Webpage Luth-1 Page 20 TO INDEX
(1543)
With the words herein shown - Luther essentially destroys everything he ever worked for, or rather that men thought he worked for, since luther - being a son of the devil - acted according to his own nature, that of the devil himself.
And while many
thought to have benefited from the lightning and the thunder that
came by way of him - to see the light to the faith of God - from the gross
idolatry of the roman catholics, and from the malice of the Jews, it does not
appear to have served Luther himself. And it remains a stain upon
all those that are foolish enough to call themselves by his name.
I now said “by means of him”,
for the One and only Teacher to have taught any and all of the sons and
daughters of God, is Christ Jesus, in as He said; “The Counselor.
The Lord then uses many means whereby the brings His sons to the
awareness and conviction of His faith. This is foremost by His own trusted
servants, but many have come to the light of God by means of hirelings, and many
other ways,
Balaam for example blessed Israel yet himself was not blessed. And will the same apply to Luther? The Lord will reveal this on His day of judgment!.
In the persecution of the Christians, the
Jews were first to not only persecute the Christians themselves, but as Justin
pronounces to Trypho, "They send forth persons to the pagan nations to stir them
up against the Christians as well".
The
second enemy then were the pagans, who not only persecuted the Christians after
the advent of Christ, but who persecuted
the Jews before the birth of Christ for the very same faith for which they
persecuted the Christians afterwards. And how ironic for Israel to go to
their own persecutors, to stir them up against the people of their own nation
along with the Gentiles.
The next major
enemy of the Christians were of course the roman catholics. And the fourth are the protestants along with the romans in all of their conglomerations,
and denominations.
At
this point I wish to insert that which was spoken by the
originators of the abstracts who compiled these passages of Luther, from
his writings. And though I have
only partially verified their abstracts, I
no longer have any doubt
that they are correct.
I
did not insert all of the extracts, only some, others I omitted.
At the beginning
of his career, Luther was apparently sympathetic to Jewish resistance to the
catholic church. He wrote, early in his career:
The
Jews are blood-relations of our Lord; if it were proper to boast of flesh and
blood, the Jews belong more to Christ than we. I beg therefore my dear papist,
if you become tired of abusing me as a heretic, that you begin to revile me as a
Jew.
But Luther
expected them to convert to his purified Christianity. When they did not, he
turned violently against Jews.
It is impossible
for modern people to read the horrible passages below and not to think of the
burning of synagogues in November 1938 on Kristall-nacht. Nor would one wish to
excuse Luther for this text.
A number of points must, however, be made. The most important concerns the language used. Luther used violent and vulgar language throughout his career....We do not expect religious figures to use this sort of language in the modern world, but it was not uncommon in the early 16th century.
Second, although Luther's comments seem to be proto-Nazi, they are better seen as part of tradition of Medieval Christian anti-Semitism. While there is little doubt that Christian anti-Semitism laid the social and cultural basis for modern anti-Semitism, modern anti-Semitism does differ in being based on pseudo-scientific notions of race.
The Nazis
imprisoned and killed Jews who had converted to Christianity: Luther would have
welcomed them.
None of this
justifies what follows, but it may help to comprehend what is happening. In
1994, the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America rejected
Luther's anti-Semitic writings.
(extracts)
I had made up my mind to write no more either about the Jews or against them. But since I learned that these miserable and accursed people do not cease to lure to themselves even us, that is, the Christians, I have published this little book, so that I might be found among those who opposed such poisonous activities of the Jews who warned the Christians to be on their guard against them.
I would not have
believed that a Christian could be duped by the Jews into taking their exile and
wretchedness upon himself. However, the devil is the god of the world, and
wherever God's word is absent he has an easy task, not only with the weak but
also with the strong. May God help us. Amen.
***
He did not call
them Abraham's children, but a "brood of vipers" [Matt. 3:7]. Oh, that
was too insulting for the noble blood and race of Israel, and they declared,
"He has a demon' [Matt 11:18]. Our Lord also calls them a "brood of
vipers"; furthermore in John 8 [:39,44] he states: "If you were
Abraham's children ye would do what Abraham did.... You are of your father the
devil. It was intolerable to them to hear that they were not Abraham's but the
devil's children, nor can they bear to hear this today.
***
Moreover, they
are nothing but thieves and robbers who daily eat no morsel and wear no thread
of clothing which they have not stolen and pilfered from us by means of their
accursed usury. Thus they live from day to day, together with wife and child, by
theft and robbery, as arch thieves and robbers, in the most impenitent security.
***
However, they
have not acquired a perfect mastery of the art of lying; they lie so clumsily
and ineptly that anyone who is just a little observant can easily detect it. But
for us Christians they stand as a terrifying example of God's wrath.
***
If I had to
refute all the other articles of the Jewish faith, I should be obliged to write
against them as much and for as long a time as they have used for inventing
their lies that is, longer than two thousand years.
***
...but then
eject them forever from this country. For, as we have heard, God's anger with
them is so intense that gentle mercy will only tend to make them worse and
worse, while sharp mercy will reform them but little. Therefore, in any case,
away with them!
***
I brief, dear
princes and lords, those of you who have Jews under your rule if my counsel
does not please your, find better advice, so that you and we all can be rid of
the unbearable, devilish burden of the Jews, lest we become guilty sharers
before God in the lies, blasphemy, the defamation, and the curses which the mad
Jews indulge in so freely and wantonly against the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ, this dear mother, all Christians, all authority, and ourselves. Do not
grant them protection, safe-conduct, or communion with us.... .With this
faithful counsel and warning I wish to cleanse and exonerate my
***
Let the
government deal with them in this respect, as I have suggested. But whether the
government acts or not, let everyone at least be guided by his own conscience
and form for himself a definition or image of a Jew.
***
However, we must
avoid confirming them in their wanton lying, slandering, cursing, and defaming.
Nor dare we make ourselves partners in their devilish ranting and raving by
shielding and protecting them, by giving them food, drink, and shelter, or by
other neighborly
***
What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? Since they live among us, we dare not tolerate their conduct, now that we are aware of their lying and reviling and blaspheming. If we do, we become sharers in their lies, cursing and blasphemy. Thus we cannot extinguish the unquenchable fire of divine wrath, of which the prophets speak, nor can we convert the Jews.
With prayer and
the fear of God we must practice a sharp mercy to see whether we might save at
least a few from the glowing flames. We
dare not avenge ourselves. Vengeance a thousand times worse than we
could wish them already has them by the throat. I shall give you my sincere
advice:
First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of his Son and of his Christians.
(Luther as the forebear to Hitler)
For whatever we
tolerated in the past unknowingly and I myself was unaware of it will be
pardoned by God. But if we, now that we are informed, were to protect and shield
such a house for the Jews, existing right before our very nose, in which they
lie about, blaspheme, curse, vilify, and defame Christ and us (as was heard
above), it would be the same as if we were doing all this and even worse
ourselves, as we very well know.
Second, I advise
that their houses also be razed and destroyed. For they pursue in them the same
aims as in their synagogues. Instead they might be lodged under a roof or in a
barn, like the gypsies. This will bring home to them that they are not masters
in our country, as they boast, but that they are living in exile and in
captivity, as they incessantly wail and lament about us before God.
Third, I advise
that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies,
cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them. (remainder omitted)
Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. For they have justly forfeited the right to such an office by holding the poor Jews captive with the saying of Moses (Deuteronomy 17 [:10 ff.]) in which he commands them to obey their teachers on penalty of death, although Moses clearly adds: "what they teach you in accord with the law of the Lord."
Those villains
ignore that. They wantonly employ the poor people's obedience contrary to the
law of the Lord and infuse them with this poison, cursing, and blasphemy. In the
same way the pope also held us captive with the declaration in Matthew 16 {:18],
"You are Peter," etc, inducing us to believe all the lies and
deceptions that issued from his devilish mind. He did not teach in accord with
the word of God, and therefore he forfeited the right to teach.
Fifth, I advise
that safe conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. For
they have no business in the countryside, since they are not lords, officials,
tradesmen, or the like. Let they stay at home. (...remainder omitted).
Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping. The reason for such a measure is that, as said above, they have no other means of earning a livelihood than usury, and by it they have stolen and robbed from us all they possess. Such money should now be used in no other way than the following:
Whenever a Jew
is sincerely converted, he should be handed one hundred, two hundred, or three
hundred florins, as personal circumstances may suggest. With this he could set
himself up in some occupation for the support of his poor wife and children, and
the maintenance of the old or feeble. For such evil gains are cursed if they are
not put to use with God's blessing in a good and worthy cause.
Seventh, I
commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the
hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in
the sweat of their brow, as was imposed on the children of Adam (Gen 3[:19]}.
For it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in the sweat
of our faces while they, the holy people, idle away their time behind the stove,
feasting and farting, and on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their
lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat. No, one should toss out
these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants.
***
But what will
happen even if we do burn down the Jews' synagogues and forbid them publicly to
praise God, to pray, to teach, to utter God's name? They will still keep doing
it in secret. If we know that they are doing this in secret, it is the same as
if they were doing it publicly. for our knowledge of their secret doings and our
toleration of them implies that they are not secret after all and thus our
conscience is encumbered with it before God.
***
Accordingly, it
must and dare not be considered a trifling matter but a most serious one to seek
counsel against this and to save our souls from the Jews, that is, from the
devil and from eternal death. My advice, as I said earlier, is:
First, that their synagogues be burned down, and that all who are
able toss in sulfur and pitch; it would be good if someone could also throw in
some hellfire. That would demonstrate to God our serious resolve and be evidence
to all the world that it was in ignorance that we tolerated such houses, in
which the Jews have reviled God, our dear Creator and Father, and his Son most
shamefully up till now but that we have now given them their due reward.
***
I wish and I ask that our rulers who have Jewish subjects exercise a sharp mercy toward these wretched people, as suggested above, to see whether this might not help (though it is doubtful). They must act like a good physician who, when gangrene has set in, proceeds without mercy to cut, saw, and burn flesh, veins, bone, and marrow. Such a procedure must also be followed in this instance. Burn down their synagogues, forbid all that I enumerated earlier, force them to work, and deal harshly with them, as Moses did in the wilderness, slaying three thousand lest the whole people perish.
They surely do
not know what they are doing; moreover, as people possessed, they do not wish to
know it, hear it, or learn it. There it would be wrong to be merciful and
confirm them in their conduct. If this does not help we must drive them out like
mad dogs, so that we do not become partakers of their abominable blasphemy and
all their other vices and thus merit God's wrath and be damned with them. I have
done my duty. Now let everyone see to his. I am exonerated."
***
My essay, I
hope, will furnish a Christian (who in any case has no desire to become a Jew)
with enough material not only to defend himself against the blind, venomous
Jews, but also to become the foe of the Jews' malice, lying, and cursing, and to
understand not only that their belief is false but that they are surely
possessed by all devils. May Christ, our dear Lord, convert them mercifully and
preserve us steadfastly and immovably in the knowledge of him, which is eternal
life. Amen.
From Luther's Works, Volume 47: The Christian in Society IV, (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1971). pp 268293.
What is my reply to these statements of Luther?
If you know Hitler, and the time before and during world war two, Luther in all essence is Hitler's forebear,
(Leonard) My reply? .... How is it possible that these could have been spoken by a Christian? They are indeed dishonorable and blasphemies against God and His Christ.
Luther reminds me of what Enoch said: "And I saw another thing regarding lightning, how some stars arise and become lightning, yet cannot dwell with the rest". Only Luther was not anything like a star, except an evil one.
As for my
readers; - Don’t blame it on the century, nor on the language, or the style or
the norm of that day. And as for
vulgarity - this day is no better or worse than it was in the sixteenth century. No I do not condone all that he said, wherefore it stands condemned. But I wish to add a few words in
distinction as food for thought.
Let me ask you;
Will you condemn Luther for calling Jews vipers-brood - when the Lord Himself
called them vipers-brood? But the
Lord did not call "Israel" by that term, nor the "Jews" as
such, (for He took twelve of them as His Apostles, giving them the highest rank
after Himself), but He cursed the hypocrites from among them.
While Luther, judging from his wording, makes
no distinction, but generalizes the whole
of them.
He then should
have realized that "the same" can be said about "any nation,"
and that the "good" can be spoken of in "any nation",
inclusive "the Jews", if not more in the Jews than in other nations,
for there are many righteous ones among them. And are not all the heads out of
Israel, as the Lord said: " Out of them shall
come the Cornerstone, out of them the tent peg, out of them the battle bow, out
of them every ruler."
And while some
of the high-priests in Israel received the term vipers-brood, there were many
righteous ones also. And looking at
Germany, Luther in these statements of him did not lend any beauty to that
nation, and showed himself as hypocrite and vipers-brood. And co-incidentally some centuries later - that nation did practice such
atrocities.
And as for
terminating any person, the Lord told us "to
turn the other cheek" rather than to put a blade through
them. And while king Josiah
of Israel killed the false prophets, and
Elijah slew the priests of baal, and Levi the inhabitants of Shechem, it
warrants us to hear what the Lord said by Zechariah; “This is the word of the Lord
to Zerubabel, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of host.”
We don’t need to do any killing, even though they may be like demons, for the demons do enough of that to us. Nor need we harm any one, the wicked do enough of that to the righteous.
Or how are we to glorify God by giving ourselves as sheep to the slaughter at the hands of the wicked, if we were to eliminate the wicked? It is far more glorious to suffer and/or die righteously, than to live in peace with the wicked.
Does it not read somewhere:
"Blessed is he that let ox
and ass wander freely, or feed freely"?
And did not David say; "Blessed
is the man who doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor
stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers".
The Lord said somewhere
regarding Israel, "I will set My eye for evil, and not for
good". Why then did you Germans, as
it may apply to all, have no mercy on them? Or do you think that you are any better than the Jews, better
than Israel? Do you wish to contend that you would have done better in
their place? For that sort of conceit, O you foolish ones, you will suffer
some severe torment.
If the Lord did not love His people Israel He would not have given these six million souls of late into the hands of the Germans. And such as survived that Holocaust (as I have seen) are truly to be pitied along with the Germans. But who is able to comprehend the wisdom of my speech? Let him be blessed that is so able.
It is a shame yes, nor is he alone, for the one that I reproved in my “Info” pages, is also well knowledged in the letter of faith, in the milk of understanding, but lacking love. And how many more provide lip service, but do not keep the law, the precepts of the Lord? "Not he that says Lord! Lord!, But that keep My word, are they that love Me"
But now another thing; someone will remark to me - as they are so fond of doing in their ignorance of heart - why I make judgment, and not rather to leave judgment to the Lord? In the first place you have not read my words too well, secondly, silence is judging all the same. If I went to your churches and just sat there without throwing the whole lot of you out of it, then I would be as guilty as you. For in not opposing you, in my silence I am judging your vile doings as just. And that my dear people is an unrighteous judgment, for which I deserve to go to hell.
But if I reprove you, I am judging a righteous judgment, for which the Lord will reward me accordingly. And so it is with any writing that I place before the eyes of men, to be silent (not to judge) about an error is to condone or justify it. Let me than judge a righteous judgment as often as I must, for to speak or be silent - all is judging. Even with his eyes, or the expression of his face one makes judgments, and why then did you not obey the Lord you who are contentious with me?
In conclusion I am adding some extracts by Peter Wiener, a schoolteachers whose complete record may be found at: http://www.tentmaker.org/books/MartinLuther-HitlersSpiritualAncestor.html
In quotation to the words of Luther:
Quote: “Whenever you see or think of a Jew, say to yourself `Look, that mouth that I see before me has every Saturday cursed, execrated, and spat upon my dear Lord Jesus Christ Who redeemed me with His precious blood, and has also invoked maledictions on my wife and child and all Christians that they might be murdered and perish miserably.
So the Reformer continues throughout his writings. “The Jews are malignant snakes and imps”. “Whoever would like to cherish such adders and puny devils—who are the worst enemies of Christ and us all—to befriend them and to do them honor simply in order to be cheated, plundered, robbed, disgraced, and forced to howl and curse and suffer every kind of evil, to him I would commend the Jews.
And if this be
not enough, let him tell the Jews to use his mouth as a privy, or else crawl
into the Jew's hind parts, and there worship the holy thing, so as afterwards to
be able to boast of having been merciful, and of having helped the Devil and his
progeny to blaspheme our dear Lord.”
These
few samples taken at random must be sufficient to give you a true idea of what
the Reformer saw in the Jews.
I could continue
for many pages to cite much worse passages. I think, however, that I have
already spent too much space on the subject, but I thought it necessary to let
the Reformer speak again for himself, and to prove that I have not chosen some
isolated cases, but that, as far as the Jews are concerned, he stuck to his
views for the greater part of his life. To comment on such exclamations and
sayings is really not necessary. It seems to me a much more impressive method if
I leave the reader to draw his own conclusions.
