DM,
Here is how my church writes about Luther’s anti-jewish writings.
Luther’s anti-jewish statements, as well as that of other Christians of his time, before, and since, are to be roundly and thoroughly condemned. It is clear that the Nazi’s tried to use Luther’s writings to support their crimes, though the influence of Luther’s writings can be overstated, as well as understated.
The lesson, at least for me, is that for most of Luther’s life he spoke well of the Jews, to the point of being chastized by some for doing so. But what is remembered are the cruel words, not the kind ones. With that in mind, my next post.
Jon
Hi Jon,
I was familiar with the repudiation of this aspect of Luther’s teaching in the post-1945 lutheran church…which is a good thing…
I also knew that Luther had previously advocated respect towards the jews. In his 1523 work
Jesus Christ was born a Jew he claimed that it was the fault of catholicism that the jews had not converted to christianity and that they were being mistreated:
“They have dealt with the Jews as if they were dogs rather than human beings; they have done little else than deride them and seize their property. When they baptize them they show them nothing of Christian doctrine or life, but only subject them to popishness and monkery. When the Jews then see that Judaism has such strong support in Scripture, and that Christianity has become a mere babble without reliance on Scripture, how can they possibly compose themselves and become right good Christians? I have myself heard from pious baptized Jews that if they had not in our day heard the gospel they would have remained Jews under the cloak of Christianity for the rest of their days. For they acknowledge that they have never yet heard anything about Christ from those who baptized and taught them.”
I’m under the impression, that his biographers typically judge that he changed his mind by the 1540s because the jews had still not converted… that is to say, they judge that he thought in the 1520s that once his reformation spread all the jews would hear christian truth and convert, but when this didn’t happen he then changed his mind and wrote his 1543 tract which I referenced this afternoon in which he called for their destruction.
I disagree with what the Missouri synod says in that he should not be called ‘a rabid anti-semite’.
A single mom once had twin girls that she raised from their infancy. She nursed and cared for them, and took care of them with much love everyday of their lives. But when the girls became teens, she found that they did not return the love she had given them all those years and treated her disrespectfully, so one night she took an axe and hacked them to death.
Now, is it really unfair to judge this woman as wicked for what she did in those few very short minutes, and ignore all the good things she had done for the girls in those so many long years?
Ezekiel 18:24 But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and does the same abominable things that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds which he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, he shall die.
So we see, that God remembers the cruelty and not the kindness when the man had turned from kindness to cruelty…
God Bless,
