Martin Luther, during his last supper, spent it sitting around discussing with his hosts as to whether, during the resurrection, we will be able to recognize each other. (He went to bed complaing of chest pains, and those there gathered around his bedside as he died that evening).Martin Luther believed that the dead are dead until the resurrection. The mythical, pagan idea of immortality of the soul (as taught by the Catholic Church) crept into Lutheranism with his successor Melanchthon, who held to the Catholic position on death.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17
