Heaven and Hell

At some point in his ministry, the Lutheran shepherd has to deal with death. It might be the death of one of the older sheep in his flock or one of the little lambs. Maybe the Lutheran shepherd is confronted with the death of a straying sheep , who may or may not have heard the Gospel call of the Good Shepherd. Whatever the situation, whatever the length of time in the ministry, at some point the Lutheran shepherd has to deal with death.

It is with this reality in mind that Pr. Brian Keller wrote, Heaven and Hell: Eternal Life, Eternal Punishment, another excellent installment in Northwestern Publishing House’s People’s Bible Teachings. I started reading this book after recently reading for review a rather schmaltzy collection of various end-of-life experiences from another publishing house.

I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed with Keller’s book. In fact, in my opinion, Heaven and Hell is one of the better People’s Bible Teachings published. The author takes you through the basic concepts of death, heaven, hell, eternal life and eternal punishment according to Holy Scripture. He does a great job of utilizing word groupings and word studies to clarify how the Bible describes heaven and hell, while with the clear light of Scripture, he clears away many misconceptions out there about death and heaven and hell and the afterlife. Throughout the book and at the end, he does devote space to answering a few of the more common questions about the subject like “What do I say at the funeral home?”, “Is it wrong to be cremated?”, “Why don’t pastors read eulogies?”, “What’s a Christian funeral and burial?”, “Are there degrees of glory?”, “What will heaven be like?” “Are deceased loved ones paying attention to earthly events?” and quite a few more. I also enjoyed his use of a variety of hymns to illustrate his major points. Even though this book is intended to make the doctrines of heaven and hell more accessible to the lay reader, I found this book to be a tremendous resource for the ministry and I strongly recommend it for your personal library.

Every Lutheran shepherd has to deal with death at some point.

By God’s grace, I’ve only had to conduct two Christian Victory services in my brief ministry. The Lord made my first funeral easy on me as I had opportunity to proclaim the eternal victory Christ had won and given to one of the most faithful Lutheran women I’ve ever met. In spite of advancing age and declining health, Beth had always been a “sparkplug” for our ministry, especially in evangelism. She was one of the last few members from the early days of our congregation and at her death, we figured she had personally welcomed about 3/4 of our members into our congregation. Now Jesus has welcomed her home. By God’s grace, I know I will see her again.

A month later, the Lord allowed me the privilege of conducting the Christian Victory service of the 11-year-old son of one of our families. For months, the Lord had allowed Andrew to battle with leukemia. After about ten months, the Lord brought him rest and personally gave him a crown of glory in heaven. I remember hearing what Andrew told his grandfather when he was first diagnosed, “Don’t worry, Grandpa, I know who’s taking care of me.” Andrew’s parents later told me that on the night he entered glory, as his life slowly slipped away, they sang hymns with him and pointed him to Christ. All the time he was looking forward to going to heaven and reassuring his parents that he was in Jesus’ hands. The confessions of faith I and others heard from the lips of that child are nothing short of remarkable. (I wish we adults could so freely and easily confess such a rock-solid faith in Christ Crucified and Risen!) By God’s grace, I know I will see him again.

I realize that the times where I have had to deal with death as a Lutheran shepherd are probably not that remarkable and not that much different than your own experiences. Still when the Lord allows us to deal with the death of one of his sheep or lambs, He underscores for us the glorious truth of the resurrection: Because Jesus lives, we, too, shall live and we will see our loved ones in the Lord again! That promise brings real comfort and peace to the heart of every Christian who has to deal with death. That includes you too, dear Reader. Jesus lives for you too! His victory is your victory! Alleluia!