Martin Luther and the Jews

Martin Luther is the father of Protestantism who lead a movement of a body of people from out of the Catholic Church. Any protestant today is basically a protestant due of the works of Martin Luther. The word protestant means “one who protests” and it relates to Luther’s “protest” when in 1517 he nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. If it was not for Martin Luther or another reformer like him coming on the world scene, most all of Christendom today would still be partakers of the Catholic Church as they were before the reformation movements.

In other words, without Luther’s reformation movement, one would basically have to enter Christianity through the door of the Catholic church - the very church that is now known by most protestants to be "The Mother Whore" as depicted in Revelation 17:5. These things should be kept in mind when reading Martin Luther’s writings concerning the Jews below.

At first, Martin Luther attempted his Jewish conversion techniques by using flattery in which he asserted that “Christian love” was what was really warranted for Jewish conversion and condemned the past forceful methods used by the Catholic Church.
"If I had been a Jew and had seen such dolts and blockheads govern and teach the Christian faith, I would sooner have become a hog than a Christian." - Martin Luther, That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew, in Luther's Works, Vol. 45, - 1523 CE

The evangelicals of today that seek Jewish conversion still use this same "love-the-Jew" method when it comes to answering Christian history. After twenty years of trying unsuccessfully to convert the Jews by using flattery, Luther did what Muhammad had done after he failed to convert the Jews in Arabia by using flattery. Luther, (like Muhammad) then turned from a Dr. Jekyll into a Mr. Hide.

For some reason it makes many Christians and Muslims very upset when those bad O Jews refused to go along with Christian and Muslim love and decide to stay with the covenant God gave them. Take a look at some of Luther’s Christian-loving suggestions he sent to the government leaders of his day and see if the following quotes sound anything like a German leader four hundred years later around the time of 1933 -1945:

“First, their synagogues should be set on fire and whatever does not burn up should be covered or speared over with dirt so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or a stone of it.” “Secondly, their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed. For they perpetrate the same things there that they do in their synagogues. For this reason they ought to be put under one roof or in a stable, like Gypsies, in order that they may realize that they are not masters in our land, as they boast, but miserable captives.…”
“Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayer-books and Talmuds...... ”
“Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more…”
“Fifthly, passport and traveling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews. For they have no business in the rural districts since they are not nobles, nor officials, nor
merchants, nor the like. Let them stay home.”
- Martin Luther, On the Jews and Their Lies - 1543

What is really eerie about Martin Luther is his religious notion of justifying the horrors of the Holocaust four hundred years before it ever happened:
“Even if they were punished in the most gruesome manner that the streets ran with their blood, that their dead would be counted, not in the hundred thousands, but in the millions, as happened under Vespasian in Jerusalem and for evil under Hadrian, still they must insist on being right even if after these 1,500 years they were in misery another 1,500 years, still God must be a liar and they must be correct. In sum, they are the devil’s children, damned to Hell…..The Jews too got what they deserved.”
- Martin Luther, Of the Unknowable Name and Generations of Christ - 1543

The Nazi Connection:

Adolph Hitler was a big fan of Martin Luther insomuch that he refers to him as a “great reformer” in his book, Mein Kampf (page 213). For anyone to be admired by Hitler speaks volumes about one’s character, especially if Hitler himself took the time to record his admiration of an individual to be included in his autobiography / manifesto for all to publicly acknowledge.

Luther’s historic antisemitic words were used at many Nazi rallies throughout Germany. Even Luther's Schlosskirche (Castle Church) was adorned with draped Nazi flags in 1933 as well as the first Nazi archbishop having his consecration there. > http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090706/column06_st.art.htm

During Hitler's rise to power on February 24, 1920, he delivered his 25 point "theses" of the Nazi Party's agenda. The term "theses" was a deliberate copy of terminology from Luther's historic "95 theses" that Luther placed on the door of the Wittenburg Cathedral.

Kristallnacht, the infamous “Night of Broken Glass” where on November 9, 1938, Jewish business shops were smashed, synagogues burned, and ninety-one Jews were murdered in the middle of the streets of Germany, was actually considered a commemoration of Luther’s birthday.

Julius Streicher, the one who yelled “purimfest 1946” just seconds before he was hanged at Nuremberg > http://desiretoshare.com/purim.htm argued at his trail that he had never said anything about the Jews that Martin Luther himself had not said 400 years earlier. In Streicher’s mind, he was just following in Luther’s footsteps who often described the Jews as “the people of whom Christ said was the devil”. Therefore, it is more than fair to say that Luther’s antisemitism helped lay the ground work for Nazism and the Holocaust!

The fact that there was a person named "Martin Luther" that attended the January 1942 Wannsee Conference of which set the "Finial Solution" to the "Jewish Question" into auction > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_(diplomat) and of whose very minuets of such a meeting are the only ones to survive the war, doesn't speak favorably of the popular spiritual leader of whom he was most likely named after.

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Supporters of Luther today will use the excuse that Luther was only able to walk in a limited amount of “light of the Gospel” due to the world and culture that surrounded him throughout his life. They will also add that his comments concerning the Jews were just errors of his "carnal flesh" and not of his true in-heart experience of the “new-birth”. Any such defense of Luther causes me to start asking questions that demand an answer:
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Q. Since when did the word of God and its life changing power become subjected to man’s culture surroundings or upbringing?

There are New Testament verses that reads: And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:2) and "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:9). I personally have a DVD documentary that focuses on the causes of Palestinian terrorism that is entitled “From Cradle to Grave; An Inside Look at the Culture of Death”.

If we use this same defense for today’s Palestinians as many do for Luther’s antisemitism, we would have to somehow minimize the murderous acts of the Palestinian suicide bombers and rocket shooters due to their culture and upbringing! For some reason Walid Shoebat, (a once Palestinian terrorist but now a Christian) who was raised in a Palestinian culture of death environment was able to make a full exit of Islam of all things and even became one of the most dedicated Zionist that I had ever seen. He didn’t feel the need to continue his terrorizing the Jewish Israelis after his Christian conversion, so why did Luther in his Christian experience?

Q. Why did Luther take a more righteous approach when he started out dealing with the Jews?

Apparently, Luther when wishing to use flattery on the Jews for conversion sake, was able to take a non-violent approach towards the Jews during the time and culture in which he lived, so why couldn't he continues to do so throughout his Christian life whether trying to flatter them or not?
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Q. If the amount of Christian light during the in which Luther lived was Luther's problem, why didn't this limited amount of Christian light effect all other Christian men as well like Elector Joachim of Brandenberg and Henry Bullinger who lived during the same time as Luther but rebuked Luther for his statements against the Jewish people?

Q. Why did Luther go beyond his culture of his day?

Obviously the nobles and leaders wasn’t antisemitic enough in Luther’s eyes which lead him to call upon them for more acts against the Jews, which is exactly what Hitler and the Nazi party did before they came into power in 1933. If Luther was held captivated by his time, culture, and surroundings, why wasn’t he satisfied with actions of the leaders towards the Jews in his day. Why did he feel that they wasn’t doing enough, and pushed them to do even more?

Q. Did Luther actually read what he translated?

Luther was able to translate the Hebrew and Greek / Latin scriptures into German. When translating, the translator has to know relationship of words, idioms, structure of sentences, verb tenses, and so on. It takes deep concentration to translate and Luther’s translation of the scriptures are considered by scholars to be a very good translation.

As a translator, Luther had to concentrate on the words he was translating, and therefore, there should be absolutely no reason for him not to fully “take-into heart” the words that he believe to be the word of God and strictly apply them to his heart and everyday life regardless of what era he lived. If running Luther’s statements of hatred concerning the Jews through a Christian perspective, let alone the Sixth Commandment, here is how the book of First John would depict Luther concerning his hatred for the Jews:

• In darkness until now (I John 2:9)
  
• Not of God (I John 3:10)
  
• Abides in death (I John 3:14)
  
• A murderer (I John 3:15)
  
• No eternal life abiding in him (I John 3:15)
  
• A lair (I John 4:20)
  
• Cannot love God (I John 4:20)

Q. Why couldn’t Luther get it right after years of "turning the world upside down"?
It was twenty-six years after Luther’s reformation movement first began and just three years before his death, when he made his most vicious statements concerning the Jews. It’s apparent that Luther’s hatred of Jews wasn’t due to Christian immaturity. His Jewish hatred was expressed during the time that his spiritual grow was at its peak and his spiritual maturity fully expressed. Proverbs 4:18 states: “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more to the perfect day”.

Luther’s later writings about the Jews reveal that the supposedly compassion that he had towards the Jews at the start of his ministry, was nothing more than a gimmick to get the Jews to convert away from their covenant, when what he really had was a dark hidden secret of hatred for them all along. I fear that this maybe the case for most (perhaps not all) evangelicals today who like Luther, pacifically target the Jews for conversion.

Q. How would the majority of Christendom throughout history have responded to such statements coming from Rashi (a great Jewish sage) about Christians?

Would the defenders of Luther today be so kind towards Rashi if that were the case? If Jews were murdered for such things as unfounded rumors of Jewish blood libel rituals and false accusations of Talmudic writings which resulted in the Talmud itself to be put on trial and burned (as if to burn it at the sake) I can only image how the French Jews, British Jews, and Russian Jews during the last nine hundred and fifty years would have been persecuted in the most horrific ways over Rashi’s comments if he had stated anything close about Christians as to what Luther said about the Jews. I could just imagine how the evangelicals of today would use such a quote from Rashi in order to degrade Judaism in their efforts to beautify Christianity to potential Jewish converts.

It’s funny, but even Luther, not knowingly complimented Judaism when trying to flatter the Jews: “Our fools, the popes, bishops, sophists, and monks--the crude asses' heads--have hitherto so treated the Jews that anyone who wished to be a good Christian would almost have had to become a Jew.” - That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew, in Luther's Works, Vol. 45, - 1523

Outside of his antisemitism Martin Luther really wasn’t half bad, which is somewhat of an indicator of just how deep antisemitism can run in the soul as it brings down what would normally be a good man. There is no doubt that Luther did much good in exposing the corruption of the Catholic Church at the time in which he lived, but anyone who wishes to praise Luther for his works of “Justification” should also be more than willing to criticize his antisemitism as for what it was.

The reason why the Lutherans are not black listed by other protestant denominations who supposedly loves Israel and the Jews is simply because they are fellow protestants that sprang up by the event of Luther’s separation from the Catholic Church. Other protestant denominations will disagree with the Lutherans on doctrinal issues such as predestination and infant baptism, but other than passive lip service, and recent comments by Evangelical Pastor John Hagee, I personally have never heard of a protestant denominational leader make it a point to straight forwardly denounce Luther’s antisemitism.

There have been many great Christian reformers who have never even came close to speaking as viciously against the Jewish people as did Martin Luther. Yet recently, as well as in the past, Hollywood has chosen to glorify Luther over all of them while never mentioning the fact Luther was a vicious antisemite! Therefore, one must ask just why that is?