[The following is an edited excerpt of my (free) Bible study which goes into depth on this topic, among many others, but I wanted a quick article to prove the fact that the Bible teaches the dead are not conscious. Links to supporting references are underlined.]
Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection; and they asked him, Saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man’s brother die, having a wife, and he die without children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. There were therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and died without children. And the second took her to wife, and he died childless. And the third took her; and in like manner the seven also: and they left no children, and died. Last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is she? for seven had her to wife. And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. — Luke 20:27-38
Strangely enough, some Christians actually try to use this passage to support their view that the dead remain conscious, mistakenly thinking that Jesus’ statement meant the dead aren’t actually dead, but are actually still alive somewhere. If they just took the time to examine the context of the whole passage, however, they’d discover that it was really about how the Sadducees, who didn’t believe in a physical resurrection of dead bodies in the future, were trying to trip Jesus up with a question about who a hypothetical person would be married to after being resurrected from the dead during the impending kingdom in the next age, when the kingdom of heaven exists in Israel for 1,000 years (although it’s translated as “that world” in the King James Version, the word “world” doesn’t always mean “planet” or “earth” in that Bible translation, but in many cases — including this one in Luke, since it was translated from the Greek αἰών/“ahee-ohn’” here — is a synonym for “age,” meaning “a long period of time with a definite beginning and end,” which is why most Bible versions translate αἰών as “age” rather than “world” in this passage).
To put it simply, they weren’t asking about a ghost in an afterlife dimension and whether or not she’d have to be polygamous in that imaginary realm, but were asking their question about her various marriages in order to make the idea of physical resurrection seem ridiculous. However, Jesus corrected them by not only pointing out that those people who are going to be resurrected from the dead at the beginning of that “world”/age will be immortal like the angels and hence will not be married anymore at that time (because procreation, which was normally only done by married people in Israel at the time, isn’t something immortal beings are meant to do, as we know from Genesis 6 — look up the Nephilim if you aren’t familiar with what I’m referring to, because that’s too big of a tangent for me to explain at this point), but also by using the fact that the Lord could not legitimately claim the title of “the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,”as Moses revealed Him to be, if the dead weren’t going to be physically resurrected someday, because He’s technically not the God of those who are currently dead, but is instead only the God of the living (Jesus was using prolepsis in that statement — prolepsis being a common figure of speech used throughout the Bible which means “the representation or assumption of a future act or development as if presently existing or accomplished,” calling what is not yet as though it already were, in other words, as God Himself often does — in order to prove that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will definitely be resurrected someday, because otherwise that statement about them would have been a lie since it would mean they’ll never exist again, when in fact “all live unto him” already, considering the fact that, as far as God is concerned, they’ve already been physically resurrected, at least from His timeless perspective — meaning, because God ultimately transcends space and time, He not only exists in our time, but He’s also already existing at the point in time when these three patriarchs will be resurrected as well).
The passage just can’t be read as saying the three of them were actually still alive at the time that Jesus made that statement. Verse 37 of Luke 20 (“…that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush…”) makes it very clear that Jesus is talking about the fact that these three patriarchs would eventually be physically resurrected, not that they’re actually still alive in another dimension (He didn’t say, “that the dead are living in another dimension”; He said, “that the dead are raised,” referring to a future resurrection). Jesus’ whole point is that, if they aren’t going to be raised from the dead to live again, God could not be said to be their God, because He isn’t the God of the dead but of the living. If they were actually still alive in some afterlife realm, God would have still been their God from a literal perspective rather than just a proleptic perspective at that time (and they could still thank and praise Him, contrary to what other parts of the Bible say), but Jesus’ whole point was that, without a physical resurrection, He couldn’t be their God, since they’re dead and will never exist again if they aren’t going to be resurrected. Because they will be resurrected, however, God actually can be said to be their God, even if only from a proleptic perspective at present, at least as far as those of us who are bound by time are concerned.
There’s just no way to read verses 37 and 38 as meaning anything other than Jesus saying that those who have “gone to sleep” are indeed dead and unconscious until their resurrection, because the only way that Moses’ statement about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob could possibly be used as proof of a physical resurrection from the dead in the future is if the three of them have ceased to live and consciously retain knowledge for the time being. If the three of them are actually still alive in an afterlife dimension somewhere, and if Jesus’ statement about God being the God of the living rather than the God of the dead was actually Him trying to prove the idea that God is still their God because they’re actually still alive somewhere, then the resurrection of the dead would be entirely unnecessary for God to be their God, and Jesus’ argument couldn’t possibly help prove a future resurrection at all, which means they have to no longer exist as conscious beings for now or else Jesus’ entire argument proves nothing as far as what the Sadducees were challenging Him on goes.
Of course, Jesus’ statement in Matthew 22:31-32 makes this even more obvious, since Jesus is recorded in that book as saying, “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living,” making it clear that His statement about God not being the God of the dead, but of the living, is entirely about bodily resurrection (when Jesus said, “the living,” He could only have been referring to living in a physical body in the future and not to ghosts currently “living” in an afterlife realm, based on both this passage in Matthew and the one we looked at in Luke).
However, if you do still believe in the immortality of the soul after reading about Jesus’ discussion with the Sadducees, I’d like you to explain how, exactly, Jesus’ argument about God not being the God of the dead, but rather of the living, could possibly prove a future resurrection if His statement meant that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob actually are still alive in an afterlife realm somewhere. Because, unless you can do so, this statement by Jesus seems to be definitive proof that the dead aren’t actually conscious, and that no other passage in Scripture which one might believe teaches a conscious afterlife can possibly actually be intended to be interpreted that way, which means all the other “proof texts” people use to try to prove the immortality of the soul have to be interpreted in a different manner from the way most people traditionally interpret them. And if you want to know what the rest of the “proof texts” normally used to try to prove the immortality of the soul really mean, please go read my (free) Bible study that I mentioned at the beginning of this article.