Soul Sleep is an essential teaching of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. It is doctrinally essential to their teaching that Jesus entered the Inner Sanctuary of the Heavenly Temple in 1844 and is completing what the Adventists call The Investigative Judgment.
W.W. Prescott was said to have had a vision that informed him that Miller and the Millerites had been right about the dates for Christs return but mistaken the actual purpose of the event. Jesus rather than returning to the Earth actually entered the Inner Sanctuary in Heaven to begin the Investigative Judgment, and is still ensconced in the Inner Sanctuary completing that activity. He will return directly that it is finished. Therefore, because the judgment is incomplete the idea that the souls of those who live in Christ are already in heaven is not possible in the Adventist narrative.
Sadly this high lights inconsistencies in the underpinning doctrines of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. It starts with the mistake they made in attempting to predict the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. 1) Jesus said “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” So the Adventists made a foolish error ever entertaining the idea of making a prediction and then rather than repenting of it they added the false prophecy of the Investigative Judgment thus compounding their error.
So the reason they adhere to the doctrine of Soul Sleep is because it is essential to uphold their doctrinal house of cards. If the souls of Christians were already in Heaven then the Investigative Judgment doctrine collapses and is demonstrably false.
Soul Sleep and the Investigative Judgment doctrines are also significant because they intimate that the Adventists don’t believe that Jesus Christ completed the redemption of mankind from sin, on the cross. In addition these doctrines raise the question “Who do the Adventists believe Jesus Christ is?” Do they believe Jesus is the only begotten Son of God or do they believe he is the Archangel Michael? If the Savior is Michael then it is little wonder that they believe that the redemptive work wasn’t complete at the cross.
I believe that the Adventist are in the main fine Christian folk. However I would advise anyone considering joining with them to carefully consider their doctrines and also bear in mind that you have to sign up to become a member of the Church. 2) To join in the body of Christ you have only to repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ. Acts 2:38 “Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
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