05 March 2008

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

How blessed is the state of those who have finally gone home out of the vale of tears into the eternal house of the Father! Through death, they have entered into life, for there is no longer any death or sickness and their crying has ceased forever. There, no one is humbled by age; instead there exists an eternal youth. No one groans in a sickbed. No one stands mourning at the coffin of a loved one since there is no longer any separation. Poverty, scarcity and hunger are things of the past; all who dwell in God's house hold the key to His inexhaustible treasury. There, no icy winters and cold nights intrude; they are replaced by the eternal spring of heaven. -- C.F.W. Walther, *God Grant It!* p. 311

5 comments:

Erich Heidenreich, DDS said...

"...their crying has ceased forever."

While I favor this belief, I'm not certain this can be said with biblical certainty of the present ("intermediate") heaven. Little is known of what the state between death and resurrection is like. The verses of Revelation which state that God "will wipe away every tear from their eyes" are explicitly talking about our resurrected existence. Anxiousness can bring tears, and we know that the martyrs in the present heaven cry out: "how long?"

William Weedon said...

Hi, Erich.

Meant to comment on this, and other things drove it from the mind. The Church's teaching on this is quite in line with Walther's words. To the thief on the cross our Lord gave the promise "TODAY you will be with me in paradise." And so we sing:

And so to earth we now entrust
What came from dust and turns to dust
And from the dust shall rise that day
In glorious triumph o'er decay.

The soul forever lives with God,
Who freely hath His grace bestowed
And through His Son redeemed it here
From ev'ry sin, from ev'ry fear.

All trials and all griefs are past,
A blessed end has come at last.
Christ's yoke was borne with ready will;
Who dieth thus is living still.

We have no cause to mourn or weep;
Securely shall the body sleep
Till Christ Himself shall death destroy
And raise the blessed dead to joy.
(LSB 759)

Erich Heidenreich, DDS said...

Yes, of course, but where is the biblical evidence for this? My point was not that this is not commonly taught in the church, nor that I wish to argue that it isn't true, but rather that: "I'm not certain this can be said with biblical certainty of the present ('intermediate') heaven."

You cite the words of Jesus to the thief on the cross. But being in Paradise before the resurrection does not necessarily mean no more tears. God Himself sorrows over things in this broken world. The argument can be made that tears will not cease until the New Heaven and Earth replace this sad, broken world, which deserves every tear it gets.

Erich Heidenreich, DDS said...

P.S. Just to be clear, it is the "biblical certainty" of this teaching that I am not convinced of. I think answering the question of whether or not there are tears in the intermediate existence between death and resurrection is speculative any way you try to answer it.

William Weedon said...

Well, is there any passage that teaches that there ARE such tears? To be in Paradise suggests that there are not. That one is at utter peace. The cry of the martyrs is not one of torment, but a plea for the justice of God to triumph in the end.

The passage that came to mind right away was Wisdom 3! "But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them." Hey, I'm a Lutheran, I can quote that. :)