How do NON soul sleep adherents interpret 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18? How do non soul sleep adherents interpret 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18:


  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
  14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
  15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
  16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
  17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
  18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18, KJV)
Essentially, the passage is simply seen as an euphemism for death — and quite a common one, given that a dead person often looks like they are sleeping: the Greek personification of sleep, Hypnos, was said to the twin brother of Death (Thanatos) by both Homer in the Illiad and Hesiod in the Theogony. The other common metaphor for death is "departing" or "passing on", essentially going on a journey.

We have other passages to argue the opposite position, which is that Soul Sleep does not occur, like the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19–31), though I'm not sure it is in scope of the question. At any rate, weighing in for and against, we non-mortalists hold that the position that the soul is unconscious before the Resurrection cannot be considered orthodox.