WHAT!! …Christian Antisemitism’?!?! -6

  In his great work “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy”, Eric Metaxas writes regarding Martin Luther: “In the beginning of his career, Luther’s attitude toward the Jews was exemplary, especially for his day. He was sickened at how Christians had treated the Jews.  In 1519 he (Luther) asked why the Jews would ever want to become converted to Christianity given the…
            ‘cruelty and enmity we wreak on them----that in our behavior
             towards them we less  resemble Christians than beasts?’” (pg 92)
Metaxas continues, “Four years later, in the essay ‘That Jesus Christ was born a Jew’, he (Luther) wrote, ‘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. They had 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.’”  (pg 92)

   Edward Flannery* continues quoting from Luther’s essay ‘That Jesus Christ was born a Jew’:
“They (the papists) have dealt with the Jews, as if they were dogs rather than human  beings….If the Apostles, who were also Jews, had dealt with us gentiles as we gentiles deal with the Jews there would never have been a Christian among the gentiles…we in our turn ought to treat the Jews in a brotherly manner in order that we might convert some of them…we are but gentiles, while the Jews are of the lineage of Christ. We are aliens and in-laws, they are blood relatives, cousins and brother of our Lord.” (pg152)
   However, Luther later dramatically changed from his previous opinions on the Jews; and Metaxas attempts to offer a reason: “For much of his adult life Luther suffered from constipation, hemorrhoids, a cataract in one eye, and a condition of the inner ear called Meniere’s disease, which results in dizziness, fainting spells, and tinnitus. He also suffered mood swings and depression. As his health declined, everything seemed to set him off. When a congregation sang anemically, he called them “tone-deaf sluggards” and stormed out. He attacked King Henry VIII as “effeminate” and blasted his theological opponents as “agents of the devil” and “whoremongers”. He called the pope “the Anti-Christ” and “a brothel-keeper above all brothel-keepers and all lewdness, including that which is not to be named.” He blasted the Catholic church’s regulation of marriage and accused the church of being “a merchant selling vulvas, genitals, and pudenda.” Expressing his attempt for the devil, he said that he would give him “a fart for a staff.” He viciously mocked Pope Clement III’s writings: “Such a great horrid flatus did the papal arse let go here! He certainly pressed with great might to let out such a thunderous flatus—it is a wonder that it did not tear his hole and belly apart.” “So it is in this context that one has to take his attitude toward the Jews, which, like everything else in his (Luther) life, unraveled along with his health.”   (pg93)
   Metaxas continues, “The troubles started in 1528 when, after a large meal of kosher food, he suffered a shattering attack of diarrhea. He concluded the Jews had tried to poison him. …In his last decade, his list of ailments ballooned to include gallstones, kidney stones, arthritis, abscesses on his legs, and uremic poisonings. Now his nastiness would hit its stride. He wrote in the vile treatise, ‘Concerning the Jews and Their Lies’, and the man who once described the Jews as “God’s chosen people” now called them “a base and whoring people.” “…three years before his death, Luther advocated actions against the Jews that included, among other things, setting fire to their synagogues and schools, destroying their houses, confiscating their prayer books, taking their money, and putting them into forced labor.” (pg93)
  Edward Flannery* offers his rendition on Luther’s treatise, “In 1542 he (Luther) published a tract “Concerning the Jews and Their Lies’ followed shortly thereafter another entitled ‘Shem Hamphoras’, in which he (Luther) raged at them in a language that at least equaled in violence anything uttered against them before or after. With biting sarcasm and occasional scatological insult, he renewed all the old charges of the past: Jews are poisoners, ritual murderers, usurers; they are parasites on Christian society; they are worse than devils; it is harder to convert them then Satan himself; they are doomed to hell. They are, in truth, the anti-Christ. Their synagogues should be destroyed, and their books seized; they should be forced to work with their hands; better they should be expelled by the princes from their territories.” “During his last years Luther made repeated efforts to have the German princes oppress and expel Jews. In his last sermon, delivered a few days before his death, he called urgently for their expulsion from all Germany.” (Pg152).
   Metaxas concludes, “One may only imagine what Luther’s younger self would have thought of such statements. But Goebbels and the other Nazis rejoiced that Luther’s ugliest ravings existed in writing, and they published them and used them with glee, and to great success…” (pg93).
   Even if we can explain Luther’s rantings and ravings by his ailments, his blasphemous words echo in eternity and cannot be excused…period! For this reason, Luther and John Chrysostom lead the way as the greatest of the historical ‘Christian’ antisemites!
   In conclusion, no human in history suffered like Christ, yet as our example, He offers us power to suffer with dignity (Heb12:4), by standing on the Word of God, dependent on the Holy Spirit! Therefore, I think it would have been so much better if Luther had chosen---in his sufferings---to declare the Word of God:
         
Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. -Ps149:2
 
But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. -Isa 45:17
 
*Edward Flannery, ‘The Anguish of the Jews’