Q&R with Brad Jersak – What do you make of “Soul Sleep”?

Question: What do you make of the idea of "soul sleep"? Response: Definition For our readers' sake, let's briefly define "soul sleep."Soul sleep is the belief that when Christians (specifically) die, the soul enters a state of unconscious rest until the final resurrection. "Asleep" The biblical warrant for this view is that Scripture (including Jesus) does refer to those who've died (bodily death) as "asleep." Jesus says of Jairus' daughter, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep” (Mark 5:39). Again John 11, Jesus says, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep.�...