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Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Pieper & Walther on... Luther's polemical writings (Part 3)

See Part 1 and Part 2 for earlier installments of this series.
Pieper now turned to Walther's other points on Luther:
For the remainder of Walther's essay we raise a few points. "The polemical writings of Luther are now indeed greatly despised, but they are the greatest which have been written by human hands.  There one finds the Scripture truth proved for evidence, there one sees Luther's heroic faith and spiritual joy.  It's all entertaining. That Luther speaks so bluntly is because he fought either the Antichrist or miserable fanatics. You cannot cure all diseases with buttermilk and honey, but also bitter medicine must be given.  Luther had a thousand year old oak tree of enormous extent before him, therefore he could not cut with a penknife but had to use huge axes and sharp saws.  His heart would melt with sorrow over the poor souls who sat in darkness.  Whoever stumbles over Luther's zeal, stumbles against God who has chosen such a tool.
"...huge axes and sharp saws".  -- Even if the modern world turns against Luther, it admires his courage against the "thousand year old oak tree" of the Roman papacy.  Time Magazine in it's December 31, 1999 issue called Martin Luther "Ideologue of the Century" (even as they condemned him) saying:
Some of his writings were the doubtful, occasionally anti-Semitic musings of a depressed ex-monk... But his doubts led him to question much established wisdom.

"It's all entertaining". --  The Jewish Hollywood likes to say it knows entertainment (e.g. That's Entertainment! movie) but the real entertainment is watching Martin Luther against all the opponents of Christianity.

Although Walther does not mention it here, yet there was another subject of his polemical writings ... the Jews. We see by this who really had a heart for the poor Jews... it's not any of today's "Lutheran" theologians who falsely show sympathy for the Jews.  It was Martin Luther who came to realize their rabbis were harder than stone and so a "sharp mercy" in his harsh later writings showed true spiritual concern... for not only the Jews but also for any Christian who would be blind to the blindness of the Jews.

I will repeat Walther's last sentence here:
Whoever stumbles over Luther's zeal,
stumbles against God who has chosen such a tool.
A lot of Christians are stumbling...

In Part 4, Luther's tautology (repetitiveness) is covered.

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