The Legacy of Martin Luther ...

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Christianity's persecution of the J*ws has dominated the J*wish history since the Christianization of the Roman Empire under the Emperor Constantine in the early fourth century AD. To the J*ws, the cross has been as much a symbol of persecution and terror as the swastika, only provoking dread. The J*ws know the history of Christianity.

Most people are familiar with the persecution of the J*ws by the Roman Catholic Church. The Spanish Inquisition from 1481 to 1808 is the most notorious example. Roman Catholic historian, Malcolm Hays, writes:

The machinery of propaganda was entirely in the hands of the church officials. Preaching, chronicles, mystery plays, and even ecclesiastical ceremonies were the princip
le agencies available for the dissemination of hate. Preachers dwelt with morbid and sometimes sadistic realism upon the sufferings of Christ, for which they blamed all J*ws of the time and all their descendan
ts. For many centuries the bishops of Beziers preached a series of sermons during Holy Week, urging their congregations to take vengeance on the J*ws who lived in the district. Stoning them became a regular part of the Holy Week ceremonial.

[Gary E. McCuen, "Religion and Politics, Issues in Religious Liberty," pages 37-38 (1989)]

Yet what the J*ws suffered at the hands of the Protestants is largely forgotten. Under the banner of the cross and in the name of Christ, the J*ws have been cast out of nations,
confined to ghettos, lost their possessions and frequently their lives. They have been forced to convert to a Christianity which compelled them to break the Sabbath, to not circumcise their children, and to eat
unclean meat. They had to disobey the Bible to become Christians.

It is frightening that this hatred of the J*ws is only cultured over in Christianity today. Neither the Roman Catholic Church nor any of the Protestant denominations have repented of it. Today, everyone blames the
Nazis for the Holocaust and not Christianity, yet it is willful, historic blindness to not see that all the Nazis did was rooted in the Christianity that shaped the German nation. Even though later generations may not have seen the connection with Christianity, you can be sure the Germans did, and the J*ws still do.

It has to be remembered that the Nazi Holocaust was nurtured in the land of the Protestant Reformation. In fact the seed of all that Adolf Hitler would do was carefully transplanted from Catholicism
into Protestantism by none other than Martin Luther, the greatest spokesman of the Reformation and one of the most influential men in all of history.

This is a shocking accusation! What could such
a hero of the faith have to do with the nightmare of the Third Reich and the demonic figure of Adolf Hitler? Surely, the man who liberated the Gospel from the grasp of meaningless tradition and restored the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith alone would not be guilty of such things,
would he? Yet Martin Luther's violent, venomous views and bitter treatment of the J*ws was not something he sought to hide. Far from it. By every means at his disposal --the pen, the pulpit, and persuasion --he sought to gain not merely acceptance of his views but concrete, violent action against the J*ws.

His Three Treatises

Martin Luther was certainly not ashamed of his words. He wanted them to be remembered and obeyed. It is only his followers who would like to have his words for
gotten, since they seemingly invalidate all that he stood for. And so the chances are almost certain that you have never heard of the three treatises Martin Luther wrote against the J*ws in 1543: On the J
*ws and Their Lies, On the Ineffable Name, and On the Last Words of David.

These treatises represented a lifetime of thought on his part concerning the J*ws. His first attempt to win them was by persuasion. He wrote these words when he was a younger man:

If we wish
to help them, we must practice on them not the papal law but rather the Christian law of love, and accept them in friendly fashion, allowing them to work and make a living, so that they gain the reason and opportunity to be with and among us and to see and to hear our Christian teaching and life.

["That Jesus Christ Was Born a J*w," published 1523]

It was only when such preaching and persuasion failed ("soft mercy" in Luther's theology) tha
t more forceful measures were taken. For over the course of Luther's life it became apparent to him that the prejudices against the J*ws he had sought to combat in his earlier writing were in fact true. In his mind they were accursed blasphemers whose Lord was the devil. He now saw it was nearly impossible to convert them, and any suffering inflicted upon them would remind them that they were God's rejected people. Only the keen awareness of that would soften a few of their hearts.

 

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Luther's Legacy

The following measures are in a sense Martin Luther's last will and testament, his legacy to the world. The legacy of a man is what his descendants derive from him, a living memorial to who he was long after he is dead. In one of these formal, systematic presentations of his mature convictions he summarized the wisdom his 32 years of Bible study had gained for him into seven recommendations. They are found in the treatise, On the J*ws and Their Lies:

What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the J*ws? 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 share
rs 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 J*ws. With prayer and the fear of God we mu
st practice a sharp mercy to see whether we might save at least a few from the glowing flames. We dare not avenge ourselves ... I shall give you my sincere advice:

• Set fire to their synagogues and schools, burying and covering with dirt what won't burn, so no man will see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and Christendom.
  
  
  
• Second, I advise that their houses be seized and destroyed.
  
  
  
• Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings be taken from them.
  
  
  
• Fourth, I advise that the ra
  bbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of life and limb.
  
  
  
• Fifth, I advise that safe conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the J*ws, for they have no b
  usiness in the countryside, since they are not lords, officials, or tradesmen. Let them stay at home.
  
  
  
• Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and all cash and treasures be taken and kept for safekeeping.
  
  
  
• Seventh, I recomm
  end putting a flail, an axe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong J*ws and J*wesses, letting them earn their bread by the sweat of their brow, as was imposed on the children of Adam (Genesis 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 ... boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat ... 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!
  
  
  

[The whole tract may be found in English in Luther's Works, Volume 47: The Christian in Society IV, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971), pp 268-293. A number of English books have translations of these directives. Among them is "The Christian in Society," ed. Franklin Sherman (1971), pages 268-272. The "Ideas in Co
nflict" book, "Religion and Politics --Issues in Religious Liberties," by Gary E. McCuen, also quotes them on pages 16-23.]

To Martin Luther, this "sharp mercy" was needed to bring them to repentance, since they were not being converted by the 'pure gospel' he was preaching. This was not a passing mood on his part; once he came to these conclusions he never wavered from them. Martin Luther's last sermon, preached just days before h
is death, was brimming over with biting condemnation and vulgarities for the J*ws. He planted the seed of hate in fertile soil, and it grew over the centuries.

 

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You Shall Know them by their Fruits

Those with even a modest knowledge of the brutal history of the Third Reich know that the Nazis put into practice all of Martin Luther's recommendations against the J*ws, and more. They burned their synagogues in honor of the "positive Christianity" Adolf Hitler claimed to stand for; they seized and burned their houses; they took public delight in destroying the sacred and precious Torahs and Talmuds of the J*ws; they separated life and limb from the rabbis; they certainly abolished safe travel for the J*ws --the only travel they had was a one-way trip on cattle cars; they took every bit of their wealth away from them --even the fil
ings in their teeth and the hair on their heads; and the ones the Nazis didn't kill immediately they put to demeaning and destroying slave labor. All this they were justified in doing, according to Martin
Luther, with prayer and the f
ear of God.

If subsequent generations of Christians (who have lionized Martin Luther as a man of God) have chosen not to see the direct connection between Protestant anti-Semitism and Martin Luther, the Nazis certainly did. They understood what Martin Luther meant. Julius Striecher, one of the most notorious anti-Semites even in the perverse world of the Third Reich, used Martin Luther's seven recommendations in his defense at the Nuremberg Trials. He even took as the motto for his newspaper, Der Sturmer (the Nazi hate paper) a direct quote of Martin Luther, Die Juden sind unser Ungluck, or, The J*ws are our misfortune.[For a sample cover, see the Time-Life World War II series, At the Center of the Web (1989).]

In the World but Not of It?</
b>

Make no mistake about it: In spite of being a devoutly Christian nation, the Germans were under no illusions as to what Adolf Hitler's intentions were towards the J*ws. He had told them a tho
usand times. Many of the tens of thousands of
Protestant and Catholic clergy openly supported Hitler. The rest stayed in the passive state they had always maintained. William L. Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich understood how they came to be in this condition:

in his [Martin Luther's] utterances about the J*ws, Luther employed a coarseness, brutality, and language unequaled in German history until the Nazi time. The influence of this towering figure extended down through the generations in Germany, especially among the Protestants ... In no country with the exception of Czarist Russia did the c
lergy become by tradition so completely servile to the political authority of the State.

["The Rise and Fall of the Third Re
ich, A History of Nazi Germany," by William L. Shirer, page 327 of the 1962 paperback edition.]

When they all were given the choice of joining Hitler's state church or going to prison, the overwhelming majority quietly became part of the Reich Church. Becoming the religious arm of
the Third Reich, the pastors, both the enthusiastic and the reluctant, had to support it, since they looked to it to define what was right and wrong. It was far too personally dangerous to let God do this through the Holy Scriptures. To do so was to say that there was a greater authority in men's lives than the Third Reich. This was treason to Hitler.

So, they righteously stood by praising their Jesus, adorning their churches with swatiskas, closing their eyes, and saying they didn't know what was going
on. It is much easier to think about the heroic few like Martin Niemoller who chose the concentration camp rather than be silent in the face of such monstrous evil than the legions of 'good'
, hard-working, German Christians who filled up Hitler's armies, police forces, death squads, and pulpits. They did not prove able to be in the world but not of it.

What each pastor did do could not be better illustrated than by these words concerning Martin Luther when he was Professor of Theology at the U
niversity of Wittenburg:
Elector Johann Friedrich [one of the princes Martin Luther served who supported

the Reformation] was prone to solicit advice from Luther and Luther's colleagues only after policy had been set: The original function of the Wittenburg opinion, to advise conscience, was increasingly transformed b
y Johann Friedrich into the function of relieving consciences, as a religious sanction and assurance.

How well they relieved consciences! How well they provided the assurance of God's favor in this life and welcome in the next! So well, in fact, that the men running the death camps could be heard singing carols at Christmas time. Then, of course, they would get back to their practice of sharp mercy.

How far is the example of Christianity from the heart of Paul the Apostle, who saw his entire ministry among the Gentiles as a means to, "somehow move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them." (Romans 11:14 ).

After hearing Paul's c
ompassion, the ruthlessness of Martin Luther's "sharp mercy" would cause any reasonable man to question whether they had the sa
me spirit empowering them:

For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsman according to the flesh, who are Israelites ... (Romans 9:3).

 

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Church and State

Martin Luther's thinking has borne much fruit since he wrote his three fateful books. Religious persecution resulting from the merging of church and state has been its most common expression since then, and the Holocaust its most specific and awful statement. But it is the unholy merger of church and state that gives such persecution both its earthly power and political motive. In such states a threat to the state religion (unbelief or a contrary belief) becomes a threat to the state. Whether Roman Catholic or Protestant in origin, religious persecution, strengthened by the power of the state, is an expression of beastly insensitivity to the human spirit. When such an
tmosphere prevails in a nation, the most unthinkably cruel acts become utterly reasonable, and even receive the enthusiastic support of the large mass of people.

Martin Luther's three treatises so
wed an enormous evil of the
Roman Catholic system in the soil of the Protestant faith. This unrepented evil waits for the day when it can again be unleashed on the world. Martin Luther was a foretaste of the false prophet of Revelation 16 and 19, and Adolf Hitler was like the beast of Revelation who waged war against God's chosen people. These things are types of the end times prophesied in the Scriptures.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

The development of Martin Luther's thinking was a gradual process, taking shape during his entire adult life. He grew up in Roman Catholicism, for that was Europe's only religion. It was the binding force in society and government by which everyone knew their place, and heaven was the reward for the generally short and harsh lives people lived.
Anything besides strict adherence to Catholicism was perceived as a threat, not only to this life, but to the next. For if the Catholic Church was not the only truth, then heaven might not await good Cath
olics, and they may have lived their lives
in vain. So ingrained was this view of reality that often the Church had to restrain the common people from taking the lives of J*ws and other non-Catholics into their hands.

This mindset has always regarded with active hostility every attempt to raise up something new on the earth, especially anything that challenged by its sincerity the insincerity and compromise with the world of the established church, whether Catholic or Protestant. There has been a consistent pattern down through the centuries in dealing with these attempts: lies and intimidation are followed by the seizure of the heretic's property, then by cruel physical punishments; and if all this failed to bring the unbeliever back into the fold, execution by the most merciless means.

Mar
tin Luther, like other Catholic theologians before him, thought the same way --earthly punishment inflicted by the Church, and where necessary by the state, is actually the working of God's grace
to save some from the flames of hell. In other word
s, it's always done for their own good. And not only their good, but the good of society as a whole --for unbelievers in a 'Christian nation' represent faction and division, and must be dealt with, or else the society cannot be blessed by God.

This has been the story of practically every nation and society where Christianity has been the predominant influence. It is part of the essential nature of Christianity. For when Christians take the reins of power, ultimately the denial of rights to nonbelievers is considered inconsequential, because they are all going to hell anyway.

"Heretics" like the Anabaptists suffered a similar fate at the hands of Martin Luther. Their desire for restoration of the true faith was a threat to the e
stablished Church. Martin Luther only sought reformation of the Church that already was, and not restoration of the Apostolic Church that had fallen away at the end of the first century. His cruci
al decision to persecute those who did seek true restoration, like the
Anabaptists, made inevitable the likeness of Catholicism and Protestantism, like a mother and her daughter.

 

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Responsibility
It is entirely fair to give Martin Luther the credit (he would not see it as the blame or the shame) for all future Christian rulers who treated the J*ws according to the wisdom of his policies. In the light of God's word, how shall we judge this wisdom? Is it the pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable wisdom from above, full of mercy and good fruits? Or is it an earthly, natural, demonic wisdom that comes from below? What then was the source for Martin Luther's words, that with them he could bless Jesus Christ his Savior and with them lay the most bitter curses on men made in God's image? (James 3:9-18).

There are other guidelines in the Word regarding ri
hteous judgment as well. The Son of God never said that you would know false prophets by their doctrine. He said you shall know them by their fruit. He also said that a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, no
r can a bad tree produce good fruit
. If Martin Luther and the Reformation were a good tree, then it cannot have produced bad fruit. If it has produced bad fruit, it cannot have been a good tree. These are the words of the Son of God of which we are not to be ashamed (Matthew 7:15-20).

He also said, "A pupil is not above his teacher, but everyone, after he is fully trained, will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40). It is pathetic to see the Messianic J*wish congregations springing up around the country who owe their standard Protestant theology to Martin Luther and the Reformation. For they shall be like their teacher, as will all who stay under the fallen, compromised, disobedient gospel of the Reformation.

The Son of God spoke this in the Good News of Matthew:

But if your eye is bad, your whole body will
be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is within you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (Matthew 6:23)

Is not Martin Luther the 'eye' through which Protestantism saw her clearest doctrines? Ho
w did the clarity of his doctrines carry through to the purity of his deeds? So then, if the 'eye' is bad, isn't the whole body of the Protestant church full of darkness? How great is that darkness!

The writer to the Hebrews wrote, "Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith." (Hebrews 13:7). We will all receive the reward we merit for the faith we imitate. For each person's faith is known by his con
duct, or as James put it, his works (James 2:17-20 ).

The Triumph of Gnosticism
There is a compromise faced by all who seek to remain in the world, with its possessions and its power
, instead of being saved from the wicked and perverse generation they live in (Acts 2:40). As a Lutheran scholar and historian of the Reformation, Marc Edwards wrote of Martin Luther, "Through compromise and accommodation to political realities, he tried to maintain his influence in order to preserve his central insights into
Christian faith." [Luther's Last Battles page 208] Judging by the history of Christianity since then, especially as regards the J*ws and the Christian's role in the state, it is evident his insights were preserved.

Martin Luther taught by word and example that the ends of preserving one's life --one's influence, power, wealth --justify the means of compromising the truth. This is all any emperor has ever demanded --his pinch of incense --the acknowledgment tha
t there is none greater than he. It is no different than what was offered to (and refused by) the Son of God in return for worshipping the evil one --the kingdoms of this world (Matthew 4:8-10).<
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All one is left with once this incense is given (once the world becomes the standard for faith, and not the Word of God) is a gnostic faith, devoid of saving power. It is a faith so thoroughly divorced from the reality of life and the balm of human compassion that the most fundamental violations of the conscience (like
the murder, theft, lying, and hate that the Nazis practiced and the German Christians made room for) are overlooked, if not praised (Romans 1:28-32). It has nothing to do with the God who is love. It heaps shame on the J*w born in that stable so long ago, and leaves Him hanging on the cross, not risen from the grave. The cross of this gnostic faith is not a rugged one, but rather a mere mental concept, suitable for those who will not pay the true cost of following Him (Luke 14:26-33).

The
thought that Martin Luther, and the German Christians of the Third Reich who carried out his recommendations, will dwell in eternal bliss, is only possible in the unreal realm of gnosticism.
Gnosticism was the heresy that destroyed the early church by substituting knowledge and intellectual pride for faith. The Gnostics said that a man was saved by what he believed in his mind, by so-called faith alone, regardless of his works. For Martin Luther and those who received his legacy, this faith could be so far removed fr
om their works that they could murder the J*ws without invalidating their claim on eternal life. It is obvious that the faith Martin Luther made so much of was not saving faith, or he never would have done and said the things he did. He would have had the heart of Paul the Apostle towards the J*ws. The Savior whom Paul served is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8).

In reality, it was no faith at all, since it did not bring anyone into obedience to the gospel (John 8:51
; Romans 1:5; 10:17; 15:18; 16:25). It was instead only knowledge about the truth, biblical principles for men to live by. History has shown the infinite uses to which such principles may be
put.

In spite of everything the evil one has done to malign the name of the Savior, the word of God will prove true. Those who were once not His people will be called the sons of the living God (Romans 10:26). They will be those who receive the same Spirit Paul did, and like him, they will forsake everything for the sake of gai
ning Messiah (Philippians 3:8). They will make the J*ws jealous through having God's law written on their hearts, fulfilling all the prophets have spoken about the New Covenant.

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