John 11:11 “These things he said, and after that he said to them, our friend Lazarus sleeps but I go to wake him up.”
This scripture is an analogy or a comparison between two different things to show how they are similar usually to help explain a complex or unfamiliar idea.
An analogy can be taken to far by falsely claiming that every minor detail or hidden feature of the analogy must also match. The parable of Lazarus and the rich man is an example of this. It is obvious to the one with the Holy Spirit that everything in that parable cannot be taken as fact.
Jesus had to explain to his disciples what he meant by saying Lazarus was sleeping;
“So Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus is dead…” John 11:15
Now the only point to consider in this analogy is that Jesus compared sleeping to being dead. The one who would take this analogy too far would say, “we can move in our sleep, we may talk in our sleep and we still breath while we are sleeping”, but the focus of Jesus’ remark about sleep has to be the unconscious state of the dead because don’t we know the dead don’t move, talk or breath ? Now, we also know that dead people do not think or have thoughts because they are unconscious so then, if you try to use this in the analogy Jesus gave it is like trying to use moving, talking or breathing, it ruins the analogy. Consciousness is not sleeping because you’re unconscious just like the dead are. Don’t we know the dead are unconscious and so is a sleeping person? So then in order to not disturb the analogy by adding something to it that doesn’t belong unconsciousness is common to both death and sleep but moving, talking or breathing is not.
Now, going a bit further, someone who has died cannot sin because they are unconscious so if you analogize regular sleep with death, both being unconscious, then just as the dead person cannot sin neither can the sleeping person sin. A dead person cannot think at all. Thinking is a function of consciousness but a sleeping person may dream which is also not consciousness. This aligns perfectly with the analogy. Consciousness is the state of being awake and aware of your surroundings and able to function alone or with others in reality. You cannot do that if dead or sleeping. Dreams are a part of unconscious sleep that you have no control over.
Weather dead or sleeping you are unconscious but if you try to add dreaming into the sin category then you violate the analogy Jesus gave. It’s sleep compared to death, period. The entire idea of dreams being sin is like saying the dead can move, talk and breathe. Dreams can’t be sin anymore than dead people can dream. Sin requires conscious awareness and free choice both of which are absent during sleep or in death.
Dreams come from your SUBCONSCIOUS MIND. You can’t plan or control what happens in them. Sin is being fully aware that a thought of evil is wrong but freely choosing to think that way. This could be called daydreaming, your awake but in your mind you think evil.
Ecclesiastes 5:3,7 “As a dream comes through many cares so the speech of a fool comes with many words. For as many dreams bring futility so do many words. Therefore fear GOD.”
GODS saints , who have grace, sleep sweet.
Ecclesiastes 3:24 “When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.”
Proverbs 3:24 “When you lie down you will not be afraid, when you rest your sleep will be sweet.”
How would it be to try to sleep but fear that you might sin in your dreams ? Would your sleep be sweet ?
Psalm 4:8 “I will lie down and sleep in peace for you alone LORD make me… in safety.”
Ecclesiastes 5:7 “Much dreaming and many words are meaningless.”
Dreams that come from GOD are obviously not our dreams and usually convey a message and GOD can use many different ways to make you dream but these dreams are not sin and NOT YOUR DREAMS IF GOD CAUSES THEM.
Even if you do have a dream that’s evil and you wake up remembering it, it only becomes a sin when you consciously plan to do it. There is a fine line here between the unconscious and conscious between being awake and aware or NOT. Consciously Planning to do what you dreamed while you were unconscious is sin, but the dream itself is not because it never happened in reality.
If I dream of murdering someone then wake up and remember the dream I would not consciously consider doing the murder, but if I was an evil person and planned out how I could murder and not get caught then that is sin, even if I didn’t actually carry out the murder. It’s all in how you respond consciously to a dream not the dream itself that will be the sin. To respond, to make the dream a conscious thought and choice is the sin.
