Let's say there is a man who's peacefully sleeping on a couch. Except for an
occasional dream, he's totally unaware of anything. IN this sleep he doesn't
know a single thing going on around him. He doesn't hear the people in the
next room, he doesn't know what's in the newspaper he's holding. He knows
absolutely nothing about anything while he's in this condition we call "sleep."
Now, let's say that this man suddenly dies in his sleep while he's there on
that couch -- mainstream Christians would have us believe that now this man's
"soul" is immediately in heaven, "seeing" and "knowing" literally everything.
One can see that the Bible has numerous reference and statements showing that
this is not true. That fellow who's sleeping on the couch knows nothing while
he's asleep, and if death is a sleep, then he knows nothing after his death.
In death a man's brain is dead, his mind is dead, he feels nothing, he knows
nothing, and he is nothing. And noth the old and new testaments refer to this
condition as being "sleep."
This is nothing new. Look what Martin Luther and several other well-known
Christians have said about the sleep of man in death.
On december 19, 1513 Pope Leo X issued an official bull declaring: "We do
condemn and reprobate all who assert that the intelligent soul is mortal," and
"all who adhere to the like erroneous assertions shall be shunned and punsihed
as heretics." [...anyone recall who said "thou shall not surely die" first?]
Truth is no, and never has been, established by human majorities.
Theological truth is only based upon the immutable Word of God, and determined
by its inspired precepts and principles.
What folows is a partial list of numerous religious leaders who believed that
man sleeps in the grave...