Dormant being of the New Apostolic Church

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The dormant nature of the New Apostolic Church is an important part of the teaching of the New Apostolic Church . In other Christian denominations , including in other apostolic communities , this teaching is only partially or not at all available. It is therefore one of the denominational teachings of the New Apostolic Church. The dormant being is justified biblically and teaches the possibility that those who have already died can still find salvation or the forgiveness of sins. Participation in the various means of grace of God - including the sacraments - should therefore also be made possible in a certain way for those who have fallen asleep, i.e. the souls of the dead.

The teaching that has been published in this form since the 19th century is not to be understood as a modern special finding. It is based on several biblical passages, especially on 1 Cor 15.29  LUT , which speaks of a " baptism in the dead ".

Teaching

Death and afterlife

New Apostolic teaching shares the general Christian view that man has a soul that lives on after his physical death. The soul does not change its individuality, which means that important human traits are retained. The abode of the soul lies in an immaterial world, the realm of the dead ( Greek "hades").

The New Apostolic Church concludes from statements in the Bible that there are different areas in this hereafter. A basic distinction is made between places of security and places of torment, which in turn differ in their proximity to God. The Church does not make a statement about the number and exact structure of these areas. The area in which the soul of a deceased is located depends on how strongly he or she was guided by the will of God and his commandments during his lifetime.

The church teaches that Jesus Christ conquered death through his sacrifice on the cross ( 1 Cor 15,55  LUT : "Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?"). Thus, people who die in Christ are definitely redeemed . You are thus in a perfect soul state and this cannot deteriorate in the hereafter.

A “person who died in Christ” has the following characteristics:

  • He received the sacraments of baptism and sealing and thus sees himself as “born again of water and spirit” (according to Jn 3,5  LUT ). He also received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper on a regular basis .
  • He made a serious effort to orient his life to God's commandments and thus stands righteously before God.
  • The second coming of Christ was a central element of his earthly life.

The sacrament of the Holy Sealing is only administered in apostolic communities, because the apostolic office is necessary for this. So only New Apostolic Christians (or Christians from other apostolic communities), believers of early Christianity and martyrs , who experience special grace according to the New Apostolic understanding, meet the condition of “being born again out of water and the Spirit” . However, this does not mean that only they can experience salvation, because those who have died of other faiths should also obtain salvation through “sacraments for the dead”.

The Church also teaches that no one can know who the grace of God will ultimately include. Therefore one should pray for all still unredeemed souls so that they can experience grace and meet the mentioned conditions.

The understanding of faith also says that one does not definitely belong to those “who died in Christ” just because one is New Apostolic. Because the attitude of the heart and the personal way of life are just as important.

The "dead in Christ" do not include those who:

  • either did not experience the three sacraments
  • or do not believe in Jesus Christ, or have never heard of him, or believed but never acted according to the will of God and Jesus Christ
  • or whose last sins have not been forgiven or still bear vices (e.g. a victim who cannot forgive his killer)
  • or have not yet obtained grace.

Help for the deceased

According to the New Apostolic Church's conception of faith, the condition of still unredeemed souls can be improved to “good”. In their view, the only help for this can be found in the grace of Christ through his sacrifice and the associated merit.

In the opinion of the New Apostolic Church, as in this world, the offer of grace in the hereafter must be accepted by souls of their own free will.

Several passages say that the living prayed for the dead. Even before the time of Jesus there were some who believed in it ( 2 Makk 12,44f  EU ). The New Apostolic Christians are therefore called upon to stand up for the still unredeemed souls in the hereafter. They should seek fellowship with them in prayer and intercede for those souls, following the example of Jesus, who is the intercessor with the Father.

The New Apostolic Church also accepts devotions from other Christian communities and also recognizes their effect in connection with the grace of God and (although not absolutely) the effect of the New Apostolic ministry.

Contribute already redeemed asleep

For the New Apostolic Christians, it is a belief that redeemed souls are active in the world beyond. They will testify to themselves in intercession and of their faith, which means that although unsaved souls can be helped through intercession in prayer, this presupposes that redeemed souls do missionary work in the hereafter .

The Church names her justification for this belief:

  • The biblical certainty that all believing souls form the " body of Christ " ( Eph 4:12  LUT ). For the church this presupposes that the gospel is preached everywhere, both in this world and in the hereafter.
  • Since, according to the Bible, Moses and Elijah were also present at the transfiguration of Jesus ( Lk 9:31  LUT ), the church assumes that they were present as representatives of the believers in the world beyond.
  • Jesus himself preached in the hereafter ( 1 Pet 3,19  LUT )

The role of the apostleship

According to New Apostolic teaching, the apostleship is the office of God, commissioned by Jesus Christ , in which the Holy Spirit works. From the point of view of the church, this fact makes the office of apostle necessary for salvation. In this respect, the apostleship must also work for the souls in the hereafter , in that the word of God is preached to them as well and the sacraments are handed over to Jesus through grace and sacrificial death.

In the New Apostolic Church, the Chief Apostle and District Apostle or commissioned Apostles donate Holy Communion to the deceased every Sunday . At church services held three times a year to commemorate those who have fallen asleep (“Dormant worship services ”), they also donate water baptism and the sacred sealing to the deceased.

history

For the first time, the departed system became particularly important for the New Apostolic Church in 1874. Pastor Menkhoff, who had become New Apostolic at the time, introduced several changes to the doctrine and liturgy with Apostle Friedrich Wilhelm Schwarz , including the dispensing of the sacraments to those who have fallen asleep after long Bible sessions. A stillbirth in 1872 gave the impetus for these considerations .

Although the Church (at that time still General Christian Apostolic Mission ) believed in the effectiveness of prayers for those who had fallen asleep, the first sacrament was not administered until Ascension Day in 1874. A few days later, Apostle Schwarz had a so-called " speech in tongues ", the content of which was that the reformers Philipp Melanchthon , Johannes Calvin , Ulrich Zwingli , Stilling, Da Costa and Claus Harms had been sealed with his wife that day before . On July 28, 1916 Chief Apostle Niehaus undertook an " appointment " for New Apostolic Christians in the afterlife during a divine service at the call of the root prophet Schärtlein in Bielefeld regarding an apostle meeting . However, this initiative did not prevail, probably also because it would have made the administration of the sacraments to the dead obsolete. This is also viewed as extremely controversial by today's leadership of the New Apostolic Church and is rejected.

The dispensing of the sacrament was then continued by Chief Apostles Krebs and Niehaus . Niehaus celebrated a dormant service on Boxing Day . Chief Apostle Bischoff put this day on the first Sunday in November from 1950. Later, there should be three worship services for dying, on the first Sunday in March, July and November. On the previous Wednesday evening, experiences and beliefs on this topic should be read out.

There were hardly any differences within this doctrine to this day, only the biblical justification of the dormant being has changed in part. In addition, from 1958 to 2001 it was "tradition" to open the area of ​​those who have fallen asleep for the earth by means of a special prayer prior to the action at a dormant service (until the evening of the previous day), which the NAK with the "key power" ( Mt 16 , 19  LUT ). Since Chief Apostle Richard Fehr , however, this ritual has been viewed by the Church as unnecessary, with reference to the importance of the one-time sacrificial death of Jesus Christ .

Worship practice

The highlights of the NAK church year include the church services in memory of those who fell asleep . They are celebrated three times a year - every first Sunday in March, July and November. These points in time are not given any special significance, for example as days of remembrance, they were rather arbitrarily determined by Chief Apostle Bischoff.

In these divine services, the Chief Apostle and the District Apostles donate water baptism and the Holy Sealing to the dead. These acts are performed on behalf of two priestly offices.

In all other churches, however, these actions do not take place. There, the respective leader of the service says a special prayer for those who have fallen asleep after the celebration of Holy Communion. It contains thanks for Christ's grace and the request for divine help for all unredeemed souls. Everyone attending this service is called upon to prepare for this event inwardly and also to intercede in prayer for the dead.

Comparison with other teachings

From an ecumenical point of view, the faith that includes the world of the dead is largely rejected. To some extent, however, it can be found again in the Roman Catholic conception of purgatory . Purgatory - according to the doctrine - is the place a soul has to pass through before going to heaven. Prayers of the living believers can help shorten the time there. The New Apostolic Church is - apart from new religions like the Mormons - the only Christian church that also donates its sacraments to the dead.

In the communities that emerged from the NAK (for example the Association of Apostolic Congregations ), this form of teaching on the dormant no longer exists. Accordingly, there are no vicarious acts for the deceased.

The dormant system of the New Apostolic Churches is similar to the baptism in the dead of the Mormons . According to the understanding of the Mormons, however, only deceased can be baptized who have been dead for at least a year (if the date of death is not known, the deceased must have been born at least 110 years ago). The name and ancestor of the deceased must also be known. The New Apostolic Church, on the other hand, claims to be able to stand up for all who have died.

Theological criticism

The idea of ​​a possible conversion to Jesus Christ after physical death in general and the dispensing of the sacraments to the deceased in particular meet with rejection and exegetical criticism in numerous other confessions. The ecclesiological assumption that the Christian Church's sphere of activity extends to the hereafter is particularly rejected by the Protestant side . Often reference is made to the theological literature , in which various different interpretations can be found on the biblical core of the asleep system ( 1 Cor 15:29  LUT ), in which the NAK recognizes a clear legitimation for a vicariate baptism:

  • The theologian Richard E. DeMaris cites the possibility of a religious peculiarity in ancient Corinth , where rites of passage before death were cultivated even before the arrival of Christianity ; possibly converted Christians would have maintained this by means of a “second baptism” so that they could continue to live in the hereafter.
  • By Gnostic groups like the Marcionites , Kerinthianern and Montanists is known that they perform downstream baptism (z. B. deceased Taufanwärter). This rite could have been widespread and even known to the Apostle Paul personally.
  • The term “for the dead” ( ancient Greek νεκροί nekroí ) could have a different meaning at this point, e.g. B. "Corpses" with theologian John C. O'Neill.
  • Others like Tobias Mai refer to an alternative context if one excludes verses 20-28 as an insert, and assume a different understanding of baptism by the early Christians; accordingly it is conceivable that living candidates for baptism could replace deceased baptized persons within the community.

Basically, critics of the practice keep saying that the apostle Paul uses the existence of the unclear custom as an argument for the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus Christ without explicitly approving or denying it.

In annihilationist communities like the seven-day Adventists , when criticizing the being asleep, there is also the fact that they do not recognize a biblical basis for different areas in the hereafter with different closeness to God and consequently do not believe in any kind of punishment after physical death.

literature

  • Müller-Bahr, Sebastian: Sacramental acts on the dead in the apostolic congregations , in Eberle, Mathias [ed.] Construction, expansion, separations - The development of the apostolic communities in the first third of the 20th century , Nürtingen, 2009, p. 190– 227, ISBN 978-3-939291-04-6

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ David Alexander (ed.), Pat Alexander (ed.): The great manual to the Bible. 4th edition, Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2014, ISBN 978-3-460-30220-4 .
  2. ^ Catechism of the New Apostolic Church. 9.3 The survival of the soul. In: nak.org. Retrieved November 18, 2014 .
  3. ↑ The use of the expression “dead in Christ” is justified by 1 Thess 4,16  LUT .
  4. ^ Catechism of the New Apostolic Church. 9.5 State of the souls in the hereafter. In: nak.org. Retrieved November 19, 2014 .
  5. ↑ Müller-Bahr, Sebastian: Sacramental acts on the dead in the apostolic congregations , in Eberle, Mathias [ed.] Construction, expansion, separations - The development of the apostolic communities in the first third of the 20th century , Nürtingen, 2009, p. 190 -227, ISBN 978-3-939291-04-6
  6. ↑ Dominik Schmolz: Brief history of the New Apostolic Church. 4th edition. Edition Punctum Saliens, Heidelberg 2016, ISBN 978-3-939291-08-4 , p. 59.
  7. ↑ Richard Fehr: SCHLÜSSELVOLLMACH T. In: Leitgedanken zum Gottesdienst, special issue 3, year 75 March 2001, accessed on November 22, 2019 .
  8. ^ Keyword dormant being (New Apostolic Church). In: Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauungsfragen (EZW) Berlin. Retrieved November 23, 2014 .
  9. ↑ a b Tobias Mai (2011): The teaching of the New Apostolic Church in the light of Holy Scripture. 2nd edition, CMD Christian Media Service: Berlin. Pp. 306-322.
  10. ↑ Kai radio Schmidt: Entschlafenenwesen (NAK). In: EZW Lexicon. Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauung questions, March 2013, accessed on December 22, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Helmut Obst: New Apostolic Church - the exclusive end-time church? Friedrich Bahn Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1996, ISBN 3-7615-4945-8 , p. 139-144 .
  12. ↑ Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. In: World of the Bible - The Portal for Biblical Interpretation. Retrieved December 22, 2019 .
  13. ^ Rudolf Brändle : Johannes Chrysostomus: The ten gifts (τιμαί or δωρεαί) of baptism. In: David Hellholm u. a. (Ed.): Ablution, initiation, and baptism: late antiquity, early Judaism, and early Christianity = ablutions, initiation and baptism: Late antiquity, early Judaism and early Christianity. Supplements to the Journal for New Testament Science and the News of the Older Church, Vol. 176 / I. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-024751-0 ; Pp. 1233–1252, here p. 1238 PDF; 244KB, 20 pages accessed at edoc.unibas.ch
  14. ↑ The New Apostolic Church and the Dead: Interview with a Former Member. (PDF) In: BWgung. Seven-day Adventisen in Baden-Württemberg, February 2016, accessed on August 24, 2019 .