Death until Resurrection

An Unconscious Sleep According to Luther

Joseph Saligoe

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781725253414
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

What really happens to the soul when people die? This groundbreaking book may appeal both to Luther experts and to those who know little about the Reformer. It demonstrates that Luther constantly taught over the last twenty-four years of his life that death is like an unconscious sleep. It also shows why this matters today for Christians. Death until Resurrection is a great first step in understanding God's plan for renewal of the creation that can alleviate our common fears about death. Seeing what exactly the scriptural writers meant regarding death--as interpreted by one of the most prominent church leaders ever--also provides the benefit of helping us better understand core doctrines such as our resurrection, the nature of hell, and eternal life through salvation.This book offers that which very few writers on Luther have done: an explanation that can unravel his apparent contradictions and the Luther paradox on the nature of death and the soul using Luther's own words scattered throughout his voluminous writings. Learn which group of widely acclaimed authors (or experts) on Luther was correct about what Luther believed about death: Lohse and George, or Althaus and Thiselton.

chapter 1

What Happens When People Die?

Resolving the confusion on what Luther thought

What happens to the soul when people die? What really happens to the invisible aspect of us—that which provides our identity and uniqueness—shortly after the moment of death according to Scripture? One good way to approach this question about the literal, constitutional nature of a human being is to start by asking the following three questions:

1.Since there are so many references to sleep in the context of literal death throughout the Bible, could this repetition be valuable as an important part of the message of God? I have found fifteen passages in the New Testament (NT) and forty-one passages in the Old Testament (OT) that are indicating perhaps (with its use of the words sleep, slept, sleeper, etc.) that death may be similar to the unconsciousness of natural sleep.1 There are a plethora of other scriptural verses (that don’t use these words) that by direct inference or indirect implication are probably saying that the mind of the deceased person is no longer conscious anywhere until the time of resurrection.

Over a very long period of time, this group of fifty-six sleep verses that refer to literal death, or more likely, that describe the nature of death as being similar to sleep is more than enough repetition throughout Scripture to be considered meaningful, and not just an unnecessary addition, based on a variety of good reasons. This amount of repetition must be considered intentional both on an individual level (and Paul is the best example) as well as on a divine level that included the prophets and the apostles (since it is the inspired word of God).

It is particularly relevant to remember that included in this long list are quotations of Jesus Christ (as seen in three verses in the Gospels). Furthermore, also included in this list are quotations of the Lord God as written by the prophets (such as Jeremiah). It is not the case, as some people have asserted (based on published books) that the apostle Paul used the word sleep only a small number of times when referring to literal death. When an electronic search is conducted on just 1 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians, for example, the results show there are nine legitimate uses of sleep and its directly related forms such as slept. Maybe there’s a tenth sleep verse in these particular letters that I have overlooked.

The sleeper designation may itself suggest that Paul saw it as a description of the nature of death and was probably not just referring to death euphemistically given the context of how Jesus used sleep and awaken in John 11:11 to describe the situation to his disciples that their friend, Lazarus, was not naturally asleep, but had actually died. The common explanation of death as a sleep as being just a meaningless euphemism will be challenged in this book.

2.Since there have been many leaders of the church—following its reformation in the sixteenth century—who have urged followers of Christ in their writings about death as a sleep to refocus on the nature of death, could these many scriptural passages on death be important?

3.If it is both important and relevant today (as this book intends to show) that curious Christians rethink the nature of death, our resurrection, and the basic nature of the soul, then why not include in it a life-long preacher and professor, who was a most influential Reformer—Martin Luther? He had a lot to say about this matter, and he kept bringing it up all the time until he died, as this book will clearly demonstrate.

Death until Resurrection represents a first step, or is a preliminary and helpful place to begin, regarding a whole multitude of issues that eventually can become indirectly related to the question of what happens when people die. A subsequent step—which is beyond the scope of this book’s primary goal—would then be to determine how Luther’s interpretations match up with various passages throughout Scripture. This book on Luther devotes very little space to showing the reader why a verse in the Bible can be legitimately interpreted the way Luther did. Therefore, I encourage you to check out my new website, WhenPeopleDie.com, for in-depth assistance on what all Scripture says about the nature of death.2 Additionally, I should refer you to another website of mine (that is finished, unlike this other website mentioned here that will eventually be much bigger) which introduces the topics of death and resurrection: John-3-16.org.

The following online conversation within a Facebook group named “Eschatology—the Intermediate State Before the Resurrection” shows there is a need for Death until Resurrection regarding an examination of Luther’s views on the nature of death. One member named Bob wrote the following in December 2018: “I think you are right about Luther speaking out of both sides of his mouth on this issue. . . . I wish that someone would do a definite study (perhaps a doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis) on Luther’s changing views on the intermediate state. So far I have only seen conflicting statements from Luther and different opinions as to what exactly he believed.” Doug (an administrator for this group) replied, “I won’t dispute Luther’s wavering” which was then liked by Donna and Bob. Michael (who knew about my expertise on Luther and death) responded by just tagging my name (to pull me into the discussion). I responded by posting (in part), “Bob, your Christmas wish may have been granted.”

One of the primary goals of this book is to demonstrate, characterize, and evaluate Luther’s then-unique view of the nature of death, and his still-novel understanding of the soul’s nature, by emphasizing what he said (as dispersed throughout many of his books) rather than quoting him only sporadically. Two of the reasons this book on Luther is relevant today include:

1.The likely fact that many people have been either misled on Luther’s beliefs about death, or are uncertain just how sure Luther was on this subject of death as an unconscious sleep; (e.g., didn’t he change his mind on it?). For other Christians who are unaware what Luther may have said about death, they probably already know something about the greatness of Luther. So for them, this book is relevant because it is common knowledge that he improved on some church doctrines and significant teachings of the Bible. Therefore, due to the very large amount of his own writings that have survived, it would not be too surprising that Luther could be potentially helpful in other areas too.

2.The fact that although Luther gave several explanations in his attempt to resolve the confusion on what he really believed, an extremely small number of authors over the centuries have attempted to explain them (or just refer to them) such that the “Luther paradox on death” is resolved. This rarity is understandable given the fact these explanatory quotes of Luther are widely dispersed in various works of Luther that are immensely voluminous (i.e., tens of thousands of pages).

Luther himself inadvertently created a paradox of contradictions on death by making a few statements (usually at big funerals) that appears to many people today to be confusing given his more numerous comments that are apparently inconsistent with his funeral speeches. I describe this situation as an apparent inconsistency because several people have taken their Luther quotes out of context (including from Luther’s funeral sermon for Duke John of Saxony). His repetitious explanatory efforts to resolve this confusion have proven to be insufficient and entirely ineffective mainly because these clarifications themselves are also dispersed throughout Luther’s writings. Death until Resurrection shows that Luther did potentially resolve the tension between two apparently contradictory stances, and that his explanations make sense and can be understandable with some additional help. This book provides that extra assistance in the following three ways:

1.It shows in a very comprehensive way that the “tug-of-war” between the two views of death that Luther described is not even close to being balanced, regarding the number of times throughout his life that he discussed each viewpoint. This ratio, seen in this book, is much more lopsided, numerically, than anyone has identified before in any publication. See chapters 5, 6, 7, and the appendix.

2.It shows in a comprehensive way how to digest Luther’s explanation for reconciling the apparent inconsistencies, and how it all can be possibly understood. See chapter 8 for my description of many of Luther’s quotes that discuss the “how and where” of death which provide the basis for seeing why Luther said what he did at the funerals.

3.It shows in a somewhat comprehensive way, in chapter 9 (the last chapter), that there we...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Tables and Outlines
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: What Happens When People Die?
• Chapter 2: Was It Really Just for a While?
• Chapter 3: Luther Lore versus the Truth
• Chapter 4: Unraveling the Issue with This Study on Luther
• Chapter 5: An Investigation of Luther’s Early Period
• Chapter 6: An Investigation of Luther’s Middle Period
• Chapter 7: An Investigation of Luther’s Later Period
• Chapter 8: The Where and How of Death and Resurrection
• Chapter 9: Was Luther a Physicalist Regarding the Soul?
• Conclusion
• Epilogue
• Appendix
• Bibliography