The Spirits of the Dead: Where Are They?

While their specifics are different, both Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-Day Adventists hold to a version of "soul sleep." That is, they hold that the spirits of the dead are unconscious (SDA's) or dissolved (JW's) from the time of death until the resurrection. This is in contrast to the understanding of orthodox Protestants that the spirits of dead pass immediately either into heaven (II Corinthians 5:8, Philippians 1:21-23) or into hell (II Peter 2:9). As the Scriptures say, there is no gap between death and judgment (Hebrews 9:27).

Personally, I cannot understand the interest that SDA'a and JW's have in maintaining their soul sleep doctrine. How does it contribute to the Christian life to believe it?

But, as I have said before, the psychological element is not the only one. The Scriptures are also contrary to it. Use the "annihilationism" tag below to see those other comments. Here I want to add one more.

In Romans 8:38-39, the Apostle Paul gives us a wonderful promise of God: "I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Notice that he explicitly includes "death." Even death shall not separate the true believer from the love of God.

Is that not what the doctrine of soul sleep says, especially as the Jehovah's Witnesses teach it? They hold that the dead person spends the indefinite period of time between his death and his resurrection without any experience of God's love. Yet, that is contrary to God's promise, as given us by Paul.

Another consequence of this doctrine is the hope it gives to the unbeliever. Unbelievers imagine that death is far from them, so they can continue in their illusion of autonomy from God. If SDA'a and JW's are adding an indefinite period, even thousands of years, after death, does that not increase the illusion of freedom for the unbeliever? Surely encouraging unbelief is an offense to God: "If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand" (Ezekiel 3:18). Our duty is to warn the unbeliever, not to encourage him!