"Here you ask, 'Who are the Christians and where does one find them?' Answer: There are not many of them, but they are everywhere, though they are spread thin and live far apart, under good and bad princes. Christendom must continue to the end, as the article of the creed says, 'I believe one holy Christian church.' So it must be possible to find them. Every pastor and preacher ought diligently to exhort his people to repentance and to prayer. They ought to drive men 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. And so that this preaching may work the more strongly, they ought to cite examples and sayings from the Scriptures, such as the flood [Gen. 7:1-24], Sodom and Gomorrah [Gen. 19:24-28], and the children of Israel, and show how cruelly and how often God punished the world and its lands and peoples. And they ought to make it plain that it is no wonder, since we sin more grievously than they did, if we are punished worse than they.
This fight must be begun with repentance, and we must reform our lives, or we shall fight in vain; as the prophet Jeremiah says in chapter 18 [:7-8], 'If at anytime I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will repent of the evil that I intended to do it.' And again, 'And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will repent of the good which I had intended to do it. Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Behold I am shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one of you and amend your ways and your doings [Jer. 18:9-11]. We may apply these words to ourselves, for God is devising evil against us because of our wickedness and is certainly preparing the Turk against us, as he says in Psalm 7[:12-13], 'If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow; he has prepared his deadly weapons.'" - Martin Luther, Selected Writings volume 4, On War Against the Turks, Pg. 18 - 19
Sunday, October 30, 2016
Luther tells us to be aware of the Turks
"The great need of our time should have moved us to this prayer against the Turk, for the Turk, as has been said, is the servant of the devil, who not only devastates land and people with the sword, as we shall hear later, but also lays waste the the Christ faith and our dear Lord Jesus Christ. For although some praise the Turk's government because he allows everyone to believe what he will so as he remains the temporal lord, yet this reputation is not true, for he does not allow Christians to come together in public, and no one can openly confess Christ or preach or teach against Mohammed. What kind of freedom of belief is it when no one is allowed to preach or confess Christ, and yet our salvation depends on that confession, as Paul says in Romans 10 [:9], 'To confess with the lips saves,' and Christ has strictly commanded us to confess and teach his gospel.
Since, therefore, faith must be stilled and held in secret among this wild and barbarous people and under this severe rule, how can it exist or remain alive in the long run, when it requires so much effort and labor in places where it is preached most faithfully and diligently? Therefore it happens, and must happen, that those Christians who are captured or otherwise get into Turkey fall away and become altogether Turkish, and it is very seldom that one remains true to his faith, for they lack the living bread of the soul and see the abandoned and carnal life of the Turks and are obliged to adapt themselves to it.
How can one injure Christ more than with these two things, namely, force and wiles? With force they prevent preaching, and suppress the word. With wiles they put wicked and dangerous examples before men's eyes every day and draw men to them. So in order not to lose our Lord Jesus Christ, his word and faith, we must pray against the Turks as against other enemies of our salvation and of all good, indeed, as we pray against the devil himself.
In this connection the people should be told about the Turk's dissolute life and ways so that they may the better feel the need of prayer. To be sure, it has often disgusted me, and still does, that neither our great lords nor our scholars have taken any pains to give us any certain knowledge about the life of the Turks in the two estates, spiritual and temporal; and yet the Turk has come so near to us. It is said that the Turks, too, have chapters and monasteries. Some, indeed, have invented outrageous lies about the Turks to incite us Germans against them, but there is no need for lies; there is enough truth, I will tell my dear Christians a few things, so far as I know the real truth, so that they may the better be moved and stirred to pray earnestly against the enemy of Christ our Lord." - Martin Luther, On War Against The Turks, SW Volume 4, Edited by Theodore G. Tappert, Pg. 22-24
I could not but help to notice how today the media and the governments of our time do not want to call out the Islamic faith. Today, if a man is a Muslim and is a terrorist killing countless lives and civilians he is labeled not a Islamic Terrorist but rather is labeled a Terrorist despite of his faith.
Since, therefore, faith must be stilled and held in secret among this wild and barbarous people and under this severe rule, how can it exist or remain alive in the long run, when it requires so much effort and labor in places where it is preached most faithfully and diligently? Therefore it happens, and must happen, that those Christians who are captured or otherwise get into Turkey fall away and become altogether Turkish, and it is very seldom that one remains true to his faith, for they lack the living bread of the soul and see the abandoned and carnal life of the Turks and are obliged to adapt themselves to it.
How can one injure Christ more than with these two things, namely, force and wiles? With force they prevent preaching, and suppress the word. With wiles they put wicked and dangerous examples before men's eyes every day and draw men to them. So in order not to lose our Lord Jesus Christ, his word and faith, we must pray against the Turks as against other enemies of our salvation and of all good, indeed, as we pray against the devil himself.
In this connection the people should be told about the Turk's dissolute life and ways so that they may the better feel the need of prayer. To be sure, it has often disgusted me, and still does, that neither our great lords nor our scholars have taken any pains to give us any certain knowledge about the life of the Turks in the two estates, spiritual and temporal; and yet the Turk has come so near to us. It is said that the Turks, too, have chapters and monasteries. Some, indeed, have invented outrageous lies about the Turks to incite us Germans against them, but there is no need for lies; there is enough truth, I will tell my dear Christians a few things, so far as I know the real truth, so that they may the better be moved and stirred to pray earnestly against the enemy of Christ our Lord." - Martin Luther, On War Against The Turks, SW Volume 4, Edited by Theodore G. Tappert, Pg. 22-24
I could not but help to notice how today the media and the governments of our time do not want to call out the Islamic faith. Today, if a man is a Muslim and is a terrorist killing countless lives and civilians he is labeled not a Islamic Terrorist but rather is labeled a Terrorist despite of his faith.
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
The work of Christ actually accomplishes redemption for His elect alone
The Bible through out presents to us the gospel, no doubt there is law in the Bible as well by which on condition of completing the commands a man may attain the promises, but the testimony of the Bible is that all are sinners and fall short of the glory of God; the gospel, revealed throughout the Bible is presented to us as the accomplished redemption of what Christ in fact got done on the cross for His elect people alone. This is the good news that by Christ's merit and righteousness alone, imputed to the elect sinner received by faith alone are justified and accepted by God. There is no works which God's people do or can do that either makes or breaks this acceptance.
The death of Christ and the His merits imputed to the elect are so intertwined that those whom he represented and died for are the very ones that in time do/will in fact believe. To teach that Christ's death is meant for everyone of Adam's children head for head and that this death is only received by so many of Adam's posterity is to teach basically that Christ's death is not itself what actually saves people but that those who are saved and those who are not saved owe their salvation to something else whether that be by the Spirit's power or ours.
The death of Christ and the His merits imputed to the elect are so intertwined that those whom he represented and died for are the very ones that in time do/will in fact believe. To teach that Christ's death is meant for everyone of Adam's children head for head and that this death is only received by so many of Adam's posterity is to teach basically that Christ's death is not itself what actually saves people but that those who are saved and those who are not saved owe their salvation to something else whether that be by the Spirit's power or ours.
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