Luther on the Advent

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · May 20, 1875

Luther on the Advent.

The great Reformer was obviously in possession of that "perfect love" which "casteth out fear;" and having made Christ his friend, his strong faith enabled him to speak of the day of Judgment as one for which he waited "with yearnings and sighs of heart."

A recent writer, in speaking of him, says that "his relations with his children were singularly beautiful. He was especially gentle with them, and their fancies and imaginations delighted him. 'Children,' said he, 'imagine Heaven a place where rivers run with cream, and trees are hung with cakes and plums. Do not blame them. They are but showing their natural, unquestioning, all-believing faith.' One day, after dinner, when the fruit was on the table, the children were watching it with longing eyes. 'That is the way' said he, 'in which we grown Christians ought to look for the Judgment day.'"

That he was wont to thus look lovingly toward the Master's return, and to draw consolation from the prospect of the promised glory, appears from many passages in his writings. Take the following from one of his sermons, as a sample:—

"We are to feel for the miserable Christians; both those who are alive, and are so afflicted and oppressed, and those also who are dead and asleep in their graves, and waiting to come forth into their glory, like corn buried during the winter in the earth, or like sap concealed in the trees, which, being hindered by the cold, cannot break forth into new leaves and buds, but thirstingly waits for the summer, that it might at length burst forth in buds, and grow and flourish. In the same way, we ought also to rejoice because that day is coming, and ought to say, The rigor of winter has continued for a long time, but at length the fruitful summer will come and that summer which never shall cease; at the coming of which, not all the saints only, but also all the angels shall exult and rejoice; nay, which the whole creation expects and anxiously awaits. For the heavens, the earth, the sun, the stars, the air, and all creatures, can no longer endure the iniquity of the world; which iniquity they are compelled to witness, but with the greatest grief, because they must be abused by the indulgers in sin, and be a help to every kind of ungodliness, both to the world and to the devil; and they would fain be delivered from all this iniquity together with us, and become that new heavens or new earth, of which Peter and Isaiah speak, in which righteousness alone shall dwell."

In another place he says, "If thou be not filled with a desire after the coming of this day, thou canst never pray the Lord's prayer, nor canst thou repeat from thy heart the creed of faith. For with what conscience canst thou say, 'I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting,' if thou dost not in thy heart desire the same? If thou didst believe it, thou must of necessity desire it from thy heart, and long for that day to come; which, if thou dost not desire, thou art not yet a Christian, nor canst thou boast of thy faith."—Sermon of Consolation, pp. 22, 23.

The application of such a rule as this to the churches of Christendom would unchristianize many in our day. Actuated more by the spirit of the world than the spirit which led the seer of Patmos to say, "Come, Lord Jesus," and the Reformer to remark, "I see no other prayer that is fitting, but only this, 'Thy kingdom come.'" Multitudes are at ease in Zion. Luther's longings for his Lord's return, and pleasurable anticipations of the predicted glory, are too little known even among real Christians. Such desires did not unfit him for service, neither would they injure us. On the contrary they are just what we need. Oh, for more of that "simple, natural, unquestioning, all-believing faith" of which he was accustomed to speak!—Prophetic Times.