Siddhartha (Herman Hesse) and Ecclessiastes

     

Ecclesiastes

• The son of King David, in Jerusalem, Solomon became the last king of the united kingdom of Israel. He reined between c. 970 BC and c. 931 BC. 
• Ecclesiastes has taken its literary form from the Middle Eastern tradition of the fictional autobiography, in which a character, often a king, relates his experiences and draws lessons from them, often self-critical: Koheleth likewise identifies himself as a king, speaks of his search for wisdom, relates his conclusions, and recognizes his limitations.
• He first studied wisdom, but it’s all vanity
• Then he went for earthly pleasures, such as alcohol, money, power, sex, arts and entertainment
• He Observes humanity
• Time and chance happen to all and it is frustrating, elusive, everyone still dies in the end
• Then he turns to God and realizes it is all about God and our hope is in the world to come.

Siddhartha

• Published in 1922 in Germany by Herman Hesse about Siddhartha in India ~500sBC
• The son of a Brahmin (highest caste in Hidu, priest), Siddhartha enjoys a near-idyllic existence with his best friend, Govinda, but he is secretly dissatisfied. He performs all the rituals of religion, and he does what religion says should bring him happiness and peace. Nonetheless, he feels something is missing. His father and the other elders have still not achieved enlightenment, and he feels that staying with them will not settle the questions he has about the nature of his existence.
• The path of self-denial does not provide a permanent solution for him. He points out that the oldest Samanas have lived the life for many years but have yet to attain true spiritual enlightenment. Wondering ascetics, gave rise to Janism, Buddhism, Yoga, and cycle of birth and death.
• Buddha lived sometime between c. 563 BC 411 BC. Buddha’s name was also Siddhartha, this path kind of models his own search.
• He then learns from the pleasures of the body. The more he obtains in the material world, the less it satisfies him, and he is soon caught in a cycle of unhappiness that he tries to escape by engaging in even more gambling, drinking, and sex. 
• In Siddhartha, Siddhartha learns that enlightenment cannot be reached through teachers because it cannot be taught—enlightenment comes from within. However, the ferryman was a guide and the river was a conduit. Govinda had to kiss Siddhartha’s forehead to get it.
• The book is full of Polarities (e.g. spiritual vs. material and others). The river is life and the two banks the poles. Ferrymen help navigate between the two, so only they can teach, help others find enlightenment.
• Natural Law can only get you so far and in the end, people turn inward and there is not real hope. The Scripture points to God, in whom our true hope rests, as the Preacher discovered.

Numerology

Being an Engineer by training, numbers have always been interesting to me. Numbers clearly have meaning in the Bible, so I researched what the numbers meant and have put my notes here for a reference:

1 “Unity”

One clearly represents unity, primacy, the first, the best, the only, it has no divisors, no factors, no components, it is universal, whole and complete. One usually represents God, His sovereign rule, His omnipotence, His supremacy, His unique character. One excludes all differences for there is no second with which it can either harmonize or conflict.

2 “Union or Division”

Two is unity plus another, thus we have a difference or a contrast between the one and the other, or disunity.  However, two can also work together for good.

Night and Day, Light and Darkness

Right and Wrong (Good and Bad), for or against, saved or unsaved, heaven or hell.

Cain and Able; Jacob and Esau; Israel and Judah

Dual nature of Jesus (Man and God)

Bipartite Substance (spiritual and physical or body and soul)

Genders are 2, marriage of 2.

^“Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he fall; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?” Ecclesiastes 4:9-11

2 kinds of sin – original and specific

2 kinds of revelation – general and specific

“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” Romans 1:20

2 great commandments – love God and love your neighbor

2 testaments/covenants of the Bible
2 kinds of God's will - hidden and revealed
2 kinds of revelation - general and specific
law and gospel,
God's alien and proper work
2 kinds of righteousness - vertical and horizontal
2 kings of justification - objective and subjective
2 kinds of sanctification - wide and narrow

3 “Godly/Divine Perfection or Completeness”

Number of Godly completeness, or divine or spiritual perfection or completeness.

Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Tripartite Nature of Man

Jesus had a 3 year ministry

Jesus rose on the third day

The three divisions of time - past, present and future.
Three parts of the tabernacle/temple
The sum of all human capacity (and sin) is threefold - thought, word and deed.

Temptation from 3 sources: internal, world, and the devil.

4 “Worldly/Creation Perfection or Completeness”

Number of worldly perfection, or the entirety of creation.  Four is three plus one, and it denotes therefore that which follows the revelation of the three in one God, namely His creative works. God is known by the things which he created.

4 directions (N,E,S,W) or corners of the earth.

4 seasons

We read in Genesis 1:10 that the river that flowed out of the Garden of Eden divided into four rivers. “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.”

5 “Grace”

Five is four plus one, we have seen that there are three persons in the Godhead, four represents their created work. The creation was made subject to corruption, so he next thing, of five, is Grace.

Five kinds of animals were sacrificed under the Old Covenant: goats, sheep, cattle, pigeons, and doves

Jesus bled from 5 wounds on the altar of the Cross.

Daniel proclaimed the Fifth Kingdom to be an Everlasting Kingdom

God sealed his unconditional promises to Abram by the covenant of circumcision and by changing his name to Abraham. In the Hebrew this involved adding one letter to Abram’s name. The fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Sarai, Abram's wife also had her name changed to Sarah by the addition of the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Thus God is showing that His covenant with Abraham was through grace and by grace only.

6 “Weakness of Man”

Six is clearly stamped in the bible as the number of man. It was on the sixth day of creation that God created people. Six could be seen as being four - the creation or mankind's world, plus two - division or mankind's separation from God. Alternatively six could be five - the grace of God, plus one leading to the grace of God being made of no effect by mankind's addition to it. Finally six might also be viewed as seven - spiritual perfection minus one, i.e. mankind's coming short of spiritual perfection.  Therefore, three sixes is the imperfect or anti-trinity.

7 “Spiritual Perfection or Completeness”

In the Hebrew, seven is from a root word meaning to be complete or full.  God rests on the 7^th day and gave his seal of approval.  Sabbath.  Old testament forgives debts every 7 years.

Spiritual completeness 3 + worldly completeness 4 = 7.

In Matthew 18:22 Simon Peter asks Jesus how many times he must forgive a brother who has sinned against him.  Peter asks "As many as seven times?"  Jesus' response is "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times," indicating not a literal 77 times but that Peter's forgiveness is to be given without limit-an abundance of forgiveness using the "perfect" number 7 which represents both covenant and spiritual perfection.

There are multiple sevens in the Book of Revelation including.

seven Spirits of God [ Revelation 4:5].

seven Seals [ Revelation 5:1].

seven Angels with Seven Chalices [Revelation 15:5-7].

8 “New Births, New Beginning”

Eight is seven plus one, and is hence the start of a new order, the beginning of a new era. Eight thus represents regeneration and resurrection. When the flood washed the earth clean, in a type of baptism, eight people were saved in the ark.  Circumcision on the 8^th day symbolizing new man, or belonging to the covenant.  Jesus rose on the first day of the week.

With this in mind it is interesting to note that the Bible records eight individual resurrections other than the Lord Jesus and the saints.

(1) Elija: widow’s son 1 Kings 17:17-24

(2) Elisha: child 2 Kings 4:31-37

(3) :Elisha 2 Kings 13:20-21

(4) Jesus: only son of a widow Luke 7:11-18

(5) Jesus: Jairus’s servant Luke 8:40-42, 49-56

(6) Jesus: Lazarus John 11:39-44

(7) Peter: Tabitha Acts 9:36-43

(8) Paul: Eutychus Acts 20:7-12

Jesus is the 8th covenant

(1) Covenant with Adam [Genesis 1:28-30; 2:15-17; Hosea 6:7].

(2) Noah and the earth [Genesis 6:18; 9:9-17; Sirach 44:17-18].

(3) Abraham [Genesis 12:3; 15:1-18; 18:18; 22:18; Sirach 44:19-20].

(4) Sinai Covenant [Exodus 19-24; 34:10, 27, 28; Deuteronomy 5:2-3].

(5) Aaron and Sons high priestly covenant[Exodus 40:15; Leviticus 2:13; Numbers 18:19; Sirach 45:7; Jeremiah 33:21].

(6) Phinehas: perpetual priesthood [Numbers 25:11-15; Sirach 45:24].

(7) David and descendants [2 Samuel 7:11; 23:5; Sirach 45:25].

(8) Jesus the Priest-King of the New Covenant

9 “Divine completeness from the Father”

Three threes = 3+3+3 = 3*3

Nine fruit of the spirit

“Endings”

Nine is not yet the full or complete, number ten, but it does mark the ending. It is the last of the single digits, in our decimal numbering system. Thus it can represent the conclusion or ending of a matter.

It was in the ninth year of the prophet Hosea that the king of Assyria destroyed the capital city of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and carried the people away into exile [2 Kings 17:6].

It was in the ninth year of King Zedekiah's reign that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon conquered the Southern Kingdom of Judah, destroying the city of Jerusalem and the Temple [2 Kings 25:1].

It was the ninth hour, Jewish time (3PM) when Jesus gave up His life on the cross for the sins of the world [Matthew 27:46].

10 “Orderly Perfection or Completeness”

Completeness of order.  The number ten is the start of a whole new order of numbers and the culmination of the numbers that come before it.  Counting basis, 10 fingers, 10 toes.  10 commandments.

10 righteous would be enough to save Sodom and Gomorrah.

Noah was the 10^th generation before the covenant.

11 "Disorder or Judgement"
One more than orderly completeness and one less than perfect completeness.

10+1 or 12-1

12 “Governmental Perfection or Completeness”

Spiritual completeness 3 x worldly completeness 4 = 12

12 tribes of Israel (Old Testament fullness of God's people)

12 disciples (New Testament fullness of God's people)

The city of God in Revelation Chapter 21, symbolic of the church and also called the bride of Christ.

“¹⁰And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, ¹¹Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; ¹²And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: ¹³On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. ¹⁴And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. ¹⁵And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. ¹⁶And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. ¹⁷And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.”  Revelation 21:10-17

13 “Apostasy or Rebellion”

12+1 adding to perfect government is rebellion

“Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.” Genesis 14:4.

40 “Trial and testing”

40 day epic periods during the great flood [Gen 7:4, 12, 17,8:6].

40 years was the age of Isaac when he married Rebekah [Gen 25:20].

40 years of Moses in Egypt [Ex 7:7; Dt 34:7; Acts 7:30].

40 years of Moses in Midian before his return to Egypt [Ex 7:7; Acts 7:30].

40 years from the Exodus until Moses' death [Dt 1:3; 34:7]. 

40 years Israel ate manna [Ex 16:35; Dt 29:5].

40 days Moses was on the Mountain to receive the Law of the Sinai Covenant [Ex 24:18].

40 days the children of Israel were tested while Moses was on the mountain [Ex 32:1].

40 days Moses was on the Mountain after the golden calf. [Ex 34:28].

40 days after his birth, according to the Sinai Covenant, a male child of Israel was dedicated to God at the Sanctuary [Lev 12:1-4].

40 days the Israelite spies reconnoitered the land of Canaan [Num 13:25].

40 years was Caleb's age when Moses sent him to reconnoiter Canaan [Josh 14:7].

40 years that Israel spent in the wilderness before they camped by the Jordan River [Num 14:33; Dt 1:1-3; 8:2].

40 years from the giving of the Law at Sinai to the conquest of the Promised land [Josh 5:6].

40 year intervals of peace in the age of the Judges [Judges 3:11; 5:31; 8:28].

40 years Eli judged Israel [1 Sam 4:18].

40 years of war between Israel and the Philistines.

40 years David ruled as King of Israel [2 Sam 5:5; 1 Chr 29:26-27].

40 years of Solomon ruled Israel. [2 Chr 9:30].

40 days Jonah was in the Assyrian city of Nineveh [Jonah 3:4].

40 years Josiah ruled Judah [2 Kng 12:2].

40 days Ezekiel lay on his right side to symbolize the 40 years of Judah's transgressions [Ez 4:6].

40 days Jesus fasted in the wilderness before His trial of temptation by Satan [Mt 4:2; Mk 1:13; Lk 4:2].

40 days Jesus taught His disciples after the Resurrection.  On the 40th day He ascended to the Father [Acts 1:3].

40 years from the Resurrection to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD.


1,000 "A very large completeness number, all of a lot"

10*10*10 = 10^3 = 1000
A Very Long Time
God keeps his covenant for a thousand generations (forever) Deuteronomy 7:9, 1 Chronicles 16:15, Psalm 105:8, 
Better is one day in God's courts than a thousand elsewhere, Psalm 84:10
"For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night." -Psalm 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8 shows God is eternal
The Millennium in Revelation 20
A lot of money, but the full amount for things
Genesis 20:16, 1 Samuel 25:2, 2 Samuel 18:12, 2 Kings 15:19, 2 Chronicles 1:6, Song of Solomon 8:11, Isaiah 7:23
A Large Distance, but the correct measurement for things
Numbers 35:4, Nehemiah 3:13, Ezekiel 47:3-5
A Large Amount of People, but the right amount, or Everyone that needs to be included
The Israelite Army had 1,000 from each tribe (=12,000), Numbers 31:5-6
Also, Deuteronomy 32:30, Joshua 23:10, Judges 15:16, Judges 20:10, 1 Samuel 13:2, 1 Samuel 18:13, 2 Samuel 19:17, Psalm 91:7, Isaiah 30:17, Daniel 5:1, Daniel 7:10, Amos 5:3, 


144,000 "The entire church triumphant from every age"

The symbolic number who will be saved in Revelation 7 and 14, which incorporates all of the completeness number for both the old and the new covenant.
12x1000 from the Old Testament/before Christ x 12x1000 from after Christ
(3x4x10^3)*(3x4x10^3)

Is Baptism Necessary?

I discussed how life is a gift from God and how he formed all people lovingly in the womb in my last post. While God has promised that he saves through Baptism, so we know it always works and can look to it for assurance, He has not said he cannot use other means. Charles Porterfield Krauth, in his great book The Conservative Reformation. This is great news for all who have endured miscarriages.

"The Lutheran Church holds that it is necessary to salvation to be born again of water (baptism) and the Spirit, (John iii. 5, and Augsburg Confession, Art. II. and IX.;) but she holds that this necessity, though absolute as regards the work of the Spirit, is, as regards the outward part of baptism, ordinary, not absolute, or without exception; that the contempt of the sacrament, not the want of it, condemns; and that though God binds us to the means, he does not bind his own mercy by them. From the time of Luther to the present hour, the Lutheran theologians have maintained the salvability and actual salvation of infants dying unbaptized.

The rest of the doctrine of the Lutheran Church, as a whole, is involved in her confessing, with the Nicene creed, "one baptism for the remission of sins," and that through it the grace of God is offered, that children are to be baptized, and that being thus committed to God, they are graciously received by him. At the same time she rejects the theory of the Anabaptists, that infants unbaptized have salvation because of their personal innocence, and maintains that the nature with which we were born requires a change, which must be wrought by the Spirit of God, before we can enter into heaven (A. C., Art. IX. and II.,) and that infants are saved by the application of Christ's redemptory work, of which Baptism is the ordinary channel."

However, it remains an open question what size/age children (and the rest of us) will be after the resurrection. Biblical justification for this doctrine can be found easily. First of all God Commands it.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. -Matthew 28:19

Secondly, the Bible tells us why it is necessary. Notice, while baptism saves, it is a lack of faith that condemns.

Baptism... now saves you. -1 Peter 3:21

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. -Mark 16:16

While Baptism is the normal means through which the Holy Spirit has promised to work, he is not bound by it. He has not promised to do so, and we have no assurance of it, but He can.

Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
     you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.

On you was I cast from my birth,
     and from my mother's womb you have been my God.
    they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
    he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him;
    and that Israel might be gathered to him—
for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,
    and my God has become my strength—
-Psalm 22:9-10

Likewise, the opposite is true.

The wicked are estranged from the womb; -Psalm 58:3

Those who believe in decision theology say that Psalm is poetic and cannot be taken literally, but there are other verses as well.

And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him—for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength -Isaiah 49:5

Also, John the Baptizer believed when he was in the womb in Jesus, who was also in the womb. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, not because she chose to believe, but because God filled her.

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” -Luke 1:39-45

You've (Not) Got To Be Carefully Taught

65 years ago, in 1949, the Broadway musical South Pacific made its debut.  It later became a hit movie in 1958. It has been heralded as ahead of its time in terms of racial content, and while I am not debating that, but one thing that has been driving me nuts about the media coverage of it, is the song "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught".  I have put the lyrics below.

You've Got To Be Carefully Taught," (Lyrics from South Pacific.)

You've got to be taught to hate and fear,
You've got to be taught from year to year,
It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear,
You've got to be carefully taught. 

You've got to be taught to be afraid. 
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

No, you don't have to be taught. People have always hated the "other." This goes all the way back to Cain and Abel. People are also afraid and threatened of the new, or unknown. The reason for this is that we are sinful, fallen people.  People don't have to be taught sin. What people have to be taught is what Jesus did to conquer sin, death, and the devil.

Irenaeus on the Tetramorph, Gospels, and the Four Corners of the Earth

I always found the ancient "four elements" (air, earth, fire, and water) interesting and new that they often corresponded to temperaments or humors int eh ancient world. When I was reading Irenaeus it peaked my interest when he discussed how Ezekiel's (and Revelation's) four living creatures (the tetramorph) corresponded to the gospels, the four corners of the earth, and the four temperaments. After looking into it more, here is a table I developed that compares all of those types of things I could find.

To be fair and complete, there are other theories as well. Some other theologians disagreed with Irenaeus on which gospel was represented by which animal. Also, some have claimed that the location and population of the 12 tribes of Israel prophecy of Jesus and the Gospel as well.  Here is a diagram of that.

Anthropology 8 - Man's Will in Light of the Tripartite Model

St. Augustine stated (and later, Martin Luther and other reformers adopted) that there were four stages of man’s will. This is discussed at length in the Lutheran Confessions. I previously posted  diagram of man's will during the different stages here, but now I will go through them and relate them to the body, soul, and spirit, and it will become apparent how many aspects of doctrine are related.

1.)   Before the fall - Able to sin

Paradisal man originally had a body, soul, and spirit, and a will that was aligned with God's.

See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. -Ecclesiastes 7:29

2.)   Since the Fall - Not able to not sin (total depravity)

After the fall, we all inherit a dead spirit and are steeped in original sin and total depravity.

… since the fall of Adam all men begotten in the natural way are born with sin, that is, without the fear of God, without trust in God, and with concupiscence; and that this disease, or vice of origin, is truly sin, even now condemning and bringing eternal death upon those not born again through Baptism and the Holy Ghost.” -AC: Article II: Of Original Sin

…man's will has some liberty to choose civil righteousness, and to work things subject to reason. But it has no power, without the Holy Ghost, to work the righteousness of God, that is, spiritual righteousness.” -AC: Article XVIII: Of Free Will

“…men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ's sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ's sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins.” -AC: Article IV: Of Justification

3.)   After regeneration - Able to not sin

After regeneration, when God, through the Holy Spirit, regenerates our spirit we have two competing wills; one from the sinful flesh and the other from the spirit. We are simultaneously justified and sinner (Simul Iustus et Peccator).

“God’s sovereign grace does not annihilate man’s will: it overcomes his unwillingness. It does not destroy his will but frees it from sin. It does not stifle or obliterate his conscience but sets it free from darkness. Grace regenerates and re-creates man in his entirety, and in renewing him, causes him to love and consecrate himself to God freely.” -The Reformed Reader (Calvinist)

“the person who has been reborn and renewed through the Holy Spirit has free will toward spiritual good, in fact, a will freed from slavery to sin by the power of the Holy Spirit. Yet in this life this freedom is far from the perfect freedom of the life to come.

“Thus, until the last day, the Holy Ghost abides with the holy congregation or Christendom, by means of which He brings us to Christ, and which He employs to teach and preach to us the Word, whereby He works and promotes sanctification, causing [this community] daily to grow and become strong in the faith and the fruits of the Spirit, which He produces. In these words the Catechism does not mention our free will or cooperation with a single word, but ascribes everything to the Holy Ghost, namely, that through the office of the ministry He brings us into the Christian Church, wherein He sanctifies us, and brings it about that we daily grow in faith and good works….

“And although the regenerate even in this life advance so far that they will what is good, and love it, and even do good and grow in it, nevertheless this (as above stated) is not of our will and ability, but the Holy Ghost, as Paul himself speaks concerning this, works such willing and doing, Phil. 2:13. As also in Eph. 2:10 he ascribes this work to God alone, when he says: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk therein….

“Herewith I reject and condemn as nothing but error all dogmas which extol our free will, as they directly conflict with this help and grace of our Savior Jesus Christ….

“For since we receive in this life only the first-fruits of the Spirit, and the new birth is not complete, but only begun in us, the combat and struggle of the flesh against the spirit remains even in the elect and truly regenerate men….

“…after such conversion, in the daily exercise of repentance, the regenerate will of man is not idle, but also cooperates in all the works of the Holy Ghost which He does through us.” -Johan Gerhard

4.)  After Death - Not able to sin (the saved after death)

The Reformation got rid of the superstition of purgatory, pardons and indulgences. But getting rid of a place of purgation for sins not atoned for by penance on earth, the reformers also lost all the sense of contrast between the intermediate and the state of final blessedness. Now it is widely taught that sudden death brings sudden glory, like the thief on the cross. This complicates the doctrine of the bodily resurrection, so it is not talked about much.

The intermediate state after death, but before regeneration is a Sabbath for us. It is one of bodily death, but spiritual life. In life the body reigns and the soul serves it. In the intermediate state, the spirit reigns and the soul serves it. The next day is the day of new creation, where body, soul, and spirit are with God and our will is aligned with God’s will.

When Scripture talks about death, the condition of the believer between death and the resurrection, and the resurrection itself, its primary purpose is to proclaim to the Christian what great things God has done for him through Jesus Christ. Through this witness, God offers to believers the sure hope of everlasting life with Jesus Christ. Thus the Holy Spirit creates in the believer joy and hope in the face of the last enemy, death. This is our Gospel hope. -The Commission on Theology and Church Relations of the LCMS, in their “Statement on Death, Resurrection and Immortality”

Also they teach that at the Consummation of the World Christ will appear for judgment, and will raise up all the dead; He will give to the godly and elect eternal life and everlasting joys, but ungodly men and the devils He will condemn to be tormented without end. -AC: Article XVII: Of Christ's Return to Judgment.