Martin Luther Collection: Luther, Martin - Table Talks: 7. Of Idolatry

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Martin Luther Collection: Luther, Martin - Table Talks: 7. Of Idolatry



TOPIC: Luther, Martin - Table Talks (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 7. Of Idolatry

Other Subjects in this Topic:

OF IDOLATRY



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CLXXI.







Idolatry is all manner of seeming holiness and worshipping, let these

counterfeit spiritualities shine outwardly as glorious and fair as they may;

in a word, all manner of devotion in those that we would serve God without

Christ the Mediator, his Word and command. In popedom it was held a work of

the greatest sanctity for the monks to sit in their cells and meditate of

God, and of his wonderful works; to be kindled with zeal, kneeling on their

knees, praying, and having their imaginary contemplations of celestial

objects, with such supposed devotion, that they wept for joy. In these their

conceits, they banished all desires and thoughts of women, and what else is

temporal and evanescent. They seemed to meditate only of God, and of his

wonderful works. Yet all these seeming holy actions of devotion, which the

wit and wisdom of man holds to be angelical sanctity, are nothing else but

works of the flesh. All manner of religion, where people serve God without

his Word and command, is simply idolatry, and the more holy and spiritual

such a religion seems, the more hurtful and venomous it is; for it leads

people away from the faith of Christ, and makes them rely and depend upon

their own strength, works, and righteousness.

In like manner, all kinds of orders of monks, fasts, prayers, hairy

shirts, the austerities of the Capuchins, who in popedome are held to be the

most holy of all, are mere works of the flesh; for the monks hold they are

holy, and shall be saved, not through Christ, whom they view as a severe and

angry judge, but through the rules of their order.

No man can make the papists believe that the private mass is the

greatest blaspheming of God, and the highest idolatry upon earth, an

abomination the like to which has never been in Christendom since the time

of the apostles; for they are blinded and hardened therein, so that their

understanding and knowledge of God, and of all divine matters, is perverted

and erroneous. They hold that to be the most upright and greatest service of

God, which, in truth, is the greatest and most abominable idolatry. And

again, they hold that for idolatry which, in truth, is the upright and most

acceptable service of God, the acknowledging Christ, and believing in him.

But we that truly believe in Christ, and are of his mind, we, God be

praised, know and judge all things; but are judged of no human creature.





CLXXII.





Dr. Carlstad asked me: Should a man, out of good intention, erect a

pious work without God's Word or command, does he herein serve a true or a

strange God? Luther answered: A man honors God and calls upon him, to the

end he may expect comfort, help, and all good from him. Now, if this same

honor and calling upon God be done according to God's Word - that is, when a

man expects from him all graces for the sake of his promises made unto us in

Christ, then he honors the true, living, and everlasting God. But if a man

take in hand a work or a service, out of his own devotion, as he thinks

good, thereby to appease God's anger, or to obtain forgiveness of sins,

everlasting life, and salvation, as is the manner of all hypocrites and

seeming holy workers, then, I say flatly, he honors and worships an idol in

heart; and it helps him nothing at all, that he thinks he does it to the

honor of the true God; for that which is not faith in sin.





CLXXIII.





Hypocrites and idolators are of the same quality with singers, who will

scarce sing when asked to do so, but, when not desired, begin, and never

leave off. Even so with the false workers of holiness; when God orders them

to obey his commands, which are to love one's neighbor, to help him with

advice, with lending, giving, admonishing, comforting, etc., no man can

bring them to this; but, on the contrary, they stick to that which they

themselves make choice of, pretending that this is the best way to honor and

serve God - a great delusion of theirs. They plague and torment their bodies

with fasting, praying, singing, reading, hard lying, etc.; they affect great

humility and holiness, and do all things with vast zeal, fervency, and

incessant devotion. But such as the service and work is, such will also, the

reward be, as Christ himself says: "In vain do they worship me, teaching for

doctrine the commandments of men."





CLXXIV.





The idolatry of Moloch had, I apprehend, a great show, as though it

were a worship more acceptable and pleasing to God than the common service

commanded by Moses; hence many people who, in outward show, were of devout

holiness, when they intended to perform an acceptable service and honor to

God, as they imagined, offered up and sacrificed their sons and daughters,

thinking, no doubt, that herein they were following the example of Abraham,

and doing an act very acceptable and pleasing to God.

Against this idolatry God's prophets preached with burning zeal,

calling it, not offerings to God, but to idols and devils, as the 106th

Psalm shows, and Jeremiah, chap. vii. and xxii. But they held the prophets

to be impostors and accursed heretics.

This worshipping of idols was very frequent in popedom, in my time and

still, though in another manner; the papists in popedom being esteemed holy

people that give one or more of their children to the monasteries, to become

either monks or nuns, that so they may serve God, s they say, day and night.

Hence the proverb: Bless the mother of the child that is made a spiritual

person! True, these sons and daughters in popedom are not burned and offered

to idols corporally, as were the Jewish children, yet, which is far worse,

they are thrust into the throat of the devil spiritually, who, through his

disciples, the pope and the shaven crew, lamentably murders their souls with

false doctrines.

The Holy Scripture often mentions Moloch, as does Lyra; and the

commentaries of the Jews say, it was an idol made of copper and brass, like

a man holding his hands before him, wherein they put fiery coals. When the

image was made very hot, a father approached, and offering to the idol, took

his child, and thrust it into the glittering hands of the idol, whereby the

child was consumed and burned to death. Meantime, they made a loud noise

with timbrels, and cymbals, and horns, to the end the parents should not

hear the pitiful crying of the child. The prophets write, that Ahab offered

his son in this manner.





CLXXV.





The calves of Jeroboam still remain in the world, and will remain to

the last day; not that any man now makes calves like Jeroboam's, but upon

whatsoever a man depends or trusts - God set aside - this is the calves of

Jeroboam, that is, other and strange gods, honored and worshipped instead of

the only, true, living, and eternal God, who only can and will help and

comfort in all need. In like manner also, all such as rely and depend upon

their art, wisdom, strength, sanctity, riches, honor, power, or anything

else, under what title or name soever, on which the world builds, make and

worship the calves of Jeraboam. For they trust in and depend on vanishing

creatures, which is worshipping of idols and idolatry. We easily fall into

idolatry, for we are inclined thereunto by nature, and coming to us by

inheritance, it seems pleasant.





CLXXVI.





St Paul shows in these words: "When ye knew not God, ye did service,"

etc., that is, when as yet ye knew not God or what God's will was towards

you, ye served those who by nature were no gods; ye served the dreams and

thoughts of our hearts, wherewith, against God's Word, ye feigned to

yourselves a God that suffered himself to be conciliated with such works and

worshippings as your devotion and good intention made choice of. For all

idolatry in the world arises from this, that people by nature have had the

common knowledge, that there is a God, without which idolatry would remain

unpracticed. With this knowledge engrafted in mankind, they have, without

God's Word, fancied all manner of ungodly opinions of God, and held and

esteemed these for divine truths, imagining a God otherwise than, by nature,

he is.





CLXXVII.





He that goes from the gospel to the law, thinking to be saved by good

works, falls as uneasily, as he who falls from the true service of God to

idolatry; for, without Christ, all is idolatry and fictitious imaginings of

God, whether of the Turkish Koran, of the pope,s decrees, or Moses law; if a

man think thereby to be justified and saved before God, he is undone.

When a man will serve God, he must not look upon that which he does;

not upon the work, but how it ought to be done, and whether God has

commanded it or no; seeing, as Samuel says, that "God has more pleasure in

obedience, than in burnt sacrifices."

Whoso hearkens not to God's voice, is an idolater, though he performs

the highest and most heavy service of God. `Tis the very nature of idolatry

not to make choice of that which is esteemed easy and light, but of that

which is great and heavy, as we see in the friars and monks, who have been

constantly devising new worshippings of God; but, forasmuch that God in his

Word has not commanded these, they are idolatry, and blasphemy. All these

sins, they who are in the function of preaching ought undauntedly and freely

to reprove, not regarding men's high dignities and powers. For the prophets,

as we see in Hosea, reproved and threatened not only the house of Israel in

general, but also, in particular, the priests, ay, the king himself, and the

whole court. They cared not for the great danger that might follow from the

magistrate being so openly assailed, or that themselves thereby should fall

into displeasure or contempt, and their preaching be esteemed rebellious.

They were impelled by the far greater danger, lest by such examples of the

higher powers, the subjects also should be seduced into sin.





CLXXVIII.





The papists took the invocation of saints from the heathen, who divided

God into numberless images and idols, and ordained to each its particular

office and work.

These the papists, void of all shame and Christianity, imitated,

thereby denying God's almighty power; every man, out of God's Word, spinning

to himself a particular opinion, according to his own fancy; as one of their

priests, celebrating mass, when about to consecrate many oblations at the

altar at once, thought it would not be congruously spoken, or according to

grammar rules, to say, "This is my body," so said, "These are my bodies;"

and afterwards highly extolled his device, saying: "If I had not been so

good a grammarian, I had brought in a heresy, and consecrated but one

oblation."

Such like fellows does the world produce; grammarians, logicians,

rhetoricians, and philosophers, all falsifying the Holy Writ, and

sophisticating it with their arts, whereas God ordered and appointed it.

Divinity should be empress, and philosophy and other arts merely her

servants, not to govern and master her, as Servetus, Campanus, and other

seducers would do. God preserves his church, which by him is carried as a

child in the mother's womb, and defends her from such philosophical

divinity.

The invocation of saints is a most abominable blindness and heresy; yet

the papists will not give it up. The pope's greatest profit arises from the

dead; for the calling on dead saints brings him infinite sums of money and

riches, far more than he gets from the living. But thus goes the world;

superstition, unbelief, false doctrine, idolatry, obtain more credit and

profit than the upright, true, and pure religion.





CLXXIX.





God and God's worship are relatives; the one cannot be without the

other; for God must always be the God of some people or nation, and is

always in predicamento relationis. God will have some to call upon him and

honor him; for, to have a God and to honor him, go together. Therefore,

whoso brings in a divine worship of his own selection, without God's

command, is an adulterer, like a married woman who consents to another man,

seeking another and not the upright true God, and it avails him nothing that

he thinks he does God service herein.





CLXXX.





In all creatures are a declaration and a signification of the Holy

Trinity. First the substance signifies the almighty power of God the Father.

Secondly, the form and shape declare the wisdom of God the Son; and,

thirdly, the power and strength is a sign of the Holy Ghost. So that God is

present in all creatures.





CLXXXI.





In the gospel of St John, chap. iii., is plainly and directly shown the

difference of the persons, in the highest and greatest work that God

accomplished for us poor human creatures, in justifying and saving us; for

there it is plainly written of the Father, that he loved the world, and gave

to the world his only begotten Son. These are two several persons - Father,

and Son. The Father loves the world; and gives unto it his Son. The Son

suffers himself to be given to the world, and "to be lifted up on the cross,

as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, that whosoever believed in

him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." To this work comes

afterwards the third person, the Holy Ghost, who kindles faith in the heart

through the Word, and so regenerates us, and makes us the children of God.

This article, though it be taught most clearly in the New Testament,

yet has been always assaulted and opposed in the highest measure, so that

the holy evangelist, St John, for the confirmation of this article, was

constrained to write his gospel. Then came presently that heretic,

Cerinthus, teaching out of Moses, that there was but one God, and concluding

thence that Christ could not be God, or God man.

But let me stick to God's Word in the Holy Scripture, namely, that

Christ is true God with God the Father, and that the Holy Ghost is true God,

and yet there are not three Gods, nor three substances as three men, three

angels, three sons, three windows, etc. No: God is not separated or divided

in such manner in his substance, but there is only and alone one divine

essence, and no more.

Therefore, although there be three persons, God the Father, God the

Son, and God the Holy Ghost, yet notwithstanding, we must not divide nor

separate the substance, for there is but only one God in one only undivided

substance, as St Paul clearly speaks of Christ, Coloss.i., that he is the

express image of the invisible God, the first born of all creatures; for

through him all things are created that are in heaven and on earth, visible,

etc., and all is through and in him created, and he is before all, and all

things consist in him.

Now what the third person is, the holy evangelist, St John, teaches,

chap. xv., where he says: "But when the Comforter is come, which I will send

unto you from the Father, the Spirit of truth which proceeds from the

Father, he shall testify of me." Here Christ speaks not only of the office

and work of the Holy Ghost, but also of his substance and faith; he goes out

or proceeds from the Father, that is, his going out, or his proceeding, is

without all beginning, and everlasting. Therefore the holy prophet Joel

gives him the name, and calls him, "the Spirit of the Lord."

Now, although this article seem strange or foolish, what matters it?

`tis not the question whether it be so or no, but whether it be grounded on

God's Word or no. If it be God's Word, as most surely it is, then let us

make no doubt thereof; He will not lie; therefore, let us keep close to

God's Word, and not dispute how Father, Son, and Holy Ghost can be one God;

for we, as poor wretches, cannot know how it is that we laugh; or how with

our eyes, we can see a high mountain ten miles off; or how it is, that when

we sleep, in body we are dead, and yet live. This small knowledge we cannot

attain unto; no, though we took to our help the advice and art of all the

wise in the world, we are not able to know the least things which concern

ourselves; and yet we would climb up with our human wit and wisdom, and

presume to comprehend what God is in his incomprehensible majesty.