Rethinking Hell
A Biblical Case for Death as Sleep
I’ve spent years thinking about Hell — not because I’m afraid of punishment, but because I’ve been trying to reconcile what Scripture actually says with the character of God I’ve experienced in my own life.
Here’s where I’ve landed:
The Hell many Christians imagine — a place of fiery conscious torment — isn’t real.
Not in the Bible.
Not in the teachings of Jesus.
Not in the worldview of the early church.
When people die, the wicked and the righteous share the same fate:
They sleep.
No torture.
No wandering souls.
No one in Heaven yet.
No one in Hell yet.
Just the sleep of death — the unconscious rest Scripture describes again and again — until the resurrection, when Jesus calls all humanity awake.
Where Do I Get This Idea of “Sleep”?
From Scripture itself — and it’s everywhere.
This is important, and hear me out:
Daniel 12:2
“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake…”
Job 14:12
“So a man lies down and does not rise;
till the heavens are no more,
they will not awake
or be roused from their sleep.”
1 Kings 2:10
“Then David slept with his fathers…”
1 Kings 11:43
“And Solomon slept with his fathers…”
(This phrase appears dozens of times for kings, all meaning death.)
Psalm 13:3
“…Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death.”
Jeremiah 51:39
“…they will sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake.”
Jeremiah 51:57
“…they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake.”
Job 3:13
“For now, I would be lying down in peace;
I would be asleep and at rest.”
2 Samuel 7:12
“When your days are fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers…”
John 11:11–14 (Lazarus)
“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep;
I go to wake him.”
The disciples said, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.”
Then Jesus told them plainly:
“Lazarus is dead.”
Jesus equates “sleep” = “death” explicitly.
Mark 5:39 (Jairus’ daughter)
“Why all this commotion and wailing?
The child is not dead but asleep.”
1 Corinthians 15:18
“…those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished [if Jesus is not raised].”
1 Corinthians 15:20
“Christ has been raised… the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
1 Corinthians 15:51
“We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed…”
1 Thessalonians 4:13 - 15
“…concerning those who are asleep, …God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”
Acts 7:60 (Stephen)
“…when he said this, he fell asleep.”
Acts 13:36
“For David… fell asleep, was buried with his fathers…”
1 Corinthians 11:30
“…many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.”
1 Thessalonians 5:10
“…whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.”
Matthew 27:52
“The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had fallen asleep were raised.”
2 Peter 3:4
“‘Where is the promise of His coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue…’”
Across Scripture, death is described as:
sleep in the dust
resting with the fathers
perpetual sleep
falling asleep in Christ
Nowhere does the Bible say:
The dead are conscious
The dead watch us
The dead are already in Heaven
The wicked are burning now
The soul is awake after death
Instead:
Death = unconscious sleep.
Resurrection = awakening to judgment and new life.
Jesus talked about death more simply than the church often does. He never described souls burning forever. He never said the dead are conscious right now. He never warned people about going straight to Heaven or Hell after they die.
Instead, Jesus consistently used two images:
Sleep and resurrection.
When He talked about Lazarus, He didn’t say, “His soul is in Heaven.”
He said, “He has fallen asleep. I go to wake him.”
And then He clarified what He meant: “Lazarus is dead.”
When He raised Jairus’ daughter, He didn’t say she was in a better place.
He said, “The child is not dead but asleep.”
Jesus preached resurrection, not an immediate afterlife.
He spoke of a future day when:
The righteous are raised
The wicked are raised
The nations are judged
and God restores all things
Everything Jesus taught points toward one big moment, not billions of individual souls floating off to different realms at different times.
Jesus’ message wasn’t “prepare for Hell.”
It was “prepare for resurrection.”
And when you actually read His words in that light, everything clicks into place.
If death is sleep, then resurrection is the great awakening.
This is where everything the Bible teaches converges:
The trumpet sounds, Jesus returns, and everyone wakes up.
No one has a head start. No one is already in Heaven. No one is suffering in the fire. No one is wandering around in spiritual limbo.
We all wake up on the same day.
Jesus says:
“All who are in the graves will hear His voice.”
~ John 5:28
Not “all who are in Heaven.”
Not “all who are in Hell.”
All who are in the graves.
Then comes judgment — a real moment, not a metaphor. But it’s a judgment rooted in justice, not eternal torture.
If God is good, His judgment has to be good too. It has to be fair, merciful, and consistent with His character. Jesus didn’t teach eternal conscious torment.
He taught that the wicked “perish,” that they “are no more,” that they “pass away like smoke,” that their fate is destruction, not endless suffering.
The righteous receive eternal life. The wicked face an end. And nobody is being tortured right now. Everything waits for resurrection.
Here’s what this whole journey has done for me:
It’s given me peace.
Because if death is sleep, then nobody is suffering right now. Not the wicked. Not the righteous. Not the people we’ve lost. Not the people who hurt us. Not the people who hurt themselves.
Everyone rests the same way. And if the resurrection is real, then God has the final word — not death, not trauma, not fear. This view doesn’t diminish God’s justice.
It actually restores it. It makes God make sense again. It means He isn’t torturing anyone.
He isn’t burning people forever. He isn’t watching the world suffer from a distance. He isn’t throwing souls into fire for getting theology wrong. He lets the dead sleep. He wakes them when the time is right.
And He judges with wisdom, not cruelty. This is the God I’ve experienced, the God who rescued me more times than I deserved, the God who showed mercy when I couldn’t even think straight, the God who kept me alive through things that should’ve destroyed me.
A God like that doesn’t run an eternal torture chamber. A God like that restores. He resurrects. He makes all things new.
And honestly? That’s a God I can believe in without fear.
In the end, we don’t fall into fire, we fall into sleep.
And the God who kept us alive once will call us awake again.