Martin Luther: ON WAR AGAINST THE TURK

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BJClark

Puritan Board Doctor
Thursday Theology #226 - Luther's essay ON WAR AGAINST THE TURK

From LUTHER'S WORKS, vol. 46: 157-205
Revised translation by Robert C. Schultz.

The treatise is dated 474 yrs ago yesterday, "October 9, 1528"]

Preface: Luther's pastoral purpose: "So that innocent consciences may not be deceived" by the current propaganda on this topic. He reviews his past argument with the papacy on the Turks. When the pope excommunicated him (1520), he cited as one of Luther's heresies his words from two years earlier: "To fight against the Turk is the same as resisting God, who visits our sin upon us with this rod of his anger." [Isaiah 10:5] That's still true, but the context 10 yrs later is different, so here's how it applies today.

LUTHER’S TWO KEY POINTS

The Turk has "no right or command" to wage war on us, yet God is using him as the "rod of his anger" against our (phoney) European Christianity.

Since we are now confronting two enemies: both God and the "rod of his anger," the Turk, we must be clear just who is authorized to fight in this war and how. To this question the answer is: "two and only two: one is named Christian, the other Emperor Charles."

Part I.

The first "authorized" warrior--to "fight" the first enemy--is any & every Christian. "The fight must be begun with repentance, and we must reform our lives, or we shall fight in vain as Jeremiah says in chapter 18." The "strategic value" of repentance? "The first thing to be done is to take the rod out of God's hand, so that the Turk may be found only in his own strength all by himself." Repentance does that. Even though Christians are "spread thin" in the world, God listens to the repentant remnant. So repentance is the church's calling. "Every pastor and preacher ought diligently to exhort his people to repentance and to prayer. They ought to drive us to repentance by showing our great and numberless sins and our ingratitude, by which we have earned God's wrath and disfavor, so that he justly gives us into the hands of the devil and the Turk." Even though the bigwigs will laugh at this, not to do so makes God angrier still.

"After people have thus been exhorted to confess their sin and amend their ways they should then be most diligently exhorted to prayer and shown that such prayer pleases God." Scriptures are full of examples and Luther cites some: Especially Abraham praying for Sodom and Gomorrah, a prayer based on God's commitment to spare the place if five righteous ones could be found there. "It is easy to see," he claims, that God wants the praying faithful "to set themselves in the way of his wrath and stave it off. That is what I meant about "Taking the rod out of God's hand."

Interlude: Some info on the Turks, i.e., on the religion of Islam. Luther has read "some parts" of the Koran, and "when I have time I must translate it into German." He thinks it's a "shameful book."

Jesus gets praised, but is not the savior of the world, only a prophet. Mohammed supersedes Jesus. He is God's last word. By putting "Christ beneath Mohammed . . . everything is destroyed."

The sword (=murder) is the basic law in Muslim civil government. It is the foundation of the expanding Muslim empire. As Augustine also noted: "an empire has seldom come into being except by robbery, force, and wrong . . . without any justice." Though God is using the Turk now as the rod of his anger, God finally recompenses the bloody practice of all empires. "They shall go down to hell, even though it may take the Last Day to send them there."

Monogamous marriage is despised.
These three cut the heart out of God's way of running the world (true religion, true civil authority, true domestic life). There are 3 other items of importance about Islam:


War is always a Holy War;

Its radical iconoclasm forbidding any "imaging" of God at all;

It's works-righteous message of salvation--just like the papacy.
Luther then comes to the summary of his counsel to the "first man" [= any Christian] authorized to "fight" God, the first enemy, in War against the Turk. Remember: none of this person's fighting is done with the sword.


Then comes Part II.
The second one authorized to fight the "second enemy" in this war is Emperor Charles V. Luther directly addresses "Emperor Charles, who ought to fight against the Turk . . . for it is his duty as a regular ruler appointed by God, to defend his own." And his very next sentence reiterates his repentance prerequisite: "I repeat it here: I would not urge or bid anyone to fight against the Turk unless the first method mentioned above, that men had first repented and been reconciled to God, etc., had been followed. If anyone wants to go to war in another way, let him take his chances."

Even though Luther "see clearly that kings and princes clearly are taking such a foolish and careless attitude toward the Turk that I fear they underestimate God and the Turk too greatly," he proceeds "to point out [Charles'] duty [=his call from God] and to instruct his conscience."


Charles is in command by God's ordinance. Obeying Charles is obeying God.

The proper goal for Charles in the conflict is "simply to protect his subjects," not at all as "protector of the church and defender of the faith . . . which only makes things worse."

If Rome were ever to get involved it should be as a preacher to "hold God's commandment before them [=the political leaders, Charles included] and make it an unavoidable issue, and say: the empire is given and committed to you by God for you to protect, rule, counsel, and help, and you not only should, but must do this at the risk of losing your soul's salvation and God's favor and grace." All this even though "it is evident that none of you believes this or takes it seriously."

The right "banner" for the Emperor carries "the commandment of God that says, 'Protect the good; punish the wicked.'" Yet even here a caveat. "It is not enough for you to know that God has commanded this or that to you; you should do it with fear and humility, for God commands no one to do anything on the basis of his own wisdom and strength." Those who "trust in their own bravery and military numbers" are the ones who lose in battles recorded in the Bible, for "God is forgotten and despised."
In his summary to the emperor Luther says: "If these two things are present, God's commandment and our humility...then we are strong." But if we lose the war, "it is certainly because one of the two things is lacking; 1) we were going to war either without God's commandment, or in our own presumption, or 2) the first soldier, Christian, is not there with his [repentant] prayers."
 
As I read this, I find it sad, as I look around at so many churches today, Pastors over look these type of things..

It's as if many don't see the spiritual battle being waged, as if since God poured His wrath upon Christ, He will no longer pour His wrath upon a nation that is seeped in Sin when so many churches teach a false Gospel.

I really like his comment here as it applies today to Churches in America--Our phoney American Christianity..

The Turk has "no right or command" to wage war on us, yet God is using him as the "rod of his anger" against our (phoney) European Christianity.

many pastors refusing to preach against sin, because they no longer view sin as sin, they do not believe God is God...nowadays it some disease that we can address using some 12 step program, but pastors are afraid to teach the truth for fear of offending people.

I look around at various churches and this is what I see, they are rich with material goods and do not acknowledge their need for God..they don't fear God, it's as if they view Him as if He is not real as if He is some fairy tale a myth..that should be discarded
and thrown to the wayside..as long as the preacher has money in his pocket..he doesn't care about the people or even their eternity, because he himself, does not believe what he stands up and reads each week from the Holy Writ..

Rev 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. Rev 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
 
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