Matthew 22:31
Matthew 22:3131But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what God said to you:
is read by JW publications as the introduction to Jesus's argument for resurrection from — the patriarchs will live again because Jehovah will resurrect them. The present-tense "I AM the God of Abraham" is treated as a covenant promise of future resurrection rather than as a claim that the patriarchs are currently alive. Soul-sleep doctrine requires this reading.
sets up the Synoptic argument against the Sadducees that hinges on the present tense of "I AM." Companions to and , this verse opens Jesus's appeal to — spoken to Moses centuries after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, with God still calling himself their God in the present tense. Jesus's argument only works if the patriarchs are currently alive in some sense — otherwise God IS currently the God of dead men, which is exactly what the next verse denies. Pair with ("for to him all are alive") and the Synoptic parallels to see Jesus making the same case in all three Synoptics. Soul-sleep doctrine cannot accommodate the present tense.