This was spoken by a professor at one of our LCMS seminaries:
"I think the LCMS has the doctrine of the intermediate state wrong. To say that the soul leaves the body and then is later rejoined sounds horribly gnostic to me. Doesn't it make more sense to say that when a person dies, they are with Jesus, even though we don't know all the details?"
I won't mention the prof's name, but can I just say that he absolutely rocks!! This is what I've been trying to say for quite a while, and especially in my more recent posts on the Lord's Prayer. My friend Chris commented that perhaps the Lord's Prayer is a prophetic utterance, and I would agree totally!
Are we so afraid of dying that we've invented a conscious post-mortem existence to counteract our fear of dying? I'm not saying their isn't a conscious post-mortem existence. There very well could be. But why is it so necessary? I'm with the good professor on this one. This whole idea of the "soul" leaving the body and floating away to some kind of cosmic Shangri-la (which we call "heaven") sounds to me like Gnosticism, which held that anything material, including the body, was evil and that our true selves, our souls, seek to escape this evil material body.
What is so wrong with saying that we don't know what happens when we die, and leave it at that?
Douglas Hoag
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About this blog
Pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, New Lenox, Illinois.
I'm married with two children.
My MBTI type is E/INFP, in case that means anything to you.
My prayer: Lord, help me finish everything I sta
Most importantly, I believe that the reality and personage of God was uniquely and fully realized in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. No one else comes close.
Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for the seizures and/or convulsions you may experience while reading this blog.
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I'm married with two children.
My MBTI type is E/INFP, in case that means anything to you.
My prayer: Lord, help me finish everything I sta
Most importantly, I believe that the reality and personage of God was uniquely and fully realized in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. No one else comes close.
Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for the seizures and/or convulsions you may experience while reading this blog.
Doug Hoag's Profile
Create Your Badge
1 comment:
The Scriptures are quite vague on this subject, especially about what goes on in "heaven." Or after biological death. All we know is these things from Scripture:
1. Wherever it is, Jesus is there. He promised to prepare a place for his followers. (John 14)
2. There is no suffering or death there. "They will neither kill nor destroy on all my holy mountain" (Isaiah Something)and "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes (Revelation 21).
That's it.
Since through Baptism, we are joined with Christ's resurrection, there is a connection with being raised to eschatological life as well. Just a thought.
"It's not that I'm afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens." -Woody Allen
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