Found this on another web site, copied it and brought it here.

Thanks to Faithful Servant.

Famous Believers of "Soul Sleep"

The 16th Century:

MARTIN LUTHER (1493-1546) German Reformer and Bible translator (Luther was not always consistent)
"We should learn to view out death in the right light, so that we need not become alarmed on account of it, as unbelief does; because in Christ it is indeed not death, but a fine, sweet and brief sleep, which brings us release from this vale of tears, from sin and from the fear and extremity of real death and from all the misfortunes of this life, and we shall be secure and without care, rest sweetly and gently for a brief moment, as on a sofa, until the time when He shall awaken us together with all His dear children to His eternal glory and joy. For since we call it a sleep, we know that we shall not remain in it, but be again awakened and live, and that the time during which we sleep, shall seem no longer than if we had just fallen asleep. Hence we shall censure ourselves that we were surprised or alarmed at such a sleep in the hour of death, and suddenly come alive out of the grave and from decomposition, and entirely well, fresh, with a pure, clear, slorified life, meet our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the clouds....Scripture everywhere affords such consolation, which speaks of the death of the saints, as if they fell asleep and were gathered to their fathers, that is had overcome death through this faith and comfort in Christ, and awaited the resurrection, together with the saints who preceeded them in death."
A Compend of Luther's Theology, edited by Hugh Thomson Ker, Jr., page 242.

WILLIAM TYNDALE (1484-1536) English Bible translator and martyr.
"And ye, in putting them [the departed souls] in heaven, hell, and purgatory, destroy the arguments wherein Christ and Paul prove the resurrection... and again, if the souls be in
heaven... then what cause is there of the resurrection?" "The true faith setteth forth the resurrection, which we be warned to look for every hour. The heathen philosophers, denying that, did set forth the souls did ever live. And the Pope joineth the spirtual doctrine of Christ and the fleshly doctrine of philosophers together; things so contrary that they cannot agree, no more than the spirit and the flesh do in a Christian man. And because the fleshly-mined Pope consenteth unto heathen doctrine, therefore he corrupteth the scripture to stablish it."
An answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue (Parker's 1850 reprint), bk. 4, ch. 4, pp.180,181.

JOHN FRITH (1500-1533) Associate of Tyndale and fellow martyr.
"...that some are already in hell and some in heaven, which thing ye shall never be able to
prove by the scriptures..."
An Answer to John Fisher.

GEORGE WISHART (1500-1546) Greek scholar, tutor of John Knox, and martyr.
Wishart was charged with attacking auricular confession, transubstantiation, extreme unction, holy water, invocation of saints, and purgatory. Charge "XVI" was "Thou false heretic has preached openly saying, that the soul of man shall sleep to the latter day of judgment and shall not obtain life immortal until that day." Blackburne, Historical View, p. 21.

"GENERAL BAPTISTS" were spread in large numbers over many of the provinces of England.
As one article of faith they held "that the soul, between death and the resurrection at the last day, has neither pleasure or pain, but is in a state of insensibility." Institutes of Ecclesiastical History by Johann L. von Mosheim.

The 17th Century:
R. OVERTON Scholar, soldier, and pamphleteer.
"...as whole man sinned, so whole man died..." "...the present going of the soul into heaven or hell is a meer fiction: at the resurrection is the beginning of our immortality, and then actual condemnation or salvation, and not before."
Man's Mortality, 1643.

JOHN MILTON (1608-1674) 'Greatest of the sacred poets' and Latin secretary to Cromwell.
"Inasmuch as the whole man is uniformly said to consist of body, and soul... I will show, that in death, first, the whole man, and secondly each component part, suffers privation of life... the grave is the common guardian of all till the day of judgement." Treatise of Christian Doctrine, vol. 1, ch. 13.

ARCHBISHOP JOHN TILLOTSON of Canterbury (1630-1694)
"I do not find that the doctrin of the immortality of the soul is anywhere expressly
delivered in scripture, but taken for granted."
Works, 1717 edition, vol 1, p. 749.

SAMUEL RICHARDSON (?-1658) Pastor, First Particular Baptist Church, of London

GEORGE WITHER (1588-1667) Bishop of Emesa

JOHN JACKSON (1686-1763) Rector of Rossington

JOHN CANNE (1590-1667) Pastor, Broadmead Baptist Church, Bristol

DR. ISAAC BARROW (1630-1677) Professor of Greek, Cambridge University

The 18th, 19th, 20th Century:
This list is so extensive the people will be presented with titles and will remain without
quotations.

HENRY LAYTON (1670-1706) Anglican, author of 12 books on conditionalism.

JOSEPH SCOTT, M.D. (1703) 1769) Minister

BISHOP EDMOND LAW (1703-1787) Master of St. Peter's College, Bishop of Carlisle.

PETER PECARD (c. 1718-1797) Master of Magdalen College, Cambridge

ARCHDEACON FRANCIS BLACKBURNE of Cleveland (1705-1787)

BISHOP WILLIAM WARBURTON (1698-1779) of Gloucester

DR. WILLIAM WHISTON (1667-1752) Baptist Theologian, Cambridge University

DR. JOHN TOTTIE (n.d.) Archdeacon of Worcester

PROF. HENRY DODWELL (1641-1711) Scholar, Professor at Oxford

BISHOP TIMOTHY KENDRICK (n.d.) Anglican

DR. WILLIAM THOMPSON (1819-1890) Archbishop of York

DR. EDWARD WHITE (1819-1887) Congregationalist, pastor

DR. LYMAN ABBOTT (1835-1892) Congregationalist, pastor

DR. JOHN THOMAS (1805-1971) Founder of Christadelphians

?.H. DOBNEY (1809-1883) Baptist Pastor, England

ARCHBISHOP RICHARD WHATELY (1787-1863) of Dublin; Oxford Professor

DEAN HENRY ALFORD (1810-1871) of Canterbury, Biblical scholar

JAMES PANTON HAM (1849) Congregationalist, minister

CHARLES F. HUDSON (1821-1867) Greek Scholar, Congregationalist, minister

DR. ROBERT W. DALE (1829-1895) Editor, The Congregationalist, Congregationalist pastor

DEAN FREDERICK FARRAR (1831-1903) Canon of Westminster Abbey; Dean of Canterbury

HERMANN OLSHAUSEN (1796-1893) Professor of Theology at Konigsberg

CANON HENRY CONSTABLE (?-1894) Prebendary of Cork, Ireland

WILLIAM GLADSTONE (1809-1898) British Prime Minister, theologian

JOSEPH PARKER (1830-1902) Congregationalist, pastor, London

BISHOP JOHN J. S. PEROWNE (1823-1904) Hebrew Scholar, Anglican Bishop of Worcester

SIR GEORGE STOKES (1820-1903) Professor, Cambridge

DR. W. A. BROWN (1865-1943) Union Seminary, New York

DR. J. AGAR BEET (1840-1924) Wesleyan Professor

DR. R. F. WEYMOUTH (1822-1902) Bible translator

DR. GEORGE BOARDMAN (1828-1903) Pastor, First Baptist Church of Philadelphia

BISHOP CHARLES ELLICOTT (1820-1905) of Bristol

DR. EDWARD BEECHER (1803-1895) Congregationalist Theologian, President of Illinois College

DR. EMMANUEL PETAVEL-OLLIFF (1836-1910) Swiss Theologian, University of Geneva

DR. FRANZ DELITZSCH (1813-1890) Hebraist, Professor

CANON WILLIAM H. M. HAY AITKEN (1841-1927) Anglican

DR. WILLIAM TEMPLE (1881-1944) Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of Great Britain

DR. GERARDUS VAN DER LEEUW (1890-1950) Professor, University of Groningen

DR. AUBREY R. VINE (1900-?) Professor at Yorkshire United Independent College

DR. MARTIN J. HEINECKEN (n.d.) Professor of Theology, Lutheran Theological Seminary,
Philadelphia

DR. REINHOLD NIEBUHR (1892-?) Professor at Union Theological Seminary

DR. T. A. KANTONEN (1900-?) Lutheran Professor, Hamma Divinity School

DR. D. R. G. OWEN (n.d.) Professor, Trinity College, Wycliffe College, Toronto

Here are two more names and their extremely important published quotations in the 20th Century:

DAVID DAVIES (1889-?) Rector, St. Mary Magdalen, St. Leonard-on-the-sea, Britain.
"The soul of a man is not necessarily automatically immortal. It is capable of being destroyed. The Bible offers no ground whatsoever for believing that the soul is immune from death and destruction. The soul CAN be destroyed." "The immortality of the soul is NOT a Biblical doctrine, but GREEK PHILOSOPHY. The Biblical doctrine about the soul is the resurrection of the dead. Man is a created being. God created him out of nothing. Man was created for immortality, but by his own rebellion against God he made himself mortal..." "The idea of the 'immortality of the soul' derives from Greek Philosophy..."
The Art of Dodging Repentance 1952), p. 84.

DR. EMIL BRUNNER (1889-?), Professor of systematic and practical theology, University of Zurich, guest professor at Princeton, and International Christian University, Tokyo.
"According to PLATOism: the body is mortal, the soul immortal. The moral husk conceals this external essence which in death is freed from its outer shell... but this solution to the problem of death stands in irreconcilable opposition to Christian thought." "For the history of western though, the Platonic teaching of the immortality of the soul became of special significance. It penetrated so deeply into the thought of western man because, although with certain modifications, it was assimilated by Christian theology and church teaching, was even declared by the Lateran Council of 1513 to be a dogma, to contradict which was a heresy."
Eternal Hope, (1954), p. 100.

The 20th Century list is ONLY until 1957, when this list was compiled. Many more notables have taken this position since then, having shaken off the fetters of Popes and Plato.

I present this list so as to show that this doctrine is not new nor held only by "heretics," "cultists" and "the ignorant." These men were well-educated and spiritual leaders of the Church.

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I reformatted this and accidently erased a letter of somebody's initial in the process.

[This message has been edited by Daryl Fawcett (edited April 14, 2001).]