sign in sign up
<<
Home , Cryonics, Death in Heaven

…THEN WHAT?

SESSION ONE

Our Marvelous Bodies In this Lutheran Witness article Dr. Reed Lessing reminds us to respect our bodies because they are a marvel of God’s engineering.

Cryonics “ is an effort to save lives by using temperatures so cold that a person beyond help by today's medicine might be preserved for decades or centuries until a future medical technology can restore that person to full health.” Dancing With Death (A Doctor Looks at Death) “The enemy is death. The avenger is medicine. And the war is going very poorly indeed…We are so engaged in the battle, so empowered by our growing capabilities, that we have lost sight of the bigger picture. While pushing back the adversary of death, we are ever so steadily being destroyed by the very battle itself.”

The Roots of “To know that you lived many lives before this one and that there are many more to come is a very attractive perspective from which to judge the meaning of life.”

Muti Killings In a modern spin on African children are being mutilated and killed so their organs and body parts can be used for African medicine. Thinking About Your This Lutheran Witness article by Jonathan C. Watt explains the purpose of a Christian funeral service and how you can work with your pastor to give your family and friends one final testimony of your faith in Jesus Christ.

Resurrection Reality New Orleans had to find a different way to bury the dead. But it reminds us why we need the .

Dropping Dead in Jesus In this video presentation at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Dr. William M. Cwirla provides a Biblical look at death and dying. The presentation itself begins at 10:33. SESSION TWO

The Five Stages of In this article Elisabeth Kübler-Ross & David Kessler guide us through the five stages of grief.

Frequently Asked Questions about Heaven and Hell Including “What happens to people who have not heard the Gospel?”, “What’s the LCMS view on the Left Behind Series?”, “Are there degrees or levels in heaven or hell?”, “Does the LCMS believe in the rapture?”, “Can you sin in heaven?”, “What happens when people die?”, and “Are my family members with God or ar they asleep until the end of the world?”

Myths About Death: Why Easter Matters This article by Jared Melius discusses several common myths people hold about death.

A Statement on Death, Resurrection and This report of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations discusses the Christian concepts of soul, death and life after death.

Paul’s Use of the Imagery of Sleep In this article Piotr J. Malysz discusses the images of sleep Paul used to refer to death and other subjects.

Soul Sleep Dr. Richard Bucher examines the Bible to see if the soul leaves the body at death or remains for a time of sleep until the Resurrection Day.

A Heavenly Reunion How can the story of 33 trapped miners in Chili remind us of life after death?

Yes Virginia! There Are Angels In case you think we become angels when we die, let this article set you straight.

SESSION THREE

Be Near Me, Lord Jesus What good can you do for a loved one nearing death? This granddaughter has some ideas for you.

Christ in Death, Christ in Life In this article by Rev. Dr. Dean Nadasdy, a 15 year-old girl teaches her church what she has learned from her father’s death the previous year.

Through the Shadowlands- A Christian Handbook on Death and Life Harold Senkbeil wrote this article that describes how God’s Church comforts the dying and their loved ones before, during and after death and .

Angry with God This Lutheran Witness article explores why we get angry at God and Scripture’s answer to that anger.

How About ? Rev. Arnold G. Deke explores whether Scripture supports capital punishment or not.

SESSION FOUR

Reservations about the Resurrection? In this Lutheran Witness article, Dr. Paul L. Maier answers many challenges posed against Jesus’ resurrection.

Mysteries and Realities of Resurrection This Lutheran Witness article addresses the question of what happened to the people raised from the dead at Jesus’ death and resurrection (Mt. 27:52-53) and in His ministry.

Concerning the Resurrection Body This wonderful article by J. T. Mueller examines what God says about our resurrected body in 1 Corinthians 15:35-49.

Seven Stanzas for Easter In 1960 John Updike entered a poem in a contest at Clifton Lutheran Church in Marblehead, Massachusetts. In this poem Updike reminds us why it is important to remember Jesus’ death and resurrection are a real, physical, historical event.

DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Our Marvelous Bodies http://witness.lcms.org/pages/wPage.asp?ContentID=63&IssueID=10

Our Marvelous Bodies

When I was a junior in high school, "teaching Reed to drive" fell to my mother. There we were in downtown Denver, I with my driver's permit, my mother with her seat belt buckled and her life insurance policy paid up.

Then it happened. As I went to change lanes, I came within inches of another car. My mother, in her words, "had the big one!" From that point on, her litany to me was, "Reed Lessing, always remember you have a blind spot!"

You know what she meant, those areas on either side of a vehicle that you can't see in the rearview or side-view mirrors. Many accidents happen because drivers forget about the blind spot.

In broader usage, blind spots are any issues in life that are easily overlooked. One glaring blind spot in the lives of most Christians is our body. Oh, don't get me wrong. Most Christians are outraged by sins against the body, homosexuality, lesbianism, prostitution, , alcoholism, drug abuse, physical violence, and so on. But we are blind to a far more common sin, the abuse of our bodies with our poor diets and lack of regular exercise.

The results are in: obesity is the second-leading cause of preventable death in the ; approximately 127 million adults are overweight; 60 million are obese; and nine million are severely obese.

Picture a wheel with a hub and five spokes. The hub, or center, is the Triune God's baptismal gift. New life in Christ is both the glue that holds the five spokes together as well as the power that enables them to properly function. The five spokes are our emotional life, relationships with people, intellect, vocation, and physical health.

To be whole means to keep these spokes connected to Christ and in good order. If one spoke is neglected the whole will be out of balance.

At issue, then, is not only our physical health and fitness but every facet of our lives, for if one part is neglected, everything in life suffers.

Reject the Body One approach toward our bodies is to reject them. Some elements of the New Age Movement embrace beliefs that demean and reject the body, teaching that human beings are mere souls animating dispensable bodies. Sociologists estimate that more than 10 million Americans are participating in New Age activities that encourage them to turn inward toward their "psychic abilities" or "inner healing." New Age spirituality often encourages followers to abandon their "evil bodies" and seek answers from the "god within" by means of mystical experiences.

But Holy Scripture promises us something different. In Baptism, God not only cleanses our conscience (1 Pet. 3:21), but also our bodies (Heb. 10:22). In Baptism both body and soul become a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). And even though our body outwardly wastes away (2 Cor. 4:16), the Holy Spirit empowers us to accept our body, knowing that at the Second Advent of Christ we will receive a glorified body (Phil. 3:21).

Perfect the Body A more popular current approach to the body is to perfect it. For many, physical perfection has almost become their god. Any degree of dedication, even the excess and abuse of performance enhancers, obsessive exercise, exorbitant investments in exercise equipment, is acceptable in achieving their goal. Most communities offer easy access to exfoliation, anti-oxidizing, moisturizing, revitalizing, toning, and tanning.

We have changed from a society of Ivory soap and VO-5 shampoo to one that must have mousse, gel, pomade, volumizers, buffers, bronzers, and polishers. Shower stalls look and smell more like the Amazon jungle! A quick look in many bathrooms will discover banana, lemon, and lime conditioners that are matched by mint, coconut, and herbal shampoo. "Americans have become self-obsessive, unable to see past their own gleaming white incisors and painted toes," observed Anna Quindlen in her Newsweek article "Leg Waxing and Life Everlasting."

And then there is cosmetic surgery. The demand for these procedures jumped 44 percent from 2003 to 2004 when almost 11.9 million cosmetic surgeries were performed in the United States. The cosmetic industry in America generates annual sales of almost $8 billion. Even a partial list of options is impressive: rhinoplasty (fixing the nose); dermabrasion, including acne scar removal; otoplasty (ear augmentation); breast augmentation; breast reduction; lip enhancement; and hair and tattoo removal. Liposuction remains the most popular surgical procedure for both men and women.

In fact, many segments of the medical field are driven by our incessant desire to perfect our body. For many, medicine is more powerful and pervasive than the church ever was. Doctors and hospitals, viewed in godlike fashion, function as insurance policies that give people a sense that they will never die. In this worldview the "high priests" are the doctors, the "worship assistants" are the medical technicians, "temples" are the hospitals, the "inspired text" is imparted by the medical community, and the ultimate destiny is to escape death.

Paul, however, writes in 1 Cor. 6:20, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?" A temple is not an object of worship but a place of worship. In seeking to perfect their bodies, many Americans worship what is created rather than the Creator. Paul writes in Rom. 1:25, "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator."

Paul reminds us that Holy Baptism empowers us to honor God with our bodies (Rom 6:1–14), implying that they are not to be our means to glorify ourselves. Medical care, eating healthy food, and exercising regularly are good, even godly habits (cf. 1 Tim. 4:8). These are to be practiced, however, so that our bodies may be "living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God" (Rom 12:1).

Respect the Body In a society that tempts us to reject or perfect our body, Christ empowers another approach: respect our body. His Word instructs us to steer a middle course between the New Age contempt and the pagan adoration of our bodies.

But how do we do this?

Most of us have had the experience of being out of shape. Zippers start ripping out, buttons pop off, the car leans dangerously to one side. "OK," we determinedly say, "I'm going to thin down."

In the fresh enthusiasm of zeal we purchase $100 running shoes, join a local health club, and blow off the dust of that diet book we bought five years ago. "I'm going to shave off 30 pounds!"

We hit the road, running like we're on fire; we choke down dry toast, cottage cheese, sliced tomatoes, and boiled eggs. But then the holiday season rolls around and we fudge, and then we gorge. Finally, when we are prompted to take care of our bodies, we just lie down until the urge goes away. This neglect of our bodies has come about, in large part, because the church has allowed Plato's teachings to distort its message. Plato, a Greek philosopher from the fourth century B.C., taught that there are two worlds: the visible, material world, and the invisible, spiritual world. Because the material world is imperfect and a source of evil, it is inferior to the spiritual world.

Plato held a similar dualistic view of people. He likened the body to a prison for the soul. The immortal soul is incarcerated in a defective, crumbling body. Salvation, he claimed, comes at death when the soul escapes the body and soars heavenward to the invisible realm of the pure and eternal spirit.

Because of this influence, many Christians today believe the word "spiritual" means that the Christian life is a detachment from this world and a focus on heaven. This "spiritual" person is consumed with one agenda: "to win souls for Jesus." All other activity, including keeping a healthy and fit body, is inferior and lacking in priority.

However, the Bible does not teach cosmological dualism or that the created world is evil. Genesis 2:7 states that the Lord God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." Our souls are primarily our vitality, our life, not a separate part of our person. This means that we were created as whole living beings with a physical body and a soul.

We are not souls or spirits that now inhabit bodies but will, at death, forever desert them. None of the Hebrew terms translated as "soul" or "spirit" refers to the nonphysical part of a human being. In Hebraic thought, "soul" or "spirit" refers to the whole person . It stands for the person himself. We live as souls; we do not "have" souls. Any dichotomy between spirit and matter is not in agreement with the conceptual framework of the Bible.

Rather than disparaging creation, God remains active in it to restore it and bring about His new creation that ultimately is in Christ. That is to say, what God does in redemption is to serve His goal for His corrupted, dying creation. This means that redemption is God's penultimate goal. A new creation is His ultimate goal, and this includes the perfect healing of our bodies that will occur at the final resurrection when God will also restore the entire inanimate universe (Rev. 21–22).

In the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God declares his love for creation in His most profound way. The two natures in Christ, His divine nature from eternity and His human nature that He assumed when He was conceived by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, continue together. From the moment of His conception on, Jesus is, and will be forever, both true God and true man.

Creation cannot and should not be relegated as a second-class doctrine. Luther understood this. For example, in 1524, Andreas Karlstadt, one of his companions, opposed the reformer by teaching that Christians must detach themselves from earthly, created things. Karlstadt taught that the Eucharist did not give an objective assurance of the forgiveness of sins because, as a part of this creation, it is unable to touch the depth of the soul. Luther refuted this divorce between creation and redemption. He held that the Father works through the flesh of His Son to impart the Holy Spirit. And this new life includes a new body (1 Cor. 15:42–49).

Back to the blind spot Let's imagine that someone walks into your home, hands you the keys to a $75,000 Mercedes Benz and says, "Surprise, it's all yours! Enjoy! One thing, though. It's an engineering marvel with a very sophisticated engine. It won't run on regular unleaded fuel. If you don't fill it with super unleaded, you'll eventually ruin the motor. Will you agree to use only the highest grade of fuel?"

I would agree. Wouldn't you? It would be unthinkable to ruin the car by not taking proper care of it.

But this is exactly what many of us are doing with our bodies. Granted, most of us don't intentionally reject our bodies, nor do we hope to perfect our bodies. But far too many of us neglect our bodies.

A renewed appreciation for creational theology will enable us to view ourselves as a body/soul rather than a soul that will one day forever shed its body. We will then embrace the fact that Christian piety is not only the nourishing of our soul. To be fully alive in Jesus Christ also means to respect our bodies.

Our blind spot is now in clear focus. God has engineered a marvelous body for us. Empowered by the Gospel, our goal is to be available for Jesus Christ for the longest amount of time; with the greatest amount of ; and with the highest degree of emotional, relational, mental, and vocational faithfulness. And that means taking care of our bodies. Let's get started! Reed Lessing Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Cryonics: http://alcor.org/

Alcor Cryonics and Science Foundation Banking of transplantable organs The Alcor Life Extension at low temperature is a Foundation is the world leader in recognized specialty of the science cryonics, cryonics research, and of . Alcor applies cryonics technology. Cryonics is breakthroughs in organ banking the science of using ultra-cold research to the much more temperature to preserve human difficult problem of preserving life with the intent of restoring whole people. Although cryonics is good health when technology not reversible today, the eventual becomes available to do so. Alcor perfection of cryonics will be of is a non-profit organization great value to fields such as located in Scottsdale, Arizona, medicine and space travel. founded in 1972. Cryonics and Religion What Cryonics Is Cryonics is an attempt to preserve Cryonics is a speculative life and protect the gift of human life. support technology that seeks to The purpose of cryonics is to preserve human life in a state that maintain life, not reverse death. will be viable and treatable by Lack of legal status as a person future medicine. It is expected does not imply lack of moral that future medicine will include status as a person. The spiritual mature , and the status of cryonics patients is the ability to heal at the cellular and same as frozen human embryos, molecular levels. or unconscious medical patients. When properly examined, cryonics What Cryonics Is Not has been endorsed by both clergy and theologians. Cryonics as practiced by Alcor is not an interment method or Information about Cryonics mortuary practice. Alcor intervenes in the dying process as The intent and practice of cryonics soon as possible after are frequently misunderstood. We to preserve the brain as well as invite you to explore this site and possible. Alcor seeks to prevent reach your own conclusions. loss of information within the brain that encodes memory and personal identity, which is the true boundary between life and death.

What is Cryonics?

Cryonics is an effort to save lives by using temperatures so cold that a person beyond help by today's medicine might be preserved for decades or centuries until a future medical technology can restore that person to full health.

Cryonics sounds like science fiction, but is based on modern science. It's an experiment in the most literal sense of the word. The question you have to ask yourself is this: would you rather be in the experimental group, or the control group?

Cryonics is justified by three facts that are not well known:

1) Life can be stopped and restarted if its basic structure is preserved. Human embryos are routinely preserved for years at temperatures that completely stop the chemistry of life. Adult humans have survived cooling to temperatures that stop the heart, brain, and all other organs from functioning for up to an hour. These and many other lessons of biology teach us that life is a particular structure of matter. Life can be stopped and restarted if cell structure and chemistry are preserved sufficiently well.

2) (not ) can preserve biological structure very well.

Adding high concentrations of chemicals called to cells permits tissue to be cooled to very low temperatures with little or no formation. The state of no ice formation at temperatures below -120°C is called vitrification. It is now possible to physically vitrify organs as large as the human brain, achieving excellent structural preservation without freezing.

3) Methods for repairing structure at the molecular level can now be foreseen.

The emerging science of nanotechnology will eventually lead to devices capable of extensive tissue repair and , including repair of individual cells one molecule at a time. This future nanomedicine could theoretically recover any preserved person in which the basic brain structures encoding memory and personality remain intact.

So...

If of structure means survival of the person;

If cold can preserve essential structure with sufficient fidelity;

If foreseeable technology can repair injuries of the preservation process;

Then cryonics should work, even though it cannot be demonstrated to work today. That is the scientific justification for cryonics. It is a justification that grows stronger with every new advance in preservation technology.

Preventing Death

Death occurs when the chemistry of life becomes so disorganized that normal operation cannot be restored. (Death is not when life turns off. People can and have survived being "turned off".) How much chemical disorder can be survived depends on medical technology. A hundred years ago, cardiac arrest was irreversible. People were called dead when their heart stopped beating. Today death is believed to occur 4 to 6 minutes after the heart stops beating because after several minutes it is difficult to resuscitate the brain. However, with new experimental treatments, more than 10 minutes of warm cardiac arrest can now be survived without brain injury. Future technologies for molecular repair may extend the frontiers of resuscitation beyond 60 minutes or more, making today's beliefs about when death occurs obsolete.

Ultimately, real death occurs when cell structure and chemistry become so disorganized that no technology could restore the original state. This is called the information-theoretic criterion for death. Any other definition of death is arbitrary and subject to continual revision as technology changes. That is certainly the case for death pronounced on the basis of absent "vital signs" today, which is not real death at all.

The object of cryonics is to prevent death by preserving sufficient cell structure and chemistry so that recovery (including recovery of memory and personality) remains possible by foreseeable technology. If indeed cryonics patients are recoverable in the future, then clearly they were never really dead in the first place. Today‘s physicians will simply have been wrong about when death occurs, as they have been so many times in the past. The argument that cryonics cannot work because cryonics patients are dead is a circular argument.

Cryonics Today

More than one hundred people have been cryopreserved since the first case in 1967. More than one thousand people have made legal and financial arrangements for cryonics with one of several organizations, usually by means of affordable life insurance. Alcor is the largest organization, and distinguished among cryonics organizations by its advanced technology and advocacy of a medical approach to cryonics.

Alcor procedures ideally begin within moments of cardiac arrest. Blood circulation and breathing are artificially restored, and a series of medications are administered to protect the brain from lack of oxygen. Rapid cooling also begins, which further protects the brain. The goal is to keep the brain alive by present-day criteria for as long as possible into the procedure. It is not always possible to respond so rapidly and aggressively, but that is Alcor's ideal, and it has been achieved in many cases.

In 2001 Alcor adapted published breakthroughs in the field of organ preservation to achieve what we believe is ice-free preservation (vitrification) of the human brain. This is a method of stabilizing the physical basis of the human mind for practically unlimited periods of time. The procedure involves partly replacing water in cells with a mixture of chemicals that prevent ice formation. Kidneys have fully recovered after exposure to similar chemicals in published studies. Alcor's formula is more concentrated than formulas that permit survival of small organs, but its similarity to these formulas suggests that it is preserving biochemistry very effectively.

Alcor's future goals include expanding ice-free (vitrification) beyond the brain to include the entire human body, and reducing the biochemical alterations of the process to move closer to demonstrable reversibility. Based on the remarkable progress being made in conventional organ banking research, we believe that demonstrably reversible preservation of the human brain is a medical objective that could be achieved in the natural lifetime of most people living today.

Dramatic Advances in Brain Tissue Preservation

Figure 1: Pre-1992 freezing damage in brain tissue after treatment with 3 molar glycerol. This light micrograph prepared by "freeze substitution" in the frozen state shows extensive ice damage. This is the kind of damage that many commentators assume is common in cryonics patients. Their assumption is outdated and incorrect.

Figure 2: Pre-1992 freezing damage in brain tissue after treatment with 4 molar glycerol. This electron micrograph prepared after thawing shows tears surrounding a capillary, and a naked cell nucleus with no cell membrane (dark rounded object). There seems to be less damage in frozen- thawed tissue than in tissue imaged in the frozen state.

Figure 3: 1992-2001 freezing damage in brain tissue after treatment with 7.5 molar glycerol. This electron micrograph prepared after thawing shows tears surrounding a capillary, but otherwise good structural preservation. With this protocol, ice damage occurs at intervals throughout the brain, but with most of the volume remaining ice-free.

Figure 4: Today brain tissue preserved with a modern vitrification solution shows virtually no freezing damage. Whole neurons are visible with intact membranes and well defined structure. This is the excellent brain preservation which Alcor can now achieve in human patients. Most "experts" who complain about damage caused by cryonics procedures are unaware that such preservation is now possible.

A patient being prepared for perfusion at Alcor's facility in Scottsdale, Arizona. Alcor Procedures

The purpose of cryonics is to preserve life. Alcor therefore intervenes in the dying process at the earliest moment that is legally possible. If proper procedures are followed immediately after the heart stops, then legal death need not impact the biology of cryonics or its prospects for success. For further information concerning this issue see Cardiopulmonary Support in Cryonics.

Cases with Cardiopulmonary Support

It is customary practice in medicine to discontinue care of terminal patients, and declare legal death, when the heart stops beating. The several minutes of time between when the heart stops and the brain dies (by conventional criteria) provides a window of opportunity for Alcor to artificially restore blood circulation and preserve brain viability even though a patient is legally deceased. Cryonics cases in which life support techniques are promptly used to maintain brain viability after the heart stops are considered to be ideal cases.

Standby

Alcor strongly encourages members who are terminally ill to relocate to cooperative hospice facilities in Scottsdale, Arizona. If relocation is not possible, Alcor may deploy equipment and a transport team to a remote location. As a dying patient's condition becomes critical, Alcor personnel wait nearby on a 24-hour basis. This is called "standby." When the heart stops beating, an independent nurse or physician pronounces legal death, and the Alcor team begins life support procedures as described below.

Stabilization

The patient is placed in an ice water bath, and blood circulation and breathing are artificially restored by a heart-lung resuscitator (HLR). The HLR, or "thumper," is a mechanical device used in emergency medicine to perform CPR. In cryonics, the term CPS (cardiopulmonary support) is used instead of CPR because the intent is to provide life support, not cardiac resuscitation. Because cryonics patients are legally deceased, Alcor can use methods that are not yet approved for conventional medical use. This enables Alcor to use new technologies that can support the brain longer and more effectively than traditional CPR. In particular, the combination of simultaneous compression-decompression CPS and rapid cooling are known to be especially effective for protecting the brain during cardiac arrest. Intravenous lines are also established, and protective medications are administered. These include:

Free radical inhibitors NOS (nitric oxide synthase) inhibitors PARP (Poly ADP-ribose polymerase) inhibitors Excitotoxicity inhibitors Anticoagulants Pressors pH buffers Anesthetic

These drugs help maintain blood pressure during CPS, and protect the brain from "reperfusion" injury. Anesthesia reduces brain oxygen consumption, which further protects the brain.

The LUCAS chest compression device, shown in the photo at right, is used by Alcor to re- establish blood circulation and oxygenation in cryonics patients following cardiac arrest.

Alcor also uses the Michigan Instruments Thumper. Both devices are powered by pressurized oxygen, and restore blood flow much better than manual CPR.

Transport

If the patient is in a hospital where the administration is unwilling to allow cryonics procedures, the patient is moved to an alternate location while CPS and cooling are maintained without interruption. Femoral arteries and veins are surgically accessed and the patient is placed on cardiopulmonary bypass. This means that blood is circulated through a portable heart-lung machine (pictured below) that takes over the function of the patient's own heart and lungs. External CPS is no longer necessary, and is discontinued.

Within minutes, a heat exchanger in the heart-lung machine reduces the patient's temperature to a few degrees above the freezing point of water. Blood is also replaced with an organ preservation solution that is specially designed to support life at low temperature. If the patient is located outside of Arizona, they are packed in ice for air shipment to Alcor's facility in Scottsdale, Arizona.

This treatment is similar to procedures used by transplant surgeons to support the life of organs moved around the country for transplant, except that Alcor's procedures are applied to whole patients. Remarkably, studies show that whole animals can survive up to three hours of cold storage on ice using existing medical technology. Even longer periods can be survived if the preservation solution is continuously circulated. The MHP2 preservation solution used by Alcor was developed in 1984 during pioneering experiments in which animals were successfully recovered after 4 hours of bloodless perfusion at +4°C.

After large blood vessels are surgically accessed, Alcor‘s Air Transportable Perfusion kit (ATP), shown in the photo below, is able to quickly cool the patient to temperatures at which oxygen is no longer necessary. The ATP also replaces blood with an organ preservation solution that supports life at low temperature (note the solution reservoir in the case on the left).

Cryoprotective Perfusion

At Alcor major blood vessels are connected to a perfusion circuit by a physician or veterinary surgeon. The preferred vascular access points are the aortic arch and right auricle of the heart, which are accessed by thoracic surgery (median sternotomy). Traditionally, neuropreservation patients have been treated by this same procedure, except that the descending aorta was clamped. In 2000, Alcor began treating neuropreservation patients by directly accessing the carotid and vertebral arteries. This requires careful surgical transection of the spinal column because vertebral arteries are located within the column.

A base perfusate similar to the preservation solution used during transport is circulated through the patient at a temperature near 0°C (the freezing point of water) for several minutes. This washes out any remaining blood. The cryoprotectant concentration is then linearly increased over 2 hours to one half the final target concentration. This slow introduction minimizes osmotic stress, and allows time for the cryoprotectant concentration to equilibrate (become the same) inside and outside cells. A rapid increase to the final concentration is then made, and the final concentration is held until the venous outflow concentration equals the target concentration (approximately one hour). Temperature, pressure, and cryoprotectant concentration data are continuously monitored and acquired by computer.

The status of the brain is visually monitored through two small holes in the skull made using a standard neurosurgical tool (14 mm Codman perforator). This permits verification of brain perfusion by dye injection, and observation of the osmotic response of the brain. A healthy brain slightly retracts from the skull in response to cryoprotectant perfusion. An injured brain swells, indicating that the blood-brain barrier has been compromised. This injury is often seen in patients who suffered a long period of untreated cardiac arrest.

The cryoprotectant solution Alcor uses to prevent freezing is a mixture of chemicals developed by mainstream cryobiologists for long-term banking of transplantable organs. The solution has been specifically validated for structural preservation of the brain. At the end of perfusion, these chemicals are present at a concentration of approximately 60%. In tissues adequately penetrated by the solution, the small amount of remaining water is not able to freeze. Instead of freezing, tissues vitrify when they are cooled to cryogenic temperatures. Variable penetration of the solution appears to result in a combination of vitrification and partial freezing in various body tissues, but total vitrification (ice-free preservation) of the brain, at least under ideal conditions.

Cooling

After cryoprotective perfusion, patients are cooled under computer control by fans circulating nitrogen gas at a temperature near -125°C. The goal is to cool all parts of the patient below -124°C (the glass transition temperature) as quickly as possible to avoid any ice formation. This requires approximately three hours, at the end of which the patient will have "vitrified" (reached a stable ice-free state). The patient is then further cooled to -196°C over approximately two weeks.

Patients are monitored by sensitive "crackphone" instruments during this long cooling period to detect fracturing events that tend to occur when large objects are cooled below the glass transition temperature. Contrary to media reports, fracturing is not a result of mishandling. It is a universal problem for large organs cooled to temperature. The federal government recently awarded $1.3 million dollars to specifically study the problem of fracturing during cryopreservation.

Long-Term Care

Currently Alcor patients are stored under liquid nitrogen at a temperature of -196°C. The liquid nitrogen is held in vacuum-insulated dewars that require replenishment every few weeks. Liquid nitrogen is used because it is inexpensive and reliable.

Alcor is currently experimenting with an alternative "vapor phase" storage system that would retain the safety and reliability advantages of liquid nitrogen, but allow patients to be maintained at controlled temperatures warmer than liquid nitrogen. This will reduce or eliminate fracturing injury.

Cases without Cardiopulmonary Support

Unfortunately not all Alcor members can be reached at the moment their heart stops. In cases of sudden illness or serious injury, blood circulation may stop for hours before any cryonics procedures are possible. If a physician determines that an Alcor member in cardiac arrest cannot be resuscitated by current technology (i.e. declares legal death), the most important actions are administration of heparin (a drug that prevents blood clotting) followed by chest compressions to circulate the heparin, cooling with ice, and prompt shipment on ice to Alcor. Alcor will cooperate with local funeral directors in making these arrangements. Alcor will also negotiate with authorities to limit the extent of any that may be required. (Alcor recommends that all members execute a Religious Objection to Autopsy).

The application of cryonics to patients who are clinically dead is perhaps the single most misunderstood aspect of cryonics. How can cryonics help someone who is clinically dead? The answer is that life and death are not binary "on-off" states. For cells, organs, and people, death is a process, not an event.

For example, the brain is commonly believed to "die" after 5 minutes without oxygen at normal body temperature. This is a myth. Brains have been revived after one hour of warm cardiac arrest, and living human brain cells have been recovered after 4 hours and even 8 hours of at normal temperature. What really happens is that after 5 minutes without oxygen, chemical changes occur in the brain that cause blood vessels to swell when circulation is restored. Without special interventions, this swelling eventually stops the restored blood flow, resulting in the death of all brain cells hours later. The practical result is that a brain that is deprived of oxygen for more than 5 minutes is usually doomed to die within hours. But doomed is not the same as dead.

The biological changes known to occur in the first hours following cardiac arrest are fundamentally minor and reversible in principle. Technology already exists that could recover people after more than 5 minutes of cardiac arrest, although it is seldom used. The conventional medical research value of donated brain tissue and living brain cells recovered from post- mortem donors further highlights the minor nature of brain changes in the early hours of clinical death.

Ultimately the difference between life and death for a cell, an organ, or an organism reduces to a difference in how atoms are arranged inside it. It therefore seems certain that future medicine capable of diagnosis and repair at a molecular level will be able to resuscitate people after longer periods of clinical death than medicine can today. How much memory and personality would survive repair and healing after hours of cardiac arrest is not currently known.

Ethics of Non-Ideal Cases

Cryopreservation of clinically dead patients is double speculation. First, as with all cryonics cases, it is assumed that the cryopreservation process will someday be reversible. Second, it is assumed that future medicine will be able to successfully recover people after long periods of cardiac arrest. Alcor therefore encourages members to reduce their risk profile for heart attack and stroke, and relocate close to Alcor during serious illness if possible. If despite these precautions a member experiences unattended cardiac arrest, Alcor will still proceed with cryopreservation unless a member indicates otherwise in their paperwork. Cryonics should never be confused with funeral arrangements. Alcor rarely accepts cases involving legal death of a non-member. The combination of strong emotion, false hope, unfamiliarity with cryonics, low probability of success, and high cost of cryonics without life insurance make accepting such cases ethically difficult. People who think they may someday be interested in cryonics should therefore investigate cryonics now. Waiting until cryonics is needed almost always means it won't be available.

For Alcor members who have chosen to be cryopreserved under poor conditions if necessary, there is a final ethical point. As long as resuscitation medicine remains an unfinished science, it is unethical to use the label "dead" as a basis to dismiss cryonics. Calling someone "dead" is merely medicine's way of excusing itself from resuscitation problems it cannot fix today. This makes people feel better about abandoning the patient and making the unwarranted assumption that nobody could ever fix the problem. Cryonics, in contrast, is conservative care that acknowledges that the real line between life and death is unclear and not currently known. It is humility in the face of the unknown. It is the right thing to do.

Cryonics Myths

Cryonics has attracted a huge amount of attention since the concept was first promoted in the late 1960s. Unfortunately, much of the news coverage has been based on misconceptions and statements from "authorities" who lack basic information about the field. This page corrects some of the most widespread inaccuracies about cryonics as practiced by Alcor.

Myth 1: Cryonics is consumer fraud.

Myth 2: Cryonics freezes people.

Myth 3: Cryonics preserves dead people.

Myth 4: Experts say cryonics cannot work.

Myth 5: No reputable scientists or physicians support cryonics.

Myth 6: Cryonics preserves "heads."

Myth 7: Cryonics conflicts with religion.

Myth 8: Cryonics is an indulgence of rich people. Myth 9: Cryonics is motivated by an irrational fear of death.

Myth 1: Cryonics is consumer fraud.

By definition, fraud involves deception for financial gain. This myth fails on both counts.

First, cryonics is not based on deception. To the contrary, it is both scientifically credible (see the Scientists' Open Letter on Cryonics) and supported by the extant scientific literature (see PubMed for a list of some published journal articles on cryonics). There are no known credible technical arguments that lead one to conclude that cryonics, carried out under good conditions today, would not work.

Second, cryonicists are not motivated by financial gain. The history of cryonics is full of individuals who made great sacrifices for the benefit of cryonics, and (so far) bereft of people enriched by it. Alcor has no company owners to profit from cryonics, salaries are modest, and the Board of Directors serves without pay. Cryonics is known for consuming the time and resources of its supporters rather than enriching them.

The reality is that Alcor is run by people who think cryonics can save lives and who want cryonics available for themselves, their friends, their loved ones, and the world in general.

Myth 2: Cryonics freezes people.

The current technology favored by Alcor is vitrification, not freezing. Vitrification is an ice-free process in which more than 60% of the water inside cells is replaced with protective chemicals. This completely prevents freezing during deep cooling. Instead of freezing, molecules just move slower and slower until all chemistry stops at the glass transition temperature (approximately -124°C). Unlike freezing, there is no ice formation or ice damage in vitrified tissue. Blood vessels have been reversibly vitrified, and a whole kidney has been recovered and successfully transplanted with long-term survival after vitrification at a temperature of - 135°C.

Left: A rabbit kidney suspended in a transparent solution of vitrification chemicals, but without vitrification solution inside it, is frozen solid at a temperature of -140°C.

Right: Another kidney with vitrification solution inside it is preserved without freezing at the same temperature of - 140°C.

This work was originally reported in Cryobiology 21, 407-426 (1984).

In 2001, Alcor drew on published advances in the field of organ vitrification to implement a protocol for vitrifying the human brain. This procedure is not yet reversible because of other damage (not caused by ice) including biochemical effects of the vitrification solution — but it eliminates ice damage and the preservation of fine structure is excellent.

The less advanced methods used by Alcor before 2001 still suppressed most freezing damage. Comparisons of cryonics to frozen vegetables and other ridiculous analogies therefore never had merit, even before the advent of vitrification.

Myth 3: Cryonics preserves dead people.

The purpose of cryonics is to save the lives of living people, not inter the bodies of dead people. Death is a neurological process that begins after the heart stops. A stopped heart only causes death if nothing is done when the heart stops. Cryonics proposes to do something. In the words of a mainstream critical care expert writing for the American College of Surgeons, "In this era of critical care, death is more a process than an event.... A prognosis of death...cannot serve as a diagnosis." Alcor uses life support equipment to restore blood circulation to maintain brain viability after the heart stops, ideally within minutes. This means that every cell and tissue of a cryonics patient can be just as alive at the beginning of cryonics procedures as any other medical patient. Care of a terminally-ill patient can legally be transferred to Alcor as soon as the heart stops beating. Legal death declared at that moment is simply a certification that there's nothing more contemporary medicine can do for a dying patient.

Dying is a process, not an event. The purpose of cryonics is to intercept and stop this dying process within the window of time that it may be reversible in the future. The first few minutes of clinical death are certainly reversible, even today. There are good reasons to believe that this window will extend further in the future. That is why cryonics is sometimes implemented even long after the heart stops. Cryonics is not a belief that the dead can be revived. Cryonics is a belief that no one is really dead until the information content of the brain is lost, and that low temperatures can prevent this loss.

The cryopreservation phase of cryonics will not be reversible for a very long time. But this still does not mean cryonics patients are dead. Life can be stopped and restarted under the right conditions, and life is often mistaken for death when resuscitation methods are not sufficiently advanced. If cryonics patients are ever successfully recovered, they will not have been dead by definition. They will have been unconscious, not dead. Saying cryonics cannot work because cryonics patients are dead is a circular argument. The statement assumes the conclusion it claims to prove!

Myth 4: Experts say cryonics cannot work.

Most experts in any single field will say that they know of no evidence that cryonics can work. That's because cryonics is an interdisciplinary field based on three facts from diverse unrelated sciences. Without all these facts, cryonics seems ridiculous. Unfortunately that makes the number of experts qualified to comment on cryonics very small. For example, very few scientists even know what vitrification is. Fewer still know that vitrification can preserve cell structure of whole organs or whole brains. Even though this use of vitrification has been published, it is so uncommon outside of cryonics that only a handful of cryobiologists know it is possible.

The situation is comparable to the development of space travel before World War II. At that time, "aeronautical experts" were adamant that space travel was impossible. Only Robert Goddard and a few German rocket scientists knew that multi-stage rockets could escape the earth. As is often the case, the experts best qualified to comment on a new field are the experts working in that field. No properly qualified expert has ever said cryonics can't work. The problem is finding experts qualified to comment on cryonics.

Myth 5: No reputable scientists or physicians support cryonics.

More than 60 scientists and ethicists have signed a Scientists' Open Letter endorsing the scientific basis of cryonics. Alcor also has reputable scientists and physicians within its membership and medical and scientific advisory boards, including scientists who have testified before the U.S. Congress on matters unrelated to cryonics, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In court testimony, prominent scientists have also provided Alcor with scientist declarations in support of cryonics.

Most cryobiologists (scientists specializing in low temperature biology) do not publicly support cryonics. This is in part because sensational publicity surrounding cryonics tends to cause mainstream accomplishments of cryobiology in reproductive biology, organ preservation, and cancer treatment to be unfairly overlooked. Conversely, most cryobiologists unfairly overlook the data and arguments that have been put forth in favor of cryonics. The history of the politicization of cryonics among cryobiologists is documented in the article: COLD WAR: The Conflict Between Cryonicists and Cryobiologists.

Myth 6: Cryonics preserves "heads."

Alcor has no specific interest in preserving heads. Alcor's interest is preserving people. In the entire human body, there is one organ that is absolutely essential to personhood: the brain. Injuries outside the brain are wounds to be healed. Injuries to the brain are injuries to who we are.

Alcor's neuropreservation option therefore seeks to preserve the brain with the highest possible fidelity. By directing preservation efforts toward the brain, it is possible to cryopreserve a brain with better quality than is possible if an entire body is cryopreserved. It is expected that the ability to regrow a new body around a repaired brain will be part of the capabilities of future medicine. However, removing a brain today from its protective enclosure (the skull) would cause unnecessary damage. Alcor therefore leaves the brain protected within the head during preservation and storage. While neuropreservation may seem strange, it is scientifically the best way known to preserve a human life indefinitely. Alcor preserves people, not "heads."

Myth 7: Cryonics conflicts with religion.

The goal of cryonics is to overcome serious illness by preserving and protecting life. Cryonics is therefore consistent with pro-life principles of both medicine and religion. Hypothermia victims have been revived after more than an hour without breathing, heartbeat, or brain activity. Deep cooling is sometimes used to "turn off" patients for long periods during neurosurgery when the heart must be stopped. Human embryos are routinely cryopreserved and revived. If cryonics works, it will work because it is fundamentally the same as these other forms of "" that are already known in medicine. Patients in these states are understood to be in deep coma, not death.

Cryonics patients are theologically equivalent to unconscious patients in a hospital with an uncertain prognosis. Moving essays affirming the morality and worth of cryonics have been written from both Catholic and Protestant perspectives. Members of diverse Christian denominations, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have joined Alcor, in addition to people of other faiths. For further information, please read Christianity and Cryonics and other articles in the Religion Section of the Alcor Library. Alcor welcomes written contributions from all faiths attesting to the life-affirming nature of cryonics.

Myth 8: Cryonics is an indulgence of rich people.

Most of Alcor's membership is middle class, and funds cryonics by life insurance. Cryonics is within reach of any healthy young person in the industrialized world who plans for it. For a young person, the lifetime cost of cryonics is no greater than that of smoking, cable TV, or regular eating out.

Myth 9: Cryonics is motivated by an irrational fear of death.

If a strong will to live is no more than an expression of cowardice, then why treat any serious illness? Interestingly, cryonics founders and are both veterans of military combat who have demonstrated far more courage than the average idle critic of cryonics. A rational desire to continue living is not the same as an irrational fear of death. In the words of biologist Peter Medawar, "...there is no more deep-seated biological instinct than that which expresses itself as a firm grasp upon life, there is more dignity, as there is more humanity, in fighting for life than in a passive abdication from our most hardly won and most deeply prized possession."

Problems Associated with Cryonics

(and some possible solutions)

When you buy a house, the seller is legally obliged to disclose any known defects. When you review a company's annual report, it tells you every problem that could affect the corporate share value. Since arrangements for cryopreservation may have a much greater impact on your life than home ownership or stock investments, we feel an ethical obligation to disclose problems that affect cryonics in general and Alcor specifically. We also believe that an organization which admits its problems is more likely to address them than an organization which pretends it has none. Thus full disclosure should encourage, rather than discourage, consumer confidence.

Startup Status

As of 2011, Alcor is nearly 40 years old. Our Patient Care Trust Fund is endowed with more than 7 million dollars and is responsible for the long- term care of over 100 cryopatients. In almost every year since its inception Alcor has enjoyed positive membership growth. We are the largest cryonics organization in the world — yet in many respects we are still a startup company. We have fewer than a dozen employees in Scottsdale, Arizona and approximately 20 part-time independent contractors in various locations around the USA, mostly dedicated to emergency standby and rescue efforts. We serve fewer than 1,000 members and the protocols that aid our pursuit of the goal of reversible suspended animation continue to be developed. At the present time the technology required for the realization of our goal far exceeds current technical capabilities. Cryonics will not be comparable with mainstream medicine until our patients can be revived using contemporary technology, and we expect to wait for decades to see this vision fulfilled. Nevertheless, we have made important progress by introducing brain vitrification to improve patient tissue structure preservation. Alcor shares some of the characteristics of startup companies. The organization is understaffed in some important areas and lacks as much capitalization as would be desired to support maximum growth. Limited resources prevent the organization from hiring as many highly qualified and experienced personnel as desired, and sometimes we have to postpone enhancements to equipment and procedures.

Because Alcor must react quickly to circumstances, it cannot always handle multiple tasks simultaneously. We feel a significant impact if, for example, several members experience legal death in quick succession. A heavy caseload generally means that administrative and even technical development work is postponed while member emergencies take precedence.

On the other hand, Alcor staff believe very strongly in the mission of the organization and are extremely dedicated. Alcor transport team members feel that they are saving lives, and behave accordingly. Most of all, everyone at Alcor is concerned with insuring the security of the patients who have been cryopreserved for the indefinite future. The organization's powerful sense of purpose is reinforced by the fact that all Alcor directors and most staff members have made arrangements to be cryopreserved themselves in the future.

Unlike most startups, Alcor is unlikely to fail for financial reasons. Due to the legally independent status of the Patient Care Trust from Alcor, patients can be maintained indefinitely through its portfolio of cash, investments, real estate, and capital equipment. Some wealthy Alcor members have contributed gifts and endowments to help the organization to advance, and in the event of a financial crisis, many of the people who hope ultimately to be cryopreserved would probably provide assistance. In this sense Alcor benefits from its small size, since it maintains an intimate relationship with many members which would be more problematic if our membership was ten times as large.

Inability to Verify Results

When a conventional surgical procedure is successful, usually the patient recovers and is cured. If the same surgical procedure is unsuccessful or a surgeon makes a serious error, the patient may die. These clear outcomes provide prompt feedback for the people involved. A physician may feel deeply satisfied if a life is saved, or may be deeply troubled (and may be sued for malpractice) if errors cause a death that should have been avoidable. Clear feedback of this type does not exist in cryonics, because the outcome of our procedures will not be known definitively until decades or even a century from now. We have good reason to expect future technologies capable of repairing cellular damage in cryonics patients, but we feel equally certain that if a patient experiences very severe brain damage prior to cryopreservation, repairs may be delayed, may be incomplete, or may be impossible. The dividing line between these positive and negative outcomes cannot be established clearly at this time.

Suppose a patient experiences 30 minutes of warm ischemia (lack of blood flow at near-normal body temperature) after legal death occurs. Will this create damage that is irreversible by any imaginable technology? Probably not. But what if the ischemic interval lasts for an hour — or two hours, or a day? We simply don't know where to draw the line between one patient who is potentially viable, and another who is not.

Of course we can refer to experimental work that has evaluated the injury which occurs when cells are deprived of essential nutrients. These studies provide some guidance regarding the likely damage that a patient may experience, but they still cannot tell us with certainty if future science will be able to reverse that damage.

Another problem afflicting cryonics cases is that many uncontrolled variables prevent us from developing objective criteria to compare one case with another. Consider these two examples:

Patient A has received blood thinners prescribed by a primary care physician, independent of Alcor, to treat a pre-existing condition. These drugs have the fortunate effect of helping to keep the circulatory system open after legal death is pronounced. Since the patient is in a hospital which allows prompt access by a transport team, postmortem cardiopulmonary support and cooling can begin immediately, and all medications are administered. Blood washout is performed successfully at a local mortuary, reducing body temperature to 3 degrees Celsius. So far, so good: This is a textbook case. However, because the patient is in a remote location and is insufficiently funded to pay for a chartered jet, transport to Alcor must be via scheduled airlines. The patient must wait overnight for the first flight out in the morning. A missed connection causes additional delay, and then all flights are grounded by exceptionally bad weather. When the patient reaches Alcor he is still packed in ice but has experienced a total transport time of 36 hours.

Patient B experiences cardiac arrest while alone at home, and remains undiscovered for several hours. Since she happens to be located very close to Alcor, our team members arrive quickly to administer anticoagulants and clot-busting drugs, supplemented with hand-held cardiopulmonary support. The patient is transported to our operating room and receives cooling and cryoprotective perfusion just two hours after legal death was pronounced.

In the first case, will the long transport time negate the advantage of a rapid initial response and replacement of blood with a chilled preservation solution? In the second case, will the initial hours of warm ischemia outweigh the advantage of the rapid transport to Alcor? We can make educated guesses, but we cannot answer these questions definitively. We have no certain way of knowing which case will work out better, because we have no evidence — no outcome. We do have some simple ways to determine if a patient's circulatory system allows good perfusion with cryoprotectant. Personnel in the operating room will notice if blood clots emerge when perfusion begins. The surface of the brain, visible through burr holes which are created to enable observation, should be pearly white in color. The brain should shrink slightly as water is replaced with cryoprotectant. When perfusion is complete the patient's features should have acquired a sallow color indicating that cryoprotectant has diffused through the tissues.

These simple observations are helpful, but still the people who work hard to minimize transport time and maximize the rate of cooling can never enjoy the satisfying payoff that a physician receives when one of his patients recovers and returns to a normal, active life. This lack of positive outcome can cause feelings of frustration and futility, sometimes leading to disillusionment and burnout.

Conversely, if a case goes badly, team members will be protected from negative feedback. A team leader can never say to one of the personnel, "Because of your error, the patient has no chance of recovery."

The lack of a clear outcome also prevents us from refuting people who claim that future science will be able to undo almost any degree of damage. The danger of this extreme positive thinking is that it can lead to laziness. Why bother to make heroic efforts to minimize injury, if nanotechnology will fix everything?

Alcor's stated policy firmly rejects this attitude. Team members are very highly motivated to minimize injury because we believe that our members should not bet their lives on unknown capabilities of future science. Alcor generally hosts a debriefing after each case, encouraging all participants to share complaints, frustrations, and suggestions for improvement. Ideally, each case should be a learning experience, and participants should welcome criticism as an opportunity to identify weaknesses and overcome them in the future.

Still the lack of a clear outcome remains one of the biggest weaknesses in cryonics, since it encourages complacency and prevents accountability. The antidote to this problem is a better set of objective criteria to evaluate cases, and Alcor is working in consultation with brain ischemia experts to develop such criteria.

Volunteer Help

During the 1960s the first cryonics organizations were run entirely by volunteers. The field was not sufficiently reputable to attract qualified medical staff, and no one could have paid for professional help anyway.

Today cryonics is making a transition to professionalism, but financial limitations are prolonging the process. Some paramedics are associated with Alcor, and we hope for more in the future. We have an MD medical director, access to three contract surgeons, access to a hospice nurse, and assistance from an ischemia research laboratory in California where staff has extensive experience in relevant procedures such as vascular cannulation and perfusion. Alcor also communicates with a cryobiology laboratory that has made the most important advances in organ preservation during the past decade. Still, most transport team members who work remotely from the facility are volunteers who receive a week or two of training and modest payment for their work.

In the future, as Alcor becomes more financially secure and is able to offer higher salaries, the organization will attract more medical professionals. At this time, the transition is incomplete.

Limited Support from Mainstream Science

In the 1960s scientists in mainstream laboratories investigated techniques to cryopreserve whole organs. By the end of the 1970s most of this work had ended, and the field of cryobiology separated itself very emphatically from cryonics. The Society for Cryobiology has discouraged scientists from doing work that could advance cryonics, and has adopted a bylaw that threatens to expel any member who practices or promotes cryonics. Consequently the few scientists who are willing to do cryonics-related research live in fear of being excluded from the scientific specialty that is most relevant to their work.

The rift between cryonics and cryobiology may have been caused initially by fears among mainstream scientists that cryonics had a "tabloid journalism" flavor incompatible with science. In addition many scientists have been dissatisfied with the idea of applying procedures without a complete and full understanding of their outcome. Generally, in medicine, first a technique is studied, validated, and perfected, and then it is applied clinically. Cryonics has, of necessity, done an end-run around this formal approach by rushing to apply a technique based on theoretical arguments rather than validated clinical effectiveness. During the past decade our knowledge and procedures have advanced far beyond the crude freezing methods imagined by most cryobiologists, and experts in have voiced strong support. As more papers are published describing technical advances, we expect that cryobiologists and other scientists will revise their negative assessment of cryonics. In the future we believe that the arbitrary barrier between cryonics and cryobiology will gradually dissolve, and cryonics research will be recognized as a legitimate specialty of the field. However, for the time being the dim view taken of cryonics by most cryobiologists remains problematic, impairing Alcor's ability to achieve respectable status among other relevant groups such as prospective members, regulatory officials, and legislators.

Limited Legal and Government Support

Cryonics is not explicitly recognized in the laws of any state in the United States (see The Legal Status of Cryonics Patients). This does not mean that cryonics is illegal or unregulated. In fact, Alcor must comply with state laws controlling the transport and disposition of human remains, and we make arrangements with licensed morticians to insure than these requirements are met. Alcor also complies with federal regulations established by agencies such as OSHA and EPA.

Still, the lack of specific enabling legislation for cryonics can cause problems. In the late 1980s the California Department of Health Services (DHS) asserted that because there was no statutory procedure for becoming a cryonics organization, human remains could not be conveyed to a cryonics organization via the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA), and therefore cryonics was illegal. Fortunately, the courts were unimpressed by this argument. In 1992 the legality of cryonics, and the legality of using the UAGA for cryonics, were upheld at the appellate level.

In 1990 the Canadian province of British Columbia enacted a law that specifically banned the sale of cryonics services in that province. In 2002 the Solicitor General (Canadian equivalent of a state Attorney General) issued a written clarification stating that the law only prohibited funeral homes from selling cryonics arrangements. Cryonics could still be performed in the province, even with the paid assistance of funeral homes, provided they were not involved in the direct sale of cryonics. This position is affirmed by the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Authority of British Columbia. Despite these assurances, anxiety about the law remains.

In 2004 a bill was passed by the Arizona House of Representatives to place cryonics and cryonics procedures under the regulation of the state funeral board. In its original form this law would have prevented our use of the UAGA. The bill was ultimately withdrawn, but may be revived at a later date. Very hostile comments were made about cryonics during the floor debate of this bill. We cannot guarantee that any future legislation will be friendly to cryonics or will permit cryonics to continue in Arizona.

Despite these uncertainties, the United States enjoys a strong cultural tradition to honor the wishes of terminal patients. We believe that the freedom to choose cryonics is constitutionally protected, and so far courts have agreed. We are hopeful that we will be able to continue performing cryonics without technical compromise, under state supervision where necessary, for the indefinite future.

Limited Mainstream Medical Support

Cryonics is not an accepted or recognized "therapy" in the general medical community. To the average medical professional, cryonics is at best an unusual anatomical donation. At worst it can be viewed by some physicians as fraud upon their patient. Hospitals have sometimes deliberately delayed pronouncement of legal death, delayed release of patients to Alcor, or forbade the use of cryonics life support equipment or medications within their facilities. On one occasion in 1988 Alcor had to obtain a court order to compel a hospital to release a patient to Alcor promptly at legal death and permit our stabilization procedures on their premises.

Relations with hospitals and their staff are not always difficult. Usually when nurses and physicians learn that cryonics is a sincere practice that is overseen by other medical professionals, they will be willing to accommodate a patient's wishes, or at least will not interfere with them. Sometimes medical staff will even assist with cryonics procedures such as administering medications and performing chest compressions if Alcor personnel are not present when legal death occurs.

The lack of formal medical recognition or support for cryonics generally means that cryonics patients remote from Alcor must be moved to a mortuary for blood replacement before transport to Alcor. Ideally these preparatory procedures should be performed within hospitals, not mortuaries. Hospitals presently allow organ procurement personnel to harvest organs from deceased patients (a fairly elaborate procedure) within their walls. We are hopeful that similar privileges will be extended to cryonics more often as the process becomes better understood and accepted, but we cannot predict how quickly this change will occur.

High Incidence of Poor Cases

In more than 50 percent of cryonics cases legal death occurs before Alcor standby personnel can be deployed, and is often followed by hours of warm ischemia. This downtime may cause severe cellular damage.

The threat of autopsy, in which the brain is routinely dissected, is an even greater danger. Any person who suffers legal death under unexpected circumstances, especially involving accidents or foul play, is liable to be autopsied. Alcor strongly urges members living in California, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio to sign Religious Objection to Autopsy forms.

Sometimes cryonicists perish under circumstances resulting in complete destruction or disappearance of their remains. Cryonicists have been lost at sea, suffered misadventures abroad, or even disappeared without a trace. Two members of cryonics organizations were lost in the 2001 collapse of the World Trade Center towers. One was a policeman performing rescue operations.

Cryonics is not a panacea or a "cure" for death. The cryonics ideal of immediate cooling and cardiopulmonary support following cardiac arrest cannot be achieved in the majority of cases. We have good reasons to believe that molecular records of memory persist in the brain even after hours of clinical death, but only future physicians using medical technology which we do not yet possess will be able to determine, finally, whether such a person is really still "there."

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Dancing With Death

http://docisinblog.com/index.php/2005/02/26/dancing-with-death/

Dancing With Death

February 26th, 2005

The war rages on. It is a battle with ancient roots, deeply embedded in religion, culture, and the tensions between rich and poor. It is a war of contrasts: high technology and primitive cultural weapons; knowledge versus ignorance; speed and urgency against the methodical slowness of an enemy who knows time is on his side.

It is a war in which enormous strides have been made, with countless victories large and small.

The enemy is death. The avenger is medicine. And the war is going very poorly indeed.

In many ways, the gains of modern medicine against death and disease are truly impressive: longer life expectancies; progress and cures against heart disease, cancer, and diabetes; surgical and procedural marvels hard to imagine even 15 or 20 years ago. Yet, it is these very advances which seem to lie at the heart of a growing problem. We are so engaged in the battle, so empowered by our growing capabilities, that we have lost sight of the bigger picture. While pushing back the adversary of death, we are ever so steadily being destroyed by the very battle itself.

Several recent experiences have driven this dichotomy home for me. Last week, I was asked to evaluate a man who had been hospitalized for a over a week. A nursing home resident in his late 80′s, his overall health was fair to poor at best, and he suffered from severe dementia. He was unable to communicate in any way, and could recognize no one — not even his wife of many years, who remained in possession of her full facilities. He was admitted to the hospital with a severe urinary tract infection with a highly resistant bacteria, and septic shock. When he arrived at the ER, the full extent of his dementia was not apparent to the physicians there, and his wife insisted that all measures be engaged to save him. Aggressive medical care was therefore initiated — intensive care unit, one-on-one nursing care, hemodynamic monitoring, drugs to support blood pressure, intravenous nutrition, and costly antibiotics. After nearly two weeks of such intensive therapy, the patient largely recovered from his life-threatening infection — returning to his baseline of profound dementia. Yet the underlying risk factors which led to it — his age, a chronic bladder catheter and bacteria-harboring stones, diabetes, — remained in place, lying in wait for another, inevitable opportunity, in a matter of weeks or months. The cost of his hospitalization was easily in 6 figures.

In another situation, an elderly women presented to the hospital with signs of a serious, life- threatening infection in her abdomen. A healthy widower, she lived independently with her sister prior to her illness. Emergency surgery was performed, and an abscessed kidney removed. Her medical condition deteriorated after surgery, with coma due to stroke and failure of her remaining kidney brought on by the infection.

The patient‘s sister and living communicated the clear final wishes of the widower: a women of strong faith, she wished no extraordinary measures, such as ventilators or dialysis, to extend her life needlessly. She was comfortable with death, and not afraid. The staff prepared to allow her to die gracefully, comfortably, and in peace.

But such was not to be. There was no living will, and the sister did not have legal authority to make such decisions. But the widower‘s daughter, a nurse living out-of-state with little recent contact with her mother, arrived in town demanding that aggressive measures be taken to save her. A nephrologist (kidney specialist) was called in. A superb physician, compassionate and dedicated, he had been successfully sued in a similar case after recommending that dialysis be withheld in a patient with a grim prognosis. This was a mistake he would not make twice: the widower was transferred to another hospital, placed on dialysis, and died 3 weeks — and a quarter of a million dollars — later, in an ICU. She never woke up.

The issues which these two cases bring up are numerous, complex, and defy easy answers. They touch upon the subjective measure of quality-of-life and what it is worth; the finite limit of economic health care resources; the relative responsibilities of physicians, patients, and their families in end-of-life decisions; the pressures placed on the health care system and its practitioners by after-the-fact second-guessing in an aggressive tort environment; and a host of others greater or lesser in weight and substance, up to and including the meaning of life itself.

All the players bear responsibility in this passion play. Physicians excel at grasping what they can accomplish, but are woefully inadequate for the task of deciding whether such things should be done. In the urgency of acute care, delay to consider the ramifications of a decision to treat may cost an opportunity to save a patient for whom such treatment is desirable; better always to err on the side of salvage. Pressured by family, potential litigation, or instinct, the path of least resistance is to follow your training and use your skills. And physicians themselves are uncomfortable with death, though inundated in its ubiquity.

Family members naturally resist the agonal separation of their loved ones, often harboring unrealistic hopes and expectations of recovery in the face of inevitable death. A curious dance of denial often ensues between physician and family, as each, unwilling to face the unpleasantness of the inevitable, avoids the topic at all costs. The physician hides behind intellect, speaking of blood counts, medications, and ventilators, or at best tiptoeing around the core issue with sterile terms like ―prognosis.‖ Family members hesitate to ask questions whose answers they already know. Too rarely are the physician and family willing to place the subject squarely on the table, in all its ugliness and fearfulness. Decisions which need to be made are put off, unspoken and deferred. The clock ticks on, the meter is running, and only the outcome is not in doubt.

The tort system provides a ready outlet for the anguish and anger of death of a loved one. In such a period of intense emotional turmoil, the real or perceived indifference of physicians (often a mechanism of detachment by which doctors deal with the horrors of death and illness); the parade of unfamiliar medical faces as no-name consultants come and go during the final days; the compounding burden of crushing financial load from the extraordinary costs of intensive terminal medicine; the Monday-morning quarterbacking by the tort system of complex, often agonizingly difficult medical decisions in critically-ill patients: all present a toxic and intoxicating brew which impels the health care system forward to leave no avenue untravelled, no dollar unspent in prolonging life beyond its proper and respectful end.

This march of madness is not without resistors. Seizing on the high costs, the futility, and especially the lack of personal control fostered by impersonal, highly technical terminal care, the movement is maneuvering into the gap. Cloaked in slogans of personal autonomy and ―Death with Dignity‖, active euthanasia proponents seek to replace the sterile prolongation of a now-meaningless life with the warm embrace of Death herself. Terrified by an out-of-control dying process, an end of a life which embodies all meaning, they seek to control death as their final act of significance. But Death will not be controlled, and those who dance with Death are seduced by her siren. Euthanasia starts with compassionate intent, but ends with termination of the useless. Man does not have the wisdom to control death; The Ringbearer is corrupted by its power.

Our discomfort with death is our confusion about life. Man is the only species cognizant of his coming demise — who then, in the ultimate paradox, lives his entire life pretending it will not happen. Our Western culture, enriched with a wealth of distractions, allows us to pass our living years without preparing for the inevitable. When the time arrives, we use all the weapons at our disposal — wealth, technology, information, law — to resist the dragon. We drive it back for a time — at enormous cost, personal, financial, physical and emotional. Death always wins — always.

I am not of course yearning for a return to the past, a passive resignation to the inevitable anabasis of disease and death. The benefits of medicine and the forestalling of death are precious and powerful gifts, which have greatly benefited many. But like all such great powers, they are useful for good or ill. When the defeat of death becomes an end in itself, detached from the meaningfulness of life lived, it has great destructive energy.

We must learn how to die. And to learn how to die, we must learn how to live — how to seek the transcendent, the power of love, and sacrifice, and giving which makes life rich and enduring. The selfish, the superficial, the transient all gratify for a time, but when this is all we possess, we grasp desperately to their threadbare fabric when beauty and health give way to weakness, fear and death. All great religions understand this: the meaning of life transcends life. In the Judeo- Christian view, life is an opportunity to draw ourselves and others closer to the light and goodness of God, with the promise of an even greater life and deeper relationship after death. Yet even for the agnostic or secular among us, service to others — personal and social — has the potential to endure long after us. None of us will be remembered for our desperate clinging to life in its waning days, but rather for the lives we touched, the world we made better when we lived.

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

The Roots of Reincarnation http://www.comparativereligion.com/reincarnation.html

REINCARNATION Its meaning and consequences by Ernest Valea

The concept of reincarnation seems to offer one of the most attractive explanations of humanity‘s origin and destiny. It is accepted not only by adherents of Eastern religions or New Age spirituality, but also by many who don‘t share such esoteric interests and convictions. To know that you lived many lives before this one and that there are many more to come is a very attractive perspective from which to judge the meaning of life. On the one hand, reincarnation is a source of great comfort, especially for those who seek liberation on the exclusive basis of their inner resources. It gives assurance for continuing one‘s existence in further lives and thus having a renewed chance to attain liberation. On the other hand, reincarnation is a way of rejecting the monotheistic teaching of the final judgment by a holy God, with the possible result of being eternally condemned to suffer in hell. Another major reason for accepting reincarnation by so many people today is that it seems to explain the differences that exist among people. Some are healthy, others are tormented their whole life by physical handicaps. Some are rich, others at the brink of starvation. Some have success without being religious; others are constant losers, despite their religious dedication. Eastern religions explain these differences as a result of previous lives, good or bad, which bear their fruits in the present one through the action of karma. Therefore reincarnation seems to be a perfect way of punishing or rewarding one‘s deeds, without the need of accepting a personal God as Ultimate Reality.

Given the huge interest in this topic today, let us examine it under the following headings:

A) Reincarnation in world religions; B) Past-life recall as proof for reincarnation; C) Reincarnation and cosmic justice; D) Reincarnation and Christianity.

Part A: Reincarnation in world religions The reincarnation of an entity which is the core of human existence (atman or purusha) in a long cycle that implies many lives and bodies, is not so old a concept as it is claimed today. Neither is it a common element for most of the oldest known religions, nor does its origin belong to an immemorial past.

The classic form of the reincarnation doctrine was formulated in India, but certainly not earlier than the 9th century BC, when the Brahmana writings were composed. After the Upanishads clearly defined the concept between the 7th and the 5th century BC, it was adopted by the other important Eastern religions which originated in India, Buddhism and Jainism. Due to the spread of Buddhism in Asia, reincarnation was later adopted by Chinese Taoism, but not earlier than the 3rd century BC.

The ancient religions of the Mediterranean world developed quite different kinds of reincarnationist beliefs. For instance, Greek Platonism asserted the pre-existence of the soul in a celestial world and its fall into a human body due to sin. In order to be liberated from its bondage and return to a state of pure being, the soul needs to be purified through reincarnation. In stating such beliefs Plato was strongly influenced by the earlier philosophical schools of Orphism and Pythagoreanism. The first important Greek philosophical system that adopted a view on reincarnation similar to that of Hinduism was Neo-Platonism, in the 3rd century AD, under certain Eastern influences.

In the case of ancient Egypt, The Egyptian Book of the Dead describes the travel of the soul into the next world without making any allusions to its return to earth. As it is well known, the ancient Egyptians embalmed the dead in order that the body might be preserved and accompany the soul into that world. This suggests their belief in resurrection rather than in reincarnation. Likewise, in many cases of ancient tribal religions that are credited today with holding to reincarnation, they rather teach the pre-existence of the soul before birth or its independent survival after death. This has no connection with the classic idea of transmigration from one physical body to another according to the demands of an impersonal law such as karma.

Reincarnation in Hinduism

The origin of samsara must be credited to Hinduism and its classic writings. It cannot have appeared earlier than the 9th century BC because the Vedic hymns, the most ancient writings of Hinduism, do not mention it, thus proving that reincarnation wasn‘t stated yet at the time of their composition (13th to 10th century BC). Let us therefore analyze the development of the concept of immortality in the major Hindu writings, beginning with the Vedas and the Brahmanas.

Immortality in the Vedic hymns and the Brahmanas

At the time the Vedic hymns were written, the view on was that a human being continues to exist after death as a whole person. Between humans and gods there was an absolute distinction, as in all other polytheistic religions of the world. The concept of an impersonal fusion with the source of all existence, as later put forth by the Upanishads, was unconceivable. Here are some arguments for this thesis that result from the exegesis of the funeral ritual:

1. As was the case in other ancient religions (for instance those of Egypt and Mesopotamia), the deceased were buried with the food and clothing that were seen as necessary in the afterlife. More than that, the belief of ancient Aryans in the preservation of personal identity after death led them to incinerate the dead husband together with his (living) wife and bow so that they could accompany him in the afterlife. In some parts of India this ritual was performed until the British colonization.

2. Similar to the tradition of the ancient Chinese religion, the departed relatives formed a holy hierarchy in the realm of the dead. The last man deceased was commemorated individually for a year after his departure and then included in the mortuary offerings of the monthly shraddha ritual (Rig Veda 10,15,1-11). This ritual was necessary because the dead could influence negatively or positively the life of the living (Rig Veda 10,15,6).

3. According to Vedic anthropology, the components of human nature are the physical body, ashu and manas. Ashu represents the vital principle (different from personal attributes), and manas the sum of psycho-mental faculties (mind, feeling and will). The belief in the preservation of the three components after death is proved by the fact that the family addressed the departed relative in the burial ritual as a unitary person: "May nothing of your manas, nothing of the ashu, nothing of the limbs, nothing of your vital fluid, nothing of your body here by any means be lost" (Atharva Veda 18,2,24).

4. Yama, the god of death (mentioned also in old Buddhist and Taoist scriptures) is sovereign over the souls of the dead and also the one who receives the offerings of the family for the benefit of the departed. In the Rig Veda it is said about him: "Yama was the first to find us our abode, a place that can never be taken away, where our ancient fathers have departed; all who are born go there by that path, treading their own" (Rig Veda 10,14,2). Divine justice was provided by the gods Yama, Soma and Indra, not by an impersonal law such as karma. One of their attributes was to cast the wicked into an eternal dark prison out of which they could never escape (Rig Veda 7,104,3-17).

The premise of reaping the reward of one‘s life in a new earthly existence (instead of a heavenly afterlife) appeared in the Brahmana writings (9th century BC). They spoke of a limited heavenly immortality, depending on the deeds and the quality of the sacrifices performed during one's life. After reaping the reward for them, humans have to face a second death in the heavenly realm (punarmrityu) and thereafter return to an earthly existence. The proper antidote to this fate came to be considered esoteric knowledge, attainable only during one‘s earthly existence.

Reincarnation in the Upanishads

The Upanishads were the first writings to move the place of one‘s "second death" from the heavenly realm to this earthly world and to consider its proper solution to be the knowledge of the atman-Brahman identity. Ignorance of one‘s true self (atman or purusha) launches karma into action, the law of cause and effect in Eastern spirituality. Its first clear formulation can be found in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (4,4,5): "According as one acts, according as one behaves, so does he become. The doer of good becomes good. The doer of evil becomes evil. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action, bad by bad action." Reincarnation (samsara) is the practical way in which one reaps the fruits of one's deeds. The self is forced to enter a new material existence until all karmic debt is paid: "By means of thought, touch, sight and passions and by the abundance of food and drink there are birth and development of the (embodied) self. According to his deeds, the embodied self assumes successively various forms in various conditions" (Shvetashvatara Upanishad 5,11).

We can therefore witness a fundamental shift in the meaning of afterlife from the Vedic perspective. The Upanishads abandoned the goal of having communion with the gods (Agni, Indra, etc.), attained as a result of bringing good sacrifices, and came to consider man‘s final destiny to be the impersonal fusion atman-Brahman, attained exclusively by esoteric knowledge. In this new context, karma and reincarnation are key elements that will define all particular developments in Hinduism.

Reincarnation in the Epics and Puranas

In the Bhagavad Gita, which is a part of the Mahabharata, reincarnation is clearly stated as a natural process of life that has to be followed by any mortal. Krishna says:

Just as the self advances through childhood, youth and old age in its physical body, so it advances to another body after death. The wise person is not confused by this change called death (2,13). Just as the body casts off worn out clothes and puts on new ones, so the infinite, immortal self casts off worn out bodies and enters into new ones (2,22).

The Puranas develop this topic in greater detail, so that specific destinies are worked out according to each kind of "sin" one commits:

The murderer of a brahmin becomes consumptive, the killer of a cow becomes hump-backed and imbecile, the murderer of a virgin becomes leprous - all three born as outcastes. The slayer of a woman and the destroyer of embryos becomes a savage full of diseases; who commits illicit intercourse, a eunuch; who goes with his teacher’s wife, disease-skinned. The eater of flesh becomes very red; the drinker of intoxicants, one with discolored teeth.... Who steals food becomes a rat; who steals grain becomes a locust... perfumes, a muskrat; honey, a gadfly; flesh, a vulture; and , an ant.... Who commits unnatural vice becomes a village pig; who consorts with a Sudra woman becomes a bull; who is passionate becomes a lustful horse.... These and other signs and births are seen to be the karma of the embodied, made by themselves in this world. Thus the makers of bad karma, having experienced the tortures of hell, are reborn with the residues of their sins, in these stated forms (Garuda Purana 5).

Similar specific punishments are stated by The Laws of Manu (12, 54-69). As the karmic debt one recorded in the past is considerably large, a single life is not enough to consume it. Therefore, in order to attain liberation, many lives become a necessity. The external intervention of a god or a human guru is useless since it would compromise the role of karma.

Who or what reincarnates in Hinduism?

According to the Upanishads and Vedanta philosophy, the entity that reincarnates is the impersonal self (atman). Atman does not have a personal nature, and so the use of the reflexive pronoun "self" is not suitable. Atman can be defined only through negating any personal attributes. Although it constitutes the existential substrata of human existence, atman cannot be the carrier of one‘s "spiritual progress," because it cannot record any data produced in the illusory domain of psycho-mental existence. The spiritual progress one accumulates toward realizing the atman-Brahman identity is recorded by karma, or rather by a minimal amount of karmic debt. The whole physical and mental complex a human being consists of is reconstructed at (re)birth according to one‘s karma. At this level, the newly shaped person experiences the fruits of "his" or "her" actions from previous lives and has to do his best to stop the vicious cycle avidya-karma-samsara.

As a necessary aid in explaining the reincarnation mechanism, Vedanta adopted the concept of a subtle body (sukshma-sharira) which is attached to atman as long as its bondage lasts. This is the actual carrier of karmic debts. However, this "subtle body" cannot be a form of preserving one‘s personal attributes, i.e., of any element of one's present conscious psycho-mental life. The facts recorded by the subtle body are a sum of hidden tendencies or impressions (samskara) imprinted by karma as seeds that will generate future behavior and personal character. They will materialize unconsciously in the life of the individual, without giving one any hint at understanding his or her actual condition. There can be no form of transmitting conscious memory from one life to another, since it belongs to the world of illusion and dissolves at death.

In the Samkhya and Yoga darshanas, the entity that reincarnates is purusha, an equivalent of atman. Given the absolute duality between purusha and prakriti (substance), nothing that belongs to the psycho-mental life can pass from one life to another because it belongs to prakriti, which has a mere illusory relation with purusha. However, the Yoga Sutra (2,12) defines a similar mechanism of transmitting the effects of karma from one life to another, as was the case in Vedanta. The reservoir of karmas is called karmashaya. It accompanies purusha from one life to another, representing the sum of impressions (samskara) that could not manifest themselves during the limits of a certain life. In no way can it be a kind of conscious memory, a sum of information that the person could consciously use or a nucleus of personhood, because karmashaya has nothing in common with psycho-mental abilities. This deposit of karma merely serves as a mechanism for adjusting the effects of karma in one‘s life. It dictates in an impersonal and mechanical manner the new birth (jati), the length of life (ayu) and the experiences that must accompany it (bhoga).

Reincarnation in Buddhism

Buddhism denies the existence of a permanent self that reincarnates from one life to the next. The illusion of an existing self is generated by a mere heap of five aggregates (skandha), which suffer from constant becoming and have a functional cause-effect relation: 1) the body, also called the material form (rupa), 2) feeling (vedana) - the sensations that arise from the body‘s sense organs, 3) cognition (sanna) - the process of classifying and labeling experiences, 4) mental constructions (sankhara) - the states which initiate action, and 5) consciousness (vijnana) - the sense of awareness of a sensory or mental object. The five elements are impermanent (anitya), undergo constant transformation and have no abiding principle or self. Humans usually think that they have a self because of consciousness. But being itself in a constant process of becoming and change, consciousness cannot be identified with a self that is supposed to be permanent. Beyond the five aggregates nothing else can be found in the human nature.

However, something has to reincarnate, following the dictates of karma. When asked about the differences between people in the matters of life span, illnesses, wealth, etc., the Buddha taught:

Men have, O young man, deeds as their very own, they are inheritors of deeds, deeds are their matrix, deeds are their kith and kin, and deeds are their support. It is deeds that classify men into high or low status (Majjhima Nikaya 135,4).

If there is no real self, who inherits the deeds and reincarnates? The Buddha answered that only karma is passing from one life to another, using the illustration of the light of a candle, which is derived from another candle without having a substance of its own. In the same manner there is rebirth without the transfer of a self from one body to another. The only link from one life to the next is of a causal nature. In the Garland Sutra (10) we read:

According to what deeds are done Do their resulting consequences come to be; Yet the doer has no existence: This is the Buddha’s teaching.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead describes in detail the alleged experiences one has in the intermediary state between two incarnations, suggesting that the deceased keeps some personal attributes. Although it is not clear what actually survives after death in this case, it mentions a mental body that cannot be injured by the visions experienced by the deceased:

When it happens that such a vision arises, do not be afraid! Do not feel terror! You have a mental body made of instincts; even if it is killed or dismembered, it cannot die! Since in fact you are a natural form of voidness, anger at being injured is unnecessary! The Yama Lords of Death are but arisen from the natural energy of your own awareness and really lack all substantiality. Voidness cannot injure voidness! (Tibetan Book of the Dead, 12)

Whatever the condition of the deceased after death might be, any hypothetical personal nucleus vanishes just before birth, so there can be no psycho-mental element transmitted from one life to another. The newborn person doesn‘t remember anything from previous lives or trips into the realm of the intermediary state (bardo).

Another important element is the extreme rarity of being reincarnated as a human person. The Buddha taught in the Chiggala Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 35,63):

Monks, suppose that this great earth were totally covered with water, and a man were to toss a yoke with a single hole there. A wind from the east would push it west, a wind from the west would push it east. A wind from the north would push it south, a wind from the south would push it north. And suppose a blind sea-turtle were there. It would come to the surface once every one hundred years. Now what do you think: would that blind sea-turtle, coming to the surface once every one hundred years, stick his neck into the yoke with a single hole? It would be a sheer coincidence, lord, that the blind sea-turtle, coming to the surface once every one hundred years, would stick his neck into the yoke with a single hole. It's likewise a sheer coincidence that one obtains the human state. It's likewise a sheer coincidence that a Tathagata, worthy and rightly self-awakened, arises in the world.

If one tried to calculate the probability of obtaining the human state according to this text, and consider the surface of "this great earth" as being just the surface of India, the odds would be once in a timespan of 5 x 1016 years (5 followed by 16 zeros). This is 5 million times the age of the universe.

Reincarnation in Taoism

Reincarnation is a teaching hard to find in the aphorisms of the Tao-te Ching (6th century BC), so it must have appeared later in Taoism. Although it is not specified what reincarnates, something has to pass from one life to another. An important scripture of Taoism, the Chuang Tzu (4th century BC), states:

Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end. There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without a starting point. Existence without limitation is space. Continuity without a starting point is time. There is birth, there is death, there is issuing forth, there is entering in. That through which one passes in and out without seeing its form, that is the Portal of God (Chuang Tzu 23).

Reincarnation in modern thinking

Once the Eastern concept of reincarnation arrived in Europe, its meaning changed. During the Middle Ages it was a doctrine reserved for the initiates of some occult traditions such as Hermetism and Catharism, who had taken it over from Neo-Platonism. A wider acceptance of reincarnation was promoted in the Western world beginning only in the 19th century, by Theosophy, and later also by Anthroposophy. Then came the Eastern gurus, the New Age movement, and as a result we witness a wide acceptance of reincarnation in our society today. However, its modern version is substantially different from what Eastern religions affirmed. Far from being a torment out of which man has to escape by any price through abolishing personhood, New Age thinking sees reincarnation as an eternal progression of the soul toward higher levels of spiritual knowledge. Thus what reincarnates is not the impersonal atman, but an entity which is currently called the soul, an entity which preserves the attributes of personhood from one life to the next. This compromise obviously emerged from the desire to adapt the reincarnation doctrine to Western thought. The concept of an impersonal atman reincarnating was too abstract to be easily accepted, so Westerners needed a milder version of this doctrine. Although this tendency may offer evidence for the soul‘s yearning for a personal destiny, it doesn‘t bear too much resemblance to classical Eastern spirituality, which rejects it as a perverted view.

The above information on the meaning of reincarnation in the Eastern religions and the nature of the entity which is reincarnating will be helpful in examining the modern proofs for it which are so popular today. While analyzing them, we need to remember that according to the Eastern concept of reincarnation there cannot be any personal element that could travel from one life to the next.

Part B: Past-life recall as modern proof for reincarnation Many people who accept reincarnation in the West today claim that it can be scientifically proven. They usually ground their belief on past-life recall experiences, which represent the ability of certain persons to recall facts of alleged previous lives. This phenomenon occurs under two distinct forms. One is observed under hypnosis, while regressing certain persons beyond the date of birth. The other is produced by some children who spontaneously remember a previous life identity, amazing their neighbors with specific details that match those of the life of a deceased person. Could these experiences really be proofs for reincarnation?

Hypnotic regression as proof for reincarnation

Hypnosis can be defined as a method of inducing an altered state of consciousness, which causes a person to become very receptive to the hypnotist‘s suggestions. This method has been used in psychoanalysis for treating psychic diseases by evoking the painful events which caused them in the past (especially during childhood) and then by transmitting suggestions meant to heal them. Although there are some encouraging results in using it as a psychiatric therapy, it is a fact that hypnosis can mix fantasy with real memories or that it can even create entirely fictitious episodes. In deep states of hypnosis, some subjects have had out-of-body experiences and claimed to have traveled in mysterious spiritual realms. Others have had a mystical experience of oneness with the universe.

Hypnotic regression started to be used as a past-life recall method in 1952, when Ruth Simmons from Colorado, USA, was regressed "back in time" beyond the date of her birth. Suddenly she started to talk using a specific Irish accent, claiming that her name was Bridey Murphy and that she lived in Ireland in the year 1890. The few details she produced seemed to describe accurately the Irish society of the late 19th century. It was therefore believed that a scientific proof for reincarnation had been found. As a result, a growing number of hypnotists started to use the method in order to get information about alleged previous lives of their patients. Recently the method has gained a scientific aura, being used as therapy for releasing patients' fears and explaining certain personality tendencies as results of past-life experiences. By simply being asked to go back in time beyond the date of their birth and describe their impressions, some patients tell impressive stories in which some characteristics match those of past and distant cultures of human history. They usually adopt a totally different personality, with a changed voice, behavior and facial expression. All the information they produce is the result of a dialog between the hypnotist and his patient, in which the questions have to be easy and clear in order to get a proper answer. Since the information they produce couldn‘t have been normally learned during their lifespan, it is supposed that they really recall past lives. However, this conclusion raises some difficulties, as there are other possibilities to explain how the "novelties" are produced, without accepting the past-life recall hypothesis.

One possible explanation is cryptoamnesia. As hypnosis can be used in refreshing forgotten memories of one‘s past, facts that are no longer available to the conscious memory, in the same way can it be used for evoking information heard from other people, read in books, or seen in movies, in which the subject of hypnosis is involving himself as participant. His subconscious memory has kept this information stored and hypnosis determines its use in a completely fictitious scenario. Ian Stevenson, one of the important researchers of this phenomenon, mentions such a case:

There is another English case going back to the turn of the century that was studied by a Cambridge don, in which a young woman seemed to be describing the life of one Blanche Poynings, a person around the court of Richard II in the fourteenth century. She gave a lot of detail about the people concerned, including proper names and the sort of life she lived. The investigators kept on probing, and a little later they began asking her about sources of information. In her trancelike state the girl herself came out with a reference to a book, Countess Maud, published in the latter part of the nineteenth century, a classic Victorian novel all about a countess at the court of Richard II. The subject had modified it a little bit, but basically it was all in the novel, and it turned out that her aunt had a copy of the book. She didn't remember reading it, but she remembered turning the pages (Omni Magazine 10(4):76 (1988)).

See also an article (http://www.livescience.com/7272-belief-reincarnation-tied-memory- errors.html) that suggests that past-life recall might be tied to memory errors.

An intriguing aspect of the testimonies recorded under hypnosis is the fact that they depend heavily on the already existing data in current historic knowledge. In many cases, although the information corresponds to generally acknowledged historical data, further archaeological discoveries contradict them, casting serious doubts on the veracity of "past lives." Ian Wilson, another important researcher of this phenomenon, describes several such cases in his book Reincarnation (p. 88-90). One of them refers to a person who lived during the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses III. Instead of indicating the name No for the capital city, he used the name Thebes, given by the Greeks much later. Moreover, a true ancient Egyptian could not have known the pharaoh‘s name by a number, as the numbering of pharaohs was adopted by Victorian Egyptologists during the 19th century. Another fault was mentioning the use of the sestertius coin, which was introduced by the Romans a thousand years later. Another case reported Vikings making a landfall in North America in the 11th century. According to the description, they were wearing helmets with horns. In recent years, however, scholars have proved that this idea is false, as Vikings in fact wore conic, close-fitting caps. Horned helmets were worn only in religious ceremonies by individuals of high rank. This and other cases prove that past-life recall experiences depend heavily on the historical knowledge existing at the time the hypnotic regression was performed, and are often contradicted by later discoveries.

How could it be possible that the present personality could influence that of its "previous lives," some predating it by hundreds or thousands of years? How could people who lived four thousand years ago use the BC (before Christ) year numeration system? How can it be that some hypnotists can even "recall" future lives of their patients (which are obviously influenced by current science fiction literature)? These facts indicate that the alleged previous lives are culturally and religiously conditioned, casting serious doubts on their veracity. This is why writers who are favorable to rebirth stories usually avoid mentioning very specific data.

Another possible explanation that could overrule the veracity of past-life recall is the influence of the hypnotist, whose suggestion ability is a sine qua non for the effectiveness of hypnosis. The other necessary factor is the receptivity of the patient to the hypnotist‘s suggestions. Although the two conditions determine the success of hypnosis when used as psychiatric treatment, when expecting to get information from alleged past lives, the suggestion ability of the hypnotist becomes an important hindrance in obtaining true information, since it can contaminate the patient‘s story. Ian Stevenson states:

In my experience, nearly all so-called previous personalities evoked through hypnotism are entirely imaginary and a result of the patient's eagerness to obey the hypnotist's suggestion. It is no secret that we are all highly suggestible under hypnosis. This kind of investigation can actually be dangerous. Some people have been terribly frightened by their supposed memories, and in other cases the previous personality evoked has refused to go away for a long time (Omni Magazine 10(4):76 (1988)).

Under hypnosis, the subject is ready to accept all kinds of distortions, having his reality shaped according to the hypnotist's beliefs. Since in most cases the hypnotists expect confirmation of the reincarnation theory, at least subconsciously, they can, together with verbal suggestions inducing relaxation and different phases of regression, transmit their own convictions concerning past lives and custom scenarios of this kind. In many cases it is easy to discern the religious convictions of the hypnotists in the stories told by their patients.

The risk of inventing completely fictitious scenarios through hypnosis cannot be ignored. It actually has happened many times. Many cases have been reported of women who came for hypnotic treatment for their common problems, and over the course of therapy "discovered" incidents of sexual abuse by parents during childhood which proved to be false. Sigmund Freud abandoned hypnosis as a treatment method when he discovered so many cases of false memories. More than that, it was observed that the memories "discovered" under hypnosis can replace true memories after the hypnotic session is over and so completely distort one's personal life. This is called the false memory syndrome. Courts of law know these dangers and most do not accept testimonies produced under hypnosis or from witnesses that have previously been hypnotized. The same way as alleged sexual abuses in childhood discovered through hypnosis have been proved false, past lives (as well as "extraterrestrial abduction" stories) can also be fake scenarios.

Another compromising factor in getting true "past-life stories" is the preparation the patient undergoes before hypnosis. One is informed about its purpose, which induces in him or her a high expectancy state. The conscious desire to know the content of "previous lives" undoubtedly influences the response under hypnosis.

A third possible explanation of testimonies from alleged previous lives is given by psychiatry. The phenomenon of multiple personality is known as dissociative personality disorder. It causes somebody to exchange in a short period of time up to twenty distinct personalities, as if playing successive roles. These contradicting personalities have different mentalities, behaviors, voices and even sexes than the real person. Usually it happens that one of them knows and observes the acts and thoughts of the others, and is even able to speak in the name of all.

From a psychiatrist's point of view, past-life testimonies may be the result of inducing dissociative personality disorder through hypnosis. This has actually happened in several cases of schizophrenia. Used to uncover covert personalities and reintegrate them with the main personality, many cases of hypnosis have produced new personalities that didn't manifest previously in one's normal state. They first appeared during hypnotic treatment, and then remained active after the session was over. So it really is possible to create new personalities through hypnosis and call them instances of "past-life recall".

However, there still remains an enigma to which the above naturalist-scientific interpretation doesn‘t have a satisfactory answer: How are the "past-life" personalities distributed in their roles, or who decides which one will be next in the show? It cannot be a random process. Ian Wilson writes in his book: "Somewhere, somehow, the show must have a ‗director‘. It is like watching a puppet show; we can see the puppets, see some of the strings by which they are made to work, but cannot see the puppet master." Who could be this hidden director of the multiple personality show? The naturalistic explanation says that it must be in the person‘s mind, where consciousness is divided into separate entities, one of them taking the role of the director. The data supporting it is that under hypnosis a certain part of the mind stays conscious, continuing to receive data from the real world. But the unsolved problem concerns the motivation that such an entity (that remains conscious in the person‘s mind) could have to act like that. Why would it fool us about past lives?

Thus we come to another possible explanation of past-life recall. In it is called channeling - the phenomenon of transmitting information generated by spiritual entities which are external to our world. They act through certain persons called mediums while they are in altered states of consciousness. The annihilation of normal consciousness through hypnosis creates optimal conditions for contacting such external entities, who can present themselves as personalities of one‘s past lives. The only reason for rejecting this hypothesis is the presumption that the entity which is communicating through the medium has no reason to lie when it claims to be a former personality and not an external spirit. However, channeling hasn't proved to be a reliable source of information about anything.

In conclusion, the only criterion left for establishing the veracity of "past-life recall" is our faith in the hypnotist and his reincarnationist interpretation.

Spontaneous past-life recall by children as proof for reincarnation

Another category of experiences credited as proofs for reincarnation are cases of children, almost all under the age of 10, who spontaneously recall events of alleged past lives and insist that they are someone else who lived in the past. The details they mention concerning places, persons and happenings of the past, about which they could not normally know anything, prove to be true when investigations are performed in the indicated area. The extensive research of Dr. Ian Stevenson and his books on this topic are well known. Although the cases of spontaneous past- life recall by children are much fewer than testimonies produced under hypnosis, they seem to be more convincing. The cases of the Indian girls Swarnlata and Shanti Devi are two of the most famous. At the ages of 3 (Swarnlata) and 4 (Shanti Devi) they both started to claim that they had lived previous lives as wives and mothers of two children, in a distant village. The most astounding element is that they mentioned specific facts about their alleged previous lives that have been verified by investigators. Imagine the scene: A married woman with several children dies and after four years a little girl knocks at the door and introduces herself as the deceased mother and wife. Emotional disturbances often develop in such cases. Stevenson comments:

"These children become embroiled in divided loyalties. In many cases children have rejected their parents, saying they are not their real parents and have often started down the road toward their so-called real homes. In other cases, they insist on being reunited with their former husbands, wives, or children. One Indian boy was passionately attached to the woman he said had been his former mistress and was trying to get her back, causing himself and her real distress" (Omni Magazine 10(4):76 (1988)).

However, such stories can be explained in an alternative way, not necessarily as proof for reincarnation. There is the possibility that these children are contacting external spirits through channeling. In this case the medium would be the child, without necessarily being conscious of it. But since children lack the skills of mediums, a particular kind of channeling is required in their case. It is called possession of these children by external spiritual entities. In such cases the human person is forced to transmit the messages of a spirit without having any conscious contribution to the whole process. Spiritual possession as explanation for past-life recall by children is suggested by the fact that almost all such cases are produced by children who manifest them between the ages of two and five, when their spiritual discernment is almost nonexistent. As the children grow up, the entities lose their power of influence upon them, which could explain why the past-life memories are lost after the age of 10.

Cases that confirm the possession hypothesis are instances in which the possessing spirit enters the child‘s body a long time after he was born, and then produces a past-life recall experience which interferes with the already present personality of the child. There are enough such cases described in literature. Here is a brief description of two mentioned by Ian Stevenson, in his book Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation:

First, there is the case of an Indian boy named Jasbir, aged three and a half, who was very ill and lapsed into a coma which his family temporarily mistook for death. He revived a few hours later, and after several weeks displayed a completely transformed behavior, claiming to be a Brahmin named Sobha Ram, who died in an accident while he (Jasbir) was sick. Since Sobha Ram died when Jasbir was already three and a half years old, his "past-life recall" obviously cannot be a proof of reincarnation. More than that, the "reincarnation" of Ram‘s soul must have taken place even before he had physically died, according to the timing of his accident and the illness of Jasbir. For the previous 3.5 years both persons lived physically in nearby villages. While speaking through Jasbir, the "reincarnated Mr. Ram" said that he was advised by a saint to take cover in Jasbir‘s body. As a result, at a certain moment there were present two personalities in Jasbir‘s body: the one of the child and the one of Mr. Ram. This suggests that it cannot be a case of reincarnation, but rather a possession of Jasbir‘s body by the so-called spirit of Mr. Ram.

Second, there is the case of Lurancy Vennum, a one-year-old girl who began to display the personality of Mary Roff when she (Mary Roff) died. This situation lasted several months, while Mary Roff claimed to have occupied the vacated body of the little girl. After this period Mary Roff departed and Lurancy Vennum resumed control. The overlapping of personalities and messages displayed during that period are strong indications of possession, excluding any possibility of reincarnation. Ian Stevenson admits in his book that "other cases of the present group of 20 cases may be instances of similar ‗possessing influences‘ in which the previous personality just happened to die well before the birth of the present personality‘s body" (p. 381).

Third, there is the case of a Buddhist monk, Chaokhun Rajsuthajarn, who was born a day before the death of Nai Leng, the personality he claimed to have been in his previous life. Stevenson commented in an interview: "I studied this case with much care but couldn't find an explanation for the discrepancy" (Omni Magazine 10(4):76 (1988)).

Spirit influence could also explain another "proof" for reincarnation that is becoming increasingly popular: the correspondence between wounds that caused a person to die or other kinds of scars and birthmarks on children who are seen as being the reincarnation of that particular person. Not that a spirit influence could induce such physical abnormalities, but it could "suggest" a special origin to those who are born naturally with birthmarks and birth defects, especially in cultures where most physical and behavioral peculiarities are attributed to happenings in past lives (Southern Asia, the Druze in Lebanon, or Indians in North America). In the Western world birthmarks often are taken as a starting point in one's quest for finding his or her 'true' identity. As there is an increasing interest in reincarnation, the interpretation of birthmarks is often channeled towards acceptance of previous lives and as a personal proof of it.

A further indication for interpreting spontaneous past-life recall experiences by children is the fact that they are culturally dependent. Most cases are reported in India and other South Asian countries, where reincarnation is fully accepted. The Asian cases are always richer in details than the Western ones. Western children who have such experiences give only poor details that could permit verification. When checking some verifiable details is possible, they usually turn out to be past experiences of other members of the family. Cultural conditioning certainly plays an important role in these phenomena.

In the conclusion of his research, Ian Stevenson admits in his book Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation that the cases he studied, as the very title indicates, are only suggesting reincarnation and cannot be considered proofs for it. Stevenson admits: "All the cases I've investigated so far have shortcomings. Even taken together, they do not offer anything like proof" (Omni Magazine 10(4):76 (1988)).

Metaphysical reasons for rejecting past-life recall experiences as proofs for reincarnation

Even if hypnotic regression and spontaneous recall of past lives by children were free of any contradiction, there still would be another major argument against their veracity: According to the classic doctrine of reincarnation, the entity which reincarnates is the impersonal self (atman or purusha), accompanied by the subtle body. Any psycho-mental element that defines personhood does not belong to the self or to the subtle body, and therefore ceases to exist at physical death. Memory is such an element. It acts only inside the limits of a physical life and vanishes at death. If things were different, if memory could pass to further lives through reincarnation, it could establish the veracity of reincarnation in less problematic ways.

The vehicle that carries the psychic impressions from one life to another is said to be the subtle body (sukshma sharira in Vedanta) or the karmic deposit (karmashaya in Samkhya-Yoga). Although some say that this vehicle acts as a kind of unconscious memory of previous lives, it cannot represent a third ontological category (different from both the self and the psycho-mental realm), which could play the role of a carrier of personal memory from one life to another. As mentioned in the previous article, the subtle body stores hidden tendencies or impressions (samskara) imprinted by karma that act as seeds which generate future behavior and personal character. This kind of deposit merely serves as a mechanism for adjusting the effects of karma in one‘s life. According to Samkhya and Yoga it dictates in an impersonal and mechanical manner the new birth, the length of life and the experiences that must accompany it. Karma represents an impersonal and mechanical law which functions with mathematical precision, so it cannot justify one‘s state at a certain moment. One cannot know his or her own karma, but only speculate what it could be, based on actual situations in life. Karma is simply pushing the self into a foreordained scenario, which one has to accept and adjust to.

Even though some special meditative techniques are mentioned which are said to provide limited information about past lives (for instance Yoga-Sutra 3.18 mentions the possibility of knowing the previous birth through practicing samyama), they are available only to the advanced Yogi. But even so, the veracity of the information acquired in altered states of consciousness is doubtful. (http://www.comparativereligion.com/Yoga.html#experiences) for more information.)

One‘s karmic debts could at best be imagined intuitively. For instance, it is supposed that a man who was murdered took his just reward for a he committed himself in a previous life. Past-life recall experiences do not provide any information about the "sins" one committed in a previous life, but only lead one to draw conclusions from when he or she allegedly was a victim or a simple observer of life. These kinds of experiences do not attempt to prove the justice of karma, but only that past lives are real. In other words, the "recalled" scenarios do not indicate which facts of the previous life produced the present incarnation, but only try to prove that we lived previous lives, that reincarnation is true and has to be acknowledged.

Because of the metaphysical difficulties mentioned above, most Eastern masters do not consider experiences of past-life recall as valid proofs for reincarnation. At the time Stevenson was carrying out his studies among Indian children who remembered previous lives, he met an Indian swami of the Ramakrishna order. He commented on these cases: "Yes [reincarnation] is true, but it does not make any difference, because we in India have all believed in reincarnation and have accepted it as a fact, and yet it has made no difference. We have as many rogues and villains in India as you have in the West" (Venture Inward Magazine, September/October, 1995). These stories are appreciated mostly by Westerners, probably as a result of misunderstanding the original doctrine of reincarnation and also because of their pseudo-scientific outlook. A more important argument for reincarnation in the East has another nature and will be analyzed next.

Part C: Reincarnation and cosmic justice A more important argument for reincarnation is of a moral nature. It says that karma and reincarnation provide the perfect way to realize justice in our world, by rewarding all one‘s deeds and thoughts in further lives. They will manifest as good or bad happenings and circumstances, with mathematical exactitude, so that everything one does will be justly punished or rewarded, at both a quantitative and a qualitative level. This would explain all inequalities we see among people, comfort those who cannot understand their present difficult condition and also give hope for a further better life. According to karma, there is no forgiveness for the "sins" of the past, but only accumulation of karmic debt, followed by paying the consequences in further lives. Swami Shivananda states:

If the virtuous man who has not done any evil act in this birth suffers, this is due to some wrong act that he may have committed in his previous birth. He will have his compensation in his next birth. If the wicked man who daily does many evil actions apparently enjoys in this birth, this is due to some good Karma he must have done in his previous birth. He will have compensation in his next birth. He will suffer in the next birth. The law of compensation is inexorable and relentless. (Swami Shivananda, Practice of Karma Yoga, Divine Life Society, 1985, p. 102)

Although it may seem that the mechanism of karma and reincarnation is the proper way to realize social justice, there are two main objections which contradict it:

1) As long as suffering (or the reward for good deeds) can be experienced only at a personal level (physical and psychical), and a human being ceases to exist as a person at physical death, it implies that another person will actually bear the consequences dictated by the karma of the deceased person. The impersonal self (atman or purusha) which reincarnates has nothing to do with suffering; it is a simple observer of the ongoing psycho-mental life. If, at the moment of death, there is no more karmic debt left, the separation of the self from the illusory involvement with the physical and psycho-mental world is permanent, and this represents liberation. If not, the self is forced to enter a new illusory association with personhood until all fruits of past lives are consumed. In order to realize this, a new person is born each time the self enters a new human body. The new person will bear the karma produced by the previous persons inhabited by the same self. This mechanism, of one person accumulating karma and another bearing the consequences, is rather unfair, fundamentally contradicting the idea of realizing perfect justice. Therefore natural disasters, plagues and accidents that affect innocent people cannot be explained away as being generated by karma.

For this reason, the saying "a man reaps what he sows" is falsely used as a way of expressing one‘s reincarnationist ideas. (Actually this saying is taken from the New Testament, Galatians 6,7, but there it has a different meaning (http://www.comparativereligion.com/reincarnation3.html#Galactians).) According to the reincarnation mechanism one person sows and another one reaps, since no personal characteristics can be preserved from one incarnation of the impersonal self to the next. In Buddhism, where the very idea of a self who transmigrates is rejected, the idea of sowing and reaping is even more absurd. See for instance the following text:

If it be that good men and good women, who receive and retain this discourse, are downtrodden, their evil destiny is the inevitable retributive result of sins committed in their past mortal lives. By virtue of their present misfortunes the reacting effects of their past will be thereby worked out, and they will be in a position to attain the Consummation of Incomparable Enlightenment (Diamond Sutra 16, emphasis mine).

But who will actually work out the effects of one's past? A new distribution of the five aggregates? Or who will actually attain enlightenment? How could this process render perfect justice? Perfect justice for whom? For an illusory personhood that disappears at physical death?

2) A second objection concerns the actual possibility of attaining liberation from karma and reincarnation. Normally it is supposed that the person who is living out the consequences of karma should do it in a spirit of resignation and submission. But this ideal is far from reality. Instead of adopting a passive attitude when facing the hardships of life (the actual effect of past karma), humans almost always react with indignation, and so accumulate a constantly growing karmic debt. Common human experience proves that evil almost always generates evil and so it is more likely that one will accumulate new karma instead of getting rid of the karma of past lives. As a result, a vicious cycle is generated in which karmic debt is hopelessly growing. This happens with most people of our planet, as it is said that most of us live in ignorance (avidya). From one generation to the next, the sum of karmic debt is growing. Therefore, karmic justice starts more problems than it solves.

Let‘s take an example and see how the two objections actually work in the case of a real person. If we take the case of Adolf Hitler, the results are astounding. (For a detailed study of this case and other important aspects of reincarnation see Mark Albrecht‘s book Reincarnation - InterVarsity Press, 1982.) All adherents of reincarnation agree that many lives are needed for consuming his karmic debt. Hitler died in 1945 and had to reincarnate as a child in order to bear the consequences of his monstrous deeds. The two objections can be stated as following:

1) The person of Hitler ceased to exist at the moment of his physical death. Only the impersonal self will reincarnate, accompanied by its karmic deposit. However, there is no continuity between the person of Hitler and that of the individual who has to endure the hardships imposed by Hitler‘s karma. The newborn person doesn‘t know that he has to work out Hitler‘s karma. After the cruel life and death of this person, other millions of will succeed with the same tragic destiny. The most intriguing fact is that the person of Hitler, the only one who should have endured at physical and psychical level the results of his deeds, was dissolved at physical death, while other persons, totally unaware of this situation and innocent, have to work out his bad karma.

2) As a result of the hardships that have to be endured by the new incarnations of Hitler, it is almost certain that they will react with indignation instead of resignation to their situation, and thus will accumulate a growing karmic debt. Each new reincarnation of Hitler becomes a source of newly acquired karma, initiating a new chain of individuals who have to endure the consequences. Hitler himself was the one that had karmic debts to pay. Whoever he had been in a previous life, he made his karma a lot worse during the years of The Third Reich. Therefore, instead of solving the puzzle of global justice, the problem worsened. Starting with a single individual such as Hitler, we reach a huge number of persons who pay his karma and accumulate a new one. And this is just one case in human history. An attempt to imagine what happens at a larger human scale would reveal a catastrophe that could never be solved.

As a result, karma and reincarnation cannot provide real justice. Reincarnation cannot solve the problem of evil but only amplify it, leaving the original evil unpunished. If reincarnation were true, Hitler would never be punished for his deeds because he ceased to exist before any human person or circumstance of life could truly punish him.

Even if disagreement persists about the growth of evil as an effect of karma and reincarnation, at least its conservation should be admitted in human history. This results from analyzing the links that exist between people and their karma from a global perspective. There are two points to be made here.

First, there is a moral issue involved. As suffering is the result of one‘s bad deeds performed in previous lives, reacting consistently with the law of karma might lead to a lack of compassion toward people who suffer. One might think that the person who suffers deserves to be justly punished for what he or she had done in previous lives.

Second, the person who is the instrument of karma‘s punishment acquires more bad karma and therefore will have to be punished in turn, in a next life. Then the next person who acts as the instrument of karma will have to be punished in turn, etc. A possible solution to this endless cycle would be that one who acts as the instrument of karma in another one‘s life should do it in a completely detached manner, without any interest in the results, according to the demand of Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita (2,47; 3,19; etc.). In this case it is considered that they wouldn‘t acquire new karma. However, such a solution would be limited to the few "detached" people that actually follow this rule, and thus has no significance on the larger scale of human society. Most people are far from considering themselves as detached executioners of karma in their neighbor‘s life.

Let‘s examine how these two points apply in the case of the millions of Jews killed in gas chambers by the Nazis during World War II. First, it would seem absurd to have any feeling of compassion towards them, because they deserved to be killed like that, as a result of the alleged crimes they committed in previous lives. One could conclude that, after all, the Nazis did the right thing against the Jews. The dictates of karma were fulfilled. Following this reasoning, any conceivable crime of the past or present could be justified, which opens a horrifying perspective on the past and future of mankind, with implications difficult to grasp.

Second, the killing of millions of Jews requires that their executioners should be killed in their turn, in a similar way, in further lives. But this implies that the executioners of the reincarnated Nazis will be killed in their turn, etc., etc. The cycle would never end. The same reasoning could be used also back in time, which would require finding in each generation those millions of people executed and their executioners. An objection to this scenario could be that killers may be punished (killed) in turn by impersonal means, not necessarily by involving other new acquirers of karma. Natural calamities such as earthquakes could be the instrument of karma. This option sounds acceptable, but it would solve only a minor part of the problem. Therefore, if reincarnation were a logical concept, it would imply that it has neither a beginning nor an end. This cannot be a solution for justice, but only a kind of an eternally ongoing drama.

A further analysis of karmic justice proves that it undermines the basic principle of Hindu morality, that of non-killing (ahimsa). According to this principle we should not participate in the killing of a living being, or we will reincarnate in order to pay the consequences. (This is the basis of religious vegetarianism.) For instance, the butcher who slaughters a pig will have to reincarnate as a pig in order to be slaughtered in his turn. According to his karma (but contradicting ahimsa), the pig had to be slaughtered, because he probably was the reincarnation of another butcher, who had to be punished that way. The only way in which karma and ahimsa could be reconciled in this case would be that the butcher is totally detached in his act (according to the demand expressed in the Bhagavad Gita 2,47; 3,19; etc). But the butcher has a direct interest in killing the animal, as it will be his food or it is the way in which he earns his salary. Since karma must be at work in such a case, the infringement of the non-violence principle becomes a necessity in order to fulfill karmic justice. The butcher is at the same time the instrument of working out one‘s karmic debt and the generator of a new one for himself. In a strange way, the fulfilling of karmic debt requires the punishment of those who fulfill it. In other words, karma paradoxically acts through condemning those who carry out its "justice."

A way to escape this difficulty would be for impersonal means to act as karma's executer. For instance, the pig could die of a disease. But as we know, most pigs do not die of natural causes, but are slaughtered. Therefore we'll always have the pig-butcher couple exchanging places from one side of the ax to the other.

In conclusion, the concept of reincarnation stands in contradiction with social justice. Looking beyond the apparent comfort it provides to this life by promising further lives in which perfection may be attained, belief in reincarnation cannot bring any beneficial result, but only resignation and despair in facing fate.

Part D: Reincarnation and Christianity Today‘s religious syncretism not only accepts reincarnation as one of its basic doctrines but also tries to prove that it can be found in the Bible and that it was accepted by the early Church. We will therefore analyze the basic texts in the Bible which are claimed to imply belief in reincarnation, examine the position of some important Church fathers who are said to have accepted it, and emphasize the basic antagonism of this doctrine with Christian teaching

Reincarnation and the Bible. Biblical texts that seem to imply belief in reincarnation

The most "convincing" texts of this kind are the following:

1) Matthew 11,14 and 17,12-13, concerning the identity of John the Baptist; 2) John 9,2, "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"; 3) John 3,3, "No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again"; 4) James 3,6, "the wheel of nature"; 5) Galatians 6,7, "A man reaps what he sows"; 6) Matthew 26,52, "all who draw the sword will die by the sword"; 7) Revelation 13,10, "If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed."

1. The first text concerns the identity of John the Baptist, supposed to be the reincarnation of the prophet Elijah. In Matthew 11,14 Jesus says: "And if you are willing to accept it, he (John the Baptist) is the Elijah who was to come." In the same Gospel, while answering the apostles about the coming of Elijah, Jesus told them: "But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands." The commentary adds: "Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist" (Matthew 17,12-13; see also Mark 9,12-13).

At first sight, it may seem that these verses imply the reincarnation of the prophet Elijah as John the Baptist. The prophecy of the return of Elijah appears in the last verses of the Old Testament, in the book of the prophet Malachi (3,1; 4,5-6): "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes." In Luke 1,17 an angel announces the fulfillment of this prophecy at the birth of John the Baptist: "And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous- to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." What could be the meaning of the words "in the spirit and power of Elijah"?

First we must be aware that the Jews viewed 'spirit' and 'soul' as quite different things. The human person has a soul which will live on after physical death. The spirit is a kind of driving force, a motivation that makes people behave in one way or another. When a group of people are working to fulfill a common goal, they are said to be in the same spirit. Second, the text does not say that John the Baptist will go "in the soul of Elijah," but "in the spirit of Elijah." This means that John the Baptist and Elijah had the same "team spirit," not that one was the reincarnation of the other. John the Baptist was rather a kind of Elijah, a prophet who had to repeat the mission of Elijah in a similar context. The same as Elijah did nine centuries before him, John the Baptist had to suffer persecution from the royal house of Israel and act in the context of the spiritual degeneration of the Jewish nation. John had the same spiritual mission as the prophet Elijah, but not the same soul or self. For this reason the expression "in the spirit and power of Elijah" should not be interpreted as meaning the reincarnation of a person, but as a necessary repetition of a well-known episode in the history of Israel.

Other Gospel passages that refer to Elijah and John the Baptist confirm that this text cannot teach reincarnation. At the time John the Baptist began his public preaching, the priests in Jerusalem asked him about his identity: "Are you Elijah?" (John 1,21) John answered simply: "I am not." Another text that contradicts reincarnation as applying to this case is the story of Elijah‘s departure from this world. Elijah didn‘t die in the proper sense of the word, but "went up to heaven in a whirlwind" (2 Kings 2,11). According to the classic theory of reincarnation, a person has to die physically first in order that his self may be reincarnated in another body. In the case of Elijah this didn‘t happen. So it must be considered an exception both to the natural process of death, and to the rule of reincarnation. Finally, the three apostles at the Mount of Transfiguration said that they had seen Elijah, not John the Baptist, with whom they were familiar (Matthew 17,1-8, Mark 9,2-8; Luke 9,28-36).

2. The next disputed text is the introduction to the healing of the man born blind in John 9,2. Considering the apostles' question: "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?", it is obvious that the first option (the man was born blind because of his sin) implies that he could sin only in a previous life. According to the classic theory of reincarnation, he might have been a cruel dictator who got the just reward for his bad deeds.

However, the apostles' question about the possibility of having sinned before birth should not necessarily be judged as indicating an existing belief in reincarnation. It rather confirms that some religious factions believed that the fetus could somehow sin in its mother womb. If Jesus had considered reincarnation to be true, surely he would have used this opportunity, as was his custom, to explain to them how karma and reincarnation work in such a peculiar situation. Jesus never missed such opportunities to instruct his disciples on spiritual matters, and reincarnation would have been a crucial doctrine for them to understand.

Nevertheless, in the answer Jesus gave, he rejected both options suggested by the apostles. Both ideas of sinning before birth and the punishment for the parents' sins were wrong. Jesus said: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life" (John 9,3). "The work of God" is described in the next verses, when Jesus healed the blind man as a proof of his divinity (v. 39).

3. In the Gospel According to John Jesus said to Nicodemus: "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again" (John 3,3). Out of its context, this verse seems to suggest that reincarnation is the only possibility for attaining spiritual perfection and admission into the "kingdom of God." Nicodemus‘ following question indicates that he understood by these words a kind of physical rebirth in this life, and not classic reincarnation: "How can a man be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" (v. 4). Jesus rejected the idea of physical rebirth and explained man‘s need for spiritual rebirth, during this life, in order to be admitted into God‘s kingdom in the afterlife.

Jesus further explained the meaning of his words by referring to a well-known episode in Israel‘s history: "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up" (John 3,14). That episode occurred while the Israelites were travelling in the wilderness toward the Promised Land under the command of Moses (see Numbers 21,4-9). They spoke against God and against Moses, and God punished them by sending poisonous snakes against them. Grasping the gravity of the situation, they recognized their sin and asked for a saving solution. God‘s solution was that Moses had to make a bronze copy of such a snake and put it up on a pole. Those who had been bitten by a snake had to look at this bronze snake, believing that this symbol represented their salvation, and so were healed. Coming back to the connection Jesus made between that episode and his teaching, he said: "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life" (John 3,14-15). In other words, as Moses lifted up the bronze snake 13 centuries earlier, in the same way was Jesus to be lifted up on the cross, in order to be the only antidote to the deadly bite of sin. As the Jews had to believe that the bronze snake was their salvation from death, the same way Nicodemus, his generation and the entire world had to believe that Jesus‘ sacrifice on the cross is the perfect solution provided by God for the sins of the world. Therefore the kind of rebirth Jesus was teaching was not the Eastern concept of reincarnation but a spiritual rebirth that any human can experience in this life.

4. A fourth text interpreted as indicating reincarnation is found in the Epistle of James 3,6, where the ASV version translates the Greek trochos genesis as "the wheel of nature" and the RSV version as ―the cycle of nature.‖ This could seem to be the equivalent of the cycle of endless reincarnations affirmed in Eastern religions. However, we must be aware that the context of the two words is the teaching about the need to control our speech in order not to sin. The ASV translation states: "And the tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell." The tongue out of control is compared with a fire that affects the whole course of human life, thought and deed. This means that sinful speech is the origin of many other sins which are consequently generated. The NIV translation is clearer at this point: "The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell."

5. A classic example of suggesting karma and samsara in the Bible is often claimed to be represented by the words of the Apostle Paul in Galatians: "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows" (Galatians 6,7). This "sowing and reaping" process would allegedly represent someone‘s acts and their consequences as dictated by karma in further lives. However, the very next verse indicates that the point is judging the effects of our deeds from the perspective of eternal life, as stated in the Bible, without a further earthly existence being involved: "The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life" (6,8; see also the entire chapter). "Reaping destruction" means eternal separation from God in hell, while "eternal life" represents eternal communion with God in heaven. In their given context, these verses cannot suggest the reincarnation of the soul after death. According to Christianity, the supreme judge of our deeds is God, and not impersonal karma.

6. After Peter had cut off the ear of the high priest‘s servant in his attempt to prevent Jesus‘ arrest in Gethsemane, Jesus rebuked him by saying: "All who draw the sword will die by the sword" (Matthew 26,52). Could this be the justice of karma in action?

All four Gospels give the account of Jesus‘ rebuke to Peter‘s initiative. Although heroic, it went against God‘s plan ("How then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?" – verse 54). In this case Peter was sinning and, according to the well-known Old Testament law of sin retribution, the sinner must be punished consistently ("Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man" - Genesis 9,6; see also Exodus 21,23-25; Leviticus 24,19-20; Deuteronomy 19,21). However, throughout the Old Testament this law was referring solely to one‘s present physical life, by no means to future lives. Otherwise Jesus‘ words would lead to an absurd implication. If he meant that killing someone in this life with a sword would require that the doer would be literally killed at his turn with a sword in a future life, then his crucifixion (which followed soon after this episode) must have been a punishment for his own sins done in previous lives and not a solution for other people‘s sins, as he claimed.

7. "If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed" (Revelation 13,10). This verse belongs to a prophecy that speaks about the end times, when Satan and his subjects will have temporary power on earth. Adherents of reincarnation must be aware that it is a quotation from the Old Testament: "And if they ask you, 'Where shall we go?' tell them, 'This is what the LORD says: "'Those destined for death, to death; those for the sword, to the sword; those for starvation, to starvation; those for captivity, to captivity'" (Jeremiah 15,2). This sentence was spoken by Jeremiah just before the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile (586 BC) and expresses God‘s punishment of a sinful Jewish nation which had rejected him. It is not the impersonal law of karma acting here but the will of the personal creator God. He chooses how to punish those who have rejected him. (See also Jeremiah 43,11, which uses the same words for announcing the punishment of Egypt for its sins.) The author of Revelation used this quotation for assuring those involved in the events to come that God would do justice again, as he did in the ancient times. Therefore they should act in "patient endurance and faithfulness" as Revelation 13,10 adds.

As can be observed, in all situations where "Biblical proofs" for reincarnation are claimed, the context is always ignored. Other passages used as proofs of reincarnationist beliefs mean, in fact, the existence of Christ prior to his human birth (John 8,58), the continuity of the souls' existence after death (John 5,28-29; Luke 16,22-23; 2 Corinthians 5,1), or the spiritual rebirth of believers in their present life (Titus 3,5; 1 Peter 1,23), without giving any plausible indication for reincarnation.

Did the clergy rewrite the Bible, so that the passages teaching reincarnation were removed?

Another hypothesis is that the Bible contained many passages teaching reincarnation in an alleged initial form, but they were suppressed by the clergy at the fifth ecumenical council, held in Constantinople in the year AD 553. The reason for this would have been the spiritual immaturity of the Christians, who could not grasp the doctrine at that time, or the desire of the clergy to manipulate the masses. However, there is no proof that such "purification" of the Biblical text has ever occurred. The existing manuscripts, many of them older than AD 553, do not show differences from the text we use today. There are enough reasons to accept that the New Testament was not written later than the first century AD. For more information on the accuracy of the present text of the Bible one can use the following links:

Dating the Oldest New Testament Manuscripts (http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/scriptorium/papyrus/texts/manuscripts.html), by Peter van Minnen The Gospels as Historical Sources for Jesus, the Founder of Christianity (http://www.leaderu.com/truth/1truth21.html), by Prof. R. T. France

If the clergy had decided to erase from the Bible the "compromising" passages about reincarnation, why did they keep those mentioned above (concerning the identity of John the Baptist, etc.)? On the other hand, there are other passages in the Bible that clearly contradict the idea of reincarnation, explicitly or implicitly. (See for instance 2 Samuel 12,23; 14,14, Job 7,9- 10, Psalm 78,39, Matthew 25,31-46, Luke 23,39-43, Acts 17,31, 2 Corinthians 5,1;4;8, Revelation 20,11-15.) Here is one verse in the New Testament which contradicts reincarnation as clearly as possible:

Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him (Hebrews 9,27-28).

That the Christian Church teaches that we live only once is beyond doubt, as surely as it teaches that Jesus had to die only once for our sins. In other words, the unique historical act of Jesus‘ crucifixion and the teaching that we live only once are equally affirmed and cannot be separated. The judgment that follows death is obviously not the judgment of the impersonal karma, but that of the personal almighty God, after which man either enters an eternal personal relation with him in heaven, or an eternal separation from him in hell.

Did the early Church fathers believe in reincarnation?

Early Christianity spread in a world dominated by Greek philosophy. Many important figures of the early church had this spiritual background when they became Christians. Could they have been influenced by the doctrine of reincarnation? In order to answer this, we first have to understand the actual teaching on reincarnation at that time in the Greek world.

Reincarnation according to Platonism

The dominant form of reincarnation known by Greek philosophy during the first three Christian centuries belongs to Platonism. Unlike the Eastern spiritual masters, Plato taught that human souls existed since eternity in a perfect celestial world as intelligent and personal beings. They were not manifested out of a primordial impersonal essence (such as Brahman) or created by a personal god. Although the souls lived there in a pure state, somehow the divine love grew cold in them and, as a result, they fell in physical bodies to this earthly, imperfect world. Plato writes in Phaedrus about this:

But when she (the celestial soul) is unable to follow, and fails to behold the truth, and through some ill-hap sinks beneath the double load of forgetfulness and vice, and her wings fall from her and she drops to the ground, then the law ordains that this soul shall at her first birth pass, not into any other animal, but only into man; and the soul which has seen most of truth shall come to the birth as a philosopher, or artist, or some musical and loving nature.

In the same work, Plato states that "ten thousand years must elapse before the soul of each one can return to the place from whence she came." Only the soul of the philosopher or of the lover can get back to its original state in less time (i.e., in three thousand years). The souls that fail to aspire to perfection and live in ignorance are judged after their earthly life and then punished in "the houses of correction, which are under the earth." One lifetime is not enough to return to the original celestial state of purity. For this reason "the soul of a man may pass into the life of a beast, or from the beast return again into the man." This is the Platonist idea of reincarnation. It does not represent a voyage of an impersonal essence (as atman) toward an impersonal union with the Absolute (Brahman), but only a temporary punishment on the way back towards a purified personal existence (the state of pure being). Between Platonism and Eastern religions there is a big difference concerning man‘s identity in general and reincarnation in particular. Plato‘s meaning of salvation is definitely personal, as can be understand from Phaedo: Those also who are remarkable for having led holy lives are released from this earthly prison, and go to their pure home which is above, and dwell in the purer earth; and those who have duly purified themselves with philosophy live henceforth altogether without the body, in mansions fairer far than these, which may not be described, and of which the time would fail me to tell.

How did these ideas affect the beliefs of the early church fathers? We will now proceed to examine the most important cases of early church fathers accused of holding reincarnationist convictions.

Origen and Origenism

The most controversial early church father concerning his alleged beliefs on reincarnation is undoubtedly Origen (185-254). Many adherents of reincarnation mention him today as a classic example which proves the alleged early Christian belief in reincarnation, which is supposed to have been condemned and forbidden by the fifth ecumenical council (Constantinople, AD 553). Although it is a fact that Origen was strongly influenced by Platonism prior to his conversion to Christianity, the claim that he believed in reincarnation is absurd.

Before using any quotes from his writings, we strongly advise you to read the file Origen and Origenism (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11306b.htm) in order to get a brief description of Origen‘s life, writings and teachings. This article will give you a sound perspective on what he actually taught and what was later condemned as Origenism. Then see the act of refuting Origenism by the fifth ecumenical council, The 15 Anathemas Against Origen.(http://www.comparativereligion.com/anathemas.html)

As can easily be observed, there is no clear concept of reincarnation mentioned at this council of the early church, but only the Platonist ideas concerning the pre-existence of souls, besides universalism and a wrong form of Christology, as main heresies to be rejected. Since Origenism had incorporated these Platonistic ideas, it was rejected at the council of Constantinople. But the issue was not any form of Eastern reincarnation, as it is claimed today. For instance, the fourth anathema states:

If anyone shall say that the reasonable creatures in whom the divine love had grown cold have been hidden in gross bodies such as ours, and have been called men, while those who have attained the lowest degree of wickedness have shared cold and obscure bodies and are become and called demons and evil spirits: let him be anathema.

The condemned ideas are closely related to what Plato had stated in Phaedrus. Origenism did not teach a classic form of reincarnation. In fact, Origen rejected plainly this doctrine in his Commentary on Matthew (http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/101613.htm) (Book XIII,1), written in the last years of his life. He refutes the speculation of considering John the Baptist the reincarnation of Elijah (Matthew 11,14; 17,12-13), a text we mentioned earlier. Origen writes:

In this place it does not appear to me that by Elijah the soul is spoken of, lest I should fall into the dogma of transmigration, which is foreign to the church of God, and not handed down by the Apostles, nor anywhere set forth in the Scriptures; for it is also in opposition to the saying that "things seen are temporal," and that "this age shall have a consummation," and also to the fulfillment of the saying, "Heaven and earth shall pass away," and "the fashion of this world passeth away," and "the heavens shall perish," and what follows.

In the same commentary, under the title "The spirit and power of Elijah" - not the soul - were in the Baptist, Origen adds: "For, observe, he did not say in the ‗soul‘ of Elijah, in which case the doctrine of transmigration might have some ground, but ‗in the spirit and power of Elijah.‘" Origen‘s whole commentary on this text is a refutation of the reincarnation theory. Therefore it is obvious that he cannot be considered at all an "early Christian adherent of reincarnation."

Other early church fathers vs. Reincarnation

Here are some quotations from other early church fathers which express their opinion on reincarnation. They prove that it cannot have been one of their beliefs. Follow the links in order to get a larger picture on their writings.

Justin (100-165)

His opinion on reincarnation is plainly stated in the following fragment of his Dialogue with Trypho (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.iv.html) (AD 155), part one, chapter 4, where he discusses Platonism with Trypho the Jew:

The old man: "What, then, is the advantage to those who have seen [God]? Or what has he who has seen more than he who has not seen, unless he remember this fact, that he has seen?"

Justin: "I cannot tell," I answered.

The old man: "And what do those suffer who are judged to be unworthy of this spectacle?" said he.

Justin: "[According to Plato] They are imprisoned in the bodies of certain wild beasts, and this is their punishment."

The old man: "Do they know, then, that it is for this reason they are in such forms, and that they have committed some sin?"

Justin: "I do not think so."

The old man: "Then these reap no advantage from their punishment, as it seems: moreover, I would say that they are not punished unless they are conscious of the punishment."

Justin: "No indeed."

The old man: "Therefore souls neither see God nor transmigrate into other bodies; for they would know that so they are punished, and they would be afraid to commit even the most trivial sin afterwards. But that they can perceive that God exists, and that righteousness and piety are honourable, I also quite agree with you," said he.

Justin: "You are right," I replied.

Irenaeus (130-200)

In his well-known treatise Against Heresies (Book II) (http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103.htm), Irenaeus entitled the 33rd chapter "Absurdity of the Doctrine of the Transmigration of Souls." The whole chapter criticizes this doctrine, emphasizing the futility of reincarnation devoid of any memory of past lives:

They (the souls) must of necessity retain a remembrance of those things which have been previously accomplished, that they might fill up those in which they were still deficient, and not by always hovering, without intermission, round the same pursuits, spend their labour wretchedly in vain.

Tertullian (145-220)

In his Treatise on the Soul (http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0310.htm) (see ch. 28-33), Tertullian traces the origin of reincarnationist ideas down to Pythagoras. He writes:

If, indeed, the sophist of Samos is Plato's authority for the eternally revolving migration of souls out of a constant alternation of the dead and the living states, then no doubt did the famous Pythagoras, however excellent in other respects, for the purpose of fabricating such an opinion as this, rely on a falsehood, which was not only shameful, but also hazardous.

His conclusion is that "we must likewise contend against that monstrous presumption, that in the course of the transmigration beasts pass from human beings, and human beings from beasts."

Gregory of Nyssa (335-395)

Finally, one of theologians of early Christianity rejected in his turn any idea of predestination in his writing Against Fate, and also the concept of reincarnation in the 28th chapter of his treatise On the Making of Man:

Those who assert that the state of souls is prior to their life in the flesh, do not seem to me to be clear from the fabulous doctrines of the heathen which they hold on the subject of successive incorporation: for if one should search carefully, he will find that their doctrine is of necessity brought down to this. They tell us that one of their sages said that he, being one and the same person, was born a man, and afterwards assumed the form of a woman, and flew about with the birds, and grew as a bush, and obtained the life of an aquatic creature; - and he who said these things of himself did not, so far as I can judge, go far from the truth: for such doctrines as this of saying that one soul passed through so many changes are really fitting for the chatter of frogs or jackdaws, or the stupidity of fishes, or the insensibility of trees.

One can also use the following links for more information:

Reincarnation - A Catholic Viewpoint (http://www.catholic.com/tracts/reincarnation). This well-researched article refutes the hypothesis that the early church believed in reincarnation, using many good references; What did early Christians believe about reincarnation (http://www.bible.ca/H- reincarnation.htm)

All these early church fathers lived before the fifth ecumenical council (Constantinople, AD 553), so it cannot be true that the doctrine of reincarnation was condemned and forbidden only as a result of that council, as a deceitful act of manipulating Christianity by the clergy. Although reincarnation was taught by some non-Christian movements of that time, such as the Gnostics and the Neo-Platonists, it had nothing in common with the teachings of the early church, being always rejected as a heresy by the early church fathers.

Why cannot Christianity accept reincarnation?

The idea of reincarnation has never been accepted by Christianity because it undermines its basic tenets. First, it compromises God‘s sovereignty over creation, transforming him into a helpless spectator of the human tragedy. But since he is sovereign and omnipotent over creation, God can punish evil and will do it perfectly well at the end of history (see Matthew 25,31-46; Revelation 20,10-15). There is no need for the impersonal law of karma and for reincarnation to play this role.

Second, belief in reincarnation may affect one‘s understanding of morality and motivation for moral living. An extreme application of reincarnationist convictions could lead to adopting a detached stand to crime, theft and other social plagues. They could be considered nothing else but normal debts to be paid by their victims, which originated in previous lives.

Third, reincarnation represents a threat to the very essence of Christianity: the need for Christ‘s redemptive sacrifice for our sins. If we are to pay for the consequences of our sins ourselves in further lives and attain salvation through our own efforts, the sacrifice of Christ becomes useless and absurd. It wouldn‘t be the only way back to God, but only a stupid accident of history. In this case Christianity would be a mere form of Hindu Bhakti-Yoga.

As a result, no matter how many attempts are made today to find texts in the Bible or in the history of the Church that would allegedly teach reincarnation, they are all doomed to remain flawed.

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Muti Killings http://www.underthesamesun.com/sites/default/files/Albino-Killings-are-Muti-Killings.pdf

“MUTI” KILLINGS

What is ―Muti?‖

Muti (pronounced mu:ti) is a zulu word that means traditional African medicine or magical charms.1 It is a word most commonly used in southern Africa to represent African medicine. It specifically means African medicine involving the use of human body parts.2

Muti and the use of human body parts

Human body parts are used in muti to support the belief that regular muti medicine will be more effective if human body parts are involved. The body parts are often taken from live victims. This is because it is believed that the screams of victims being hacked enhances the potency of the medicine.3 Muti victims are mostly children and most recently in East Africa, persons with albinism. Body parts of muti victims are not only traded locally, but are also often transported across borders of various countries where there is demand.

Why?

Simon Fellows, author of a 2008 report titled Trafficking Body Parts in Mozambique and South Africa explains that where human-organ-muti is found, there is often the belief that such muti is a source of wealth and business prosperity.4 70% of people surveyed by Fellows in Mozambique and South Africa for example, believe “that body parts make muti medicine more effective and that such medicine can solve any problem, from poverty to health issues."5

Albino Killings are Muti Killings

The use of albino body parts for muti is part of a larger practice in the use of human body parts for muti. 6 Conservative estimates in the past decade show general muti- related killings of 30 persons per year in southern Africa.7 Muti killings specific to persons with albinism is higher however. In East Africa, between 2007 and 2010, scores of persons with albinism have been killed. A more accurate estimate would be higher given that not all cases are reported. Also when one takes into account the link of muti to poverty and the rising rates of poverty on the sub continent, a higher number of victims of muti is likely more accurate.8

Why Now?

Muti killings have been going on for decades and in some cases, for centuries on various parts of the African sub-continent. The degree and extent and whether these killings have intensified or abated are questions that are not easily answered. This is because muti activities are often shrouded by a “code of silence” which makes reporting, and the necessary prosecution and investigation all the more difficult.9 The silence in muti-use and trading is made worse by the fact that the consumers of muti medicine often remain a mystery.

International Help

There is a UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, (“the Trafficking in Persons Protocol”) signed in the year 2000.10 This is the Protocol that comes close to covering trafficking in human organs.

Article 3 (a) of the protocol defines Trafficking in Persons as

the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. [Italics Added]

In essence the protocol prevents human trafficking in the event that the victim is alive and the purpose of movement of that victim is to remove body parts. The protocol does not cover the issue of movement of body parts that have been removed without any of the coercive elements above.11 It is this gap in this international protocol that calls for stronger responses to muti from governments at the national level.

National Response

In line with our mandate here at UTSS, the following presents national responses only to those muti-related killings of persons with albinism.

Tanzania

In July 2010, The High Court of Mwanza, Tanzania convicted 50 year old, Kazimiri Mashauri and sentenced him to death for the brutal murder of a 5 year old girl with albinism. The girl was mutilated and killed for the purposes of muti-related beliefs.12 Other similar trials are currently underway in Tanzania.

Burundi

5 men accused of murdering and selling body parts of persons with albinism are jailed in Burundi. Of the 5, 1 was found guilty of "planning and carrying out the killings" and sentenced to life in jail. The other 4 were found guilty of attempted murder and kidnapping. Their jail terms ranged from 7 to 15 years.13

UTSS’ Stance on Muti

Under The Same Sun condemns use of the human body for muti purposes. Particularly, UTSS condemns the targeting and killing of any human being, including persons with albinism.

At UTSS, our members of staff on the ground in East Africa and North America are working hard to ensure the health, safety and well-being of persons with albinism in sub Saharan Africa. We are doing this through several programs in education, health and public awareness. We are also inviting governments to condemn muti killings while asking national governments in East Africa to investigate, try and punish those behind this gruesome trade. ______1 Oxford Dictionary (online). “muti”, http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0544420#m_en_gb0544420 Accessed August 3, 2010. 2 BBC News. (2002, April 2). “I was forced to kill my baby.” BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1899609.stm Accessed August 3, 2010. 3 See note 2 above. 4 Mogakane, Tshwarelo eseng. (2009, March 6). “Muti Killings Up Ahead of 2010?” News24, (South Africa), http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Muti-killings-up-ahead-of-2010-20090305# Accessed August 3, 2010. 5 See note 4 above. 6 Oloya, Opiyo. (2009, February 17). “Ritual Killing Cannot Make Anyone Richer.” op ed., The New Vision, http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/20/671762 Accessed August 3, 2010. 7 See note 2 above. 8 See note 2 and note 6. 9 See note 4 above. Also see Fellows, Simon. “Trafficking Body Parts in Mozambique and South Africa (2008).” Human Rights League, Mozambique, http://www.scribd.com/doc/23729111/Trafficking-Body- Parts-in-Mozambique-and-South-Africa-Mozambique-Human-Rights-League Accessed August 3, 2010. 10 See note 9 at p.9. Also see United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC). “Human Trafficking, UNODC, ” http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-humantrafficking. html?ref=menuside Accessed August 3, 2010. 11 Fellows, note 9 at p. 10. 12 Ng'wanakilala, Fumbuka. “(2010, July 28). Tanzania to Hang Blood-Drinking Killer of Albino Girl.” Reuters (Dar es Salaam), http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE66R3XF20100728 Accessed July 28, 2010. 13 Aljazeera. “Killers of Burundi Albinos Jailed.” (2009, July 23). Aljazeera, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/07/20097231380929658.html Accessed August 3, 2010.

Other Resources AllAfrica.Com. “Probe Reveals Price of Body Parts for Muti,” (2010, April 3). Cape Argus, http://allafrica.com/stories/201004030005.html, Accessed August 3, 2010.

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Thinking About Your Funeral http://witness.lcms.org/pages/wPage.asp?ContentID=141&IssueID=14

Thinking About Your Funeral

Dear Pastor, I’m trying to make plans for my funeral, but whenever I talk to my children about it, they won’t . Can you help me understand what a funeral is all about, so I can talk to them?

This question may cause your pastor‘s heart to beat faster. He‘ll quickly answer, ―Yes!‖

No, it‘s not that your pastor has a morbid ; rather, he knows are a time to speak clearly about what we believe, teach, and confess as Lutheran Christians—that is, a time to proclaim what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. Planning your funeral service before your death is actually a gift to your family. It is your last confession of faith in our Savior, and, focused on Jesus‘ crucifixion and resurrection, it brings comfort to them in their grief.

To help people understand the role of a funeral service, I began offering ―Funeral Service Planning Seminars‖ in my first parish. The idea came to me while I was sitting in a ‘s office, trying to explain the details of the upcoming service. The director had already picked the hymns for the family—well, at least he had suggested some. Yes, they were fine hymns, but I thought, ―We can do better than that!‖

It wasn‘t the first time I‘d had that thought. In fact, the director suggested the same hymns for every funeral. I concluded my best defense was to have something written down from my congregation members themselves.

A fellow pastor gave me a booklet he‘d put together, ―Planning a Christian Funeral at Our Church.‖ I began by sitting down with shut-ins and walking through the material. They were delighted to have something set down on paper. An LWML member suggested I conduct a seminar for their whole group. So I did. That‘s how I got started.

A Christian funeral is different A colleague once observed that many people believe weddings are a pastor‘s prime opportunity to proclaim the faith we cherish. That‘s not so, he said. ―Nobody listens to the pastor at weddings,‖ he observed. ―Everybody listens to him at funerals.‖ What is a funeral? A time to say goodbye? To have a family reunion? To grieve?

Yes, we say goodbye to a loved one; families gather more faithfully at funerals than any other time; and we grieve because of the separation that death brings.

A Christian funeral encompasses all of this, but it is also different. For we know that though we are separated temporarily through death, we are spiritually united as one in the body of Christ and shall be physically reunited at our Lord‘s return.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. (1 Thess. 4:13–14 ESV)

So what does this mean? What is it your pastor wants you to know about planning your funeral service?

It is important to understand that a funeral is a worship service. We do not worship the person lying in the casket; rather, we worship the One who died and rose again. Jesus Christ is the center of all Lutheran worship—especially a funeral— because Jesus‘ victory over sin, death, and the devil is clearly proclaimed. The whole funeral service echoes this truth over and over, reminding us of what Jesus did for us at our Baptism.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. (Rom. 6:3–5 ESV)

There are three parts of a funeral service that provide an opportunity to clearly proclaim Christ to the grieving heart. The first is the speaking and hearing of God‘s Word. Through the four readings—a Psalm, the Old Testament, Epistle, and Gospel—the faith and hope we have in Christ Jesus are confessed. Understanding the purpose of each reading will help in selecting a Scripture passage.

As part of the church‘s prayer book, a favorite Psalm can express the depth of our feelings, as well as confess our faith in a loving and merciful Savior. Consider how Psalms 23, 31, 42, 121, and 130 communicate this.

The Old Testament reading reveals God‘s plan of salvation for His creation. Like us, God‘s people in the Old Testament trusted in the Messiah who would come to save them from their sins and raise them to eternal life. See Job 19:25–26, Is. 25:6 and 49:13–16.

The Epistle reading has several purposes. It can give a clear confession of our Christian hope in the Resurrection (1 Cor. 15:51–52). It can show that not even death can separate us from God (Rom. 8:38–39). It brings out the peace we have with God because of Jesus‘ sacrifice for our sins (Rom. 5:1–6). And it can state how in death, through Christ, we gain everything (Phil. 1:21–23).

In the Gospel reading, Jesus comforts us with His own words, deeds, and prayers. ―I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live‖ (John 11:25). ―For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life‖ (John 3:16). ―Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest‖ (Matt. 11:28).

The singing of hymns at a funeral service is the second part where the comfort of Christ is heard by those attending. Like the Psalms, hymns can express the depth of our faith. St. Paul says that through them God‘s Word ―dwells in us richly‖ (Col. 3:16). Your pastor may suggest that you select Easter hymns. Your favorite hymn may be beautiful, reflecting God‘s work for us in Jesus, but Easter hymns speak so clearly to grieving hearts.

Jesus lives! The vict’ry’s won! Death no longer can appall me; Jesus lives! Death’s reign is done! From the grave will Christ recall me. Brighter scenes will then commence; This shall be my confidence. (LSB 490) A focus on the cross Your pastor‘s primary task in the funeral sermon is to preach Christ crucified. His message may be made personal by showing how faith in Christ was revealed in your life. But remember, while your pastor may relate stories of your life during the sermon, that is not the reason for his preaching. The proclamation of God‘s Word at your funeral service is to point those who grieve to Jesus and the hope that is found in Him alone.

One final thought: You won‘t care what is done, said, or sung at your funeral. You will be rejoicing in the presence of the Savior. Your funeral is not for you; it is for your family and friends. Your funeral is not about you; it is about Jesus. Those who have gathered will be comforted when they hear all that He has done to give you, and them, eternal life.

---

Jonathan C. Watt

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Resurrection Reality http://witness.lcms.org/pages/wPage.asp?ContentID=62&IssueID=10

Resurrection Reality

Cemeteries are different down in bayou country. The deceased are usually "buried" above ground. As Hurricane Katrina vividly demonstrated, much of the city of New Orleans is six or more feet below sea level. When the system of levees and pumping stations failed and the city was inundated, many caskets were dislodged by the floodwaters and simply floated away.

The first settlers of "Nouvelle-Orléans" quickly discovered they had to find new ways to bury the dead since graves would fill with water as soon as they were dug. So they began using aboveground tombs.

Today there are dozens of aboveground throughout the Big Easy. They are laid out in grid patterns resembling miniature cities filled with narrow paths and a variety of ornate architecture, sculpture, and ironwork.

New Orleans cemeteries generally have three different types of aboveground tombs. The most prominent are the rows of family mausoleums. There are also wall vaults placed in rows and stacked three or more layers high. Most of the remaining burial plots are elevated mounds of dirt, rock, or seashells retained by short walls.

In the mausoleums and wall vaults, the dead are usually placed in a wooden casket. The hot, humid conditions of New Orleans speed the process of decay. The wooden caskets disintegrate, and human remains quickly decompose.

City regulations specify that after one year and one day the remains of a person laid to rest in an aboveground tomb may be collected and deposited in a communal pit at the bottom of the tomb. Then the next deceased person can be placed in the same tomb. It's not uncommon to find individual tombs that contain the remains of 15 or more people. As bodies are added over the years, the bottom chamber of a tomb becomes a mixture of the remains of every person interred there.

Two realities While burial practices in New Orleans may seem unusual to people from other areas of the country, they remind us that death is an ugly reality we all face—dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Yet we rejoice in another reality beyond death. We are living in the aftermath of Christ's resurrection. Our "Alleluias!" continue to ring out. Death has lost its sting because Jesus, our Good Shepherd, laid down His life for His sheep.

In death's dark vale I fear no ill With thee, dear Lord, beside me, Thy rod and staff my comfort still, Thy cross before to guide me.

Lutheran Service Book, Hymn 709 Our resurrected Good Shepherd leads us along the pathways of life and even through the "valley of the shadow of death." In John 11, Jesus said to Martha (and to us), "I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."

Our Savior, once crucified, is resurrection personified. His resurrection is a preview of our resurrection. Our human remains will be changed at the final judgment. Our lifeless remains, whatever their location or condition, will be resurrected. We will be given new, perfect, and glorified bodies beyond our wildest imagination. Rejoice in the resurrection!

We are resurrection people by virtue of our baptism. What happened almost 2,000 years ago on Good Friday and on the first Resurrection Day is God's gift to us right now. Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 6: "Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection."

There is something different about us—we are resurrection people. Eternal life is God's promise to us for our souls and for our bodies.

Living with hope How comforting it is for Christians to confess, "I believe ... in the resurrection of the body." We live with hope and joy every day as people who have died to sin and been raised with Christ.

While burial practices in New Orleans may seem like a mixed up, morbid mess, they demonstrate our need for the resurrection. Because Jesus is "the Resurrection and the Life," it doesn't matter whether we are buried New Orleans style, cremated, lost at sea, or sealed in airtight containers. God promises us eternal life with Him and a glorious resurrection.

Rejoice that because of Christ's resurrection, the resurrection is and will be a reality for us!

Scott Schmieding

Go back to index

DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Dropping Dead in Jesus

Video: http://media.ctsfw.edu/2967

Audio: http://media.ctsfw.edu/2968

(Transcript)

Fort Wayne Seminary President Dean Wenthe: Good morning and welcome. It‘s a delight to have all of you here for the Good Shepherd Institute. On behalf of the faculty, staff, and students we want to extend the hospitality of our campus. We are particularly happy to welcome you. In this period we just had several remarkable blessings bestowed. We have received the longest period of accreditation that is possible in theological education- ten years from both the ATS and The Higher Learning Commission. First time in our history- so we really are enjoying that new and wonderful status. We also, as you can tell, are in the midst of a construction effort. We think that our new library will be, next to the chapel, another foretaste of heaven. The old rabbis said, ―What will we do in heaven? We‘ll study Scripture.‖ So after our worship we go and listen to God- there is one room left if any of you would like a room named in your honor just please feel free to tug my elbow- it‘s a very modest amount. But we will be happy to name a room after you. Or if you‘d like to collectively name the dark room after Doctor David Scaer we would be happy to receive your support there as well. Another note of interest is we‘ve had Lutheran Ministry Media move on our campus, there‘s a state of the art studio over on the north side that is producing ―Worship for Shut-ins‖ and we intend to use that to broadcast our confessional worship and Lutheran postures as well. I could go on, but you are here to hear a very fine speaker. And to introduce him it‘s my pleasure to bring before you a faculty member that was very instrumental in getting our accreditation. You know in these days diversity is very important, you just can‘t be monochromatic. And we came under some pressure because we had so many Germans on our faculty. For each German they said, ―five points off‖. But then when I said, ―Well we have an oriental, a Japanese professor‖- there eyes sparkled- ―You get a plus ninety points!‖ So we welcome Dr. Naomichi Masaki

Dr. Masaki: Good morning. Our first speaker is Rev. William M. Cwirla. Pastor Cwirla is the pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Hacienda Heights, California since 1992. He also is the president of Higher Things, which he calls the greatest Lutheran youth organization on the planet. Since 1998 he‘s a member of the leadership committee for LSB- Lutheran Service Book. He has written and spoken extensively on preaching, leadership, human sexuality, Scripture, and Lutheran theology. “A Promise: God is for us” 2007 and “Priesthood and Ministry”, 2007, represent his fine Bible study materials. And those who have heard his sermons say that his abiding legacy would be his preaching. Pastor Cwirla was born and grew up on the southwest side of Chicago. He‘s a life-long fan of Cubs, to my regret…, Blackhawks and Bears. He‘s a graduate of the University of Chicago, as well as the University of California- Berkley, both in chemistry. Rev. Cwirla is a popular speaker at many conferences throughout the Synod. After working in the biotech industry for seven years, he attended Concordia Seminary in St. Louis earning both Master of Divinity and STM degrees. And was ordained in 1992. His dear wife is Karen. In his spare time he enjoys scuba diving, music, fine foods as sushi.although sushi for me- but that‘s not the question here. Great wines, woodworking, including he mentions, ―coffin beauty‖. Personally I came to know Pastor Cwirla as we served together on the leadership committee for LSB. I respected him as a deep thinker and a faithful Lutheran theologian. His evangelical heart and confessional discernment were always quite valuable and deeply appreciated by the members of the committee. A few words as his close friend Thomas Winger, Dr. Winger of St. Catherine‘s Seminary would further elaborate on Pastor Cwirla, Dr. Winger reflects on their days at the seminary, ―While most students either didn‘t understand Dr. Norman Nagel or simply stood in silent awe, Bill always wrestled with him. He was like a Jacob with a strange man in the night who wouldn‘t let him go until he blessed him. I think Bill is one of the few students who actually made Nagel rethink some things.‖ There‘s another side of Pastor Cwirla which I didn‘t know until I prepared this introduction. I discovered that he has his own fan club. And the people in the club call themselves the Cwirl- ees. They founded in the summer of 2007 at Higher Things Youth Conference in Ashville, North Carolina. On the web page there were some interesting pictures of Pastor Cwirla and I struggled in myself whether it would be appropriate to show them on this occasion. But since I brought this up, I will show you some of those pictures just for fun. Here they are… (a variety of funny pictures). Anyway, Pastor Cwirla is not a stranger at The Good Shepherd Institute as he was here nine years ago. At that time his topic was preaching in the divine service. But this morning he will address us on ―A Biblical Theology of Death and Dying‖ with the title, ―Dropping Dead in Jesus‖. As the Cwirlees were founded not just for their appreciation and love for Pastor Cwirla, but more importantly for Jesus whom he preaches and teaches, so as we listen to Pastor Cwirla this morning, I‘m sure that we will be brought to a confession of our Good Shepherd and His unshakeable gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. Please join me in welcoming my good friend and brother in the office, Rev. William Cwirla

Rev. Cwirla: (referring to the funny pictures in the introduction) Yeah, we have people with a little too much time on their hands and good use of photoshop. Yeah, I think it is illustrative of the cruelty of this place that they give the introduction of myself to Naomichi here as my name is nearly unpronounceable to the Japanese tongue. You guys have a strange sense of humor around here. So a Japanese introduces a Ukrainian in the Lutheran Church. That ought to get you a couple extra points I think, huh? This is good. I‘d like to thank The Good Shepherd Institute for inviting me to speak here at this conference and I‘d also like to thank each and every one of you for being here this morning. I am seriously deeply honored and humbled to stand before you and to speak on such a lofty topic as death. Life and death are, after all, the ultimate topic of theology. As Arthur and I were reflecting at yesterday‘s reception, there really is nothing that brings them out like death, isn‘t there? As is so often the case, the title of this talk has kind of shifted during the course of its preparation and as of today at this moment I‘ve settled on this working title: ―Dropping Dead in Jesus- the Art of Dying‖ Ars Moriendi with a decidedly Lutheran accent. Death is a serious business, and its seriousness can be measured by the euphemisms that we employ for it. Euphemisms allow us to put a kind of pretty veneer over what is otherwise an ugly substrate- something we in our death-denying culture would rather not talk about directly. And so we pass on, pass away, pass through, or in the South, we simply pass. We go home, we go to a better place, we cross over, we depart, we meet our Maker. We buy the farm, we cash in our chips, or we simply buy it. We lose it, give it up, kick the bucket, bite the dust, sprout wings, succumb, breath our last. It‘s curtains for us, the last round, the final call. We expire, meaning that our freshness can no longer be guaranteed, we find ourselves six feet under, pushing up the daisies, biting the dust. We‘ve croaked, are belly up, done for, rubbed out, snuffed out, laid out, checked out, or my favorite- taking a dirt nap. Rarely do we strike up sufficient courage to take our draught of death straight up without any ginger ale and simply say, ―he or she died.‖ Or as my vicarage supervisor said before the congregation one Sunday morning announcing the death of his dear wife‘s uncle, ―He dropped dead last night.‖ Hence the title of the talk. Modern funeral parlance and practice perpetuate the denial. We celebrate a life rather than mourn a death, we do it at a memorial service- not a funeral, much less a genuine burial. I‘ve been informed by funeral directors, formerly known as undertakers, that it‘s a casket, not a coffin- if there is one present these days. It rides not in a hearse but in a carriage. Rarely does anyone but the groundkeeper stay around to actually witness the burial, much less take up a fistful of dirt, which like the hole in the ground is conveniently covered with astro turf just to enhance the fakery. That is if you have a burial at all these days. Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, in her book Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death provides a kind of a funeral crashing travel log of American burial practices. She describes the Hawaiian funeral, the Harley funeral, the Elvis and Marilyn Monroe themed funerals. I have seen such things. There are caskets shaped like beer cans and guitars. Eco- friendly funerals. Human diamonds made from the ashes of the loved one- diamonds are a girl‘s best friend after all. A Colorado town celebrates the pioneer of do it yourself cryonics with its frozen dead guy festival- now a major tourist attraction. In Minnesota they simply call that ice fishing. Taking a cooly detached reporter‘s eye view of the landscape of death, Ms. Cullen concludes, ―Death is a big bummer.‖ And that it is. The big bummer of death first rears its ugly head in Scriptures in Genesis chapter two as the word of warning attached to the fruit of the tree of the knowing good and evil. A counterpart sacrament to the tree of life. ―On the day you eat of it, you will surely die.‖ Death and life coexist side by side in the center, in God‘s place. This is God‘s concern, death and life. We are made for life, not death. Death is not the opposite of life, but the absence of it. Just as darkness is not the opposite of light but the absence of it. There‘s really no such thing as a death by natural causes- because death is by its very nature unnatural. Though Adam and Eve didn‘t physically drop dead the moment they bit into being like God and experiencing the good creation as good and evil, they died in a greater and deeper sense. They were now separated and alienated from God and from each other, hiding, blaming, accusing, ashamed of their own nakedness. Self-aware, self-promoting, self-actualizing. They were, for all divine intents and purposes dead. As a result death now would be their way of life. ―Dust you are, and to dust you will return.‖ Adam, the man of dust, bites the dust. And we too in Adam bite the dust. That is the greater and deeper mystery. In Adam all died. Adam who embodies all of humanity, drags all of humanity in his body into death by his one bodily act of disobedience. And we the children of Adam inherit his death as well as his inborn predilection to sin. We are all born to die. The change in diet reflects the new ecology of life in death. Before the fall it was fruits and nuts, the California diet as many people like to remind me. Fruits and nuts are embryonic life, nothing dies- not the eater nor the food. But after the fall the food is now “lehem”- bread. ―By the sweat of your brow you shall eat your bread until you return to the ground. Bread is the food of death. The wheat dies, the yeast dies, the eater dies, as do the farmer, the miller, the grocer and you. Our food is dead, which is why we have refrigerators and preservatives. A thought that should hold you to your diets or at least curb your appetites just a bit. The first death in the Bible is the death of whatever it was that supplied the skins that served as garments to cover Adam and Eve and the shame of their nakedness. The dead must be properly covered. Self-stitched fig leaves simply won‘t do the job- as our works of righteousness cannot cover our sin. Fig leaves tend to dry up and fall off- much to our embarrassment. Like all of our silly attempts to cover up our guilt and shame on our own terms. Skins are needed, but that is animal skins stripped from carcasses of a sacrificial victim. Something had to die to cover dead Adam. Was it a lamb? I‘d like to think so. The first human death in the Bible is Abel, the first victim of a religious war at the hands of his brother Cain. Cain had offered a faithless sacrifice, his brother Abel a faithful one. God received Abel‘s offering and rejected Cain. And so Cain, reasoning that another sacrifice was in order, offered up his brother instead. The blood of Abel cried out from the ground to God and cursed the ground so that it would no longer produce crops for farmer Cain. Yet God is merciful to the murderer of his bother and he puts a protective mark of ownership on him- evocative of Baptism so that anyone who would harm him would suffer seven times over. In other words, Cain lives off the death of his dead brother Abel- the Christ figure. The “toledoth” of Genesis, those litanies of who begot whom are also litanies of death. Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Methuselah, Lamech all lived a great long time and then they died. Enoch, the son of Jared stands out alone as the sole exception. He lived its says, three hundred and sixty-five years and walked with God. And then quote, ―He was not, because God took him away.‖ He was not? Passed on. Where did God take him? To a better place? I don‘t know. One thing is certain- he didn‘t bite the dust. In Enoch we may have a foretaste of the incorruption and immortality that come in Christ. Or perhaps this is what it would have gone like before the fall into death. You live so many years and then God calls you to some greater dimension of existence without undergoing the corruption of death. But I speculate. Genesis ends with Israel‘s savior son Joseph embalmed in a coffin. Death with hope. ―We do not grieve as those without hope.‖ Joseph wishes his bones to be buried in the Promised Land and he makes confession of his faith by the manner of his burial and by the disposition of his body. The Torah itself ends with the death and burial of Moses. The Lord Himself buried the body of Moses in the valley of the land of Moab opposite Beth Peor at an unknown site. Concerning the apocryphal tete-a-tete between the archangel Michael and the devil over the body of Moses referred to in the book of Jude, we will leave this for happy hour. Suffice it to say that the body is vitally important even in death. The state of the dead in the Old Testament is a bit murky if not downright mysterious. The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are all said to have been ―gathered to their people‖ in death. Now this may be quite literal in the sense of their bodies being buried in a common grave and their bones all gathered together in one place. However Jacob was gathered to his people at the moment of his death- not at his burial. And Aaron likewise was gathered to his people though he died alone at Mount Hor. Sheol is the dominant death image in the Old Testament appearing sixty-five times in sixty- three verses. It‘s first mentioned by Jacob upon hearing the news that Joseph, his favored son, was apparently killed by wild animals. Refusing to be comforted Jacob declares, ―I shall go down to Sheol to my son .‖ In its neutral sense Sheol is simply the abode of the dead in the netherworld under the earth. As such it is synonymous with Death (capital D), Abaddon and the Pit. ―The cords of Sheol entangled me, the snares of death confronted me.‖ ―O Death, where are you plagues? O Sheol, where is your destruction?‖ Hosea 13. Sheol can be the place of God‘s wrath. Korah and his sons were swallowed up alive into Sheol as punishment for offering unauthorized incense in the camp of Israel. To the wayward children of Israel God says ―For a fire is kindled by My anger and it burns to the depths of Sheol; devours the earth and its increase and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.‖ Deuteronomy 32. Sheol is the barren womb, the earth that is ever thirsty for water, the fire that is never satisfied, the way of folly, the adulterous woman leads to Sheol, her feet go down to death, her steps follow the path to Sheol. However, Sheol can also be the place from which the believer is called up by the Lord. ―The Lord kills and He brings to life, He brings down to Sheol and He raises up. For great is Thy steadfast love toward me, Thou hast delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol‖ the psalmist prays. ―O Lord, Thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol, restoring me to life from among those who have gone down to the pit, for Thou dost not give me up to Sheol, nor let Thy holy one see the pit.‖ Which is translated by Peter in his Pentecost sermon, ―For Thou wilt not abandon my soul to hades, nor let Thy Holy One see corruption.‖ ―Hades‖ is the Greek translation for Sheol. From the belly of the great fish Jonah cries out, ―I called to the Lord out of my distress and He answered me, out of the belly of Sheol I cried and Thou didst hear my voice.‖ The book of Ecclesiastes speaks of death in terms of the body returning to the dust, and the spirit, the ruah, the breath returning to God from whence it came. While hardly the fully developed soul, body dichotomy of Greek thought, there is certainly a sense here of individuality and personhood that carries on after death. I sometimes illustrate this with the kids in terms of software and hardware in a computer. Hardware without software is dead, just as the body without breath or faith without works is dead. If the hardware breaks down the software can be safely stored somewhere else. But it only works when united with appropriate hardware. Now to keep this from slipping down the slippery slope to reincarnation, I would add that one software and hardware are unique to our person and non interchangeable. In other words, you can‘t run my software on someone else‘s hardware. Thanks be to God—for that person! Of course the Old Testament has a few hints of the resurrection of the body. In chiding the Sadducees who denied the resurrection since it wasn‘t explicitly taught in the Torah, Jesus cites the revelation of the Divine name at Sinai, ―I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.‖ They are already alive in the eternal presence of God who is the I AM, for He is not the God of the dead but of the living. Jesus uses this to illustrate the error of the Sadducees in rejecting the resurrection of the body. The argument is subtle, but then the Torah does not give much with which to work when it comes to resurrection, hence the denial of the Sadducees. Job, whose Hebrew appears to predate the Torah declares, ―I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last I will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see on my side and my eyes shall behold and not another.‖ Isaiah depicts the Messianic age to come as a time when the shroud of death is lifted and the peoples of the world feast on fat things and fine wines that make utter mockery of this world‘s cares for calories and fat grams. Israel‘s return from exile provides that type par excellence of the resurrection from the dead- Israel coming back to the Promised Land is Israel rising from the dead. Ezekiel sees the dry bones of Israel rise up from the ground with flesh and breath restored to them by the word of God. And finally Daniel in the last of his visions sees the coming day when many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall wake- some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame and contempt.

Now in the New Testament the distinction of the faithful and the condemned in Sheol is sharpened. Lazarus is carried to the bosom of Abraham, the rich man goes to hades. Between them is a great chasm preventing anyone from crossing over—though the rich man can see Lazarus albeit a far off. Paradise in the bosom of Abraham appeared to be names of what we commonly call heaven prior to the Last Day. Now not surprisingly the New Testament brings a more fully developed view of death. After all, the Son of God came in the flesh to conquer death as the second Adam and there is no greater expert on the topic. For Jesus, death is treated in the same way the demons and diseases, with almost cavalier disdain. In the raising of the widow of Nain‘s son, or Jairus‘ daughter, or His friend Lazarus, Jesus speaks to the dead as though they can hear Him—because they can. And He raises them as though rousing someone from sleep. All it takes is one little word. ―No one so easily rouses someone from bed as does Christ the dead from the grave‖ said Augustine. Jesus‘ raising of Lazarus is particularly instructive. His sisters Mary and Martha are understandably upset because Jesus delayed in coming when they called Him. There are no pastoral emergencies with the Lord. For Him Lazarus‘ death is nothing more than a sleep from which he is to be wakened. Upon arriving at the funeral Jesus calmly assures Martha that her brother will live, which she understands as a future hope in the coming resurrection, ―I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.‖ Her entirely orthodox belief in the future resurrection however does nothing for her present grief. Resurrection is a present reality in Jesus, ―I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in Me though he dies, yet will he live. And whoever lives and believes in Me never dies forever.‖ Catch that translation, ―never dies forever.‖ Not ―never dies‖- you will die, but living and believing in Jesus you will live in spite of your death and through your death and that‘s the point. Jesus then goes to the tomb of Lazarus and against the objections of Martha has them open the tomb. Do you remember what she says? ―He stinketh!‖ He‘s been dead for four days. It always works better in the King James. ―He stinketh! He‘s dead!‖ This drives Jesus literally to tears at the unbelief of Mary and Martha and the mourners. A weeping that the Jews and many of us mistake for love of Lazarus and for mourning. And then Jesus fires off this rather terse prayer in the hearing of the mourners. I love this prayer: ―Father, I thank You that You heard Me. I know that You always hear Me (so why am I even praying this?) But I said this on account of these people standing around that they may believe that You sent Me.‖ It‘s what He says! He‘s ticked off. And then He yells in the tomb and He calls Lazarus out, ―Lazarus come out!‖ And Lazarus does, he comes out. A preview of the Last Day when all the dead will rise at the sound of Jesus‘ voice. But Jesus sets His sights beyond death and the grave to the resurrection and the new creation that is to come. Those who cling to His word by faith will never taste death eternally. He promises to raise up on the Last Day all who believe in Him and who eat His flesh and drink His blood according to His bidding. Indeed those who believe in Him have already crossed over. Crossed over from death to life. The death of Jesus on the cross is marked by all of the eschatological sings of that Last Day: darkness, earthquake, the rending of the temple curtain. Matthew records a resurrection of the holy ones in Jerusalem, a preview of the Last Day and a sign of the dawning eschaton. His bodily resurrection three days later stands as the fulfillment of His own prophetic prediction that He would die and rise and it stands as the historic validation of His word. Or to quote Dizzy Dean, ―It ain‘t bragging if you can do it!‖ He did it! It also demonstrates His decisive victory won over death so that new humanity under its new Adam is no longer held captive by death and the grave. The New Testament view of death is entirely shaped by the bodily death and resurrection of Jesus. Death is viewed both negatively and positively. Negatively it is the result of Adam‘s disobedience visited upon all men; it is the just wages of our sin; it‘s the last enemy to be defeated, dogging us all our days. We are like sheep led to the slaughter. It is the deadly stinger whose venom is sin powered by the Law of God that seeks and kills the sinner. But Christ has taken the sting of death and by His death and resurrection has become the anti-venom. Death is now a defeated enemy to be mocked. And it is to be mocked, ―O Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where is your victory?‖ Is that all you‘ve got? The death and resurrection of Jesus have conquered death and the made the grave a place of Sabbath rest. Just as Jesus‘ body rested in the grave on the seventh day. The baptized believer is to consider death nothing more than a sleep from which he will be awakened to eternal life on the Last Day. It is a blessed rest from one‘s labors. ―Blessed are they that die in the Lord henceforth. Blessed indeed says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors for their deeds follow them.‖ Temporal death is not the worst thing that can happen to you. ―Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Fear God and you have nothing left to fear. Indeed, death is even necessary to eternal life, ―for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God‖ and ―what is mortal must put on immortality.‖ St. Paul expresses a kind of ambivalence between death and life: ―to live is Christ, to die is gain.‖ To live in the flesh means the possibility of fruitful labor, and yet Paul‘s desire is to depart and be with Christ for he says that is far better. He speaks of this life as living in an earthly tent, a temporary dwelling, a camping trip. ―If this earthly tent is destroyed‖, he says, ―we nevertheless have a permanent dwelling from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.‖ He‘s not talking about a house and a room for the soul, but he‘s talking about being clothed. He says our ardent desire is to be away from the body- that is this mortal body and at home with the Lord. But not as a disembodied soul or spirit but as a soul further and fully clothed with the permanent dwelling that is a spiritual body suited for eternal life. In 1 Thessalonians Paul sets to rest the rumor that those who have died before the Lord‘s return are lost. They are asleep and they are with the Lord. And on the Last Day God will bring them through Jesus. Their bodies will rise and those living will be changed in an instant and gathered with them to meet the Lord in the air. Only on the Last Day at the resurrection are all things brought to their completion and death is finally swallowed up in victory. The intermediate time is still a time of ―not yet‖. In the Revelation John is given to see a vision of the present reality of the faithful departed. After the Introit of the Lamb in chapters four and five, John sees the souls of the under the altar. That‘s another way of saying ―in Christ.‖ Under the altar crying out for vengeance for their blood, ―how long before You will judge and avenge our blood upon those who dwell on the earth?‖ You see, even for these souls there is still a ―not yet‖. In chapter seven John sees this great multitude who are coming out, not who have come out, but who are coming out of the great tribulation- that‘s life- wearing blood-bleached white robes , waving palm branches and worshiping Christ the Lamb who was slain but lives. Hebrews reminds us that their gathering in worship includes angels in festal gathering and he says the spirits of the righteous, the justified made perfect, or as we say, ―the angels, the archangels, and all the company of heaven.‖ In other words, the baptized believer whose life is hidden with Christ in God in this life remains so in the though separated from the body. To be in the bosom of Abraham, to be in Paradise is to be in Christ. Where every baptized believer already is by virtue of their baptismal union with Jesus. In Revelation twenty in the consummation of all things hades and death, the temporary abode of the faithless condemned, are cast finally into gehenna, the eternal lake of fire on the Last Day- the garbage dump of heavenly Jerusalem. You know every city needs a garbage dump? That‘s it. So if you don‘t want the heavenly city that‘s the only other alternative I suppose. Prior to this John sees the souls of the martyrs living and reigning with Christ for a thousand years which historical exegesis identifies with the time of the Church. Note that Revelation 20:5 does not say that the souls came to life and reigned- it‘s always in the text ―came to life and reigned‖, but simply they lived and reigned as souls with Christ for a thousand years. The baptized believer and those who have died in the Lord share this in common- they already participate in the eternal life that is to come, even as they both await the consummation of all things in the resurrection of their redeemed bodies on the Last Day. All of us together, ―or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?‖ So then, what can we say the souls of the blessed dead? They are with the Lord, they are in Paradise, they are resting from their labors, they worship the Lamp in prayer and praise for the salvation that He has won for all. But there remains an element of the ―not yet‖ in the resurrection. Facing his impending death the Apostle Paul writes this, ―I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me- not on the day I die, but on that day- the day of His appearing. And not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. Notice that the award ceremony and the crowning come at the end, on the day of Christ‘s appearing. And in communion with all who loved His appearing or as we say in the Creed, ―We believe in the resurrection of the body, and the live everlasting‖ in that order. Let‘s jump to Lutherans. I know there‘s an early church that comes between, but we don‘t have time for that, alright? We‘re Lutherans here! Luther and the reformers were aware of the Fifteenth Century Ars Moriendi, the Little Catechisms on the art of dying that were widely circulated during the times of the Plague. These booklets dealt with the trials that afflicted those who were approaching death and were intended to equip people to approach their own death accompanied by elaborate woodcuts. There‘s an example in front of you. The dying person is afflicted with various temptations of doubt, despair, impatience, pride and greed, while the devils look on and hide under his bed. And the dying person is comforted by the saints and the blessed Virgin Mary along with exhortations to imitate Christ in His suffering and death. Notably absent in these works is any reference to Baptism, the Lord‘s Supper, Absolution or to Christ as the One who suffers for the sinner rather than with the sinner. Of course lurking in the background was purgatory and fear of the state of one‘s soul after death, leaving the dying in a perpetual state of uncertainty. In his sermon on preparing to die in 1519, Luther replaces this whole penitential perspective of the medieval arts moriendi with a decidedly sacramental and Christ centered view. The five temptations of the dying are replaced with three images- death, sin, and hell. And against these images the dying person is directed not to himself, nor to his works, nor to the example of the saints, nor Christ as example, but to life, grace and salvation won for him by Christ and given to him in the Sacraments which are a sign and testimony that, as Luther says, ―Christ‘s life has taken your death, His obedience your sin, His love your hell, upon themselves and overcome them.‖ The anxiety over purgatory is replaced with the certainty of resurrection to life. For Luther all of life is a preparation for death. And death itself Luther says is the true purgatory. For on the day we die sin is finally put to death in the flesh. In life Luther says we ought to be occupied with the contemplation of sin, death and hell, so that in death we may be occupied with forgiveness, life and salvation. The devil‘s mischief is that he would invert everything and tempt us to the opposite. During our lifetime when we should constantly have our eyes fixed on the image of death, sin and hell as we read in Psalm 51, ―My sin is ever before me.‖ The devil closes our eyes and hides these images. But in the hour of death when our eyes should see only life, grace and salvation he at once opens our eyes and frightens us with these untimely images so that we shall not see the true ones. In preparing this paper I ran across a little gem of a work by Johann Gerhardt. I want to thank Steven Vanderhock, the piano playing pastor from Australia. He found this in a bookstore there and gave it to me and I read it and I was fascinated- ―A Handbook of Consolations for the Fear and Trials that Oppress us in the Struggle with Death‖ published in 1611. This is a gem, this is the Lutheran Ars Moriendi. Gerhardt wrote it following the death of his newborn son while praying for his wife who was gravely ill. And she died within a month of its publication. It consists of forty-six fears, doubts and temptations, that afflict one when facing death in the form of a dialogue between the tempted and the comforter. As with Luther, Gerhardt draws the person‘s attention away from himself and away from his temptations and even away from his faith to Christ, to the Sacraments. His free use of the Scriptures and the early church fathers is amazing. This little book deserves an honored place as part of this genre of Ars Moriendi as the uniquely Lutheran contribution. I just offer this little excerpt which Gerhardt wrote in poetic verse, which I think captures the whole book, the dying person prays,

“Look upon me You who hang on a wooden cross for me. And may all my sins lie hid in Your side, my troubled mind longs for You, forgive my guilt. By my sin I die, but by Your blood I live.”

It‘s a remarkable book, I commend it to all of you. Luther‘s collected letters of spiritual council provide a really good insight into Luther‘s pastoral theology about death and dying. I‘m just going to offer some examples from these. Writing to his dying father in 1530 Luther says, “Our departure from this life is a smaller thing to God than my journey would be from here to Mansfeld, or yours from Mansfeld to Wittenberg. It is only an hour’s sleep and after that all will be different. This is most certainly true.” Regarding the sudden death of a certain man‘s wife in childbirth, Luther notes, ―Our God is the greatest breaker up of marriages. He joins people together, and then He separates them. This morning she slept with her husband, and tonight she sleeps with our Lord God. How fleeting is our life! Alas, it must be painful for a loving couple to be separated in this way. To Katherine Metzler whose husband and son both died in close proximity Luther writes, “But your son is with the Lord Christ in whom he fell asleep. Thank the God of grace for taking your child unto Himself so graciously.” And then to his good friend Justice Jonas, whose wife Katherine died suddenly of complications in a failed childbirth, Luther recalled the death of his own daughter Magdalena months earlier, he wrote this, “After mourning for a season”,he says, “we shall enter into joys unspeakable, for your Kathy and my Magdalena together with many others have preceded us and daily call us, admonish us and beckon us to follow.” At Luther‘s funeral, Johannes Bugenhagen recounts the death of Luther‘s brother-in-law, Master Ambrosius von Goterboch, who at the end of his life became so delirious that he experienced no pain or fear whatsoever. And he was actually quite upbeat and animated whenever Bugenhagen or Luther came to pray with him. Visiting his grave after his death a few months later, Luther was heard to remark, “He did not know that he was sick. He also did not know that he was dying. And yet he was not without a great confession of Christ. And now here he lies and still he does not know that he is dead!” And then Luther prays, “Dear Lord Jesus Christ, take me also in similar fashion out of this veil of tears to You. In 1542 Luther wrote a lengthy introduction to Joseph Klug‘s collection of burial hymns for Wittenberg. In which he says this, “We Christians who have been redeemed from all this by the dear blood of the Son of God should by faith train and accustom ourselves to despise death and to regard it as a deep, strong and sweet sleep. To regard the coffin as nothing but Paradise in the bosom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the grave as nothing but a soft couch or sofa which it really is in the sight of God, for He says “our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep”, “the girl is not dead but sleeping.” Perhaps the most poignant is Luther‘s letter to his dying mother in 1531. She was quite ill, not expected to live. Luther heard of her illness from his brother James, he was unable to be there. And in his absence he writes this long letter of pastoral comfort which I think serves as a great template for the art of dying as a Lutheran. After expressing his sorrow that he can‘t be with her in person he tells her that her illness is God‘s gracious and fatherly chastisement. It is quite a slight thing in comparison with what He inflicts upon the godless. And sometimes even upon His own children. He counsels that she should accept her illness with thankfulness as a token of God‘s grace, recognizing how slight a suffering it is, even if it be a sickness unto death compared to the sufferings of His own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did not suffer for Himself as we do, but for us and our sins. Secondly Luther reminds her that Christ alone is the basis and foundation of her salvation. For He is the Savior and He is called Savior of all poor sinners, of all who face tribulation and death, of all who rely on Him and call on His name. He reminds her that Jesus has said, ―Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.‖ And if the world, then also devil, sin and death himself, and he encourages her to rejoice and be glad, especially when frightened and sorrowful, and say this, ―Behold, dear soul, what are you doing? Dear death, dear sin, how is that you are alive and terrify me? Do you not know that you have been overcome? Do you, death, not know that you are quite dead? Do you know the One who has said of you, ‗I have overcome the world‘? It does not behoove me to listen to or heed your terrifying suggestions. I shall pay attention only to the cheering words of Christ my Savior, ‗Be of good cheer, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.‘ He is the conquerer, the true hero, who in these words ‗be of good cheer‘, gives me the benefit of His victory. I shall cling to Him, to His words and comfort. I shall hold fast whether I remain here or go yonder He will not forsake me. You would like to deceive me with your false terrors and with your lying thoughts you would like to tear me away from such a Conqueror and Savior, but they are lies. As sure as it is true that He has overcome you and commanded us to be comforted.‖ Third, Luther reminds her that Christ stands as her Mediator, the Bishop of her soul, her throne of grace, and He daily intercedes for her and reconciles her. He‘s not the grim judge, except for the unbeliever. But He is the intercessor whose death reconciles her to the Father. Fourth, he puts her in mind of her baptism and the Sacrament. ―To such knowledge I say God has graciously called you- in the Gospel, in Baptism and in the Sacrament you possess the sign and seal of this calling and as long as you hear Him addressing you in these you will have no trouble or danger. We can accomplish nothing against sin, death and the devil by our own works, but Christ has accomplished it all for us and He bids us to be joyful and of good cheer- even in our death. And finally there is this tender blessing from son to mother. ―The Father and God of all consolation grant you through His Holy Word and Spirit a firm, joyful and thankful faith to overcome this and all other trouble. May you taste and experience that what He Himself says is true, ‗Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.‘ Herewith I commit your body and your soul to His mercy. All your children and my Katie pray for you. Some weep, others say when they eat, ‗Grandmother is very sick.‘ God‘s grace be with us all. Amen. Your loving son, Martin.‖

So then, this business of dropping dead in Jesus, what does this all mean? Five things to take us home. It means first of all that we recognize first of all that we are already dead in Baptism. Forensically declared dead in this life having been crucified and buried with Christ, even as we are already raised and glorified with Him. Or to put it simply, our death is simply catching up with a greater baptismal reality. Secondly it means facing death confidently and intentionally trusting that Christ has conquered death by His dying and rising. And that death for us is nothing more than as Luther says a deep, restful sleep from our labors from which we will rise on the Last Day. Third, it means dying trusting that Christ is with us body and soul as we now say so nicely in the Common Dismissal- I like the change. ―The body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve us in body and soul to life everlasting.‖ He goes with us to the grave just as His body and blood have been with us throughout our lives. And He is with us as we are already with Him, glorified in the heavenly realms, so that we die trusting the promise ―today, you will be with Me in Paradise.‖ It means fourth that we speak clearly and accurately of those who have died in faith ahead of us. Let‘s be done with the ―Uncle Harry is trout-fishing with St. Peter stories!‖ We have no basis for that. Let‘s say how it is, they are asleep, they rest from their labors, they are with the Lord, they are blessed, they are comforted, they no longer suffer. We are confident of their reunion with them on the Day of Resurrection. That also means by the way that we draw closest to them as they are now, when we draw near to Christ in the Sacrament. For they worship the Lamb who was slain but lives, just as we do. Fifth it means that we learn to view death as God‘s answer to our petition, ―deliver us from evil.‖ It is the fulfillment of our Baptism, it is the culmination of our praying the ―Our Father.‖ For we are indeed praying as Luther says that God would grant us a blessed death, and take us from this veil of sorrows to Himself in heaven. And finally, it means that our hope is not death oriented but resurrection oriented. That just as our Lord died and rose again so that death would no longer have mastery over Him, we also believe that death has no mastery over us. And the hope of eternal life is nothing less than the resurrection of the body on the Last Day, and our life together with Christ and all the saints. I can‘t think of a good way of ending this. Nor could Gerhardt in his little book of consolations. He said, ―In place of a conclusion I offer a prayer,‖ and so he does. In place of a conclusion I offer a hymn, and I invite you to sing the stanza with me,

Lord, let at last Thine angels come, to Abram’s bosom bear me home, that I may die unfearing. And in its narrow chamber keep my body safe in peaceful sleep until Thy reappearing. And then from death awaken me, that these mine eyes with joy may see O Son of God Thy glorious face, my Savior and my Fount of grace. Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend, my prayer attend. And I will praise Thee without end.

Amen, peace be with you both now and forever.

Dr. Masaki: I think it was something like an extension from the Gospel lesson from yesterday, that those who are counted worthy in Baptism are like angels, the sons of God, sons of the resurrection, and they are not even able to die. What a wonderful speech and lecture that we received. I like the Lazarus illustration- there is no pastoral emergency for Jesus. I think we have ten minutes or so for Q and A.

Q: (inaudible)

Pastor Cwirla: The question as was voiced, I made a point comparing Luther‘s approach beginning in his sermon on those approaching death in 1519, Luther‘s approach compared to the medieval Ars Moriendi, the little catechisms of dying, and the question said that Luther moved from a propitiatory view to a sacramental view. I believe I said, penitential—at least that was sitting in front of my eyes. Sometimes what you look at and what you say are slightly different things. But what I meant to say there was Luther moved from a penitential view of really the care for the dying to a sacramental view. The tendency was to comfort the dying with the works of the saints and to hold Christ out as an example of One who suffered innocently, and One who is to be imitated in suffering. And so there‘s a lot of agonizing over the death bed, over one‘s making elaborate confession of sins and rehearsing all the sins of one‘s life. And really it amounted to kind of like torture of the dying. And Luther moves entirely away from that. He says we ought to be occupied with that in this life when we have health and strength because that‘s when we need to be reflecting on our sin, on our death, on God‘s wrath and hell. But at the time of our death, thanks be to Christ we are given to reflect upon His mercy, eternal life, salvation and what the Sacraments have bestowed on us. So that was the intent Luther kind of moves away from self and occupation with sin and contrition and repentance and moves- really it‘s what Hebrews says, ―Fix your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of your faith.‖ That‘s Luther‘s approach to the dying—fix your eyes on Jesus.

Q: I appreciated your distinguishment of a life that‘s kept in Christ and how we still know they (our departed loved ones) are with Christ and see Christ. But in our society today, and even in our own pews unfortunately, the resurrection of the dead has kind of taken a back seat. The reason I say that is when people die, I hear way too often from people sitting in the pews, ―and now they‘re with Uncle Harry, they‘re dancing with Mom, Dad, they see each other‖ when in fact their bodies are in the ground. Can you address that a little bit.

Pastor Cwirla: Yeah, I‘m glad you mentioned that. There are these what I call ―pious speculations‖, and they‘re said I think tender-heartedly and it‘s a time of great grief and the experience of loss, so we want to say something. I think one of the motivations for writing this paper was to clean up our speech a little bit. The other one that bothers me in particular from that example is where somebody‘s spouse has died and they say, ―You know, he‘s together with his beloved whatever her name was‖, kind of neglecting the fact that in the resurrection they‘re neither married nor given into marriage, which is a topic of a whole ‗nother conversation. This doesn‘t mean we are without our beloved, I think we just have them in a greater way of which in this life marriage is the greatest. Let me tip you off on that. Marriage is the most intimate union that we can have as one flesh, except for one. And that is our union in Christ. Which to put it crassly, to answer the question ―Is there sex in heaven?‖, people love to ask me that one, and I‘ll take it up, and I‘ll say, ―No, why should there be? There‘s a greater union- it‘s our union in Christ. It‘s better than sex- sorry if that offends you, get used to it!‖ You need to change your view of sex. But to get back to the question, I think there‘s something to be said here that our funeral sermons and our way of speaking stop short. Professor Gibbs at the St. Louis seminary talks about this a lot- in fact he and I together talked on this a couple weeks ago at the Southern Illinois District Pastors‘ Conference, that we stop short of the resurrection of the body, and we start speculating about all the wonderful things that are happening with the soul of which the Bible is completely mute about. And so we are given to say this, ―They are asleep, they rest from their labors, they are comforted, they are with the Lord, they worship, but there is still this ―not yet‖ component. They cry out ―how long?‖- at least some of them do. So there‘s still as sense of ―now, and not yet‖ at this time. Pieper makes an interesting observation in this brief little chapter of Volume 3 when he says that Gerhardt did not speak quite as guardedly about this intermediate state as Luther did. And so if you look at Gerhard‘s De Mortis, his loci on death, he tends to do a little bit of this pious speculation, whereas Luther consistently throughout his writings, ―They are asleep‖- mostly asleep. He even said it‘s like falling asleep while reading a book in your favorite chair and then someone waking you up and saying, ―Doctor Luther, wake up, and you didn‘t realize six hours had passed. Which happens to me in my study all the time, so I kind of have a proleptic experience of death and resurrection almost daily. But, no, I think we have to be careful. We mean for it to be comforted, but then somebody, some kid, some seven-year old is going to ask ―where is this written?‖ And we‘re going to have a problem justifying that Uncle Harry is trout fishing with St. Peter. Or bowling, or sometimes they do things they shouldn‘t have been doing in this life- they are suddenly doing them in heaven! I think the key is to move like we do in the Creed, ―I believe in the resurrection of the body AND the life everlasting.‖ In that order, and have the strong movement toward the resurrection of the body. That will also give us a greater honor of the body too. The body is not a dishonorable thing. It‘s sown in dishonor but it‘s going to be raised. And God can figure out the dust quite nicely. But this whole idea that the body is important even in death is something that‘s lost. We‘ve all gone Gnostic, or Hindu, or something. It‘s scary.

Q: When we‘re in the throes of helping families through a planning session on a funeral, one of the big things that comes up today is I wanted a casket funeral with visitation, yet the substance of death has put them in the position that is considered necessary. What kind of positive things can we tell people about the resurrection in light of there‘s no body here for the visitation or the funeral? That‘s a real thing that we run into in the parish.

Pastor Cwirla: Yeah it is. Cremation is becoming increasingly popular for a variety of reasons- cost- I mean people are sold on it. I gently, firmly, pastorally advise, I don‘t dig my heels in dogmatically on the thing. I mean obviously there are some people who like in 9/11 are consumed that way or buried that way. And the Lord knows those who are His and how to find them and all of that. I think that‘s more for the grief of the living. The visitations are important, I think there‘s a sense of having to see something. I think it‘s so important to have a coffin, casket, there regardless of whether there can be a viewing, that‘s really a different thing. In fact we‘ve done some strange things with that too. And the morticians‘ art. I‘m so amazed with that, ―Oh, he looks so good!‖ He‘s dead! He‘s not looking good right now- but he will one day. I think the important thing is with everything it sounds trite, but it‘s pastorally deep as well. All these griefs and everything need to be focused on Christ. Anything that we do- whatever it is that we are doing is only going to be a band-aid that‘s going to wash off three days after the funeral anyway. The real business of grieving starts about two weeks afterward. And goes on forever- because you loved them, and you never say, ―You‘ll get over it‖- how dare you- you‘ll never get over it- you adjust, but you never get over it. But I think it‘s to focus on Christ, the man of sorrows who is acquainted with suffering. And to focus on the resurrection and the idea that resurrection means reunion- bodily reunion with those we love. And it‘s not to diminish the body, but to say we‘re done with this right now. And let‘s look to the resurrection and the life everlasting.

Dr. Wenthe: Thank you for your splendid paper. Just a little exegetical comment if I could. What is your sense of the Transfiguration narrative and what it might indicate even obliquely because in that narrative it is positioned in a strategic spot in all the Gospels and you have kind of a proleptic look at Jesus in glory- and then suddenly Moses and Elijah are talking about His death or in Luke His exodus. It‘s not the point of the text—at least in my view—that hey, those guys are still talking and they‘re with Jesus- it‘s just assumed. So any thoughts you have on that?

Pastor Cwirla: I also love the fact that everybody knows they‘re Moses and Elijah. You know, they don‘t need name tags or anything. They‘re known! Because when people say, ―I saw the Virgin Mary in the clouds‖ how do you know what she looks like? But the beautiful thing is you have this is the resurrection , this is the Last Day in this snap shot opened up: glorified Jesus, the Torah and the Prophets embodied in Moses and Eljiah, there the types that point to Him- and they are there. Now how ―there‖ there is I don‘t know. When time and eternity intersect it gets a little weird. As the could indicates, ―okay, enough of that, just listen‖ as Peter started babbling nonsense anyway. And if I pursue your question any further I‘m going to start babbling nonsense too.

Comment from unknown moderator: William, thank you. The fact that I‘m standing means it‘s almost time for chapel. But I do want to thank you very much for this, because it‘s one of the things that I hoped would happen in this plenary. You‘ve put all the great issues on the table, especially how we talk about those who have died in Christ and what we can really say about them. I‘d like to thank Pastor Eskett for alerting me to a book that I hope you all write down and get. And maybe you‘ve seen it. Thomas Long, who we all know fairly well- those of us who are in homiletics- Accompany Them with Singing- the Christian Funeral. There is a selection in there in which he struggles with a topic I struggled with in my paper and I think you have here too. Which is the body. How important the body is and what do we say about the body? And he deconstructs a lot of the things that are said today at funerals and many of us would probably feel our face a little bit because we‘ve said them. And he talks about this kind of Platonic dualism and this sort of what he calls this disembodied immortal soul. And he ends up by saying really this is probably what we should say that the ―Day of Days‖, is what he calls it the End Times, the Resurrection of the Body, and ―The Day‖ when the person dies, are really the same day depending on how you look at it. So from the point of view, the human point of view it might be a long time, but from God‘s point of view they‘re the same day. And really that‘s why sleep is so good. I look at it this way, we‘ve all had those procedures, you know you have the drugs and then you wake up and you argue with the technicians, ―Why haven‘t you done it yet?‖ Cause you don‘t remember, it‘s like it‘s happened and that‘s what death is. You go to sleep and that is the resurrection of the body because it is from the end times the resurrection of the body. And I commend this book to you, it‘s really marvelous. Accompany Them with Singing, I‘m going to be referring it in my paper. But I‘ve been struggling with the same things. And it‘s really wonderful for you to put it on the table. This is what we need to talk about here, and you‘ll see that the accents we‘re going to have is about the Bible. Thank you.

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

The Five Stages of Grief http://grief.com/the-five-stages-of-grief/

The Five Stages of Grief

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross & David Kessler

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance David Kessler & Elisabeth Kübler- Ross working on the five stages of grief The stages have evolved since their introduction and they have been very misunderstood over the past three On Grief and Grieving is decades. They were never meant to help tuck messy Elisabeth Kübler-Ross‘s emotions into neat packages. They are responses to final legacy, one that loss that many people have, but there is not a typical brings her life‘s work response to loss as there is no typical loss. Our grief is profoundly full circle. as individual as our lives.

On Death and Dying The five stages, denial, anger, bargaining, depression began as a theoretical and acceptance are a part of the framework that makes book, an interdisciplinary up our learning to live with the one we lost. They are study of our fear of death tools to help us frame and identify what we may be and our inevitable feeling. But they are not stops on some linear timeline acceptance of it. It in grief. Not everyone goes through all of them or in a introduced the world to prescribed order. Our hope is that with these stages the now-famous five comes the knowledge of grief ‘s terrain, making us stages: denial, anger, better equipped to cope with life and loss. bargaining, depression and acceptance. On Grief Denial and Grieving applies these stages to the process of This first stage of grieving helps us to survive the loss. grieving and weaves In this stage, the world becomes meaningless and together theory, overwhelming. Life makes no sense. We are in a state inspiration and practical of shock and denial. We go numb. We wonder how advice, all based on we can go on, if we can go on, why we should go on. Kübler-Ross and We try to find a way to simply get through each day. Kessler‘s professional and Denial and shock help us to cope and make survival personal experiences. possible. Denial helps us to pace our feelings of grief. There is a grace in denial. It is nature‘s way of letting in only as much as we can handle.

As you accept the reality of the loss and start to ask yourself questions, you are unknowingly beginning the healing process. You are becoming stronger, and the denial is beginning to fade. But as you proceed, all the feelings you were denying begin to surface. Anger

Anger is a necessary stage of the healing process. Be willing to feel your anger, even though it may seem endless. The more you truly feel it, the more it will begin to dissipate and the more you will heal. There are many other emotions under the anger and you will get to them in time, but anger is the emotion we are most used to managing. The truth is that anger has no limits. It can extend not only to your friends, the doctors, your family, yourself and your loved one who died, but also to God. You may ask, ―Where is God in this?

Underneath anger is pain, your pain. It is natural to feel deserted and abandoned, but we live in a society that fears anger. Anger is strength and it can be an anchor, giving temporary structure to the nothingness of loss. At first grief feels like being lost at sea: no connection to anything. Then you get angry at someone, maybe a person who didn‘t attend the funeral, maybe a person who isn‘t around, maybe a person who is different now that your loved one has died. Suddenly you have a structure – - your anger toward them. The anger becomes a bridge over the open sea, a connection from you to them. It is something to hold onto; and a connection made from the strength of anger feels better than nothing.We usually know more about suppressing anger than feeling it. The anger is just another indication of the intensity of your love. Bargaining

Before a loss, it seems like you will do anything if only your loved one would be spared. ―Please God, ‖ you bargain, ―I will never be angry at my wife again if you‘ll just let her live.‖ After a loss, bargaining may take the form of a temporary truce. ―What if I devote the rest of my life to helping others. Then can I wake up and realize this has all been a bad dream?‖

We become lost in a maze of ―If only…‖ or ―What if…‖ statements. We want life returned to what is was; we want our loved one restored. We want to go back in time: find the tumor sooner, recognize the illness more quickly, stop the accident from happening…if only, if only, if only. Guilt is often bargaining‘s companion. The ―if onlys‖ cause us to find fault in ourselves and what we ―think‖ we could have done differently. We may even bargain with the pain. We will do anything not to feel the pain of this loss. We remain in the past, trying to negotiate our way out of the hurt. People often think of the stages as lasting weeks or months. They forget that the stages are responses to feelings that can last for minutes or hours as we flip in and out of one and then another. We do not enter and leave each individual stage in a linear fashion. We may feel one, then another and back again to the first one. Depression

After bargaining, our attention moves squarely into the present. Empty feelings present themselves, and grief enters our lives on a deeper level, deeper than we ever imagined. This depressive stage feels as though it will last forever. It‘s important to understand that this depression is not a sign of mental illness. It is the appropriate response to a great loss. We withdraw from life, left in a fog of intense sadness, wondering, perhaps, if there is any point in going on alone? Why go on at all? Depression after a loss is too often seen as unnatural: a state to be fixed, something to snap out of. The first question to ask yourself is whether or not the situation you‘re in is actually depressing. The loss of a loved one is a very depressing situation, and depression is a normal and appropriate response. To not experience depression after a loved one dies would be unusual. When a loss fully settles in your soul, the realization that your loved one didn‘t get better this time and is not coming back is understandably depressing. If grief is a process of healing, then depression is one of the many necessary steps along the way.

Acceptance

Acceptance is often confused with the notion of being ―all right‖ or ―OK‖ with what has happened. This is not the case. Most people don‘t ever feel OK or all right about the loss of a loved one. This stage is about accepting the reality that our loved one is physically gone and recognizing that this new reality is the permanent reality. We will never like this reality or make it OK, but eventually we accept it. We learn to live with it. It is the new norm with which we must learn to live. We must try to live now in a world where our loved one is missing. In resisting this new norm, at first many people want to maintain life as it was before a loved one died. In time, through bits and pieces of acceptance, however, we see that we cannot maintain the past intact. It has been forever changed and we must readjust. We must learn to reorganize roles, re-assign them to others or take them on ourselves.

Finding acceptance may be just having more good days than bad ones. As we begin to live again and enjoy our life, we often feel that in doing so, we are betraying our loved one. We can never replace what has been lost, but we can make new connections, new meaningful relationships, new inter-dependencies. Instead of denying our feelings, we listen to our needs; we move, we change, we grow, we evolve. We may start to reach out to others and become involved in their lives. We invest in our friendships and in our relationship with ourselves. We begin to live again, but we cannot do so until we have given grief its time.

At times, people in grief will often report more stages. Just remember your grief is an unique as you are.

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Frequently Asked Questions about Heaven and Hell http://www.lcms.org/Document.fdoc?src=lcm&id=572

LCMS Frequently Asked Questions

Doctrinal Issues – Heaven and Hell (To navigate the document, hold down your control key and click the appropriate heading)

Heaven and Hell ...... 2

What happens to people who have not heard the Gospel? ...... 2

What’s the LCMS view on the Left Behind series? ...... 3

Are there degrees or levels in heaven or hell? ...... 4

Does the LCMS believe in the rapture? ...... 5

Can you sin in heaven? ...... 6

What happens when people die? ...... 7

Are my family members with God or are they asleep until the end of the world? ...... 8 Frequently Asked Questions

Heaven and Hell What happens to people who have not heard the Gospel?

Q: I recently attended a Bible study in which we discussed the fate of those who never had the chance to hear about God. What happens to such people?

A: In his book What's the Answer? (Concordia Publishing House, 1960), LCMS theologian Otto Sohn raises the question, "What stand does our church take regarding the heathen who have never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and what is the individual's responsibility toward these people?" His answer follows:

Christ, the Savior of the world, answered the first question in this way: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark 16:16). The apostle Peter put it another way: "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). The same truth is expressed in John 3:16; 18:36; Romans 2:12; Ephesians 2:11-13.

Though such people have not heard the Gospel, they are without excuse (Romans 1:19-23; 2:12). God has not left Himself without witness (Acts 14:17), but has revealed His existence by the works of nature and wants men to seek Him, if "haply they might feel after Him and find Him" (Acts 17:27). The Bible also reveals that people who knowingly and willfully reject the Gospel of Jesus will be more severely punished than those who never heard it (Luke 12:47, 48).

Because of the horrible doom awaiting all those who do not believe in Jesus, we should seek to reach as many as possible with our own fearless witness and ardently support the missionary endeavors of our church on behalf of those whom we cannot reach with our own voice. Nor must we forget our responsibility toward fellow Christians who are on the verge of erring from the truth, whether by word or deed (Galatians 6:1; James 5:19, 20). And lest we should preach to others, but ourselves become castaways, we should be earnestly concerned about our own salvation (Matthew 26:41; 1 Corinthians 10:12; Philippians 2:12).

What’s the LCMS view on the Left Behind series?

Q: Recently many people have been reading the Left Behind series of books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. While these are fiction books, they discuss the "end times" within a biblical context. What is the LCMS position on these books and their portrayal of the end times?

A: The conceptual framework for the Left Behind series is the so-called "rapture," which is a central aspect of dispensational pre-millennial views of the end times. Such views conflict with the Lutheran position on what the Scriptures and the Lutheran confessional writings teach concerning the coming of Christ and the end of the world.

To assist readers in their evaluation of the Left Behind series, we recommend that they consult the 1989 report of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations titled The End Times: A Study of Eschatology and Millennialism. Included in this report is a discussion of current views of "the rapture" and helpful charts summarizing them. You also may wish to read an article that appeared in the March 2001 issue of The Lutheran Witness titled "Will You Be Left Behind?”

Are there degrees or levels in heaven or hell?

Q: In our Bible study today we discussed if there are degrees or levels in heaven and hell. It was also suggested that hell is not eternal. Are there scriptural references to support these points?

A: In its report on The End Times: A Study of Eschatology and Millennialism, the Synod's Commission on Theology and Church Relations says regarding hell: "In both "body and soul" unbelievers will suffer eternal separation and condemnation in hell (Matt 18:8; 25:46; Mark 9:43; John 3:36; 2 Thess. 1:9; Jude 13; Rev. 14:11).[40] Indescribable torment will be experienced consciously, the degree determined by the nature of the sins to be punished (Matt. 11:20-24; 23:15; Luke 12:47-48)."

Regarding heaven and "degrees of glory" the Commission says: "Eternal life is pictured in the Scriptures as a state of never-ending "blessedness." This means, on the one hand, that Christians will live forever in perfect freedom from sin, death, and every evil (Is. 25:8; 49:10; 1 Cor. 15:26, 55-57; Rev. 2:7, 11; 20:14; 21:4). At the same time, they will experience the unending joy of being with God in the new heavens and new earth (e.g., Revelation 21-22; Ps. 16:11). Forever eliminated is the possibility of falling away from God. This blessedness will bring with it the joy of being in eternal communion with fellow believers, whom we have reason to believe we shall recognize (cf. Matt. 17:3). And, there will be no limitations or degrees attached to the enjoyment of the happiness to be experienced, though there will be degrees of glory corresponding to differences of work and fidelity here on earth, producing praise to God but no envy (see 2 Cor. 9:6; Matt. 20:23)."

Does the LCMS believe in the rapture?

Q: Does The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod believe in the rapture?

A: The answer to your question depends on what you mean by "the rapture." The English word "rapture" is derived from the Latin translation of the verb "caught up" in 1 Thess. 4:17 (rapiemur). Lutherans certainly believe what Paul teaches in this passage, namely, that those who are still living on earth when Christ returns visibly on the last day "will be caught up" ("raptured") together with "the dead in Christ" to "meet the Lord in the air."

Some Christians teach, however, that the "rapture" will take place not on the last day but in connection with an "invisible" coming of Christ occurring before a seven-year period of "tribulation" on earth, allowing Christians to "escape" this tribulation and then later return to earth for a literal "1,000 year reign of Christ."

Lutherans do not believe that these teachings are based on a proper understanding of Scripture. Scripture teaches that all Christians will endure varying degrees of "tribulation" until the last day, that Christ will return only once (visibly) to "catch up" ("rapture") all believers, living and dead, into heaven, and that all believers will reign forever with him in heaven. Lutherans understand the "1000 years" of Rev. 20:11-15 to be a figurative reference to Christ's reign here and now in the hearts and lives of believers, which will culminate in our reigning with Christ forever in heaven following his return on the last day.

For more information, you may want to read the Synod's theological commission report titled The End Times: A Study of Eschatology and Millennialism.

Can you sin in heaven?

Q: Can you sin in heaven? My first thought is that one cannot. But then I wonder if God takes away our free will when we get to heaven? I can't imagine why we would want to sin in heaven--we'll be perfect and the place we are will be perfect. But then I think of Adam and Eve before the fall—they were perfect, made in God's image, and they lived in a perfect place. Yet they had free will and sinned.

A: Your first thought, from your knowledge of the Bible, is correct beyond all doubt. There is no sin in heaven, because it is the place where the sinless God dwells. Those who have been cleansed in the blood of the Lamb have been cleansed forever. There is no more death in heaven, the result of sin. We die once and then the judgment. Our death ends sin, the Scripture says.

Just as the good angels are fixed in their sinless state now, so also we shall be. We will serve God forever willingly, but it will be impossible for us to will to sin as did our first parents. In heaven it will not be like in the beginning of our human history. Old things have passed away, the new has come (Rev. 21:4). There will be only life, eternal life, and where there is eternal life there is eternal sinlessness. Rest your soul on that and praise God for His great goodness in giving us a sinless Savior.

What happens when people die?

Q: What happens when we die? Are we judged immediately and our soul sent to Heaven or Hell or what?

A: Lutherans believe that Scripture teaches that at the moment of death the souls of believers enter the joy of heaven (Luke 23:43; Acts 7:59; Rev. 19:13; Phil. 1:23-24), while the souls of unbelievers at death are consigned to "the prison" of everlasting judgment in hell (1 Peter 3:19-20; Acts 1:25). The departed souls remain in heaven or hell until the Day of Judgment, when they shall be reunited with their own bodies (Matt. 10:28; John 5:28-29; John 11:24; Job 19:26).

Therefore, "The Last Judgment is the grand finale of this present world, in which the sentence pronounced in death over the individual will be publicly confirmed and extended to the body, which till then has returned to the dust, from whence it came. He who continues in the faith unto the end has nothing to fear for his soul after death or for his body and soul on the Day of Judgment (Rev. 2:10; 14:13)" (Edward Koehler, A Summary of Christian Doctrine, St. Louis: Concordia, 1939).

You may also want to read the Frequently Asked Question, Asleep Until the End of the World. (See page 8.)

Are my family members with God or are they asleep until the end of the world?

Q: Recently, both my sister and father have died (separately). While I truly believe that Jesus died for our sins, those who accept Him as their personal Savior, I have been troubled as to where my sister and father are now. Are they asleep until the end of the world? Are their bodies asleep, but their souls with God? Or, are they in Heaven with God now?

A: What Scripture teaches concerning the death of the Christian is summarized as follows by Lutheran theologian Edward Koehler in his book, A Summary of Christian Doctrine:

In the moment of death the souls of the believers enter the joy of heaven. Jesus said to the malefactor: "Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). Stephen said in the hour of death: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (Acts 7:59). Whoever dies in the Lord is blessed "from henceforth" (Rev. 14:13). Paul desires "to be with Christ," and adds that this is "far better" for him than to continue in the flesh (Phil. 1:23. 24). For this reason we pray that finally, when our last hour has come, God would grant us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this vale of tears to Himself in heaven.

On the day of the final judgment, the redeemed souls in heaven will be reunited with their own (now glorified) bodies, and will begin to enjoy the bliss of heaven in both body and soul (John 5:28-29; Phil. 3:20-21; 1 Cor. 15). The Lutheran church has always rejected as unscriptural the idea that the soul "sleeps" between death and Judgment Day in such a way that it is not conscious of heavenly bliss.

Usage: We urge you to contact an LCMS pastor in your area for more in-depth discussion. Published by: LCMS Church Information Center

©The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod 1333 S. Kirkwood Road, St. Louis, MO 63122-7295 888-843-5267 • [email protected] • www.lcms.org/faqs

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Myths About Death: Why Easter Matters http://witness.lcms.org/pages/wPage.asp?ContentID=987&IssueID=54

Myths about Death: Why Easter Matters

by Jared Melius

The fathers decorated sepulchers magnificently. They did not throw away the dead like bodies of beasts, but they set up memorials of them for a perpetual reminder so that they might be testimonies of the future resurrection, which they believed and expected. Martin Luther

Photo iStockPhoto.com The world is full of mythologies concerning dying and death. Hollywood, atheists, eastern religions and occultists have their own ideas about death. These beliefs are obviously unbiblical, if not plain silly, but there are some other unbiblical myths that many Christians, and maybe even some Lutherans, believe.

Myth 1: Death is natural.

A recent PBS publication aimed at helping little children cope with death and dying included this statement: Death happens to all living things, from blades of grass to frogs, dogs, and people. Whether its unexpected or a long time coming . . . death is part of what it means to live. The message? Death is natural, and anything that is natural cannot be evil.

If PBS is right, then why is death so terrifying? Because we know that death is not natural.

What humans may not know is the reason that we die. The Bible says that death is our enemy (1 Cor. 15:26), and it has been brought on by human sin (Rom. 6:23) and defeated by Jesus on the cross. Death is not natural. It is not good. It is impossible to die with dignity. In Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics: Eschatology, John Stephenson remarks, The cosmetic accomplishments of contemporary funeral parlors are powerless to remove the sting of death, which is sin.

Rather, Easter tells us that death has been disarmed and defeated by the Lord Jesus. His resurrection, not the well-meaning myths of our culture, is our comfort in death.

Myth 2: A Christian will have to answer for his sins when he dies.

This misconception arises from popular ideas and misinterpretations of some biblical texts. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, teaches that every person in the world will immediately undergo a judgment upon death to determine if his or her life merits entrance into heaven, hell or purgatory.

Certainly, the Bible teaches that everyone will die and immediately be judged (Heb. 9:27; Rom. 14:12; 2 Cor. 5:9, 10). However, for Christians, this judgment is nothing like the heavenly interrogation room of popular lore. (Think St. Peter, old and bearded, sitting at the pearly gates acting as the heavenly doorman or bouncer.) After all, those incorporated into Christ escape judgment according to the Law (Rom. 8:1, 3134; John 5:24). Christians will not have to answer for their sins, because Jesus has already answered for them on the cross. And Easter proves it.

The resurrection of Jesus is the Fathers declaration that the sins of the whole world are paid in full by Jesus. If we still had to answer for our sins and convince God to let us into heaven, that would mean Jesus failed. But He has not failed. Easter proves it. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us (Ps. 103:12).

Myth 3: When you die, you become an angel.

You‘ve heard this sentiment before, haven‘t you? God needed one more angel in His choir. She has her wings now. Grandma is watching over us. This is simply not Lutheran.

Jesus was incarnate as a man, not an angel. He died in His body and His soul as a man, not an angel. He rose on Easter and showed Thomas His human hands and side. Jesus did not save us to be glorified as angels; He saved us to give us glorified bodies like unto His own (Phil. 3:21; Rom. 6:5, 8). The same distinction between men and angels now will continue in heaven.

Myth 4: When you die, you’ll finally be through with the body.

The older we get, the more our bodies hurt and fail. In time, even Christians long for the day they won‘t have painful knees, ailing lungs or failing hearts. We are tempted to be free of the body. Popular myth postulates that, in heaven, we will be free of it.

Despite its regular repetition in the Creed, the resurrection of the body is taught infrequently, even in the Church. Many well-meaning pastors preach their funeral sermons and give the impression that the deceased in Christ already enjoys his or her full resurrection reward.

No, not yet. When a Christian dies, the soul ascends to paradise, while the body sleeps and awaits the final day of Christ‘s coming.

One time, I was called to a parishioner‘s bedside. When I arrived, I asked the family to see Jane, and they responded, Oh Pastor, didn‘t you hear? She died. She‘s not here any longer.

I responded, What about her body? They showed me Jane‘s body. I put my hands on her head and spoke the blessing I would later speak over the casket at the committal. May God the Father, who has created this body, and may God the Son, who by His death and resurrection has redeemed this body, and may God the Holy Spirit, who has sanctified this body in Holy Baptism, keep it safe until the resurrection of the dead. Amen. Quite unexpectedly, Jane‘s family seemed to realize that though Jane‘s soul was in heaven, her precious body was still under our care. We had to gently lay Jane in the ground a few days later, but someday, well embrace that same body in heaven.

Myth 5: funerals are for the living, not the dead.

This is only partially true. The chief function of a funeral is to care properly for the body of a Christian after death. Caring for the body of a beloved Christian proclaims the resurrection of the dead, even as it proclaims the resurrection of Christ Jesus on Easter.

As a pastor, I consider the care of the body my chief responsibility. If you attend a funeral at Mt. Zion, youll often find me standing aside the casket, keeping watch. At the , I am rarely far from the casket, usually walking right beside or in front of it. Often, I am the last to leave the casket at graveside. I am caring for the body. This is what funerals are about.

Of course, the funeral is also a comfort for the hurting family and friends of the loved ones. The readings, prayers and sermon are a reminder of Jesus Christ‘s work and salvation. The family is important, but caring for the dead and confessing Christ is more important still. Oftentimes, families who think that the funeral is only for the living demand to include secular songs or secular ceremonies or a eulogy apart from the sermon. Whatever helps them come to terms with their loss or honor their loved one is, in their opinion, fair game. But the funeral is not chiefly the occasion to serve the living, but, rather, the dead in Christ.

Myth 6: the soul sleeps.

When Jesus hung on the cross, one of His seven precious words was spoken right before He died: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Jesus body was laid into a tomb to await Easter morning, but His spirit was not in that tomb. After all, the Bibles definition of death is the separation of the body from ones soul or spirit (Eccl. 12:7; 2 Cor. 5:8; Acts 7:59). On Easter morning, Jesus showed Himself alive, proof that His soul had been re-united with His body. So, where was the soul of Jesus on the Saturday that His body was in the tomb? It was in precisely the same place that the Bible teaches all the souls of Christians are when they die: committed to the Fathers hands. We know for certain that there is an intermediate state between the death of the Christian and the final resurrection of the dead. Some in the history of the Church have contended that the soul merely sleeps unconsciously-peaceful but unconscious until the resurrection of the body. This view is commonly called soul sleep, a view maintaining that the Christian does not enjoy a reward when he or she dies but must wait until the resurrection. This is a myth, but a myth that mistakenly borrows from biblical language. Frequently, the Bible refers to the death of Christians as sleeping (Matt. 9:24; John 11:11; Acts 7:60). This, how-ever, is only a reference to the state of the body, not the soul. The soul is in paradise with Jesus (Luke 23:43).

Myth 7: the funeral of a Christian is a celebration.

Have you heard this recently? It started amongst pagans and unbelievers. Instead of mourning the loss of their loved ones, they threw parties in their honor instead. They didn‘t want a funeral; they wanted a celebration of life! Away with the flowers and cards. Bring in the balloons and beer!

This language has even come in to the Church. Funeral folders are entitled Celebration of Life. But of all the times a person ought to be allowed to be sad, a funeral should be it.

Our Lord gives permission to mourn when someone dies. He said to His disciples on the night of His betrayal, I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy (John 16:20). We do not grieve like the world, which has no hope in the resurrection. If we are sad, we are not crying for the Christian safe in paradise. We are sad and we cry because the one we loved is no longer with us.

Many Christians feel that if they are overwhelmingly sad at the loss of a loved one, their faith must be weak. No! Our Lord Jesus Himself cried at the loss of His dear friend Lazarus. Do not be ashamed. The Lord will wipe away all your tears in heaven, but that does not mean that He has wiped them away now. For now, we walk in a vale of tears. The Lord is risen, and that gives great and permanent joy, even in the midst of sadness, but it does not remove sadness. And let us remember this much: If death is the occasion for a celebration, why has our Lord gone to such lengths to destroy it? Why would Easter give such comfort if death were nothing more than an occasion for a party?

Death is hard. It should be. But thanks be to God, Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Him, though he die, yet shall he live (John 11:25).

---

> Did you know? Among those who rarely or never attend church, 46% believe Jesus rose from the dead (Rasmussen Reports).

> On the web To read more on what the LCMS teaches about death, go to www.lcms.org/?14393

> Our life with Christ continues, even after death, even before the resurrection (TLSB, p. 1750).

> On the Last Day He will . . . give eternal life to me and to all believers in Christ (Third Article of the Creed).

> The angels in heaven pray for us, as does Christ himself [Romans 8:34] (SA II 26).

---

On Death and Dying

Final Victory: Contemplating the Death and Funeral of a Christian The death of a Christian is an important event as we receive all that God has promised. However, grief and sorrow often hinder this thinking. This book (1) gives the pastor or Christian counselor a theologically sound, organized way to briefly present the hope and comfort of Scripture; (2) provides resources to help the pastor and mourner make and record the decisions of what will constitute the details of the funeral service; and (3) provides a source of comfort in the days after the funeral for loved ones.

Hymns of Comfort and Peace (CD) Churches, pastors and laymen will benefit from this treasury of comforting Lutheran hymnody. Lasting over an hour, this CD includes such hymns as Beautiful Savior, Behold a Host, Arrayed in White, Lord, Let at Last Thine Angels Come, For All the Saints and I Know That My Redeemer Lives. Find these and more at www.cph.org

What about non-Christian Funerals?

Well-meaning pastors, in their zeal to proclaim the gospel to everyone they can, are sometimes willing to conduct a Christian burial for just about anyone, even a known non-Christian. It makes no difference, the faith of the deceased, they reason, because the funeral is only for the living, not the dead.

But how can the funeral be an honest proclamation of the resurrection of the body when the very body under consideration will not be raised to everlasting life? how does the pastor avoid giving the impression to the mourners that this man or woman, despite an ungodly and unbelieving life, is now safely in heaven? the risk of sending the wrong message is nearly insurmountable. Christian burial is a privilege only for those who have fallen asleep in the lord.

---

About the Author: Rev. Jared Melius is pastor of Mount Zion Lutheran Church, Denver, Colo.

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

A Statement on Death, Resurrection and Immortality http://www.lcms.org/Document.fdoc?src=lcm&id=428

A Statement on Death, Resurrection and Immortality A Position Paper

A Report of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod March 15, 1969

CONTENTS Introduction I. The Biblical Witness A. The Concept of Soul B. Death C. Life After Death 1. The Old Testament 2. The New Testament II. The Concepts of Soul, Death, and Life After Death in the Christian Tradition III. Summary Observations

INTRODUCTION In 1962 the Cleveland convention of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod received some expressions of doctrinal concern regarding certain theological speculations in the area of eschatology ("the last things"), especially as these touched questions of death, the soul, resurrection, and immortality (Reports and Memorials, 1962, p. 161). The convention sketched the general framework within which these questions should be answered (Proceedings, 1962, p. 106) and further resolved to refer these specific questions together with others "to the Commission on Theology and Church Relations, to pastoral conferences, and to congregations for further study." (Res. 3-16B, Proceedings, 1962, p. 105)

The commission now offers the following position paper to the members of the Synod in a fraternal effort to meet the concerns reflected in the questions addressed to the Synod. While several scholarly essays were presented to the commission on these topics, the commission believes that the needs of the Synod will be best served by a concise treatment. This study addresses itself most specifically to the following concerns: Does the Bible teach that man has an immortal soul, which Christ died to save, and that, when a Christian dies, his soul goes to a blessed life with God? and: Does the Bible teach a physical resurrection of our flesh? (Reports and Memorials, 1962, p.161)

I THE BIBLICAL WITNESS A. The Concept "Soul" The Biblical language concerning man's soul does not provide the basis for constructing a clear picture of the nature of man's being. Thus Scripture speaks of man as consisting of body and soul (Is. 10: 18; Matt 10: 28); of flesh and spirit (1 Cor. 5: 5); of mind and flesh (Rom. 7:25); of spirit, soul, and body (1 Thess. 5: 23; see Heb. 4: 12); while in other passages it speaks of him as a unitary being (Gen.2:7), to use a contemporary expression. The Old Testament frequently uses "soul" (nephesh) as a synonym for the total person. (Gen. 12: 5; 34: 3; Ex. 1: 5; Lev. 4: 2; Joshua 11: 11; and so forth)

B. Death Scripture teaches that death is the penalty for sin (Gen.3:14-19) and that this penalty affects all men in their bodies and souls (Matt. 10: 28; 1 Cor. 15:42-50) Many passages in the Old Testament stress the dreadful character of death by speaking of it as eternal destruction and by using other metaphors of finality (Ps. 92: 7; Prov. 10:25; Is. 26:14; and so forth). At death the soul is not annihilated, but neither does it possess immortality by virtue of any natural or inherent qualities Man's eternal existence, either in the state which Scripture calls life or else in the state which it calls death, is determined by his relationship to Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.

C. Life After Death 1. The Old Testament The Old Testament Scriptures contain many references to the continuation of life after death. For example, the patriarchs believed that after their death they would be "gathered to their fathers in peace.” This expression did not imply interment in a family grave, for it is used of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, even though they were buried far from the land of their fathers (Gen. 25: 8-10; 35: 29; 49: 33; Num. 27: 13; Deut. 32: 50). The expression "he was gathered to his people" or "he slept with his people" shows the intense hope of the Israelite to be united with his ancestors, even in death. Our Lord summarized the Old Testament hope when He reminded the Sadducees that God was not the God of the dead but of the living. (Matt. 22: 32)

Sheol, despite its often grim and shadowy character, was a place of continued existence in some form (Job 26:5-6; Num. 16:30; 1 Sam. 2:6). Some passages describe sheol as a place of darkness (Job 10: 20-22); or a place to hide (Job 14: 13); or a place of hopelessness (Is. 28: 18) from which there is no return (Job 7: 9). Other passages contain a more positive affirmation about life after death and assure the pious Israelite that God will not abandon His saints in death but will abide with them, deliver them from sheol, and receive them to glory. (Ps. 16: 9- 11; 49: 15; 73: 24)

2. The New Testament Jesus knew that death could not annihilate Him but that He would arise and through His rising destroy the power of death (John 11:25 ff.; 14:6; Mark 9:30-32; see Acts 2: 22-28; Rom. 1: 4; Eph. 1: 20). St. Paul cherished this same confidence (Phil. 1: 23; 2 Cor. 5: 8). Other passages describe the departed faithful as being with God. (Matt. 22: 29-32; Rev. 6: 9-11)

The New Testament speaks of the departed faithful as existing in a conscious and blessed state which at the very least can be described as the persistence of the individual's identity before God. The faithful are described as being in the presence of God and of enjoying peace and rest with Him. They are also described as sleeping (1 Thess. 4:13 f.) or of being in the tombs (John 5:28 f.: Matt. 27: 51-53). The inspired writers speak of death variously as the separation of body and soul (Gen.35:18) or as the departure of the spirit (Acts 7: 59; Luke 23: 46) or as the passing of the "I," the total person (Phil. 1: 23), "to be with Christ." The New Testament also teaches the physical resurrection of the body in several passages (John 5:28 f.; Rom. 8: 11;1 C or. 15: 51-54). Finally, the New Testament affirms that the physical bodies of the departed faithful will be glorified. (1 Cor. 15: 51-54; Phil. 3: 20-21)

II THE CONCEPTS OF SOUL, DEATH, AND LIFE AFTER DEATH IN THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION The whole Christian tradition expresses in its doctrinal treatises, its hymns, and its liturgies the conviction that believers continue to exist after physical death. Sometimes these expressions employ the body- soul language which is so characteristic of Christian piety today; sometimes one finds unitary language. Thus Clement of Rome (A.D. 95) uses Biblical unitary language when he says that Sts. Peter and Paul went immediately to the holy place after their death (1 Clem 6:1 -7; see also 50:3). Irenaeus (ea. A.D. 175) employs the body-soul pattern of language and speaks of souls of Christians going to "invisible places designated for them by God," where, after the resurrection, they will receive bodies, "just as the Lord Himself." (Adversus Haereses 5: 31; see also Martyrdom of Polycarp 17: 1)

Martin Luther reflects the variety of Scriptural language when he speaks of death and of the condition of the departed faithful. In some passages he speaks of a distinction between body and soul (W. A. 36, 241), while in other passages he affirms the unitary nature of man also in the state between death and the resurrection (W. A., Tisehreden [Ser. 2, vol. V, No. 5534], 218 f.; 43, 218). Thus he can speak both of the whole Abraham being with God and of the "soul" of Abraham resting or serving God (W. A. 43, 480). He also repeatedly expresses his faith that the body will be raised on the last day. (W. A. 12, 268; 36, 605)

The Lutheran Confessions, the normative statement of Biblical doctrine for Lutherans, speaks, like Scriptures, of man as having a body and a soul (Formula of Concord, Epitome IX, 1: Large Catechism, Baptism 45; Smalcald Articles, Part III, Art. I, 11). But the references cited here clearly teach that man's body and soul are integrally united; both are corrupted by sin and subject to death (F. C., Epit. I, 4; S. D. I, 2. 46 f.; S. A., Part III, Art. I, 11). Together they constitute man's essence or nature (F. C., S. D., I, 2). According to the Athanasian Creed the rational soul and the flesh are one man, as God and man are one Christ (35).

The Confessions agree with Scripture and the all but unanimous tradition of the church in assigning significant theological meanings to death. The Confessions rule out the contemporary view that death is a pleasant and painless transition into a perfect world. For the death is destruction: the destruction of the sinful flesh so that believers may arise completely renewed (Apology XII, 153; F. C., Epit. I, 10). Death is also the divine eternal judgment on body and soul-a horrible and frightening prospect to contemplate - except for those who live in Jesus Christ.

The Confessions affirm the persistence of personal identity beyond death. For example, the Smalcald Articles refer to the saints "in their graves and in heaven." (Part II, Art. II, 28; II, III, 26; see also F. C.,S. D. I, 37; Apology XXI, 9)

The Lutheran Confessions permit the use of the expression which is so deeply embedded in Christian piety: "The soul of the departed has gone to heaven to be with its Maker." But they require that this phrase be used in a context which includes a true, Scripture-based understanding of the meaning of death, of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and of the nature of man's eternal existence.

Concerning the resurrection of the flesh, the Confessions are crystal-clear. The Formula of Concord speaks of our flesh rising (F. C., S. D. I, 46). The Large Catechism affirms that "our flesh will be put to death will be buried... and will come forth gloriously and arise." (Creed, 57)

The Orthodox Lutheran dogmaticians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries follow the general lead of the Confessions on these topics They also stress the once- or-all character of Christ's resurrection and the full enjoyment of bliss which awaits the believer at the Last Day. Leonard Hutter (1563-1616) writes that the essential blessedness will not be achieved until the resurrection in Jesus Christ. He asserts that "the souls of....the believers in Christ are in the hands of God, awaiting there the glorious resurrection of the body and the full enjoyment of the eternal blessedness" (Compendium Locorum Theologicorum [Leipzig: C. L. Jacob, 1747], p. 644). Martin Chemnitz likewise confesses his faith in eternal life through Jesus Christ. (De Duabus Naturis [Leipzig, 1600], p. 176)

Francis Pieper writes in a similar vein: "Holy Writ reveals but little of the state of the souls between death and the resurrection. In speaking of the List things, it directs our gaze primarily to Judgment Day and the events clustering around it." (Christian Dogmatics, trans. Walter W. F. Albrecht III [St. Louis, 1953], p.511) Reflecting Dr. Pieper's position, John Theodore Mueller declares: "The Christian hope of eternal life (John 17, 3) must... not be confounded With the pagan doctrine of the immortality of the soul." (Christian Dogmatics [St. Louis, 1934], p. 639)

III SUMMARY OBSERVATIONS 1. The Scriptures describe man's being in a variety of ways. For example, they describe him as consisting of body and soul, of spirit, soul, and body; and as a unitary being. Since all these insights are Scriptural, they need to be affirmed and defended, as they have been throughout the history of the church.

2. The Scriptures declare that sin is the - temporal, spiritual, and eternal. Natural man is corrupted by sin in body and soul and is completely subject to death. Death is the destruction of the flesh (natural man), and it is this destruction which makes it possible for the believer to rise completely renewed.

3. In some Scripture passages death is described as the departure of the spirit or the return of the spirit to its Maker; in others it is pictured as the passing of the "I," the total person, to the eternal realm.

4. The Scriptures affirm the continued existence of all men with their personal identity intact between death and the resurrection, and thereafter. They teach that upon death believers are in the hands of God and that they are with Christ. Those who have rejected Christ will be condemned by the judgment of His Word. (John 12: 48)

5. The Scriptures teach concerning the resurrection that "all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment" (John 5: 28-29). Believers therefore "await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like His glorious body."(Phil. 3: 20-21)

6. The Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions compel us: a. To reject the teaching that death terminates the existence of man so as to preclude the possibility of the persistence beyond death of his personal identity before God.

b. To reject the teaching that at death man is annihilated in such a way as to preclude even for the grace and power of God the possibility of his physical resurrection, or of his final and eternal judgment.

c. To reject the teaching that the "last things, "namely, the eschatological acts of divine judgment and salvation, are fully realized and consummated only within the realm of earthly history, so as to preclude a life or death to come.

d. To reject the teaching that the resurrection should be conceived in such a way as to exclude the body (in effect the Gnostic heresy that matter is essentially evil and that only the "spirit" is capable of being saved).

e. To reject the teaching that the soul is by nature and by virtue of an inherent quality immortal, as the pagans thought and as is taught in a number of fraternal orders today. This concept denies the Christian Gospel of the resurrection of our Lord and of the resurrection of the believers through Him alone.

f. To reject the teaching that the soul "sleeps" between death and the resurrection in such a way that it is not conscious of bliss.

7. When Scripture talks about death, the condition of the believer between death and the resurrection, and the resurrection itself, its primary purpose is to proclaim to the Christian what great things God has done for him through Jesus Christ. Through this witness, God offers to believers the sure hope of everlasting life with Jesus Christ. Thus the Holy Spirit creates in the believer joy and hope in the face of the last enemy, death. This is our Gospel hope.

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Paul’s Use of the Imagery of Sleep http://www.ctsfw.net/media/pdfs/malyszpaulsuseofimageryofsleep.pdf

Concordia Theological Quarterly

Volume 621 January 2003 Table of Contents

Jesus and the Woman at the Well: Where Mission Meets Worship Peter J. Scaer ...... 3

Baptism as Consolation in Luther's Pastoral Care John T. Pless ...... 19

Luther's Care of Souls for Our Times Reinhard Slenczka ...... 33

Paul's Use of the Imagery of Sleep and His Understanding of the Christian Life Piotr J. Malysz ...... 65

Theological Observer ...... 7 9 An Appeal for Charity with Clarity: Observations and Questions on Terms and Phrases in Need of Clarification Why are there Small Churches?

Book Reviews ...... 89 The Letter to Philemon. By Joseph A. Fitzmyer...... Charles R. Schulz Mark: Images of an Apostolic Interpreter. By C. Clifton Black...... Peter J. Scaer Introducing the Reformed Faith: Biblical Revelation, Christian Tradition, Contemporary Significance. By Donald K. McKim...... Timothy Maschke

On My Heart Imprint Your Image: A Collection of Hymns for the Christian Year. By Kathryn M. Peperkorn, soprano/ Rev. John M. Berg, organ...... Kevin Hildebrand

The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present. Edited by Richard Lischer...... Mark Nuckols

Books Received...... 96

Paul's Use of the Imagery of Sleep and His Understanding of the Christian Life: A Study in the Thessalonian Correspondence

Piotr J. Malysz (Assistant Pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Westminster, Massachusetts.)

Introduction

The imagery of sleep remains one of the most universal and enduring metaphors in human culture. Its prevalence can be explained not only by the fact that sleep, as a physiological function of the body, is characteristic of all of God's animate creation, but also by the very nature of sleep, which easily lends itself to a variety of interpretations. Some of these can be neutral or positive, as is, for example, the metaphorical understanding of death as sleep - though even in this context there can appear a streak of negativity, nostalgia, or helplessness. Others may suggest laziness, lack of caution, or the absence of watchfulness.

In the multiple and diverse references that it makes to sleep, the Bible is no different. It needs to be said, however, that the Jewish use of the metaphor is somewhat different from the Greek one, as is evident, for instance, in Paul's epistles to the church at Thessalonica.1 In fact, in the Thessalonian correspondence, the apostle draws quite heavily on both of these traditions to paint a picture of the Christian life as an existence rooted in the fact of the cross and governed by the eschatological reality

1 This paper was originally written for a class on 1 & 2 Thessalonians, taught by Dr. Charles Gieschen at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, in the Winter Quarter of 2000. I would like to thank Dr. Gieschen for all his helpful comments. of Christ's second coming. This paper seeks to demonstrate that it is precisely by bringing out and playing on the euphemistic, as well as negative, meanings of the verbs καθεθδω and κοιμαω (sleep) that Paul unites all the various elements of his description into a coherent whole.

Background

Scholars agree that several factors occasioned the writing of 1 Thessalonians, all of which were, in one way or another, related to both Paul's hasty departure from Thessalonica (Acts 17:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16) and his failure to provide the new church with the fullness of apostolic instruction. Hence the apostle's desire to revisit in order to "supply what is lacking in [the Thessalonian] faith" [ καηαρηιζαι ηα θζηερυμαηα ηηζ πιζηεωs υμων] (1 Thessalonians 3:10).2 Paul's departure naturally gave rise to accusations of taking the line of least resistance after the manner of numerous itinerant philosophers of the day – accusations that portrayed the apostle and his companions as interested not only in easy living at others' expense, but, worse still, in perverting the established social and cultural order. It was probably for the latter reason that the founding of the congregation was soon followed by an outbreak of prejudice, and perhaps, even persecution. Finally, not without significance for the composition of 1 Thessalonians, were certain undesirable doctrinal developments concerning the Lord's παροθζια that arose within the congregation following the death of some of its members, possibly in the persecution itself.3 Written from Corinth around A.D. 50, the epistle addresses all these pressing issues, with particular emphasis on the link between Christian life and eschatology, at the same time being a very positive reaction to Timothy's report about the state of the Thessalonian church (1 Thessalonians 3:6).4

Textual Issues

The focus of this paper will be primarily on chapters 4:13-5:11, which form the core of Paul's first letter to the church at Thessalonica, and in which the apostle employs the imagery of sleep. Where necessary, however, references will be made to other parts of the epistle and to 2 Thessalonians as well, which followed not long after the first letter.5 It should be kept in mind that 1 Thessalonians forms a coherent whole, rather than being a collection of disparate remarks on the apostle's part

2 All the quotations from 1 and 2 Thessalonians are the present author's own translation. The remaining biblical citations are from The Holy Bible. New International Version.

3 This suggestion was put forth by F. F. Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1951), 327-328, cited in Karl P. Donfried, "The Cults of Thessalonica," New Testament Studies 31 (1985): 349.

4 F. F. Bruce (I & 2 Thessalonians [Waco, Texas: Word Books, 19821, xxxv) gives this dating of 1 Thessalonians. Karl P. Donfried dates the epistle to A.D. 41-44. See Karl P. Donfried and I. Howard Marshall, The Theology of the Shorter Pauline Epistles (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 12.

5 The issue of the order of the Thessalonian letters has little bearing on this paper's subject matter. For a detailed discussion and a review of arguments, see Bruce, 1 b 2 Thessalonians, xxxivff. or a redaction of various sources. Presupposed here is Paul's authorship of both the epistles, as well as their fundamental unity.6

The apostle uses two different verbs, the basic meaning of both being that of sleeping. The first, κοιμαω, appears in verses 13-15 of chapter 4, where it is the equivalent of "to have died in the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:14). Here Paul assures his addressees that those "who are alive and are left remaining until the Parousia of the Lord will most certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep" (15). The dead will not miss out. In the paraenetic section of chapter 5, the verb changes to καθευδω, the discussion itself retaining the eschatological focus. Here the imagery is more complex, as other metaphorical elements are added to it. Thus Paul speaks of the day of the Lord coming "like a thief at night" (2). The Christians, however, are not "in darkness" (4) or "of the night" (5) to be surprised by the coming of that day. Nonetheless, the apostle exhorts them to refrain from sleeping and to stay awake (6). The section concludes with the statement, "God has not destined us for wrath, but for the possession of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live with Him" (9-10), followed by a command to "comfort one another and to build each other up" (11).

The New Testament evidence, as well as extra-biblical sources, shows that the verbs, καθευδω and κοιμαω, are synonyms, with both appearing in virtually the same contexts.7 Both are used, for example, to denote

Go back to index

6 'While it is recognized that 1 Thessalonians 5:l-11 constitutes a paraenetic section, this does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that it is a later, post-Pauline interpolation; compare Bruce, 1 b 2 Thessalonians, 107-108. Obviously stylistic unity is of secondary concern for Paul, who is more interested in the unity of message. It is the message that determines his choice of stylistic devices.

7 Compare Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, second edition (New York: United Bible Societies, 1988), 259; Walter Bauer and others, editors, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, second edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979)' 388,437.

DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Soul Sleep

http://www.orlutheran.com/html/aftersoul.html

Where Does the Soul Go After Death? (Paradise or Soul Sleep)?

By Dr. Richard P. Bucher

One of the questions that has confused and divided Christians over the years is, ―Where does the soul go after death? Does the soul sleep and remain with the body until the final resurrection on the Last Day? Or does the soul leave the body at death, to be with the Lord in Paradise (if Christian), or to a place of punishment (non-Christian)? The Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah‘s Witnesses, and some evangelical Christians hold to the soul sleep view. Lutherans, Catholics, and most Protestants hold to the soul leaving the body view.

First let it be said that the confusion that has arisen over this question is not surprising. On the one hand, Scripture says very little about what happens to the soul between death and the Last Day when Christ returns. On the other hand, when Scripture does speak, it speaks far more often about the Resurrection on the Last Day, and the eternal life (or death) that will follow.

The proponents of the soul sleep position have two premises. First, they hold that at death the soul does not leave the body; both soul and body sleep until the Day of Christ‘s return. Second, they teach that the soul has no consciousness as it sleeps; it is aware of nothing. What is the basis for these two premises? They base their argument primarily on passages that speak of death as sleep (or unconsciousness) and passages that speak of bodies awakening on the Last Day.

The soul sleep adherents hold that ―sleep‖ is the most common word for death in the Bible, occurring over 50 times in the Old Testament and eighteen times in the New. Actually the word ―die‖ is the most common word for death in the Bible! Nevertheless, I will grant that sleep is often used for death.

For example Jesus tells his disciples that Lazarus had fallen asleep (John 11:11,14). Stephen‘s death is described as falling asleep (Acts 7:59). Paul describes Christians who had died in Thessalonica as ―asleep‖ (1 Th 4:13). In the Old Testament, we are told that David ―slept with his fathers‖ (1 Kings 2:10), a phrase that is used to describe the death of many kings.

But the soul sleep argument depends on all of these passages being taken literally. But is that really the case? Is it not possible, or even probable, that the ―death as sleep‖ passages are intended to be understood in a figurative sense? Someone who has died looks like he is sleeping, which is why people of many cultures have described death in this way. Even if the soul and body are sleeping in some real sense, who can be sure that it is a sleep exactly like the sleep of the living, that is, a totally unconscious sleep? Who can be sure what the sleep of the dead is exactly like?

To stress the unconsciousness of soul sleep, the soul sleep proponents refer to such Old Testament passages as Psalm 6:5, which says, ―For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks‖ (KJV)? They also cite Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10, ―For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. . . . Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest‖ (KJV).

These passages support the argument of soul sleep, however, only if they are referring to the soul as well as the body. It is probable, however, that the verses are speaking of the fate of the body only. In discussing the meaning of the Hebrew word sheol, which occurs in both Psalm 6:5 and Eccl 9, R. Laird Harris writes,

If this interpretation of sheol is correct [that it means ―grave‖ where the body is placed], its usage does not give us a picture of the state of the dead in gloom, darkness, chaos, or silence, unremembered, unable to praise God, knowing nothing. Such a view verges on unscriptural soul sleep. Rather, this view gives us a picture of a typical Palestinian tomb, dark, dusty, with mingled bones and where "this poor lisping stammering tongue lies silent in the grave." All the souls of men do not go to one place. But all people go to the grave. As to the destiny of the souls of men in the intermediate state, the OT says little. Actually the NT says little too, but what it says is decisive... (R. L. Harris, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, Vol. 2 (Chicago: The Moody Bible Institute, 1980) 893.)

If these passages were the only ones in the Bible that speak to the question of where the soul goes after death but before the Resurrection, they would strongly argue for soul sleep. Because there are other clearer passages that contradict them, and New Testament passages at that, they are hardly determinative. The fact is, these passages are obscure and have been interpreted many different ways over the years. When interpreting the Bible, we must always interpret obscure and unclear passages by clearer ones that treat the same subject. And we must always interpret the Old Testament by the New Testament, since the New is the fulfillment and culmination of the Old.

As stated above the first premise of the soul sleep argument is that at death the soul remains with the body and both sleep. This is flatly contradicted, however by many places in the New Testament.

According to Scripture, the soul leaves the body at death. The Gospels tell us that at the moment of his death, Jesus prayed, ―Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!‖ and then ―he yielded up his spirit‖ (Luke 23:46; Mt 27:50). This text makes clear that Jesus‘ soul did not remain in his dead body, but went into his Father‘s hands. The first Christian martyr (after Jesus) was Stephen. Acts 7:59-60 describes his death: ―And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.‖ Ecclesiastes 12:7 describes death in these terms: ―and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.‖ Notice, that according to this definition, the body has one destination and the spirit/soul has another.

There is additional evidence that the soul leaves the body at death. Several of the resurrection stories in the Bible describe the soul as returning to the body. This implies, of course, that the soul had left in the first place. First, there is the example of Elijah raising the widow‘s son from the dead. ―And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. 22 And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived‖ (1 Kings 17:21-22). This passage specifically says that the child‘s soul ―came into him again.‖ A second example is Jesus‘ raising of Jairus‘s twelve year old daughter from the dead. ―And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54 But taking her by the hand he called, saying, "Child, arise." 55 And her spirit returned, and she got up at once (Luke 8:53-55). As in the example, this text also speaks of the soul of a dead person ―returning‖ into the body.

What happened in these is exactly what our Lutheran Church teaches will happen at the final resurrection: the souls of those who have died will return to their bodies which will be raised to stand before Christ on Judgment Day.

Next, holy Scripture also contradicts soul sleep by showing that the souls of both unbelievers and believers go to a place after death but before Judgment Day.

For unbelievers it is a place of punishment. In 2 Peter 2, Peter writes, ―For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment . . . then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment‖ (2 Pet 2:4,9).

Here also belongs the account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-20. Because some insist that this account is a parable (I do not) it can‘t be used as the first line of evidence. But it does powerfully illustrate what 2 Peter 2 stated above. I‘ll let the account speak for itself:

The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.' 25 But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.' 27 And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house- 28 for I have five brothers- so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.' 29 But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' 30 And he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' 31 He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'"

Notice that God‘s Word says that the rich man ―was buried‖ – his body was laid in a grave of some kind. Nonetheless, there he is in Hades suffering torment in the flames. That this account depicts a suffering in Hades before the final Judgment is shown when the rich man begs Abraham to send Lazarus to his five brothers who are still alive. This story gives a specific example of what 2 Peter 2 taught us. The souls of unbelievers are sent to a place of torment and punishment to be kept until the Day of Judgment.

The Bible also teaches that the souls of believers go to another place after death. They go to be with the Lord in Paradise.

The Apostle Paul speaks of this joyous event in his second letter to the Corinthians. ―Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord‖ (2 Co 5:6-8; NIV). Paul pointedly states that he and his companions would rather be ―away from the body and at home with the Lord.‖ This ―away from the body‖ can‘t mean Paul‘s being in heaven after Judgment Day. For after Judgment Day all Christians will not be away from their bodies, but will have resurrected bodies. What can being ―away from the body and at home with the Lord‖ mean but that when a Christian dies their soul leaves their body and goes to a new home with the Lord himself? Thus, this passage is a conclusive argument against soul sleep.

In his letter to the Philippians Paul sounds a similar chord. He tells the Christians at Philippi that he is torn between living and dying: ―I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account‖ (Philippians 1:23-24). Note Paul‘s definition of death: ―to depart and be with Christ,‖ which is ―far better‖ than living his life on earth. Paul is obviously describing an imminent ―being with Christ.‖

Now Paul certainly knows how to talk about being with the Lord after the resurrection on the Last Day, and does so often. In passages where he does so, however, the context explains that he is talking about eternal life after the resurrection. For example, in 2 Timothy 4:7-8, the Apostle writes, ― I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day.‖ The ―Day‖ to which Paul refers is the day of Christ‘s coming on the last day. But in Philippians 1, Paul is describing ―departing and being with Christ‖ before the resurrection, for there is no mention of the Last Day or the final resurrection in the immediate context.

In addition to these direct statements that show that the souls of believers go to be with the Lord in a ―far better‖ place, there are several key examples that teach the same thing.

The classic example is the criminal who was crucified next to Jesus. When he asked the Lord, ―Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,‖ Jesus replied, ―Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise‖ (Luke 23:43). Now Jesus‘ body could not have been in Paradise later that day, for it was taken down from the cross and buried until the third day. His soul, however, as mentioned above, could and did go to Paradise, into the Father‘s hands. The same, then, must be true for the criminal. He died (John 19:32 tells us that his legs were broken, which would have dramatically hastened his death), his body taken from the cross. But his soul went to Paradise, as did the soul of Jesus.

The Seventh Day Adventists‘ interpretation of Luke 23:43 is well known. Since they steadfastly believe in soul sleep, they get around this clear passage by claiming that the punctuation in Bible translations is wrong. Instead of the passage reading, ―Truly, I say to you, today you will be with in Paradise,‖ they hold that it should read, ―Truly I say to you today, you will be with me in Paradise‖ (not today but on the Last Day). It is true that the Koine Greek (the language in which the New Testament was originally written, and that which the Holy Spirit inspired) contained no punctuation. However, who cannot see that the Adventists‘ interpretation is extremely forced? Why would Jesus have said, ―Truly I say to today . . .‖? Instead of what? ―Truly I say to you yesterday . . .‖ or ―Truly I say to you tomorrow . . .‖? Nowhere else does Jesus speak this way. More to the point, in every place where Jesus says, ―Truly, I say to you,‖ the main clause begins immediately after the ―you.‖ It is clear that the natural meaning of Luke 23:43 is that the soul of the criminal went to be with Jesus in Paradise the very day that he died.

Another important example is the appearance of Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration. The Word of God specifically states that Moses died and was buried by God in a valley in Moab opposite Beth Peor (Deut 34:5-6). Yet, when Jesus was transfigured almost 1500 years later, Moses appeared ―in glory‖ and was talking to Jesus. This is described in Luke 9:29-31: ―And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. 30 And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.‖ Elijah‘s appearance ―doesn‘t count‖ because Scripture records that he did not die but was taken directly to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11). Moses did die, however, and his body was buried. Yet he stands there in some form, talking to Jesus, long before the resurrection on the Last Day. Either Moses‘ body was raised early (of which we have no mention in Scripture – Jude 1:9 is not conclusive) or his soul appeared in visible form on the Mount of Transfiguration.

A third example is the story of the rich man and Lazarus referred to earlier. When he died, and before the final resurrection, Lazarus was immediately ―carried by the angels to Abraham's side‖ (Lk 16:22). ―Abraham‘s side‖ was another name for heaven at the time. Of Lazarus, Abraham says, ―He is being comforted here,‖ which describes this intermediate place as a place of comfort.

A fourth example is found in Revelation 6. There John sees a vision of the souls of martyred Christians under the altar in heaven. ―When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been‖ (Rev 6:9-11). If this vision is to be understood literally, it is a clear example of the souls of Christians in heaven before the final Judgment. However the overall symbolic nature of Revelation casts some doubt on whether the vision of the fifth seal is to be taken literally, and for this reason I have listed this example last.

Conclusion

After analyzing the Biblical data, though the evidence is not quantitatively large, it is nonetheless certain that the souls of those who died, both Christian and non-Christian leave the body and go to another place. The souls of the unrighteous (unbelievers) go to a place of punishment until the Last Day. The souls of the righteous (believers) go to be with the Lord in Paradise. The teaching of soul sleep is not taught in Scripture and therefore is false.

The question is often asked, ―If already at death the souls go to their respective places depending whether they believed the gospel, isn‘t Judgment Day rather anticlimactic, since they already know where they are going to spend eternity?‖ Judgment Day will bring no surprises to those who have already died. For them, Judgment Day will publicly declare what has already been decided at the time of their death. Judgment Day will be news to those who are alive when Christ returns on the Last Day. For them, they will learn of their divine verdict for the first time. Keep in mind, however, that after Judgment Day, both the souls and bodies of all people will spend eternity either in heaven or the place of eternal torment (John 5:28-29).

What do the souls of believers experience in Paradise? God has revealed very little about this, except that it will be a place of enjoyment and comfort and rest in the presence of God, where there is no death or sin or care. It is a place that is ―far better‖ than our life here, where we will be ―at home with the Lord.‖ Whether the souls of those in heaven are able to see what happens on the earth, or in what way time passes, has not been revealed in God‘s Word. Therefore definite statements should be avoided.

Lastly, the Roman Catholic teaching of purgatory is completely false and should be rejected. In their view purgatory is the place where the souls of those who did not fully satisfy all temporal punishment due them on earth, must be purged and refined by fire (by their definition all Christians, except the great saints, will spend time in purgatory). This agonizing fire may last for thousands of years until they are finally purified and worthy of heaven. This teaching should be completely rejected because it contradicts the gospel, that Jesus by his atoning death has fully atoned for our sins and bore our punishment (Isaiah 53:4-6); and that all earthly punishment ends at death.

Thanks be to God for his unfathomable grace and mercy toward us for the sake of his son, Jesus Christ.

March, 2003

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

A Heavenly Reunion http://witness.lcms.org/pages/wPage.asp?ContentID=924&IssueID=52

A Heavenly Reunion

by Bruce Kaltwasser

© iStockPhoto.com Who was not moved by the rescue of the 33 miners in Chile? A tunnel collapsed in early August, trapping them under ground. Early rescue attempts failed. People gave up hope. But miraculously, after 17 days, Chileans rejoiced when they learned the miners were alive.

The rescue captured the world‘s imagination. Imagine being trapped under tons of stone, unable to see the sun for 70 days. Imagine the fear of running out of oxygen, the stagnant air, the heat. Some compared it to hell.

When the rescue began, one man at a time emerged from the ground. Eventually, all 33 trapped miners were rescued. Each time there was a celebration: tears, prayers and thanksgiving to God. Their loved ones were saved.

Trapped in a virtual hell, some turned in faith to Jesus. Before his rescue, 19-year-old Jimmy Sanchez wrote a note proclaiming: ―There are actually 34 of us, because God has never left us down here.‖ Another said, ―God and the devil were fighting over me, and God won.‖

Compared to heaven, life here on earth is not that much different than living in underground darkness. We get used to the darkness of this world. It begins to seem normal over time, but it‘s not. God has prepared a better place for us. Like those Chilean miners, a day comes for Christians when they are lifted up, one by one, into the heavenly world. ―These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb‖ (Rev. 7:14). One day, we shall be lifted up out of this fallen world and emerge in heaven. When we arrive in the light of heaven, there will be loved ones to embrace us, too, and to welcome us to our heavenly home.

In all the drama of the miners‘ rescue, Manuel Gonzalez was overlooked. Manuel was the first man sent down to the trapped miners. Imagine their joy in seeing the face of Manuel, the one who had come to save them.

Leaving the safety of the surface, he joined them in the darkness. Before anyone could come out, this man risked his own life to see if the capsule could make the journey. Manuel came to save the miners. To save them, he had to put himself in their position.

Manuel didn‘t leave until the last miner had been rescued. Then he was left alone in the rocks. Yet his heroism has been largely overlooked.

So it is with Jesus. He left the safety of heaven to descend into the depths of this fallen world. He did it to save us. He put Himself in our position. Yet, like Manuel, He is overlooked by many.

Manuel‘s appearance brought great joy. And better still, his name is Manuel, short for Immanuel, ―God is with us.‖

Jesus‘ appearance in the fallen world brought great joy too. It showed that ―God was with us.‖ The Son of God healed people of their illnesses, but most important, He showed the way out. He showed the way of salvation.

There is a difference between Manuel and Jesus: Jesus Christ did die to save us. He came into the dungeon of this world knowing that, for us to be saved, He would have to take our place. He would have to die for our sins. But then He rose from the dead.

Through Baptism, we have been saved from hell. We can say as the miner did: ―God and the devil were fighting over me, and God won.‖

One day, we, too, will be lifted up by angels out of this great tribulation to heaven. And like each Chilean miner, we will be welcomed by our loved ones who died in faith. There will be a great celebration. Praise and thanks be to Jesus, our Immanuel.

---

About the Author: Rev. Bruce Kaltwasser is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Osage, Iowa.

February 2011

Bruce Kaltwasser

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Yes Virginia! There Are Angels http://witness.lcms.org/pages/wPage.asp?ContentID=883&IssueID=50

Yes, Virginia. There Are Angels!

by Rose E. Adle

Illustration © Shutterstock, Inc.

Angels must be some of the most misunderstood creatures in existence. And while it‘s probably unfair to blame everything on Hallmark and Hollywood, they have played a large part in causing the confusion.

Cutesy cards pretty well miss the mark. (Your best friend might help you out a lot, but that doesn‘t make her an angel sent from above.) Inspirational movies are similarly unconcerned about what Scripture teaches. (I don‘t care what you‘ve heard. An angel does not require a ringing bell to grow wings.) If there‘s any time of year that makes us even more susceptible to angel confusion, it‘s Christmastime. Sometimes even our carols can be puzzling. For example, if the angels were singing so sweetly o‘er the plains, why were the shepherds first filled with fear (Luke 2:9)? And those tasty cut-out angel cookies? They probably look nothing like the real deal. Have you ever seen one with six wings (Is. 6:2)?

So, in the true spirit of Christmas, why not take a look at the true nature and identity of angels? The word angel actually just means ―messenger.‖ In fact, Scripture sometimes applies the word to human beings who deliver divine messages (like the clergy of today). Malachi 2:7; 3:1 and Matt. 11:10 provide evidence of this. However, most assume that the word angel refers to the entireclass of those spirits that we picture with halos andwings. We‘ll go with that.

Angels are created beings. Genesis doesn‘t sayexactly when, but it‘s safe to say it was sometimebetween Day 1—when it all got started—and Day6—when it all got done. Angels are not animals, andthey are not human. They are spiritual, not physical(Heb. 1:7). They are mighty, but they don‘t possessdivine characteristics like omniscience, omnipotence,or omnipresence. Angels remain angels for all eternity, and humans remain humans for all eternity.(That means no human will become an angel afterdying, another common misconception, even among Christians.) Scripture contains information about countless angels, but only a few are known by name.

The first is actually known by several names: the devil, the prince of the power of the air, the accuser, Beelzebub, the father of lies, the serpent, the god of this age, the dragon. Call him what you will, Satan is a dark angel. This is another critical scriptural truth: some angels are good, and some are bad . . . very, very bad (though not created that way). The evil angels are those that sinned way back in the beginning. They have sealed their fate. There‘s no turning back for them (2 Peter 2:4). Though we can‘t pinpoint the moment of their falling into sin, it was sometime before humanity‘s fall. We know this because it was actually the chief of the fallen angels, Satan, who tempted Adam and Eve in the garden.

Evil angels, also known as evil spirits or demons, are spoken of throughout Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. The devil tempted our Lord in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1). Scripture describes demons possessing various people, causing sickness and afflictions, and engaging in combat against good angels (Rev. 12:7–8).

Some even know Scripture and can manipulate it to further their diabolic cause (Gen. 3:1; Matt. 4:6). Satan can masquerade as an ―angel of light‖ when it suits him (2 Cor. 11:14). Evil angels are primarily concerned with one thing: destroying the relationship between God and humanity, chiefly by destroying faith. This sounds scary, and, in fact, it is.

But here‘s the good news: evil angels are subject to God‘s authority. They can‘t do anything without God‘s knowledge and permission. This means that even the most evil angel, Satan himself, cannot separate us from the love of God (Rom. 8:38–39). And ultimately, the fallen angels will get what they have coming. Scripture teaches that an everlasting fire has been prepared for Satan and his evil hench-angels (Matt. 25:41).

Enough about the bad angels. What about the good guys? Holy angels are the ones that didn‘t sin way back in the beginning. They are in blissful communion with God for all eternity. They praise Him around the clock (Ps. 148:2). And they rejoice when sinners repent (Luke 15:10). God uses these holy angels to serve His people. In Scripture, they perform a few different functions. First, they worship and praise God. But beyond that, they also deliver divine messages and guard and protect the Church (all believers).

Scripture is full of messenger angels. The first such angel called by name is Gabriel. He appeared to the prophet Daniel (Dan. 8–9) to interpret a vision and to bring an answer to prayer. This isn‘t what Gabriel‘s best known for though.

Some 500 years later, he starred as the angel that we all know and love from the Christmas pageants. Gabriel approached Zechariah in the temple and proclaimed the unlikely conception of Christ‘s forerunner, John the Baptist. Gabriel also visited the mother of our Lord. As is the case with pretty much every angel appearance, the first thing he says to her is the same thing he said to Zechariah: ―Do not be afraid.‖ This doesn‘t mean he‘s a bad, scary angel. It means he‘s a good, scary angel.

That‘s right; even the good ones are frightening when they reveal themselves to humans. They are incredibly strong. They can‘t help but intimidate, even when they‘re on a mission from God for the good of humanity.

Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary that she will bear the Son of God. Then there‘s a long string of divine pronouncements. Shepherds in the field hear an angelic announcement and hurry off to see God in the flesh, a babe in Bethlehem. Some other messenger angels make sure the right people are in the right places at the right times. An angel appears to the Wise Men and warns them not to return to King Herod. And another angel comes to Joseph in a dream and tells him to take the infant Lord to Egypt to keep him safe from the wrath of jealous Herod.

Every turn of the Christmas narrative involves messages being pronounced by angels. It‘s really no surprise. Christ coming in the flesh had to have been a bewildering thing, certainly one that required explanation. Francis Pieper points out that, ―[Angels] proclaim the conception, the birth, the resurrection, [and] the return of Christ (Luke 1:26; 2:11; 24:5ff; Acts 1:10ff)‖ (Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 1:507.) From the annunciation to the ascension, angels were present to explain to human beings exactly what was going on and why it was all so important.

But Christmas isn‘t the only time of year that the church should be thinking about angels. On Sept. 29, many churches celebrate the feast of St. Michael and All Angels. Michael is the only other angel known by name. He is described as an archangel (Rev. 9). On Daniel‘s behalf, Michael contended against the princes of Persia and Greece—presumed to be fallen angels (Dan. 10). He also fights with Satan himself in spiritual battles (Rev. 12).

Aside from fighting the evil angels and delivering heavenly messages, there‘s another level of angel activity occurring. Angels act to protect us (thus the common phrase ―guardian angel‖). There are many examples of angels defending and protecting humans in Scripture. An angel prevented the lions from eating Daniel in the den (Dan. 6:22). Angels and a flaming sword were posted outside of the Garden of Eden to prevent humans from re-entering the former paradise to their own detriment (Gen. 3:24). A figure who is assumed to have been an angel joined Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace (Dan. 3:25). And on one surprising occasion, the Lord opened the eyes of a young man so that he could actually see all the horses and chariots of fire who were present to defend Elisha (2 Kings 6:19).

Angels‘ work was not limited to biblical times though. They‘re still around today (Heb. 13:2). Ordinarily we can‘t see them acting on our behalf, but that doesn‘t mean they aren‘t there. Angels accompany believers—throughout all of life—from the little ones (Matt. 18:10) to the dying (Luke 16:22).

Angels even join us in worship every Sunday. They are the topic of some of our finest hymns (LSB 521, 522, 523, etc.). And during the singing of the Sanctus, we join our voices with the saints who‘ve gone before us and with the entire heavenly host (Is. 6:3). Like us, the angels of the Lord also love to hear the proclamation of the Gospel, which was spoken by the prophets and is now preached by faithful pastors (1 Peter 1:12; Eph. 3:10).

So whether it‘s Christmas Day or the Feast Day of St. Michael or any other day of the Church Year, praise and thank God for His holy angels. They guard us in all our ways (Ps. 91:11) and protect us from the power of the devil (Rev. 12:7–8). The angels in Hallmark and Hollywood are okay, but the ones in Scripture are heavenly.

---

About the Author: Deaconess Rose E. Adle is a member of the LCMS Board for International Mission and a member of Saint John Lutheran Church, Secor, Ill.

December 2010

Rose E. Adle

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Be Near Me, Lord Jesus http://witness.lcms.org/pages/wPage.asp?ContentID=1170&IssueID=61

Be Near Me, Lord Jesus by Jen Bagnall

Death isn't pretty, and it isn't easy. But in the midst of my grandmother's death, God gave me one of the greatest gifts ever: the comfort of eternal life in Christ.

When you think of the perfect grandmother, that was my Grandma: pleasantly plump, always smiling, always ready with a hug and a yummy treat, always brimming with more love than even we greedy young things could absorb.

And we were greedy. I don't know how many grandchildren Grandma had, mostly because Grandma's four sons married and had families that just disintegrated. Divorce, remarriage, more divorce, children out of wedlock . . . it was hard to keep up with who was with whom. But somehow Grandma kept it all straight, and for children whose home lives were falling apart, she and Grandpa were the rocks to which their grandchildren clung. For nearly 40 years, they provided the unconditional love in great abundance, love that many of us didn't always find at home.

Late Saturday night, I received the call I hoped would never come: the call from a little-known relative, letting me know that someone I dearly cared for was nearing the end of life on earth. Grandma had suffered a massive stroke and wasn't expected to live much longer.

The woman who had rubbed my tummy when I felt sick, who helped me out of the apple tree when I climbed too high, who bandaged my scrapes and stings and kissed me goodnight now needed me to bring her that same comfort. I wanted to be able to give back to her just a little bit of all that she'd done for me.

Fortunately, I have an incredible husband who didn't question me leaving him in the middle of Advent (one of the most hectic seasons for a pastor) with two busy kids and a messy house. He simply gave me a kiss and said, "Go." And so I went.

Late Monday afternoon, I arrived in western Iowa at the bedside of my broken grandmother. In life, Grandma had been an Avon representative and always looked nice. Now that pretty softness was gone. In its place was a tight mask of death: skin pulled taut across her face, eyes sunken, her toothless mouth hanging open as she gasped for each breath. It was difficult to see.

At her bedside were my half-sister, Tena, and my cousin, Heidi. My sister, Camille, and I joined them, and into the wee hours of the morning, we held Grandma's hands, stroked her sparse hair, kissed the thin, feverish skin on her forehead and cheeks and shared our favorite memories. Could Grandma hear us? If so, we couldn't tell. She remained as unresponsive as she had been since the stroke, unable to squeeze our hands or murmur a word.

As the hours passed, our attention shifted to what was most important: sharing the Gospel with this dear woman who was soon to meet her Creator. It had always been hard to tell exactly what Grandma believed about God. She went to church every now and again, and I knew that she believed in Him.

But now, with the time of her meeting Him so near, was she ready? Again, we couldn't know. She couldn't communicate with us at all. And so, having been told that hearing is the last sense to go as a person dies, we decided to do what we could to share the Good News with Grandma.

As the rest of the people of Denison climbed into their beds for a good night's rest, we opened the Bible to Luke and the story of Jesus' birth. When we got to the part about the prophetess Anna who had waited her whole life to see Christ, I whispered into Grandma's ear that now, like Anna, she was going to get to see her Savior. If she was worried about whether she would be able to go to heaven, I told her that because she was a baptized child of God, those worries could be thrown away. Jesus had taken all her sins upon Himself, and she no longer had to worry about them. He was waiting there to take her with Him into heaven, and someday, I was going to join her there too. Again, there was no response other than strained, regular breaths.

The next morning, things quickly changed. Grandma's breathing became even more labored, and her eyes stared, unseeing. More family gathered, and we each had our time for a final goodbye and our private words of love.

Then, as the other family members left the room, Tena, two of her daughters, Camille and I were left alone with Grandma. I thought of Grandma lying there in the silence; wouldn't that be lonely? What else could we do for her? So we pulled out a hymnal and started to sing Christmas hymns.

We started with "Away in a Manger," which ends with this stanza:

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay Close by me forever And love me I pray Bless all the dear children In Thy tender care And take us to heaven To live with Thee there.

As we finished the last few lines, Grandma began to stir. Thinking she was hurting or restless, I rubbed her hands as we continued. Then, as we sang the glorias of "Angels We Have Heard on High" and prayed "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," Grandma's eyes, previously frozen and unseeing, suddenly came alive. The spark of life was in them again, and she focused intently on something only she could see. A single tear seeped out of her eye as she joined her voice, guttural and unformed though the words were, with ours. With her last strength, she raised her hands and swung them with the music. Her toothless mouth spread wide in the most joyful of smiles. Her face shone.

Something happened in Room 218 of Denison Community Hospital at 12:40 p.m. on Tuesday, December 7, 2010. The curtains to heaven were opened to her eyes, the Lord drew her to Himself in eternal rest, and five of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren were blessed enough to be in the room when it occurred.

This Advent, if you wonder or worry, take comfort. The Lord knows your needs. He is with you, and He will be to the very end. He will never let you go.

--- About the author: Jen Bagnall works for Lutheran Heritage Foundation.

December 2011

Jen Bagnall

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Christ in Death, Christ in Life

(http://www.ctsfw.net/media/pdfs/ChristinDeathChristinLifeNadasdy.pdf)

For the

LIFE of the

WORLD April 2006. Volume Ten, Number Two

When God Takes Aim - p.4 Christ in Death–Christ in Life - p.7 Christ in Life–Christ in Death: An Epiphany about Grace - p.10 What Does This Mean? - p.13 CONTENTS

4 When God Takes Aim By the Rev. Dr. Harold L. Senkbeil, Associate Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana What can you do when life crashes in? How do you keep going when everything you hold near and dear is taken from you? What happens when health is jeopardized, when you lose your job, when someone you love dies, when you face intractable physical or emotional pain? What if you feel like God is out to get you? What then?

7 Christ in Death–Christ in Life By the Rev. Dr. Dean Nadasdy, Senior Pastor at Woodbury Lutheran Church, Woodbury, Minnesota, and Third Vice President of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod Whether it’s Christ in death or Christ in life, let Christ be real. Borne by confirmands and children, pastors and poets, musicians and artists, and all the company of faith, the Christ of the Gospels endures. In death and in life, He is “Son of God and Son of Man.” He is the beginning and end of history.

10 Christ in Life—Christ in Death: An Epiphany about Grace By the Rev. Lance A. O’Donnell, Pastor of Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Van Wert, Ohio And somewhere in all of this, amidst the tears of agony and sorrow, I realized that I was in the midst of an epiphany about grace. You see, with each little heartbeat I loved that boy more . . .And our family verse, whose reference is etched on my wedding ring, the verse I repeat each morning, kept ringing in my ears: “Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross . . .”

13 What Does This Mean?

Christ in Death

Christ in Life By the Rev. Dr. Dean W. Nadasdy APRIL 2006 8 For the Life of the World

Stephanie is 15, a ninth-grader completing her final year of confirmation instruction. I had asked each student to write about the difference Jesus makes in his or her life. Stephanie stood to read her story of faith. Without a flinch she shared how her father had died just a year earlier of heart disease. She went through her emotions before and after the funeral–her anger and loneliness and how she kept thinking he would still come home from work one day. There was no dancing around death here, no painting of loss in warm, cuddly pastels. She showed no false bravado that focused on her own courage or denied it all with flippant humor. Stephanie wanted us to know how deep her pain had been. Stephanie brought us into her loss now a year old, long enough for her to stand beside her story and tell it truthfully. The students listened. My, did they listen. It wasn’t just that she got it all right–all the theology we want our children to believe and articulate; she made it real, as real as watching a casket lowered into the ground. Then the turn came in her story. She said, “I grew as a Christian when my father died.” Her growing, it turns out, came in seeing the stark realities of cross and resurrection applied to the stark realities of death and life. She said she can’t look at a cross without thinking of her father. She said that because her dad believed that Jesus died and rose again for him, she knows he is with Jesus. She said that just as Jesus’ body was raised from death, she knows her father’s body will be raised, too, when Jesus comes again. “I hope you remember my words today,” she said, “because they’re true.” Stephanie’s growth in loss reflects the power of the cross and resurrection to bring hope. What’s more, it confirms the need for a real, historical, physical resurrection. As she told her story, it all hinged on the reality of Jesus’ story. Make His death and resurrection some kind of symbol or metaphor, turn His story into a morality tale about good winning over evil, and Stephanie’s hope would be dashed. Some 45 years ago, John Updike entered a poem in a contest at a Lutheran church. Today his Seven Stanzas for Easter is often quoted by pastors and others. It witnesses in stark language to the utter necessity for the death and resurrection of Christ to be real, in-the-body history and science. The seven stanzas are like reading 1 Corinthians 15 in verse. For Updike, “if the cells’ dissolution (in Jesus’ body) did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will fall.”1 Here is the fourth of the seven verses:

Let us not mock God with metaphor, analogy, sidestepping, transcendence; making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded credulity of earlier ages: let us walk through the door.2

For millennia Christians have tended toward an unhealthy mysticism, a subtle turning of holy history into metaphor, body into spirit, truth into tradition. The smell of sweat and blood is translated centuries later into jeweled crosses, each, as one secular mystic put it, “with this little man on it.” Realities become words from a creed, cherished yet so often recited, not confessed. The vivid, risen Jesus of the Bible, inviting Thomas to touch Him and His disciples to eat with Him, appears in our minds as hazy, other- worldly, and iconic. The centuries, if we are not careful, can blur our vision of the real. In his poem entitled, Nothing Gold Can Stay, another poet, Robert Frost, caught how temporary all things are. By 1923, when this poem first appeared, Frost had lost two children and a dear friend. Middle age brought to Frost the realization of how fragile and short-lived the gold of life can be.

Nature’s first green is gold Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.3

“So dawn goes down to day.” The same could be said of Easter. Now, in the daytime, after that first and distant dawning, the gold can turn to green. In the green of busy lives, dying and rising escape our contemplation. The gold of Easter may seem tarnished long ago–its hour long passed. Then someone dies. Then the Gospel of a crucified and risen Lord seems brand new again, golden once more–in all its brutal and beautiful physicality. A 15-year-old stands up with confidence and presents what comes as news–Jesus Christ is real. She clings to the hope that His death and resurrection have everything to do with her father’s death and resurrection. And hope, as golden as the cross around her neck, springs eternal. I am haunted by a painting that hangs in the Smithsonian Art Museum. It is a visual testimony to the power of Christ-centered hope. The artist is John Biggers. The painting is Shotgun Ward # 1 (1966). In Houston, Texas, many African-Americans grew up in these homes. They are called “shotgun” homes because they have a long center hallway with rooms on both sides so a shotgun blast from the front porch will go right through the back door. In the painting Biggers shows a Christian church on fire. Many children and adults have gathered to watch their church burn down. Most have their backs to us as we view the painting. In the foreground, though, an older man faces us. He holds a lamp and faces away from the burning church, away from the ashes, to the future. He is the pastor of that church, a valued community leader, who offers hope in the face of tragic loss. The light he bears is the light of the Gospel, an enduring reality that simply will not succumb to fire and ashes. In the church I serve a 21-foot Christ figure hovers in relief over the back doors of our sanctuary. We call the figure “The Sending Christ.” The contemporary figure’s hands are stylized enough for one of our young children to have commented, “Look at that! Jesus is wearing mittens!” Since then, a few of us have begun calling the figure “The Minnesota Jesus,” because of the mitten-like hands. There is something beautiful about a child’s ability even to imagine Jesus as real enough, physical enough, to wear mittens in Minnesota. Whether it’s Christ in death or Christ in life, let Christ be real. Borne by confirmands and children, pastors and poets, musicians and artists, and all the company of faith, the Christ of the Gospels endures. In death and in life, He is “Son of God and Son of Man.” He is the beginning and end of history. In, of all places, a confirmation class (where pastors sometimes fear to tread), I heard Him intersect with the tragedy of a 15-year-old Christian. As she spoke, He was real for me again, trumping death with life and a Gospel all golden like the dawn.

The Rev. Dr. Dean Nadasdy is Senior Pastor at Woodbury Lutheran Church, Woodbury, Minnesota.

1 Telephone Poles and Other Poems © 1961 by John Updike. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House Inc. 2 Ibid. 3 The Poetry of Robert Frost. Edward Connery Lathem, ed. New York: Henry Holt, 1979.

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Through the Shadowlands- A Christian Handbook on Death and Life (http://www.ctsfw.net/media/pdfs/SenkbeilThroughtheShadowlands.pdf)

LOGIA AUG 3 1 1999 A JOURNAL OF LUTHERAN THEOLOGY TRINITY 1999 VOLUME VIII, NUMBER 3

CONTENTS CORRESPONDENCE ...... 3

ARTICLES The Church in the Book of Revelation Douglas D. Irmer ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5

The Restoration of Eden Geoffrey A. Kieta ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 13

Through the Shadowlands: A Christian Handbook on Death and Life Harold Sinkbeil …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 17

A Eucharistic Interpretation of the Synoptic Apocalypse Thomas A. Von Hagel ……………………………………………………………………………….…….. 21

Receiving the Gifts of God in His Two Kingdoms: The Development of Luther's Understanding Paul T. McCain …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 29

REVIEWS ……………………………………………………………………………………...……………….. 41

REVIEW ESSAY: Church and Ministry: The Collected Papers of the 150thAnniversary Theological Convocation of the Lutheran Church -Missouri Synod. Reviews by Paul R. Harris, John Moe, and Robert C. Franck Dead Sea Scrolls: The Complete Story. Jonathan Campbell. Scribes and Schools: The Canonization of the Hebrew Scriptures. Philip R. Davies. Holy Writings, Sacred Text: The Canon in Early Christianity. John Barton. In the Stead of Christ: The Relation of the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper to the Office of the Holy Ministry. Kent A. Heimbigner. Every Day Will I Bless Thee: Meditations for the Daily Office. Burnell F. Eckardt Jr. The Hymnal Supplement Handbook. St. Louis: Commission on Worship of the LCMS. The Epistle to the Romans. Douglas J. Moo.

LOGIA FORUM ……………………………………………………………………………………………... 53

Different Tastes * Faith Formed by Love * The ―Glory‖ of Church Politics Crucifixes in the Lutheran Church—Sic et Sic! * Did Jesus Have Faith? Our Worship: Rigid or Flexible? * From Virtue to Values The Truth about Education * Breaking Our Hearts

ALSO THIS ISSUE A Call for Manuscripts ……………………………………………………………………………………. 20 Inklings by Jim Wilson ……………………………………………………………………………………. 37

Through the Shadowlands

A Christian Handbook on Death and Life

HAROLD SENKBEIL (HAROLD SENKBEIL, a contributing editor to LOGIA, is pastor of Elm Grove Lutheran Church, Elm Grove, Wisconsin. This article was originally prepared by Pastor Senkbeil as a pastoral letter to his congregation. It is now given as a booklet to those for whom end-of-life pastoral care is needed.)

In Memoriam Harold Edward Senkbeil 1915-1997

During twenty-six years of experience in pastoral care I have walked the path of death and dying with many of the sheep entrusted to my care. It was only when I walked that road not as pastor, but as son, that I discovered the full impact of the sting of death and the still fuller impact of the church's ministry. This letter is dedicated to the memory of my father, whose guiding hand and unflinching faith are my treasured inheritance and for whom I remain ever thankful.

UNDERSTANDING DEATH "Yea, thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil." These familiar words of Psalm 23 chart the direction for a Christian family facing the reality of death. Here God identifies our greatest enemy in such times: fear. Since none of us among the living has ever tasted death, we respond to the prospect of death (whether our own or that of someone we love) with fear. Fear is natural. Now if fear is the enemy, who is our ally? The Psalmist continues: "For thou art with me; thy rod and staff, they comfort me." Jesus our Good Shepherd, the one who laid down his life for the sheep, is our companion on the dark, winding road that leads through the valley of the shadow of death. The journey is not optional. Sooner or later each of us, no matter how old or young, will walk that path-until Jesus comes again; when at the last trumpet the faithful will be changed in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor 15:51-52). But here's the important part: "I walk through the valley." The One who is with us in that journey, who leads us on, bears the scars of death in his living body. He was dead, but now he lives forevermore. All who believe and are baptized will be saved: they have a share in his victory over death. Christians therefore see death not as an unfortunate reality to be endured, but as a defeated enemy. The resurrection of the body and the life everlasting are the sure and certain realities promised to all who remain faithful unto death.

DURING PROLONGED ILLNESS Faith and confidence are what we need in the face of death; faith in the Good Shepherd and confidence in these three unseen realities: the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Sometimes death comes suddenly. At other times it comes slowly,, after prolonged illness. In both cases the ministry of God's word and sacrament is our only lasting source of comfort. The Christian family will want to call soon and often for pastoral Care. The pastor‘s visits bring not only human consolation and comfort, but the sure presence of Christ through his word and uniquely and especially in his supper. With his body and blood Jesus has removed the sting of death and shares with us his never-ending life in the very midst of our dying. ―He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day‖ (Jn. 6:54)

AT THE TIME OF DEATH The Christian family will want to alert the pastor when it seems that death is drawing near. Such requests are always welcomed; pastors want to be with their flock in such situations.The sanctifying power of the word of God and prayer (1 Tim 4:5) provide comfort and solace in the midst of what otherwise would be only a fearful struggle. The pastor's visits will be more frequent in such times; he is called not only to visit the sick, but to comfort the dying, "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints" (Ps 116:15). The presence of family and friends is particularly comforting to the dying Christian. Don't be afraid of what to say; the simple and ordinary things of life bring extraordinary peace and strength in such days and hours. Conversation is important, and since hearing is often one of the last senses to leave dying persons, they should not be deprived of the sound of human speech-especially the voices of those they love. Human, touch is also important for the dying person and his or her family. A handclasp, a gentle caress on the cheek, a comforting hand on the forehead all such physical contacts bring strength to the heart. As death approaches, Christian families will find strength in the timeless prayers of the church. What is learned by heart in childhood sustains us in death's final hour. Frequent use of the Lord's Prayer, the Apostle's Creed, the rich treasures of Christian hymnody, and God's own prayerbook, the Psalms, shine the light of eternity along the path to death's dark door. Above all, through such prayer and song Christians find renewed faith to echo Christ's own words from the cross: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit" (Lk 23:46). When death occurs, the pastor or the surviving head of the family may offer a short prayer of thanksgiving for all of the blessings received by the departed during his or her lifetime, especially for the abundant gifts of forgiveness and life through baptism into Christ Jesus our Lord. And so begins the process of separation from the body of the departed, which will culminate with the rite of Christian burial. This is not to be feared, for the body will be commended to its final resting place in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them" (Rv 14:13).

THE CHRISTIAN FUNERAL Soon after death occurs, the family members should meet with their pastor. They will need the added consolation of the Word of God and prayer. Sometimes the departed has already discussed plans for the funeral service. In any case, general plans for the funeral are best reviewed with the pastor before arrangements are made with a commercial funeral director. While personal reflections and eulogies by family members may be helpful to the bereaved, they are best shared prior to the funeral service at a family gathering or visitation at the funeral home. The Christian funeral is a public worship service of the church, and the components of the funeral are the same as other services. Prayers, litanies, hymns, and the proclamation of God's word bring transcendent and lasting comfort to those who mourn. The pastor will suggest hymns appropriate to both the church year and the circumstances. While funeral services may be conducted in funeral chapels, the use of the church sanctuary is highly recommended. Here, in the place set apart for the name and worship of the Holy Trinity, the departed received the consolation and peace of God's holy word and sacraments, and this sacred space brings unique comfort to those who mourn. If the family wishes, the church lounge provides a place for visitation with family and friends before the service begins. The pastor meets with the mourners in an appropriately private place to lead them in devotion and prayer just prior to the service. During this time the funeral directors prepare the casket for the procession to the head of the aisle.

THE BURIAL RITE If at all possible, funeral arrangements should include a graveside service. The reverent burial of the body of one they loved brings added comfort and consolation to a grieving family. Here again the emphasis is on the resurrection of the flesh, which is sown this side of eternity in dishonor to be raised in glory on the day when Christ shall come to judge the living and the dead (1 Cor 15:42-43). The blessing of the Holy Trinity stills the anxious hearts of all the faithful:

May God the Father, who created this body, may God the Son, who by his blood redeemed this body, may God the Holy Spirit, who by Holy Baptism sanctified this body "to be his temple, keep these remains to the day of the resurrection of all flesh" (Burial rite). Consideration can be given to ask representative family members to remain for the closing of the grave. Such participation often lends a sense of closure to the whole process of parting and this stage of grief. These representatives may also wish to place handfuls of earth in the grave as a loving gesture of committing their loved one's remains to the earth in confident expectation of the Resurrection Day. "Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed" (1 Cor 15:51-52).

SYMBOLISM AND CEREMONY Elm Grove Evangelical Lutheran church is blessed with several furnishings that are available upon request for use during funerals.

The Paschal Candle This candle, richly ornamented, stands lighted near the altar during the forty days between Easter and the Ascension, where it recalls our Lord's visible, physical presence during those days. At other times it stands unlit near the baptismal font, where it visually depicts the invisible presence of the risen Christ with his church. During baptisms it is lit as a reminder that all who are baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal 3:27), being buried with him in his death so that they will share also in his resurrection from the dead (Rom 6:3-5). If the candle is used in the funeral service, it stands lighted near the casket of a baptized believer in joyful anticipation of the resurrection of the body.

The Funeral Pall This large, richly ornamented white cloth provides a covering for the casket during the service as a vivid visual symbol of the royal robe of Christ's righteousness bestowed on all the baptized by faith. The large ornamental golden crosses are emblems of the Sabbath rest of the saints in light. A brief opening rite for the service provides for the reading of Romans 6:3-5 while the casket is vested with the pall prior to the opening procession.

The Processional Cross and Torches While the processional cross is ordinarily used for festival services, its use in a funeral provides powerful visual testimony to Jesus Christ as victor over sin, death, and hell. As the cross leads the procession, so Christ leads all his faithful through death and the grave into eternity and a joyful resurrection on the last day. The optional accompanying torches (processional candles) signify the light and life that Christ brings into a world of darkness and death. Family members may serve as crucifer and torch bearers, or church members will be provided upon request. The cross may also be taken to the burial rite at the cemetery as a symbolic reminder of the authority of Christ over death and the grave. "0 death, where is your sting? 0 grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 15:55-57).

GRIEF AND CHRISTIAN CONSOLATION Christians are not afraid to cry. As our Lord wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus, so we find ourselves in tears at the pain of our loss. But we do not sorrow in the same way as those who have no hope. "For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep" (1 Th 4:14). We look forward to a grand reunion with loved ones who have died in faith. Still, we miss them. The separation can seem at times overwhelming. This pain is part and parcel of grieving; it is to be welcomed, not resisted. Grieving for most people is a journey. It is a journey from the initial pain of parting toward healing and reconciliation with our loss. The pain gradually subsides, but the loss remains. Grief has many dimensions and may seem unpredictable in its ebb and flow; yet in Christ we find strength along the way. For in this journey, too, we are not alone. Christians find that family and friends are God's gifts in helping to bear the pain of loss, which seems at times unbearable. Such company is important in dealing constructively with grief; it must be consciously sought out by those who mourn. Most who mourn find it very helpful to tell the story of the death of those they love to family and to trusted friends. The repeated narrating of that story brings release and insight into the joy and sorrow the parting. Friends and family will want to lend a listening ear and heart for such telling and retelling; it is a fare privilege to be entrusted with such treasures. "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Gal 6:2). Above all, Christian mourners will turn to the worshiping fellowship of the church and the rich comfort of God's holy word and sacrament for healing along the path of grief. For Jesus Christ abides within his church through these sacred means of grace. Through these channels he bestows the riches of his forgiveness, life and salvation now and to all eternity. And uniquely and especially at his altar we are already joined with the faithful saints at rest, whose eternal victory song resounds in heaven above. "Therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven we laud and magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and saying: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Sabaoth" (ancient liturgical prayer.)

Almighty God, by the death of your Son Jesus Christ you destroyed death, by his rest in the tomb you sanctified the graves of your saints, and by his glorious resurrection you brought life and immortality to light so that all who die in him abide in peace and hope. Receive our thanks for the victory over death and the grave which he won for us. Keep us in everlasting fellowship with all that wait for him on earth and with all in heaven who are with him who is the resurrection and the life, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Angry with God http://witness.lcms.org/pages/wPage.asp?ContentID=935&IssueID=52

Angry with God

Q. Is it a sin to be angry with God?

© iStockPhoto.com A: An early twentieth-century post-World War I German novel tells the story of a man whose dreams were dashed in later life. He ended his days in humiliation and bitterness, ―railing against the world, against authority, and against God.‖ Anger against God is not an uncommon human emotion, often taking the form of a simmering resentment.

Our Lutheran confessional writings, when speaking about original sin, include ―being angry with God‖ among the many ―more serious defects of human nature‖ (Ap II 8). They speak, for example, of ―being angry with the judgment of God‖ and ―being indignant that God does not rescue us immediately from afflictions.‖ And they add that even ―devout people acknowledge that these things are present in them as the Psalms and prophets declare‖ (42–43).

In his commentary on Genesis 3, Dr. Martin Luther describes how deeply, by successive steps, the devil led Adam and Eve into sin: (1) disobedience, (2) excuse and defense of sin, and finally, (3) accusation and condemnation of God. ―This is the last step of sin, to insult God and to charge Him with being the originator of sin‖ (Luther’s Works, 1:179). As Dr. Luther put it elsewhere, ―The deepest temptation is that in which God himself becomes my enemy‖ (Oswald Bayer, Martin Luther’s Theology, 205). In our daily struggle against our sinful nature, we Christians know that hostility or animosity toward God is no stranger to the human heart. ―For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God,‖ writes St. Paul in Rom. 8:7 (see also James 4:4). We, too, are sometimes tempted to feel that God has not dealt with us fairly and that the blame should be placed at His doorstep. When we suffer misfortune, illness, the loss of a loved one, or some other human tragedy, we may even have moments of doubt that we have a gracious God.

During the season of Lent especially, we hear our gracious Lord‘s call to repentance. He summons us to confess also the deep-seated sins of our heart and to cling to His mercy (1 John 1:8–9). In moments of doubt and despair, the Scriptures teach us that we must ―flee away—right to the shining face of the Father who is revealed in Christ‖ (Bayer, 213). St. Paul assures us, ―For God who said ‗Let light shine out of darkness,‘ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ‖ (2 Cor. 4:6). In Christ, God has revealed Himself as a dear loving Father, not as an angry judge who is vindictive, unjust or cruel toward His creatures.

As we yearn for God‘s help in dire straits, we need not be afraid to lay our problems before Him, even though in our distress we may be asking the agonizing question, ―Why, Lord?‖ In many of the Psalms of lament, such a cry is heard. But these prayers of the psalmist typically end with an expression of confidence that God will send help. ―Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God‖ (Ps 44:5).

Let quiet confidence in the Lord‘s mercy and love toward us rule our hearts, not animosity or antagonism toward Him.

---

> For more Psalms of lament, see Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143.

Send your questions to “Q&A,” c/o The Lutheran Witness, 1333 S. Kirkwood Road, St. Louis, MO 63122- 7295. Please include your name and address. All questions will be considered, but none can be answered individually. Or, Click Here to send your question via e-mail.

February 2011

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

How About Capital Punishment?

(http://www.ctsfw.net/media/pdfs/dekecapitalpunishment.pdf)

Capital Punishment

Arnold G. Deke

An essay originally presented to the North Central Pastors’ Conference of the Northern Nebraska District, October, 1960.The author is now pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church, Kansas City, Kansas. '

According to the Fifth Commandment of the Decalog, taking or destroying of human life is strictly forbidden, whether this be by premeditated murder, , euthanasia, or sheer recklessness and carelessness. Life is God's precious gift to man. We are to guard this gift through rules of health, hygiene, and medical science, so God guards it by His providential care and by rules laid down in the Fifth Commandment. Our earthly life is precious, and once gone, it cannot be replaced. Capital punishment, the penalty of' death pronounced by a competent and authoritative tribunal, is one of the ways in which God would have it protected. ''Thou shalt not kill," is a warning to man to keep hands off and if he doesn‘t, then the proper authorities of the state have the right to take his life.

The main purpose of capital punishment is to protect life. This method of protecting life finds its origin in the rigid system of theocratic laws in the Old Testament and still exists by divine sanction in the New Testament where God placed this power into the hands of constituted authority.

There is no denying that we have become hardened to murder. We read and hear of it so often that we have become calloused to its real seriousness. There are enough committed each year to depopulate a city of several thousand. If a tornado, earthquake or a flood would destroy so many people, the nation would be shocked; but murder that many people in a given year and the populace pays little attention! Many citizens, deeply concerned about this, feel that we ought to use the death penalty more frequently in order to check this trend toward more murders. Others feel that capital punishment is not the answer. Other methods of punishment and intensified programs of prevention and rehabilitation need to be devised. It is the scope of this paper to examine arguments pro and con and to see whether we call arrive at some tenable conclusions.

I. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND PRESENT STATUS

Hebrew laws, theocratic in nature, contained very rigid regulations as far as the death penalty was concerned. We do note, however, that in their laws we find introduced the idea of degrees in crime and degrees in punishment, for not every case of destroying life was punishable with death. Circumstances determined the degree or severity of the punishment. We would emphasize the fact that the Hebrew laws were absolute and permitted no legal loopholes and masterful maneuverings so frequently found in the courts of a democratic society

It is interesting to note that there were a number of crimes and sins, in addition to murder, punishable with death. We list these with Bible references. 8, 9

8 Encyclopedia Britanica (1946), IV, 811.

9 Lamar Beman, Capital Punishment (Wilson Company, New York, 1925), 117ff. 357. The sin of adultery. "And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death." Lev. 20:10.

The sin of bestiality. "Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death." Ex. 22:19.

The sin of blasphemy. "And he that blaspherneth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well as the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death." Lev. 24:16.

The sin of cursing one's parents. "And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death." Ex. 21:17.

The sin of idolatry. "If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou has not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shall not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him; But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." Deut. 13:1

The sin of incest. "And if a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people; he hath uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity." Lev. 20: 17.

The sin of rape. " If a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die." Deut. 22 :25.

The sin of breaking the Sabbath Laws. "And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp." Num. 15:32-35.

The sin of unchastity. "Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die; because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house; so shalt thou put evil away from among you." Deut. 22:21.

The sin of witchcraft. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Ex. 22:18.

It seems that these rigid requirements of the law set the standard also for other nations for years to come. The laws of Hammurabi were extremely severe in meting out punishments. The death penalty was used as a punishment for many crimes. Soon, however men began to see the injustices and inequalities, and more care was exercised in the use of the death penalty. In the thirteenth century death was, by the common law of England, the punishment for felonies (except mayhem and petty larceny), but under the influence of the church this extreme severity of the law was lessened. From the beginning of the 17th century to the middle of the 19th century, the condemned felons were given the option of deportation for the purpose of colonization. At the beginning of the 19th century, due to certain writers and molders of public opinion, the two hundred capital crimes were reduced to four, namely; high treason, murder, piracy with violence, and destruction of dockyards. Since the middle of the 19th century the death penalty under English law has been exacted only for murder. It seems that treason, from attacking the divinity of kingship to the modern crime of attacking the security of the state, has always been punishable by death. 10, 11, 12

10 Encyclopedia Britanica, loc. Cit., 810.

11 Lamar Beman, op. cit., 158ff.

In the study of the historical development of the laws covering capital crimes, it is also interesting to note the different forms of punishment that have been used. We list the following methods as among the severest and most gruesome; burning at the stake, boiling in oil, buried alive in an iron casket, breaking the body on the wheel, flaying, throwing the criminal to ferocious animals, stoning, drowning, crucifixion, and . 13, 14

From old world history we turn briefly to our country. The early colonists listed twelve offenses as being capital in nature. This number was gradually reduced. In 1892, a federal law was passed which reduced the number of crimes to three, namely; treason, murder, and rape. Since that time the matter of punishing capital crimes exclusive of treason has been left pretty well to the constituent states. 15

The number of prisoners executed in the United States under civil authority from 1921 to 1950 shows a steady decrease. The average annual number of executions in this thirty-year period was 135. In 1950, it totaled 82, the lowest number in the three decades. The November, 1953, issue of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, says: "The trends in the use of the death penalty are solidly established in history. A study of them during the past 250 years can be summarized briefly: the overall international trend is toward the progressive abolition of capital punishment." This trend in our country is demonstrated by the decreasing number of executions. In 1958, there were only 48 executions and in 1959, there were 49. J. Edgar Hoover makes this comment: "The average sentence served by persons after conviction for murder is only 43 ½ months and the prison doors in our country swing open every 2 ½ hours day after day to release a murderer." 16

Today there are 35 countries throughout the world where capital punishment has been completely abandoned, and sentiment against the death penalty is rapidly gaining ground in our country. 17

II. ARGUMENTS PRO

Already prior to the famous Chessman case of California, there have been many voices against capital punishment. But we hasten to add that the voices in favor of capital punishment have not been silenced. It is our intention in this portion of the paper to present the main arguments for and against the death penalty. We begin with the arguments favoring the retention of this form of punishment for the murderer.

The basic argument in favor of capital punishment is that it serves as a deterrent to crime. This, as we shall show later, also seemed to be God's objective in introducing capital punishment. If it is argued that the death penalty does not serve as a crime deterrent, then the fault lies not in capital punishment itself, but the infrequency with which it is administered, with legal loopholes and technicalities, subterfuges, delays, legal maneuverings, and, often, a deliberate attempt to arouse public opinion in favor of saving the condemned criminal's life. It is claimed by some that this is one of the basic reasons for the occasional existence of lynch mobs. Enraged citizens fear that the law will be too lenient with the criminal, consequently they take the law into their own hands. There have been countries and states where the death penalty was once abolished, but then restored when it became apparent that crime was beginning to take a Roman holiday. Rumania, after ? years restored the death sentence; Austria, in 1938, restored it

12 Grant S. McClellan, Capital Punishment (H. W. Wilson Co., New York, 1961), 12.

13 Encyclopedia Britanica, loc. cit., 811

14 Lamar Beman, op. cit., 810

15 Encyclopedia Britanica, loc. cit., 810

16 David Dressler, “Capital Punishment is Murder.” Coronet, January, 1960, 136.

17 Grant S. McClellan, op. cit., 24ff. after 22 years of abolition; Italy, in the year 1939; and South Dakota restored it in 1939, giving the jury the right to grant mercy. 18 Eight states during 1959 and 1960 refused to abolish capital punishment. The most noteworthy case was that of California which refused the governor's request to pass a law to abolish the death penalty. This received public attention because of the Cheeseman case. 19

Justice must be upheld and the basic American law that the accused is assumed innocent until proven guilty, must be honored and respected, but the present-day trend to coddle the criminal, it is argued, is certainly no crim deterrent. Let me quote a few pertinent examples from Courtney Ryley Cooper's book, Here's to Crime: "The Bremer kidnapping could not have been accomplished without the aid of two members of the Police Department." "Verne Miller, the multiple murderer was ushered from city to city bearing letters of introduction which, in one case, put him on a golf course with city officials." 20 "Affiliated crimesters regard the electric chair as having been built for suckers. Fellows with brains and influence may be put into the death house, where they can watch the casuals of crime travel to the last waltz, but it is only a visit until 'somebody can get to the governor'." 21

It is argued by the abolitionists that a life sentence can be more of a deterrent than capital punishment. There are, however, a number of cases on record where imprisonment did not stop a man's continued murdering. One of the states that restored capital punishment did so because a murderer killed his keeper. He had been sentenced for life; now in the new crime what other sentence was there to be imposed except the death penalty? There might be a point to a life sentence being a crime deterrent if we had more life sentences. As pointed out above, the average "life term" runs only about 43 ½ months. At the age of 23 a man knows that with good behavior he can soon get out and still have a long life ahead of him. A life term, terminating after 43 ½ months, simply does not scare many hardened criminals. Advocates of abolition say that life imprisonment is worse than death. This apparently does not hold true so far as the thinking of the criminal is concerned, for no criminal has ever been known to reject a continuation of a death sentence to life imprisonment. If a condemned criminal can or must make a choice, he will take a life sentence in preference to the death penalty.

III. ARGUMENTS CON

Death penalty opponents make a strong case in their arguments. Herbert Wechsler, Professor of Law at Columbia University, lists five basic reasons why people oppose capital punishment. 22

1. The argument against deterrence. Sociologist Thorsten Sellin compared the number of per 100,000 population in areas where the death penalty is used with those in areas where it has been abolished. His studies reveal that the frequency of does not seem to be influenced by the retention of the death penalty. Another writer reaches the same conclusion and states,

"Our growing psychological understanding of the motivation of murderers makes it clear that the death penalty has no deterrent effect on potential murderers." 23 Men like Warden Lewis E. Lawes, Sing Sing, Clarence Darrow, renowned criminal lawyer, and leaders in the American League to Abolish Capital Punishment have argued that the death penalty does not stop crime and that the condemned usually are too poor to afford good legal counsel. They point to the fact that the educated and well-to-do generally are able to escape capital punishment.

18 Encyclopedia Britanica, loc. cit., 810

19 Grant S. McClellan, op. cit., 10.

20 Courtney Ryley Cooper, “Here’s to Crime,” Reader’s Digest Book Supplement, June, 1933, 112.

21 Ibid., 122.

22 Herbert Wechsler, “Death Sentence: Its Pros, Cons,” Life, May 9, 1960.

23 Edwin M. Borchard, Convicting the Innocent (Garden City Publishing Company, N.Y., 1932), 379 Hearst publications at the time of the murders committed by Ruth Judd editorialized thus: "Does the State set a Christian example by committing murder for murder when Christ taught His followers to abandon the ancient, brutal, and brutalizing policy of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? Does the State set a civilized example in committing murder for murder? The State murders in cold blood, and it murders with deliberation, premeditation, and intent to kill,-and it murders as cruelly and brutally as any murderer can,-and finally it insists upon killing with savage methods rather than allowing a woman to put herself out of the way. In all history horrible punishments have not prevented crime. They have merely brutalized the community or given evidence of an already brutalized community."

David Dressler in an article on capital punishment appearing in the January, 1960, issue of Coronet says: "The death penalty would be morally acceptable to some if it could be shown that executing one individual deters others from committing like offenses. In the 18th century in England, pickpockets were hanged before great gatherings as a warning. The practice was abandoned because too many pickpockets picked the pockets of people watching the hangings." He also refers to an incident in 1877 when ten men were hanged on one day in Pennsylvania for murderous conspiracy. At that time the New York Herald editorialized: "We may be certain that the pitiless severity of the law will deter the most wicked from anything like the imitation of these crimes," Mr. Dressler says: "The conclusion was wrong. The next day two prosecution witnesses were murdered. Within two weeks, five of the prosecutors met the same fate." 24 And thus the abolitionists go on, seeking to produce strong evidence against the argument of deterrence. We may sum up their arguments somewhat along these lines. "It is the certainty and not the severity of punishment that deters criminals. When a murder is committed the murderer is usually in a state of intense anger, jealousy, and excitement; at the moment he isn't thinking of the consequences in terms of capital punishment."

2. Effect on the Administration of Justice. The second argument used by the opponents of capital punishment is this that it has a negative effect on the administration of justice. It is argued that a trial in which life is at stake becomes inevitably a morbid and sensational affair, fraught with emotionalism for or against the defendant. This often affects the outcome of the trial, leading to errors in procedure which in turn lead to appeal after appeal. The emphasis of the argument here is that too many innocent people have been executed. Edwin M. Borchard, Professor of Law in Yale University, reviewing 65 cases of criminal prosecutions and convictions of completely innocent people came to the conclusion that these cases fall into clearly defined categories. His studies reveal that the following factors were largely responsible for condemning and convicting the innocent in the miscarriage of justice: mistaken identity, actually no crime committed, convictions based solely on circumstantial evidence, perjury, frame- ups, overzealousness of police, gross negligence of the police, overzealousness of the prosecution, prejudice because of prior convictions, the bad reputation of the accused, and community sentiment demanding a conviction. 25 As more cases of such a nature come to the attention of the public eye, the more intense becomes the feeling against capital punishment.

Sir Fitzroy Kelly called attention to 22 cases of capital convictions between 1802 and 1840 in which innocence was afterwards fully established. Seven of these 22 actually suffered death. It is estimated that 5 percent of those put to death are in reality innocent of the crimes of which they were accused. 26

It is also argued that the death penalty makes for a far more expensive administration of justice, since it involves unending chains of appeals on behalf even of the most obviously guilty who hope to be released on a technicality. It makes for greater inequity in the administration of justice, since anyone with enough friends and money can "beat the rap" one way or another. 27 Though we may not agree with all of the arguments of the abolitionists, we must admit that they are sincere and honest in their plans and objectives. It is not the desire on the part of the abolitionists

24 David Dressler, loc. Cit.

25 Edwin M. Borchard, Convicting the Innocent (Garden City Publishing Company, N. Y., 1932), 379

26 Lamar Beman, op. cit., 4.

27 Ibid., 3. to lower the standards of justice, to excuse crime, or to gloss over the hideousness of murder. Rather, it seems to be their desire to find a more efficient way of dealing with the criminal.

3. The argument of inequality. Though this is already implied in the above section dealing with the administration of justice, the third main argument emphasized quite extensively by the opponents of capital punishment is this that not all cases are treated alike. Since judges and juries must make the decisions, no two cases though identical in nature and equally guilty, will be handled exactly the same way. As a case in point we refer to the South where it is usually the Negro who is executed for rape. In such states it is claimed that since the abolition of capital punishment more convictions for life terms have been gotten because of the feelings of jury members against the death penalty. Thus the accused are more apt to be treated alike, is the argument.

4. The argument of irreparability. With capital punishment as the penalty, a mistake by which an innocent man is convicted cannot be corrected. The unfortunate but innocent man has been executed and he can not be restored to life by any process of law, while one with a life term, if and when found innocent, can be released and rehabilitated. His loss of time and personal humiliation can he partially offset by certain compensatory measures on the part of the court.

5. The argument of salvaging and rehabilitating the prisoner. Abolitionists feel that we ought to be more concerned about salvaging prisoners and reconditioning them for a useful life in society than killing them off in the electric chair. All sorts of statistics can be found, however, to prove either side of the case. California statistics show that of 332 prisoners convicted of first degree murder and paroled between 1945 and 1954, only nine had been returned to prison on a new felony conviction by June 30, 1956

IV. STATEMENTS BY LUTHERAN THEOLOGIANS

Luther, commenting on the Fifth Commandment, says: ''Here Now we go forth from our house among our neighbors to learn how we should with one another, every one himself toward his neighbor. Therefore, God and government are not included in this commandment, nor is the power to kill, which they have, taken away. For God has delegated His authority to punish evil-doers to the government instead of parents, who aforetime were required to bring Their own children to judgment and sentence them to death. Therefore, what is here forbidden, is forbidden to the individual in his relation to anyone else, and not to the government." 28 W. H. T. Dau says: "not to inflict capital punishment is a flagrant disregard of the divine Law. The dignity of human life is shown by the words: 'In the image of God made He man.' Man differs from fish, fowl, and beasts which are killed for food." Theodore Graebner: "Capital punishment has back of it both the natural law and the principles of government which we find in the New Testament." P. E. Kretzmann: "The punishment of murder is laid into the hands of the government, which shall punish the murderer by requiring his life in exchange for that which he took. 'This is the first command regarding the authority of the government in the wielding of the sword." 29 Paul M. Bretscher : "Yet over against all such reasoning stands the clear and unequivocal will of God that crime should be punished by the powers that be. A state which refuses to exercise this right to perform this duty which God Himself has imposed on it defies the will of our just and righteous God. But this God will not be mocked, neither by the citizens nor by the authorities of the State. 'Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap'.‖ 30

Probably the most noteworthy attempt to have an entire church body speak on the subject of capital punishment was made at the 1960 convention of the United Lutheran Church. The ULC Board of Social Missions recommended

28 Concordia Triglotta (Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, 1921), 631

29 Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary (Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis 1923) I, 21.

30 Concordia Theological Monthly (Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis) Vol. 24, No. 3, 215. "that the Church declare itself for the abolition of capital punishment, and urge governments to seek more equitable and effective forms of punishment." 31

The Board reported: "We believe that the state remains free under God to decide whether it will practice capital punishment or relinquish the exercise of this right." Among the Board's arguments in support of the recommendation, the following two points seem to receive the greatest emphasis: 1. ''It (capital punishment) tends to fall disproportionately upon those least able to defend themselves." 2. It makes a miscarriage of justice irrevocable." 32

The recommendation was not adopted by the convention. There were 238 votes for it and 248 against it. 33

V. PERTINENT TEXTS IN SCRIPTURE

Our discussion cannot possibly be complete unless we look at the texts in Scripture that deal with this important matter. The first murderer was Cain. What about His punishment was the motive for the same? There were, no doubt, a number of reasons why God placed the mark on Cain. It was to be his punishment for the crime committed. It was to draw him to repentance. But in addition to this, it was also to serve as a warning to others and through this warning God wanted to keep similar crimes in check. As time went on, however, we note that violence increased. When the sons of God married with the daughters of men, God decided to check this wickedness by sending the deluge after 120 years of grace. It was immediately after the flood when God induced capital punishment as a check against repetition. In Genesis 9:6 we read : "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man." In the case of Cain, He personally dealt with the situation. In the post-deluvian age He arranged for constituted authority to administer capital punishment. This is the first commandment of God to the government in the matter of wielding the sword. If a man should become guilty of shedding his fellow man's blood, he should suffer death for the crime. It is quite apparent that this was not only to be a punishment, but also a deterrent. 34 In addition to the punishment and deterrence, God had another motive. He wanted for Himself a nation and a land that would be free of such wickedness. In Numbers 35:33 we read: "So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are; for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. Defile therefore not the land which ye shall inherit." When a murdered man was lying in a field and no one knew the identity of the murderer, then the elders of the city nearest the place where the body was found were to sacrifice a heifer in a rough valley and say these words: "Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. Be merciful, 0 Lord, unto Thy people Israel, whom Thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto Thy people of Israel's charge." That is how earnest God was in keeping Israel free from murder. God furthermore stresses the dignity He places on man. He was created in His image. This image, to be sure, was lost by sin, but restored in part by the redeeming powers of Christ. But here the unregenerate are also included, for in a wider sense, they bear the image of God in this that they are rational beings and have an immortal soul.

The whole crux of capital punishment seems to lie in the question whether or not it is part and parcel of the moral law of God. It does not belong to the moral law of God in the sense that the state is morally obligated to take the life of every murderer; however, neither did Jesus in the New Testament abolish capital punishment as belonging to the political and ceremonial laws of the Old Testament. It is more correct to say that capital punishment in the New Testament exists by divine permission and sanction and is to be used by the powers that be as they see fit. It is to be used by the state, not in the spirit of vengeance or harsh retaliation, but rather in the spirit of protecting its citizens.

31 The Lutheran (Philadelphia) Vol. 43, No. 2, 23.

32 United Lutheran Church News Bureau, October 17, 1960, 2.

33 The Lutheran, Vol. 43, No. 5, 8.

34 George O. Lillegard, From Eden to Egypt (Northwestern Publishing House, Milwaukee, 1956), 82. Exodus 21:12-14 is another important reference to capital punishment. "He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death. And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die." The first reference in this text is to a deliberate murder. Such a man, without question, was to be put to death. But, "if a man lie not in wait," if the killing was not deliberate and intentional, then God would later designate cities of refuge to which the man could flee for safety. But if it was deliberate and premeditated and carried out in cold blood, then the murderer could not seek refuge. Fleeing to the sanctuary of the Lord and clinging to its altar would avail him nought. The murderer in such a case should simply be torn from the altar of the Lord and be put to death for the life he had taken. He was to be put to death as quickly as possible.

Leviticus 24:17 is simply a restatement on what had already been said. "And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death." A few verses later, however, we have this addition, namely that the laws covering capital punishment should also apply to strangers who happened to be in the land. "Ye shall have one manner of' law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country, for I am the Lord, Thy God."

Another reference is Numbers 35:30-32. ''Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses; but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die. Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death; but he shall be surely put to death. And ye shall take no satisfaction for him that is fled to city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest." In addition to a restatement of law of capital punishment, this text offers some specific instructions. The additions in this text take care of the injustices that can easily occur in carrying out the death sentence. One of the main objections raised by the abolitionists is that men are often condemned and even executed in spite of insufficient testimony. The principle of two or more witnesses is established here. The testimony of one person, no matter how reliable and trustworthy he might otherwise be, should not be deemed sufficient to put a man to death. Such a principle is clearly re-emphasized in Deuteronomy 17:6. "At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he should not be put to death." Furthermore, the Israelites were instructed not "to take satisfaction for the life of a murderer." He could not save his life through the payment of a ransom or secure his freedom through bribery. Perjury, insufficient evidence, and bribery have condemned innocent men and have set guilty men free.

We turn to the New Testament. The first text under consideration is Matthew 26: 52. "Put up again thy sword into his place, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." This statement by Jesus in connection with the scene in Gethsemane created by Peter's impetuous act is used in support of capital punishment. It is argued that Jesus, through this statement, by imposition, abolished capital punishment for blasphemy, idolatry, (word undecipherable) and the other sins mentioned in the Old Testament, but upholds capital punishment for murder as divinely required. The other side of the argument is: "Can we really uphold capital punishment when in the New Testament we no longer exact the death penalty for the other sins and crimes mentioned?" To say that Jesus in this text upheld capital punishment as an absolute requirement and that thereby He automatically eliminated the death penalty for other sins mentioned in the Old Testament is entirely without foundation and certainly does not fit into the context nor into the spirit of the occasion. It is, however, correct to say that in the second part of the statement, "all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword," Jesus is upholding the principle that God has given the state the permission and the authority to wield the sword at its own discretion in punishing crime, and particularly murder.

There are really two parts to the statement of Jesus. 1. Peter was not to interfere with God's plan of salvation. 2. Peter was to be aware of the authority of the state in wielding the sword rather than the individual citizen taking the law into his own hands.

We might paraphrase the text in the following manner: "Peter, put your sword away, for my purposes are not achieved nor my kingdom built by force and violence. And do you not realize that you can get yourself into serious trouble with the government if you take the law into your own hands; for if you should kill someone, the government has the divine right to take your life in exchange?"

What Jesus wants to emphasize in His statement as prompted by the occasion is that He wants no physical force to be used in promoting His cause. Under no circumstances are His followers ever to reach for the sword in matters of faith and salvation. If God wanted His Son to be rescued, He could do it by His own almighty powers or send legions of angels for that purpose, but there was to be no place for violence and force on the part of the disciples. In the church, the sword must never be used for the repression of what some think to be error nor for the propogation of what others believe to be the truth. "The followers of Christ shall not carry on their work with force of arms, but by the Word, in the power of the Holy ." (P. E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary.) Christ wants His Kingdom extended with the Sword of Truth and not with the sword of steel and violence. Adam Fahling in his Life of Christ says, "In offering resistance to those who were on the point of arresting Jesus, he (Peter) was blocking salvation for himself."

The point of the first part of this statement then is that Jesus wants no interference in carrying out His redemptive work and that He does not want His Kingdom built by force.

The point of the second portion of the text might be summarized something like this: Peter had taken the sword which had not been given to him by authority. Christ admonishes him, but does not turn him over to the secular government for punishment. Here we have a warning against any unauthorized use of the sword and a sanction for constituted government to use it at its discretion.

What Jesus would have said or done if Malchus actually been killed by Peter, we will have to consign to the realm of speculation.

The clearest and probably the most important text we have in the New Testament is Romans 13, especially verse 4. Here the origin, the authority, and the power of the government are clearly given. "For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." In every community where people live together there will also be wicked people who will disturb the peace, steal from others, and do harm to life and limb of their fellowmen. It is here that civil government must exercise its power according to God's will by punishing the evil-doer, by imposing a fine, by sentencing to a prison term, by taking the life of a guilty murderer, "for he beareth not the sword in vain.‖

If the rulers according to God's own Word, are to be a terror to the evil and the evil are warned to be afraid,-"for he beareth not the sword in vain1'-then it is clear that the real purpose of the death penalty is not only to punish, but also to restrain evil. If the moral law in general serves as a curb in checking the coarse outbursts of sin, so capital punishment is to repress violence and murder. God in His Word designates His agent who in His name and by His authority is to wield the sword in the punishment and restraint of evil. In the work of the Church Christians are representatives of God in carrying on His Kingdom work; in the home the parents are the representatives of God in training children in the fear and nurture of the Lord; and so in civil affairs constituted government is the representative of God to praise and uphold the good and to be a terror to those who do evil-and this includes capital punishment. Government exists by divine right. It was ordained by God also for the purpose of protecting life and was endowed by God for backing up its authority with the power and the severity of the sword. I Peter 2:14 brings out the same thought: "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme: or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well."

Rev. 13:10 is another reference to the governmental sword. "He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity; he that killeth with the sword must be killed with sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints." The real emphasis here, however, is a comfort to the saints in the days of persecution. Christians must expect martyrdom. That is inevitable where the enemies of Christ have come into power. Pagan governmental powers, enemies of Christ, will use the sword against the true believers. Those who must suffer such persecutions are to be patient, for God in time and in His own way will punish those evil doers who interfere with His Kingdom work and plans. The state which abuses the privilege of the sword and misuses it in persecuting God's people will itself suffer at the hand of the Lord. "He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword." God in time will punish the state which is guilty of such abuse.

VI. CONCLUSIONS

On the basis of what has been presented, we now offer a number of conclusions.

1. Capital punishment is not murder, provided the accused person has been given a fair trial and his guilt incontrovertibly established.

2. Government has the authority and the duty to defend its country and to protect its citizens by waging war. By the same token it has the authority and the duty to protect its citizens by wielding the sword in capital punishment. If capital punishment is to be abolished on moral grounds, then by the same line of reasoning we must also abolish all wars.

3. Capital punishment today exists by the express permission and personal sanction of God.

4. It is clear that God instituted the death penalty as a restraint on crime and violence and if He in His omniscience and wisdom instituted it with that in view, then it will still have the same effects today if consistently carried out. If capital punishment does not deter crime, it is not the fault of capital punishment itself, but it is the fault of the courts which do not exercise their authority to the fullest measure.

5. Public sentiment is swinging toward the abolition of capital punishment. Nine states, namely: Maine, Rhode Island, Delaware, Michigan, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Alaska, and Hawaii have already abolished it. Convincing arguments and substantiating statistics can be found on both sides of the question and these will naturally be emphasized according to the beliefs and feelings of the person presenting them. 35, 36

6. The state may wield the sword in the manner and method it chooses. A Christian can with good conscience uphold capital punishment, but he need not sanction the cruel methods that have often been used. Nowhere does the Bible prescribe for our day the method to be used in capital punishment, whether by sword, firing squad, lethal gas chamber, the hangman's noose, the electric chair, or by a less gruesome method, as for instance death by injection.

7. A Christian may stand on either side of the question without denying Scripture, provided he does not claim that the state is committing murder when it carries out the death sentence. A Christian who is a member of a legislative body can vote to abolish capital punishment provided he does not violate his conscience.

8. The death penalty should be used only in cases where the guilt has been firmly established with incontrovertible proof. (Num. 35-30-32) (Deut. 17:6). To exact the death penalty on circumstantial evidence alone can easily take the lives of innocent people.

9. If capital punishment is to be continued, then society needs to strive for a greater uniformity in exacting the death penalty. The inequalities of justice are notorious in our country. Christian people can uphold capital punishment in theory, but the way it is carried out in practice is certainly an offense to the sensitive soul.

NOTES

Consulted but not cited in the notes:

Davis, John D., A Dictionary of the Bible. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1929.

Fahling. Adam, The Life of Christ. St. Louis: Concordia, 1936.

Glueck, Sheldon, Contributors to Correctional Science. National Probation Association. New York; 1936.

Kinsolving, Lester, "Christianity and Capital Punishment." Pastoral Psychology. June, 1960.

35 Grant S. McClellan, op. cit., 10ff.

36 David Dressler, loc., cit., 136.

Lane, Winthrop D., ―What Makes Crime?" Public Affairs Pamphlet. New York, 1945.

Maurer., B. A., The Ten Commandments Will Not Budge. St. Louis: Concordia, 1951. Thrasher, Frederic M., The Problem of Crime Prevention. National Probation Association. New York: 1934.

Yoder, John Howard, "Capital Punishment and the Bible." Christianity, Today. February 1, 1960.

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Reservations about the Resurrection? http://witness.lcms.org/pages/wPage.asp?ContentID=508&IssueID=32

Reservations about the Resurrection?

Christ‘s triumph over death at that first Easter is the very heart of the Christian faith and the central event of history. Nothing offers greater hope for humanity than this episode—which most likely took place in the early morning of April 5, A.D. 33—since the One who rose from the grave promises that His followers will do the same. And yet this greatest phenomenon in ―the greatest life ever lived‖—passionately believed and confessed by the Church—has also been greeted with doubt, , and outright denial.

Cynics have called the resurrection a wish-fulfillment myth concocted by early Christian writers, and the non-Christian majority in this world has followed suit. Even some supposedly Christian theologians, usually of the extreme liberal variety, superimpose a question mark over any claims of a physical resurrection of Jesus. And who can deny that today there is an anti-Christian bias in so many of our sensation-seeking novels, movies, magazines, and TV specials that hold the resurrection up for scorn?

How is a believer supposed to respond to this onslaught? I think by listening carefully to all the negative arguments against the resurrection, dismantling them one by one for their logical errors, and then joyfully presenting ―the reasons for the hope that is in us‖ (1 Peter 3:15). Let‘s first line up the ―usual suspects‖ in . . .

The Skeptic’s Arsenal

Nature’s laws cannot be suspended for any claimed “resurrection.”

A physical resurrection, like all the other so-called ―miracles‖ in the Bible, is impossible, runs the argument, since this would violate natural law. The dead are not raised today, nor were they then.

While this claim is impressive and underlies nearly all the other objections to the resurrection, it is philosophically faulty. One dare not limit what did or can happen on the basis of our past or present experience. The unforeseen exception certainly punctures this picture if there is indeed a God who, by definition, can suspend the very laws of the nature He created.

***********************

The resurrection accounts in the four Gospels contradict one another and are therefore unreliable.

This is the second most frequent objection to the resurrection. First, Christians would do well not to deny that the Gospels do indeed present some startling variations on the common theme of Jesus‘ resurrection. One or two or three or more women approach the sepulcher at Easter dawn, according to John, Matthew, Mark, and Luke respectively. Luke confines the resurrection appearances to the Jerusalem area, while the other three involve Galilee as well, and there are other problems of sequence in the resurrection episodes that have cheered the critics.

But to use these inconsistencies as some sort of proof that the resurrection did not take place is an illogical use of evidence. The earliest sources telling of the Great Fire of Rome in A.D. 64, for example, offer far more serious conflicts regarding how the fire started and how far it spread. Some claim the entire city was destroyed, while others say only three sectors were reduced to ash. Yet the fire itself is absolutely historical: it really happened.

As a professor of ancient history (and a Christian), I‘m thrilled that our four Gospels do provide the variations they do. This proves that Matthew did not blindly copy from Mark, who did not copy from Luke, who did not copy from John, or whatever order you prefer. Had all four Gospels provided essentially the same narrative with no variations, the critical scholar today would conclude that there was only one source of information underlying all four accounts. Yet for something as cosmic in significance as the resurrection, the more sources the better.

Furthermore, the fact that differences between the Gospels were not edited out or harmonized by some early Christian editorial board shows both the honesty of early church copyists and the fact that there was no ―agreed upon‖—and therefore partially composed—version of what happened at that first Easter. Islam‘s Qur‘an contained many more and greater variations in the text until all the other versions were rounded up and burned. Christians had no such bonfire.

***********************

If the resurrection really happened, it would have been reported exactly and with no disagreements.

This, a variation of the previous argument, may look quite reasonable, but is not borne out in experience. At Western Michigan University, where I teach, a professor friend of mine decided to test our students‘ powers of observation. While I was teaching an Honors section of our best students, my colleague—who is bald—interrupted my class wearing a wig and further disguise. He walked down to my lectern, shook his hand in my face, and claimed that the dean had reserved the hall for his students instead, after which he turned around and stomped out of the class. Needless to say, the students watched it all with sagging jaws.

Two days later, at my next lecture, I apologized to the class for the disruption and claimed that the dean wanted a description of what had happened in our class. The students debated on how to provide this, finally settling for all of them writing down what they had heard and seen. Their disagreements—by eyewitnesses—were stunning! These were Honors students, and yet they described the intruder as anything from five-foot-five to six-foot-four. He weighed 160 pounds in some reports, 220 in others. He was clean shaven. But no, he had a moustache. But no, he had a beard. And so it went.

We‘ve all heard the expression, ―People seeing the same thing will report it differently.‖ Our little classroom experiment more than proved the point. This, however, was a minor classroom encounter. How much more unhinging would be the experience of seeing a dead man alive—and so reporting it with some variety!

***********************

Jesus “appeared” only to believers, not others—a clear case of wish-fulfillment.

No mystery here! God rewards faith, not unbelief. This also proves that the resurrection accounts could not have been fabricated, since no human author could have resisted telling of a triumphant Jesus turning on Pilate, Caiaphas, and His tormentors with unholy fury and sweet revenge.

***********************

Only in the Bible do we get the story of the resurrection and the empty tomb. If these were historical, secular sources should also have reported on them.

This, of course, is merely an argument from silence, which is the weakest form of argumentation. But the entire premise is also false. In an article for The Lutheran Witness published in April 2007, I demonstrated that it is now a proven fact of ancient history that the tomb in which Jesus was buried on Friday was indeed empty on Sunday morning, also on the basis of secular sources. As for the resurrection itself, there are references to it or its effects in such secular sources as the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (Annals 15:44) and the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (Antiquities 18:63).

The Christian’s Proofs

Seven of the earliest sources from the ancient world report the resurrection on the basis of eyewitnesses or near-eyewitness testimony. They are, in chronological order: the letters of St. Paul, the Synoptic Gospels, the letter of James, the letter of Peter, and the Gospel of John. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul tells of Jesus‘ resurrection less than 20 years after it happened, so all the many critical objections that the resurrection stories developed over many years of myth-building have no validity whatever.

These records, furthermore, could not have been fabricated since women are listed as the first witnesses in all four Gospels. No ancient author could have invented this, since he would never have cast women in any role connected with the resurrection in his fictional version. Women‘s testimony was deemed unreliable in the ancient world, even in a court of law.

What accounts for the absolute personality transformation in the lives of the apostles following Easter and Pentecost? Before these events, the Eleven were a doltish crew, most of whom were too afraid to show themselves after Jesus was crucified. Yet they became heroic missionaries for the faith, and most died a martyr‘s death.

They would never have given their lives for some concocted fairy tale. For the risen Lord, on the other hand, they would do anything. The same, of course, holds for James, the unbelieving half-brother of Jesus, as well as Paul (Saul) of Tarsus, originally a persecutor of the church.

One of the Jewish beliefs held with great tenacity was—and is—observance of the Sabbath, and yet Christian Jews transferred their worship from Saturday to Sunday, which they called ―the Lord‘s Day‖ in honor of His resurrection.

And how, pray tell, did the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea in which Jesus was buried on Friday become empty— factually, historically empty—on Sunday morning? Every explanation for that offered across the centuries fails miserably.

Finally, the birth and growth of Christianity itself across 20 centuries offers telling evidence for the Easter event: Could it all have been rooted in a fraud? One doubts!

There are at least a dozen more proofs for Jesus‘ triumph over death. Your pastor may report more of them in his Easter sermon, and do remember that each Sunday we celebrate that greatest event in history, while believers are resurrection Christians every day of their lives.

---

Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. —Mark 16:9–11 ESV

Seeking Mary Magdalene

In the last few years, much media interest has focused on Mary Magdalene. She sings the plaintive song, ―I Don‘t Know How to Love Him‖ in Jesus Christ Superstar, and, of course, she shows up as ―Mrs. Jesus‖ in that font of misinformation, The Da Vinci Code, as well as in many similar books that are determined to get Jesus married off. But there is not a stitch of evidence that Jesus married Mary Magdalene or anyone else, despite dozens of attempts by sensation-seeking authors across the last half-century.

Getting the facts wrong on Mary Magdalene, however, is nothing new. The poor woman has been set upon ever since Hippolytus in the third century and Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth identified her as the ―woman sinner‖ who washed Jesus‘ feet with her tears and dried them with her hair (Luke 7:37ff.). But there is no evidence whatever that this identification is correct, or that Mary Magdalene was a harlot.

In fact, quite the opposite is the case. She was one of Jesus‘ most devoted followers from Galilee, and the only woman named in all four Easter Gospels. She came from the coastal town of Magdala, at the westernmost bulge of the Sea of Galilee, a fishing village then and the site of archaeological digs today. When she first met Jesus, she was afflicted with problems that Jesus cured in ―casting seven devils‖ out of her (Luke 8:2). From that point on, she was one of the Galilean ―ladies‘ auxiliary‖ that supported Jesus and His disciples in their itinerant ministry.

John‘s Gospel offers her most luminous portrait: the woman weeping at the empty tomb, talking with the risen Jesus, whom, in her blurred vision, she thought a gardener, but finally radiantly recognizing Him. Mary Magdalene, then, became the first ―apostle to the apostles‖ in telling the Eleven about the risen Christ.

---

Paul L. Maier

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Mysteries and Realities of Resurrection http://witness.lcms.org/pages/wPage.asp?ContentID=88&IssueID=10

Mysteries and Realities of Resurrection

Matthew 27:52-53 says: "The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people." What is the theology of the LCMS concerning these verses? Who were these people? Did they live out a normal life and then die again? Did they go to heaven shortly after their appearance in Jerusalem? Are they the "saints" found under the altar in Revelation? J.M., Kentucky

Among the Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Jesus, Matthew's Gospel is the only one containing the reference to the incident referred to above. This is not necessarily unusual because, in spite of their agreement on the fact of the resurrection, each of the Gospels contains details on the resurrection not found in all of them.

The reason this particular detail found in Matthew has drawn so much attention is most likely due to the fact that it is contrary to normal human experience. Consequently most commentators have little if anything to say about it, or else they place it in the category of legend.

Such is the case, for example, in Dr. Alexander Bruce's commentary on Matthew in The Expositor's Greek New Testament. Bruce notes that, according to certain apocryphal literature, among those who rose that day, along with others, were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Although we cannot know the names of those who rose since the Scriptures do not give us that information, there is no reason, textually or otherwise, to assume that this event is simply legendary.

It is not unusual for us to lack answers to the sort of questions posed by our questioner. The Bible contains other resurrection accounts whose mysteries we cannot explain purely out of our human experience. Consider the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:22-43, Luke 8:41-56); the young man of Nain (Luke 7:11-17); and particularly Lazarus, who had been in the tomb for four days (John 11:1-44).

Although we have no further information about these people, just as we have none about those who rose at the time of Jesus' resurrection, it can only be assumed that they all lived a normal life and died again, however many years later that happened to be.

What is most important is the fact that the resurrection of these "saints" shows that death has been conquered, and that the resurrection and eternal life are a reality. The resurrection of these people is a reminder of the unity with Christ that is ours by faith. It is an assurance to us of the truth of Christ's promise that, because He lives, we shall live also (John 14:19).

Go back to index DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Concerning the Resurrection Body http://www.ctsfw.net/media/pdfs/MuellerConcerningtheResurrectionBody.pdf

Concordia Theological Monthly

Continuing Lehre und Wehre (Vol. LXXVI) Magazin fuer Ev.-Luth. Homiletik (Vol. LIV) Theol. Quarterly (1897-1920) ~Theol. Monthly (Vol. X)

Vol. I April, 1930 No.4

CONTENTS Page DALLMANN, W.: The Augsburg Confession ...... 241 ENGELDER, TH.: Der Sieg des Schriftprinzips ...... 247 XRETZMANN, P.E.: Theodor Zahns "Grundriss der neutestamentlichen Theologie"...... 255 MUELLER, J. T.: Concerning the Resurrection Body...... 265 XRETZMANN, P. E.: Luther's Academic Relations to Erfurt and Wittenberg...... 275 LAETSCH, THEO.: Preaching on the Augsburg Confession 280 Dispositionen ueber die Eisenacher Evangelienreihe ...... 286 Theological Observer. - Kirchlich-Zeitgeschichtliches ...... 298 Vermischtes und zeitgeschichtliche Notizen .. ; ...... 310 Book Review. - Literatur...... 812

Ein Prediger muss nicht allein weiden, Es ist kein Ding, das die Leute mehr also dass er die Schafe unterweise, wie bei der Kirche behaelt, denn die gute sie rechte Christen sollen sein, sondern Predigt. - Apologie, Art. 24. auch daneben den Woelfen wehren, dass sie die Schafe nicht angreifen und mit If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, falscher Lehre verfuehren und Irrtum ein· who shall prepare himself to the battle? fuehren. - Luther. 1. Cor. 4,8.

Published for the Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States f CONCORDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE, St. Louis, Mo.

Concerning the Resurrection Body. Notes on 1 Cor. 15, 35-49. ______

Modern unbelief, in its onslaught on our Christian faith, is in violent opposition also to the Biblical doctrine of the resurrection, one of the central teachings of the Gospel. With regard to this doctrine, Modernists are divided into two camps. Some, like Fosdick, are inclined to identify the resurrection of the body with the "immortality of the soul." (Op. Fosdick, Modern Use of the Bible.) Others, again, deny even the doctrine of personal immortality, claiming that "the only valid immortality is of two kinds, influential and eugenic," or, that "the prolonged and rich life of posterity here is the only real fulfilment of the hope of immortality." (Op. Horsch, Modern Religious Liberalism, p. 212 fl.) However, the Modernists are not the only opponents of the Christian doctrine of the resurrection. Mediating Fundamentalists, in increasing numbers, are now surrendering the traditional doctrine of the Christian Church and are going over into the modernistic camp. In his recent book Basic Beliefs Dr. H. M. Hughes, president of Wesley College, Cambridge, England, writes on the doctrine of the resurrection as follows: "It may be that there is a close connection between our natural and spiritual bodies (that the latter are the counterpart of the former) and that we are fashioning our spiritual bodies now according to the measure of the dominance of the Spirit of God in us. In that case the resurrection of the body takes place at the moment of death,* when the spiritual body is liberated from 'the earthly house of this tabernacle.' There is also a passage in the record of our Lord's teaching which points in this direction: 'But as touching the dead that they are raised, have ye not read, ... I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living,' Mark 12, 26. The implication is that the patriarchs have already risen.* (* Italics our own.) According to this statement, Dr. Hughes holds the same doctrine which Paul condemns in those who "concerning faith have made shipwreck" and "concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already." (Cp. 1 Tim. 1, 19. 20; 2 Tim. 2, 17.18.) Paul vigorously denounces this false teaching and earnestly warns against such false teachers when he writes: "Their word will eat as doth a canker ... and [they] overthrow the faith of some," 2 Tim. 2, 17. 18. Dr. Hughes, though still a Fundamentalist, inclines, according to his own confession, toward Liberalism. However, the New International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, in many respects an excellent work, professes to be conservative and antiliberal, and yet we read in its column on the resurrection: ―The points in the New Testament doctrine of the resurrection of the righteous, then, seem to be these: The personality of the believer survives after death and is with Christ. But it is lacking in something that will be supplied at the consummation, when a body will be given* in which there is nothing to hinder perfect intercourse with God. The connection of this body with the present body is not discussed,* except for saying that some connection exists, with the necessity of a transformation. for those alive at the end." The statements of Dr. B. S. Easton, who is the writer of the article, are, as we see, very guarded. Yet if the resurrection body is given and "the connection of this body with the present body is not discussed," then the only implication which the reader may make is that the author means to suggest that not the same body which has been put in the grave will arise. In other words, Dr. Easton very cleverly avoids the main issue by refusing to state in clear words the very core of the doctrine of the resurrection, so offensive to all unbelievers, that "in my flesh I shall see God." If the present body and the resurrection body are not identical, then there is no resurrection of the body at all. The Christian doctrine of the resurrection is based on the very fact that the dead will rise with the bodies which they had during their lives on earth. Gerhard states this fact very emphatically when he writes: "(Diximus) formam resurrectionis consistere in duobus, in corporum,scil. ex terrae pulvere, reformatione et in eorundem animatione sive animarum cum corporibus suscitatis redunitione." (L. de Res. Mort.,§ 106.) Thus, according to Gerhard, the essence of the doctrine of the resurrection consists in the very fact that the bodies will be restored and reunited with the soul. Baier states the doctrine even more clearly when he says: "Subjectum quo est corpus idem numero, quod quisque in hac vita habuit." (Part. I, cap. IX, § 7.) He proves this statement from 2 Cor. 5, 10, where the identity of the present body and the resurrection body is expressly predicted ("that every one may receive the things done in his body"), and from Dan. 12,2 and John 5, 28. 29, where it is said that the very ones that are in the graves shall come forth. This, however, applies not to the soul, but to the body. Baier clinches his argument with a reference to Job 19,25, one of the best of all the Biblical proof-texts for the doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh, or body. The Lutheran Confessions teach the same doctrine. In his Large Catechism, Luther writes: "Meanwhile ... we expect that our flesh will be destroyed and buried with all its uncleanness and will come forth gloriously and arise to entire and perfect holiness in a new, eternal life." (Creed, Art. III, 57.) The Formula of Concord, with even greater emphasis, declares: "In the article of the Resurrection, Scripture testifies that precisely the substance of this our flesh (huius nostrae carnis, quam circumferimus, substantia), but without sin, will rise again, and that in eternal life we shall have and retain precisely this soul (eam ipsam animam), but without sin." (1. Orig. Sin, § 46.) The Lutheran doctrine thus claims identity between the present body and the resurrection body, though the latter differs from the former per accidens in form and appearance. "Subjectum quo est corpus IDEM NUMERO."

The question now is: Is this the doctrine which Paul teaches in 1 Oor. 15:35-49? Both the Modernists and the mediating Fundamentalists deny this, for modernistic agnosticism has no place for a resurrection. In view of this fact an investigation of the passage is certainly in place. The entire fifteenth chapter of Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians was written in proof of the doctrine of the resurrection. It may be roughly divided into two parts: vv. 1-34, where the apostle, with consummate skill, proves the certainty of Christ's resurrection and its consequences, and vv. 35-58, where he enlarges upon the nature of the resurrection body. Vv.35-49 constitute the backbone of the second part. In the Corinthian church some members (τινεs) denied the doctrine of the resurrection in toto. This absolute denial of the doctrine. was evidently based upon the supposed impossibility of such an event. They argued that, since the bodies had disappeared, there could be no form in which the dead might appear. Essentially their chief argument was the same as that of our present-day unbelievers: There is no resurrection because in our opinion there can be no resurrection. ''Who can recall by charms a man's dark blood shed in death?" (Agamemnon, 987-992.) Paul meets this argument in v.35, where he puts two distinct questions, around which he intends to build up his discussion. The first is: "How are the dead raised up?" The second: "With what manner of body do they come?" It is quite evident that the two queries are not identical. The first manifestly inquires into the possibility of the resurrection. It is similar to such questions as: "How shall we escape?" Heb. 2, 3, or: "How dwelleth the love of God in him?" 1 John 3, 17. The particle how (πωs) in these questions does not express mode, but possibility. The question was, no doubt, taken over from those who stood aghast at the thought that the body which has utterly perished should be restored. It is the eternal question of doubting reason. While reason may conceive of an immortal soul, it regards as the acme of folly the doctrine that the dead will be raised. Even the Egyptians, who believed in a possible resuscitation of the body, provided it were preserved from decay, did not teach anything like the Biblical doctrine of the resurrection. The verdict of human reason has ever been: There is no resurrection of the dead. This denial Paul therefore had to meet first, and he introduced his argument with the very question with which he was confronted by unbelief: "How are the dead raised~" or, "How can they be raised?" The second question refers to the result of the resurrection. If there is a resurrection, the dead must come forth with a body. But if that is the case, what, then, is the nature of the resurrection body? With what kind of body will they come? Will the resurrection body be the same as the present body, or will it be a different body? Evidently, in the opinion of the doubters of the resurrection at Corinth, to put this question was to confront Paul with an unsolvable problem. Their contention was that there could be no resurrection body - the body has perished to remain perished. It may be noted in passing that the Sadducees put practically the same question to our Lord and received the same reply which Paul gives in the passage before us. (Op. Matt. 22; 23-30.) They argued exactly as did the Corinthians and as do our Modernists to-day. Paul was not at all perturbed by the query put to him. He answers it in v.36 with a stinging comment: "Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die." The epithet "fool" (αθπων) is an exclamation of strong disapprobation. (Cp. Luke 24, 25; 12, 20; Rom. 1,22; Eph. 5,15.) The apostle was angered by the senselessness of the argument that 'the body cannot live again simply because it dies." To him it appeared foolish, irrational, and contrary to all experience, since miracles similar to the resurrection miracle occur in nature every day. The seed is put into the ground, and from it the plant rises. Indeed, vegetation cannot spring into existence in any other way. If there is to be a plant, the seed must be sown into the ground and perish in its present form. So, Paul argues, it is with the body. The present body is placed in the ground, and from it springs the resurrection body. Thus the apostle, in order to convince his opponents, confronts reason with reason and argues with incontestable logic from common experience. If from the perished seed life can come, why should it be impossible for the dead to rise? Luther remarks on this verse: "Solches siehest du taeglich vor Augen, und ist so gemein, dass wohl Schande ist, solch Gleichnis zu geben, und willst noch viel fragen und disputieren, wie es zugehen werde in der Auferstehung? Merkst du nicht, dass dir da ein Spiegel und Bild vor die Nase gestellt ist, das du greifen kannst? Denn weil er solches macht aus einem kleinen Korn, sollte er nicht mit uns, denen er Himmel und Erde geschaffen hat und gibt, viel ein ander, besser und herrlicher Wesen machen? Darum musst du ja ein toller Narr sein, weil dir solches vor die Augen gemalt und in alle fuenf Sinne dringt, wie ein jeglich Koernlein seine Gestalt und ganzen Leib verliert, und doch nicht verliert, sondern schiesst wieder viel schoener heraus mit Blaettern und Staenglein und kriegt einen schoenen, neuen Leib, dass du muesstest dich zu Tode wundern, wenn du es zuvor nicht gesehen haettest; und willst nicht glauben, dass Gott werde uns tun, wie er verheissen hat, dass er uns wolle auferwecken und verklaeren, viel heller und schoener, denn jetzt keine Kreatur auf Erden ist?" (VIII, 1225 ff.) After having established the possibility of the resurrection Paul next considers the question to which the remainder of the passage is devoted: "With what manner of body do they come?" In discussing this point, the apostle argues on the basis of the same illustration which he used to establish the first truth. But first he employs an analogy to show the difference between the present body and the resurrection body. "That which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat or of some other kind." (Brit. R. V.) The point of comparison here is simply the difference in appearance between what is sown and what comes forth. What is sown is a seed; what springs forth is a plant; but essentially they are the same. If the grain is of wheat, then also the blade is a blade of wheat and not of barley or oats. This fact we must not overlook. If some exegetes maintain that Paul here teaches that the resurrection body will be essentially different from the present body, they are straining the ·tertium comparationis. Also, they overlook the subsequent context. That the apostle does not assert that the resurrection body will be a new creation, entirely distinct from the present body, is clear from his arguments that follow. V.37 is only the beginning of the disputation. In its very nature it is transitional, leading up to the climax of the discussion, the very purpose of which is to establish the identity of the present body and the resurrection body. What v.37 shows is that the resurrection is not merely resuscitation. As the plant is more glorious than the seed, so the resurrection body will be more glorious than the present body, although its component elements will be the same, Job 19, 25-27. More than this the illustration does not teach and should not teach. This is apparent from v. 38, where the apostle says: "But God giveth it a body even as it pleased Him, and to each seed a body of its own." The Expositor's New Testament remarks on this verse: "This added clause meets the finer point of the second question of v. 35: God will find a fit body for man's redeemed (glorified) nature, as He does for each of the numberless seeds vivified in the soil." Luther writes: "Und ist das die Meinung und Beschluss davon, dass des Menschen Leib muss veraendert werden und die Gestalt nicht behalten, so er jetzt hat, ohne was gehoert zu seinem Wesen, also dass nichts bleiben soll, was dieses vergaenglichen Lebens ist, und doch derselbige Leib una Seele sei und bleibe, so ein jeglicher gehabt hat, mit allen Gliedmassen." (VIII, 1235.) The particular force of the passage is, of course, the evident fact that God gives to each kind of seed its peculiar body, so that each grain preserves its identity, wheat producing wheat; barley, barley; spelt, spelt, etc. Hence, while the new plant with its seed is not the grain itself that was sown, yet it is the same in kind and preserves its identity, each seed actually reproducing its own body. So, Paul argues, the heavenly body that shall spring from the death of this earthly body, though it is not the body of sinful flesh and blood as it was sown in the grave, will be nevertheless the same body. In other words, at the resurrection every one will receive his own body, the body which he had while he lived on earth. However, this very statement would give rise to another objection in the minds of Paul‘s doubting readers. Paul was aware, while writing the truths contained in v.38, that the doubters might ask: "But can God really change the present body into a form suitable to the resurrection life?" This objection the apostle meets in vv. 39-41, where he calls attention to the almost infinite variety of bodies which God has already created. And, first, there is a great variety of bodies. in this present animal life. Men, animals, fishes, and birds have all their distinctive forms. The diversity in animal organizations is practically endless; not two of them are alike, just as no two plants are alike. From this Paul draws the argument that, if God is able to create so endless a variety of bodies, He is able also to adapt the present body of man to the resurrection life. Paul's appeal here is to both the omniscience and the omnipotence of God, "with whom nothing shall be impossible," Luke 1,37. But the wisdom of God, in creating different forms, is still more remarkable. As there is endless variety in animal life, so there is also endless variety with regard to the celestial bodies. The celestial bodies differ from the terrestrial; each class of bodies God wisely adapted to its own existence. But the marvel is still greater. Even the celestial bodies differ from one another in glory. "There is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, and another glory of the stars." Indeed, even "one star differeth from another star in glory." But if that is true, then how easily may God cause the bodies which He raises from the grave to differ from those that, after death, had been consigned to it! If even the present bodies differ so greatly from one another, cannot God fashion a resurrection body which is adapted to the heavenly life in glory? The overwhelming force of this apologetic argument is apparent. It destroys the very foundation on which the Corinthian doubters built their agnostic claim. Luther writes on this passage:”Da sind nun so viel irdische oder himmlische Kreaturen und dennoch ein jegliches in seiner Art von andern unterschieden und immer eines herrlicher und edler denn das andere. ... Nun reimt St. Paulus dieses Gleichnis auf seinen Artikel und spricht: 'Also auch die Auferstehung von den Toten: Will sagen: Alle werden wir auferstehen mit Leib und Seele, aber in einem neuen Wesen oder Gestalt des Leibes und seiner Glieder. Darum soll sich niemand irren an keinen heidnischen Reden und Gedanken, wie sich's reimen und zugehen werde." (VIII, 1236 ff.) In vv.42-44 Paul directly applies the lessons which his illustrations suggest. The introductory statement: "So also is the resurrection of the dead" points back to v. 40 and suggests the thought that, as the celestial bodies differ in glory from the terrestrial, so also will our resurrection bodies differ from our present bodies. This is his principal argument throughout this passage. That also among the raised believers there will be differences in glory is a truth clearly taught in v. 41. But this truth is only incidental. The far more important truth which Paul wishes to demonstrate is that the resurrection body will be so much more glorious than the present body. Three times the apostle repeats with emphasis the statement: "It is sown, .. '. it is raised." The body that is raised is the body that is sown. The two are identical. The resurrection body will not be a new body or a new creation, but the earthly body glorified, strengthened, and rendered incorruptible. The corruption (θθοπα), the disgrace (αηιμια), and the weakness (αζθενεια) will be totally removed, so that the resurrection body will appear in incorruption (εν αθθαπζια), in glory (εν δοξη), and in power (εν δυναμει). The resurrection body will therefore be the same as the present body; but its form or appearance will be different. It will be a body free from the corruption, dishonor, and weakness of sin. In v. 44 Paul shows the difference between the present body and the resurrection body by making a new statement, in which he summarizes what he had just said about the resurrection body. He says: 'It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body." The context clearly shows what Paul means by these terms, though their etymology hardly helps us in understanding them. When the apostle wrote the words, they were no doubt readily understood by his hearers or readers. If any doubt was entertained, it was quickly removed by vv. 47 and 48, where the writer interprets the ζωμα ψυχινον as the earthly body (εκ γηs, χοιχοs) and the ζωμα ψθχινον as the heavenly body (εξ ουπανοθ, επουπανιον). Evidently the natural body is a body suited to this natural, earthly life. (Cp. Jas. 3, 15f.; Jude 19; also 1 Cor. 2, 14.) The spiritual body is the body fitted for the spirit life in eternity, where the believers in Christ commune with God, who is a spirit, in a body adapted to such spiritual communion. The spiritual 'body, then, is a body adapted to the higher state of existence in heaven. (Hodge.) With this statement, Paul closes the discussion of the question, "With what manner of body do they come?" His line of argument has been in brief: As God creates infinite varieties of bodies in this present life, so He will surely fashion out of the corruptible present body a spirit-body corresponding to the spiritual resurrection life and adapted to its higher needs. In this way he has in a most satisfactory manner answered both questions put by the Corinthian doubters. His logic is unassailable and perfectly convincing. However, there remained a last question, and one which is of considerable importance: "Why is it that God will change our present bodies into spiritual bodies?" This thought underlies the last part of the passage, vv. 42b-49; and unless we bear it in mind, we shall not be able to understand the conclusion of Paul's argument. That God should raise our present bodies, corrupted by sin, and transform them into heavenly bodies, suited to eternal communion with Him in bliss, is certainly a high dignity conferred upon the believer and so great an act of divine grace that in some way it must be accounted for. Paul, in simple and clear words, accounts for this divine act of grace by referring his readers to Christ's redemptive work, which is the core and climax of this final discussion. The introduction to the theme is simple and natural. Paul says: "If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body." The evident meaning of the statement is: "If the one exists, then also the other exists, or: As certainly as we have a body adapted to this present life, so also shall we have a body adapted to the heavenly life. This truth inevitably follows from the certainty of the resurrection, which Paul has already proved in the preceding verses. If there is a resurrection, there must also be a resurrection body. God's loving design, involving our future life, must certainly be carried into effect, just as His loving design was executed at the creation. When God originally created man, the first man, Adam, as it is written Gen. 2, 17, was made (lit., became) a living soul, or a creature adapted to this present life. Adam was not made, as were the angels, for an existence outside this earth, but directly for this earth. And as Adam was created for this earthly existence, so all children of Adam are adapted to this earthly life. Like their ancestor, they are suited to a life on earth. This explains why all men have a ζωμα ψυχινον. God wished them to be creatures of this earth. But that does not explain all. Adam accounts only for our present existence, not for our existence in the future world. This blessed existence the believers owe to the second Adam. Foreseeing the Fall, God decreed for the perishing world a second Adam and made Him a life-giving spirit (πνευμα ζωοποιουν), which phrase evidently refers to the glorified body of Christ. What Adam could not give us Christ can and does give us. Adam could give us only a natural body, but Christ, as the life-giving Spirit, can give us a spiritual body; in other words, He can raise us from earth to heaven.' Hence we receive from Christ both the resurrection life and the resurrection body suited to that life. Adam was the head of the human race in its sinful state; Christ is the Head of the human race in its deliverance from sin. Adam was the source of our disgrace; Christ is the Source of our final and permanent glory. For He has life in Himself and He graciously bestows it upon all who believe in Him as their divine Redeemer. John 5, 26. As Christ was raised from the dead in glory, so will He raise up in glory all who have died in Him. John 5, 21. This thought Paul states very clearly in Rom. 6,4, where he writes: "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." In Phil. 3, 21 he writes still more clearly: "Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." Thus Christ, the second Adam, by His vicarious death and His justifying resurrection, has been made unto us a life-giving Spirit, who in the resurrection will give us the spiritual body needed for the life in glory. This is Paul's reply to the question, Why is it that we shall be given a spiritual body? The answer is clear and convincing and leaves no doubt whatever with regard to the certainty of the resurrection body. Christ's resurrection is the greater miracle; if that has been accomplished, then also the lesser miracle, our resurrection and glorification, will be accomplished, for this rests upon the undeniable fact of His own glorious resurrection. Incidentally, however, also this discussion throws light upon the previous question, "In what manner of body do they come?" The answer which this last argument suggests, is: In the likeness of Christ's resurrection body. We shall be fashioned like unto His glorious body. Paul thus presents to the believer a way in which he can picture to himself the resurrection body. Let the believer look upon the risen Savior, and then he can visualize his own resurrection glory. Paul's explanation is also that of John, who writes: ―We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him," 1 John 3, 2. Could anything sweeter be written than this consoling message of the glory that will be ours? The very consideration of this glorious state of the believer, however, prompts other questions: Why must we first pass through this present life if God has intended us for a life so much more perfect and glorious? and: Why should we first receive this poor earthly, Adamitic body if Christ in the end will give us a glorious. spiritual body like unto His? Paul answers these questions by simply pointing his readers to God's sovereign and gracious will. God's design is that "that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that which is spiritual." According to God's inscrutable, but good will, the lower is to precede the higher; the earthly, the heavenly. First God willed the seed-time, after that the harvest. In accordance with His divine plan, God made the first man, from whom we have our earthly existence, of the earth, earthy (εκ γηs, χοικοs). Then, in view of our Fall and sin, He provided for us a second Man from heaven, from whom we shall have our heavenly existence. And "as is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy." As Adam was, so are we; his earthly body has become ours. "And as is the Heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." As is Christ, the risen and glorified Savior, so also shall all believers be who will enter heaven with Him. For this is God's divine rule: "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the Heavenly." As we in this life have lived after the image of Adam, so in heaven we shall be after the image of the Lord of heaven, our adorable Savior Jesus Christ. As from Adam we have bodies suited to the life on earth, so from Christ we shall receive bodies suited to the life in heaven; for He "shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." Luther remarks on the last passage: "Denn das heisst 'das Bild des irdischen Menschen’, das ist, dass wir allzumal dahergehen in derselbigen Gestalt und Wesen und allerdings leben und tun, wie Adam und Eva gelebt und getan haben. Denn sie haben eben dasselbige Wesen gefuehrt, also gegessen, getrunken, gedaeuet, ausgeworfen, gefroren, Kleider getragen usw., dass gar kein Unterschied ist gewesen zwischen ihnen und uns, anzusehen [nach dem aeusserlichen Ansehen]. Hernach aber werden wir solch Bild und Wesen ablegen und ein anderes annehmen, naemlich des himmlischen Christi, und auch dieselbe Gestalt und dasselbe Wesen fuehren, so er jetzt nach seiner Auferstehung hat, dass wir nicht mehr duerfen so essen, trinken, schlafen, gehen, stehen usw., sondern ohne alle Notdurft der Kreaturen leben und der ganze Leib so rein und hell wird werden wie die Sonne und so leicht wie die Luft und endlich so gesund, selig und voll himmlischer, ewiger Freude in Gott, dass ihn nimmermehr hungern, duersten noch muede werden oder abnehmen wird." (VIII, 1251 f.) . From the discussion it is clear that Paul's doctrine concerning the resurrection body in 1 Cor. 15, 35-49 is in full agreement with that of Christ and the whole Bible. (Cp. Dan. 12, 2; John 5, 28. 29; Job 19, 25.) He teaches in clear and unmistakable words the resurrection of the body, not merely the "immortality of the soul." His doctrine is, not that Christ will create for the believer a new body, which has no connection with the present body, but that at the resurrection the same body that was buried in the grave will come forth, transformed and glorified, fashioned like unto the glorious body of the risen Savior. The apostle is, therefore, in opposition both to the Luther's Academic Relations to Erfurt and Wittenberg. 275 Modernists, who identify the resurrection with the immortality of the soul, and to the mediating Fundamentalists, who claim that there is no connection between the present body and the resurrection body. The connection, according to Paul, certainly exists. The resurrection body will be the present body, only changed and glorified. As Christ's humiliated body was essentially the same as His glorified body, so from the humiliation of this present life the believer will pass into the glory of the perfect, heavenly life, with a body free from the pollution of sin and perfectly adapted to the glorious life of holiness. As he has borne the image of the earthy, so shall he then in supreme perfection bear the image of the Heavenly. J. T. MUELLER.

Go back to index

DEATH…THEN WHAT?

Seven Stanzas for Easter

(http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2012/04/07/seven-stanzas-at-easter-john- updike/)

“Seven Stanzas at Easter” (John Updike)

Make no mistake: if he rose at all It was as His body; If the cell’s dissolution did not reverse, the molecule reknit, The amino acids rekindle, The Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers, Each soft spring recurrent; It was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the Eleven apostles; It was as His flesh; ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes The same valved heart That-pierced-died, withered, paused, and then regathered Out of enduring Might New strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor, Analogy, sidestepping, transcendence, Making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded Credulity of earlier ages: Let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache, Not a stone in a story, But the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of Time will eclipse for each of us The wide light of day.

And if we have an angel at the tomb, Make it a real angel, Weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair, opaque in The dawn light, robed in real linen Spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous, For our own convenience, our own sense of beauty, Lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are embarrassed By the miracle, And crushed by remonstrance.

Go back to index