Memories 16: How did Pieper die?; “this was not death”; sola gratia; Copernicus… again?

      This concludes from Part 15 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a series by Prof. Ludwig Fürbringer of his personal memories of the departed Franz Pieper in the 1931 Der Lutheraner magazine. — Now we come to the point that may be on the minds of many… how did Franz Pieper die?

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(page 331, col. 1)

Memories of Dr. Franz Pieper.

by Ludwig Fürbringer – [6.] (Part 16 of 16)

The last Bible verse that was preached to him was 1 Timothy 1:15, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” And so also  the verse [TLH 585] “I fall asleep in Jesus' wounds, there pardon for my sins abounds”. And then the question was addressed to him, “Is it not so?” whereupon the clear and definite answer came: “So and only so.” That was also the last intelligible word from his mouth.

On the morning of June 3, at 1:20, he breathed his last breath. And his son writes to me: "Seen on the external circumstances, this was not a death, there was no rattle, no breathlessness, even the last breath was no (page 331, col. 2)

fighting for air; there was no stretching of the limbs, in short, there was no struggle with death. In the last four to five hours there was

no trace of temptation or fear of death, but the whole impression made upon us by our dying father was that of a Christian believer who, until the end, clung to his Savior, and being silently contented and comforted, he yielded himself to the heavenly Father's will. So he fell asleep, exceedingly gentle and peaceful, among our prayers that God would take his dearly-redeemed soul and keep it in His hand until the day of the resurrection of all flesh.”

Did Dr. Pieper have no defects, no mistakes and infirmities? He would have been the last person to say so, and the first to object if you told him so. Precisely because he knew from Scripture and experience what sin was, and the holy, judging God, he knew how to speak of the grace of God in Christ and to emphasize this grace and to summarize his whole theology in the word “grace”. I still remember well a World War [WWI] incident when the lists of casualties were published and the whole world was horrified at how millions of people lost their lives, with all the misery, woe and heartache that went with it and of which the world has not yet recovered today. Dr. Pieper remarked one day in conversation: “Yes, it horrifies people about this current dying in the world. And yet that is actually only a small matter. On the daily, constant death in the world, as it has been going on since the fall into sin through world history and the whole human race without exception, and to the cause of this death, they do not want to think about nor take it to heart.” And then he recalled the words of the mighty Psalm 90:7-8, which flashes through the centuries and thunders: “We are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.” But to all sin and all the wrath of God over sin, he praised the grace of God, the undeserved free grace and favor, and more than once cited the epitaph found on the grave monument of the famous astronomer Copernicus and a Latin poem "On the Passion of the LORD "is taken:

It is not the grace that Paul receives that I desire

The grace with which you forgave Peter;

That only which adhered to the thief on the cross,

      That only I implore.

Therefore we close these personal memories of the one fallen asleep – teacher, colleague and friend – whose burial on June 6 we have already reported in number 12 of Der Lutheraner, with the old Latin saying:

Have, anima pia, have!

Farewell, pious soul, farewell! And also the old Latin Christian farewell wish:

Requiescat in pace, et lux aeterna luceat ei!

May he rest in peace and the eternal light shine upon him! L[udwig] F[ührbringer].

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The full text of this English translation is available in an uncommented version >>  HERE  <<.

      Prof. Fürbringer did well to apply Pieper's much repeated epitaph, the one used on Copernicus's grave memorial.  I would here add to my previous reporting of Pieper's use of this epitaph.  He repeated it in his lecture to the entire Delegate Synod, the assembly of all districts, in 1926.  The lecture, entitled “Christianity in Its Relation to All Other Religions”, was published in the October through November issues of Lehre und Wehre.  Here is what he stated, p. 327:

      “Copernicus, the astronomer, was a member of the Roman church, thus officially a representative of the papist works doctrine. But in his epitaph, written by himself or by someone else for him, he refers neither to astronomical knowledge nor to works and good behavior, but asks God for that grace which Christ once gave to the thief on the cross:
      Not that grace that Paul received do I seek;
      Nor the kindness with which Thou didst draw Peter;
      Just that which on the cross Thou didst promise the thief;
            Just for that do I beg.”

There is no greater Christian confession than that of the epitaph of Copernicus.  And in the 20th Century, there was no greater proponent of this message than... Dr. Franz Pieper.