Luther on the Sleep of the Dead.
By John Nevins Andrews
In Michelet’s life of Luther, Bohn’s edition, p. 133, is the following statement in Luther’s own words respecting the sleep of the dead. It is under date of Jan. 13, 1522. It shows his views at that time, though he was not always consistent with this view. He says:— “As to purgatory, I think it a very uncertain thing. It is probable, in my opinion, that, with very few exceptions indeed, the dead sleep in utter insensibility till the day of Judgment. As to purgatory itself, I do not agree with the sophists in thinking it a determinate place. Who will venture to give an assured opinion on the subject? On what authority can it be said that the souls of the dead may not sleep out the interval between earth and Heaven, or hell, or purgatory, in the same way that the living pass in profound slumber the interval between their downlying at night and their uprising in the morning?” These words indicate that Luther looked at the period between death and the resurrection as a blank, at least in the cases of most persons. Perhaps the fact that he made some exceptions may explain his apparent contradictions of himself, and perhaps he afterward changed his views. But these were his thoughts in 1522. J. N. A.