Dr Paul Allen

We do not know how humans would have left this world had there been no Fall ; some doubt whether they ever would have done so. But as it is, the fruit of sin and God 's judgment on it brings about the separation of body and soul through bodily death (Gen. 2:17; 3:19, 22; Rom. 5:12; 8:10; 1 Cor. 15:21 ), making it a certainty for everyone.  This separation of soul and body is a consequence of the spiritual separation from God that first brought about physical death (Gen. 2:17; 5:5) and that will be deepened after death for those who leave this world without Christ . In itself death is an enemy (1 Cor. 15:26) and a terror (Heb. 2:15). For Christians the final terror of physical death is abolished.  Jesus, the risen Savior, Himself passed through a terrible death, enduring the anger of God. He takes from us God's anger, and He lives to help us as we leave this world for the place He has prepared in the next (John 14:2, 3). Christians know that their own forthcoming de

There persists in some evangelical circles a pertinacious little misunderstanding known as “soul sleep” or, to the more erudite, “psychopannychism.” It’s the view that when you die your spirit goes into an unconscious, uncomprehending state until the final resurrection. The reasoning is that since every human being is a body-soul composite (or for our pedantic tripartite readers: body-soul-mind), when your body dies your soul cannot function until it is reunited with your resurrected corpus. This argument isn’t merely a logical one, but putatively a biblical one. Proponents point out that the writers of Scripture routinely referred to the dearly departed as those who had “fallen asleep.”  For example, Jesus referred to the deceased, entombed Lazarus as sleeping: John 11:11-14 … he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they