD as the Preacher contemplated. So, these set of Verses in NO way prove the false-teaching of SOUL-SLEEPING after death in any way.
For more of the details above, and more please consider the write up below:
