The Search for Peace in Times of Chaos—Volume and pastors offer such blessings to their gay and lesbian members Other church members have understood this language to preclude such blessings The c hurch’s governing documents, including t he hurch’s discipline standards for pastors and congregations, neither specifically allow nor specifically forbid such services of blessing 19 Death and Afterlife Lutherans believe death is frequently viewed as a natural part of the life cycle Like all other creatures, human beings have a limited life span… We are created by God; we are not God Both living and dying are part of the dynamic processes of the created order, which biblical faith affirms as being good…The promise of the resurrection of the body and eternal life provides comfort and reassurance that death is not the end The new life of faith enables the Christian to face death with courage and with the assurance of forgiveness.20 Judgment and Salvation Lutherans believe that scripture clearly teaches that the kingdom of Christ on earth will remain under the cross until the end of the world, that the second visible coming of the Lord will be His final advent, His coming to judge the quick and the dead, that there will be but one resurrection of the dead, and that the time of the last day is, and will remain, unknown They reject every type of : the opinion that Christ will return visibly to this earth and establish a dominion of the church over the world, or that before the end of the world, a universal conversion of the Jewish nation take place They teach that the heavens and the earth shall be renovated, renewed, purified, made perfect There shall be no further separation between earth and the abode of God; they shall be one at last There is, of course, much that cannot be understood But the scriptures surely intend to hold before us the hope of an existence that lies beyond any human imagination, made so especially by our union with Christ in heaven They believe there will be continuity between the natural body and the resurrected body of the one who is raised in that our personalities will remain 151