In our last article, What Is a Soul?, we learned that the Bible defines the soul not as an immortal, detachable part of a person, but as the whole living being, formed from the dust and animated by God’s breath. According to Scripture, human beings are mortal by nature, and immortality is not something we possess automatically, but something God gives.
If that is the case, a natural and pressing question follows:
What happens when a person dies?
If the soul is not inherently immortal, does anything remain conscious after death? Is there awareness, transition, or immediate reward, or does the Bible describe death in another way entirely?
To answer that, we need to listen carefully to Scripture’s own language about death itself.
Death in the Bible
One of the clearest biblical descriptions of death comes from Ecclesiastes:
“Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7, NKJV).
This verse echoes the creation account. At creation, God formed the body from dust and gave the breath of life. At death, the process is reversed.
- The body returns to dust
- The spirit returns to God
But what is meant here by spirit?
Elsewhere, Scripture explains the term plainly:
“...the body without the spirit is dead…” (James 2:26, NKJV).
In biblical usage, spirit often means breath; the life-force God gives, not a conscious, personal entity. When that breath departs, life ends.
The text does not say that a thinking, feeling self departs to another location. It says that the life God gave returns to Him.
If the body returns to the dust of the ground, and breath to God, how much does the dead know? Let’s explore that in the next section.
What the dead know (and don’t know)
If death is the loss of life, what follows?
The Bible’s answer is surprisingly direct:
“For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten” (Ecclesiastes 9:5, NKJV).
The passage continues:
“Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished; nevermore will they have a share in anything done under the sun… Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going” (Ecclesiastes 9:6, 10, NKJV).
These are not obscure verses tucked away on the margins of Scripture. They present a consistent picture: death is unconsciousness.
The dead are not described as watching, waiting, rejoicing, or suffering. They are described as resting, without awareness of time or activity.
Let’s now see what the Bible means when it refers to death as sleep.
What does the Bible mean when it refers to Death as sleep?
Perhaps the most striking feature of the Bible’s language about death is how often it refers to it as sleep.
Job writes:
“So man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no more, they will not awake nor be roused from their sleep” (Job 14:12, NKJV).
Jesus Himself used this language. When speaking of Lazarus, He said:
“Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up” (John 11:11, NKJV).
When the disciples misunderstood, Jesus clarified plainly:
“Then Jesus said to them plainly, 'Lazarus is dead” (John 11:14, NKJV).
The metaphor is deliberate. We experience it when we sleep. Typically, sleep is:
- Unconscious
- Temporary
- Followed by awakening
The Bible does not use sleep to describe death because the dead are secretly awake elsewhere. It uses sleep because death, like sleep, is a pause, awaiting resurrection.
But where are the dead, even if up they are sleeping? Are they sleeping in heaven or hell? Let’s see what the Bible says.
Where are the dead now?
If the dead are unconscious, where are they?
Jesus answered this directly:
“Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28-29, NKJV).
According to Jesus, both the righteous and the wicked are in their graves, awaiting resurrection.
The apostle Peter makes this point explicit regarding David, a man Scripture calls righteous:
“Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day… For David did not ascend into the heavens…” (Acts 2:29, 34 NKJV).
If David himself had not gone to heaven at death, the Bible leaves little room for assuming that others have.
This leads us to what follows death: the resurrection.
Why resurrection matters so much
This understanding of death explains why the Bible places such weight on resurrection.
If people were already alive in heaven or hell, resurrection would be unnecessary, or at best, symbolic. Instead, Scripture presents resurrection as the moment when life is restored, and reward is given.
Paul writes:
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16, NKJV).
And again he affirms:
“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53, NKJV).
Immortality is not described as something the soul already has. It is something the person receives when Christ returns.
This view is not familiar to many Christians. Yet, for careful readers of the Bible, this is no new light. Why is it the case?
Why this view may feel unfamiliar
For many readers, this biblical picture of death feels unsettling, and this is not because it is bleak but because it is unfamiliar.
We are accustomed to thinking of death as an immediate transition. Scripture instead presents death as rest, followed by awakening.
This does not minimise hope. It grounds hope more firmly in resurrection rather than in disembodied survival. The Christian promise is not escape from the body, but the restoration of life.
Looking ahead
If the dead are asleep—unconscious and awaiting resurrection—then an important question follows:
When and how are people finally judged?
If judgment does not occur at death, when does it occur? And how does this shape what the Bible teaches about heaven and hell?
That is where the next article will turn.
This article is part of an ongoing series exploring death, resurrection, judgment, and hope by listening carefully to Scripture and questioning assumptions we may never have examined.
The Cleaver 