SoT4: Weitling and Marat: 'Peasant war' theology; "the next presidential election"

      This continues from Part 3 (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series presenting C. F. W. Walther's article defending against the political ideology of the socialists and communists coming into America in the 1840s and 1850s. — In this segment, we meet again with Mr Weitling and his rhetoric, but we get some relief with Walther's footnotes.  Weitling invokes a major name, a scientist, associated with the French Revolution that I was not familiar with. Both men had technical and scientific skills. But what about their theology? — From Der Lutheraner, vol. 7 (1851), pp. 85 (Jan. 21) [EN]: 

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Signs of the Times.

[by C. F. W. Walther, quoting the Spectator newspaper]

So much for the first part of the aforementioned correspondence. Before we share the continuation of this, we insert a passage from an essay which, under the heading "The Next Revolution", appeared in the socialist monthly edited by Wilhelm Weitling in New York: "The Workers' Republic" (Die Republik Der Arbeiter). The passage is as follows:

"Only after the abolition of all inequalities of social relations, only after the introduction of communist socialism, is it possible for a people to administer its affairs in such an easy way. As long as there are poor and rich, superior and inferior, it is not possible … You want reform? Revolution? Anarchy? — You want everything else but the old conditions! Don't worry, all this will come, and it will be a revolution such as the earth has never seen before. It cannot fail to come if we write the memories of the suffering we have endured into our hearts with fiery anger, if we revive the old images of insane despair in us with fiery rage and think of the hired traitors with the boiling bile of all outraged righteous feelings, the deceivers who, with honeyed words in the hour of victory, were able to placate us back to forbearance and calm, and then, with biting scorn, to bind us anew to the old conditions, to whom every falsehood, every hypocrisy was welcome as a means to achieve what they wanted. It will come terribly, it will end terribly, if our memory remains true to itself and gives free rein to all the furies of revenge for the thousand years of injustice suffered for only a few weeks. This week will be called the time of the blood-red republic. With it comes the dictatorship. *) Only this can complete the work of the revolution and establish true democracy. Radical communist socialism, however, will make the journey around the world or perish in this attempt. It cannot make peace with the unequal. It will wage a long war in its wake, and a terrible bloodbath will accompany it. Without this, the tobacco-snuffing, smoking and chewing human race cannot be brought to such a powerful reform. What does it matter whether they let us die slowly of unhealthy labor, of sorrow, trouble, grief and worry, of want or in prisons, or whether they beat us to death. If we do not beat them to death, they must beat us to death and starve us to death, "for the earth is overflowing with the teeming, countless race of the breadless. "Unfortunately, many good and capable people will perish, many innocent people will be slain. These are the usual misunderstandings. But let them go ahead: we are still enough of us! Our heads are innumerable, like the grains of sand in the desert! **) We cannot lose. Holy Marat ***) pray for us! — — —",

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*) Dictatorship is the office of a man to whom, in a republic, completely unrestricted power has been given for a certain time to rule at will, so that, in times of great danger and confusion, a will against which his appeal has taken place is enforced, which, if many could rule with their different views, would not be carried out.

**) In July of last year [1850?], Mr. Weitling wrote: “We now have the prospect, if all goes well from now on, that we will form a compactly organized party of at least 100,000 men next autumn, united with the Americans (especially in Boston and Philadelphia). With such a party, however, we shall carry through the next presidential election according to our wishes, and a party which becomes so strong will carry through everything it considers good.”

***) This [Jean-Paul] Marat, whom Mr. Weitling invokes here as the patron saint of the socialists, was that monster, that bloodhound, who at the time of the French Revolution at the end of the last century publicly preached the robbery and plundering of the propertied classes and who, among other things, proposed that 200,000 heads should be dropped for the final radical realization of the Revolution.

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      The readers of these lines may be a little shocked by the violent words of these radicals, as I was. One can read the secular scholars' assessment of "Holy Marat" at the extensive article in Wikipedia on Jean-Paul Marat, and find that even the "objective" Wikipedia authors admit he may have been partially the cause of an infamous massacre. The violent words turned into actions. 

      Weitling's talk about the "next presidential election" brings to mind that America is facing a presidential election now, in less than 3 months. — In the next Part SoT5…

SoT3: Christ "the first Democrat”; “Christians now called Communists”; "great impact on Karl Marx"

      This continues from Part 2 (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series presenting C. F. W. Walther's article defending against the political ideology of the socialists and communists coming into America in the 1840s and 1850s. — In this segment we hear about two radical socialists who are spoken of by Walther in other places, in a Der Lutheraner blurb, and in his lectures in 1878 on socialism and communism. Walther had studied these men and knew them inside out. But the following report is not from Walther, but a correspondent to a political newspaper. — From Der Lutheraner, vol. 7 (1851), pp. 85 (Jan. 21) [EN]: 

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Signs of the Times.

[by C. F. W. Walther, quoting the Spectator newspaper]

Two directions are noticeable that strive for the same goal; one does not want any religion at all and says so openly; the other uses the Bible and Christianity to destroy them.

The first direction says: A revolution has begun that must put an end to all religions. Physical misery is the source of all religion; therefore the friends of the people can do no better than work for the dissolution of the old world, which is still based on religion. In the name of religion, the men of retrogression preach submission and servile obedience to the people, and this is contrary to the destiny of man; religion hinders progress, which is only achieved by illegal means. Christianity, the religion that has become generalized, is a misguided attempt to pacify human happiness in a world that is based only on imagination. The new philosophy ([Ludvig] Feuerbach [Wikipedia], Nuge) has completely antiquated the old Adam, Christianity and the belief in authority. Where this philosophy has passed into our flesh and blood, we understand the new revolution which the new direction will undeniably conjure up. Our age, more mature than the Christian age, needs a different leadership through itself. If we are to be helped, Christianity must be "carefully" removed from the popular consciousness. Man alone is our God, our judge, our redeemer; apart from man there is no salvation! Man is necessary to God, not God to man. It remains the case that belief in a living, personal God, God is the foundation stone of the whole worm-eaten society, and as long as man hangs in the heaven with only one thought fiber, there is no salvation on earth. Atheism, godlessness, and when it forms devils, makes the truth its ally, and purifies its disciples by its fire.

This is the first direction; the other is outrageous! Christ is made into an apostle of freedom and love, after whom a second Messiah will come, greater than the first; there is talk of a kingdom of God, a better, more humane world. — Christ is only regarded as the first Democrat of Judea, the revolutionary of the whole world, who was crucified by the aristocracy. [ELCA] His sacrament is also observed, but how? [Wilhelm] Weitling calls out: 

"We no longer want to enjoy communion with folded hands, hanging our heads and kneeling, but sitting at large tables with the paschal lamb, with wine and bread, with milk, potatoes, meat and fish, we want to enjoy it happily together, one like the other. — But the crucified and tormented must first rise from the night of the grave of deceit, deception and lies. Hello, out of your dark holes! Up, up, you sleepers! The cock has crowed three times already, how many more times will you deny your salvation?" — "What used to be called Christians are now called Communists." —

In the practical consequence, both directions come together. These heroes of liberty say that it is not enough to strip off the yellowed leaves of Christianity and faith, but that the old must be destroyed to make way for human morality, the foundation of the future. 

• "Because Christianity still exists in our time, there is no freedom in it; the real striving for freedom only begins with atheism, man must first become wild again in order to become something." —

•  "He bursts the menagerie cage in which he is led around as a miracle of tameness! — 

• "May the Germans soon learn to use their fists." — 

• "Voltaire and Diderot were not at our height; we are making giant strides on the path of atheism and the overthrow of morality." 

• "The day will come when great fires will be lit with banknotes, bills of exchange, wills, tax lists, rent and lease contracts and promissory notes." — 

• "It is not only the faith of the fathers that must be overthrown, but also their customs." — 

• “Our ingrained mores are the firmest pillars of the present system of tyranny. — To improve these customs, we must destroy them."

• “Therefore the activity of the clubs must be: democracy with all its consequences, — not merely an attack on the existing institutions of the state and the church, but the destruction of all prevailing concepts of religion, state and society, — the filling of the minds with hatred against the existing conditions in order to make them receptive to the revolution." 

• "We are not able to conquer the world with the brute iron in our fist, we must first kill it morally and then carry it to the grave." 

• "Down with the aristocrats, down with the pietists, down with religion, down with those who have servants."

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      The Wikipedia article on Wilhelm Weitling states he was "one of the first theorists of communism". He had a great impact on Karl Marx. The same article hints of the violent language in his writings. The New York Times obituary for him in 1871 only praised his efforts. This newspaper had the same ideology then as now.

      This violent language is not from the protesters of June 2020 of our time, it is from 180+ years ago, the 1840s. It wasn't just 19 people who died in June 2020, it was hundreds in socialist Europe. And this was actively being promoted in America, then as well as now. One financial advisor to me judged that the war of ideologies between socialism and their opponents in America is now over… the socialists have won. In 1851, Walther actively warned against them. Their tool then was newspapers, today it is the Internet. — In the next Part SoT4…

SoT2: Socialist proposes to blow up entire cities; there is no God! Burn prayerbooks…

      This continues from Part 1 (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series presenting C. F. W. Walther's article defending against the political ideology of the socialists and communists coming into America in the 1840s and 1850s. — The correspondent to the Spectator newspaper does touch on matters of religion, not just political, in this segment, calling Germany "the fatherland of the Reformation". This is in response to the anti-religious ideology of socialism, radical or otherwise. Walther offers no correction to this. — From Der Lutheraner, vol. 7 (1851), pp. 84-85 (Jan. 21) [EN]:

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Signs of the Times.

[by C. F. W. Walther, quoting the Spectator newspaper]

“You will allow me, Mr. Editor, to inform my German fellow citizens through the Spectator what the views of these Red Republicans actually are, and then they may decide for themselves whether the papers that represent them are organs of the Germans in America.

A manifesto of the German Democrats was published in Geneva, in which it says: 

“The June battle is the birthday of the Reds, our Republic. The February struggle has world-historical significance only because it made the June Revolution possible. ... From now on it is a matter of a struggle for the destruction of our own or the opposing party; only after the complete subversion and destruction of all present social conditions can we realize the principles of our party ... Religion, which must be driven out of education, must disappear from the minds of men ... The revolution destroys religion altogether by making the hope of heaven superfluous through the freedom and welfare of all on earth. We therefore take account of religious struggles and endeavors, the formation of free communities, etc., only in so far as religious freedom is understood to mean freedom from all religion. We do not want the freedom of faith, but the necessity of unbelief. In this, as in every other respect, we seek to break completely with the entire past. We do not want to graft new rice onto the rotten "We do not want to graft new rice onto the rotten stem; we do not want reform in any respect, but revolution everywhere.”

[Karl] Heinzen, currently editor of a German newspaper in New York, is said to have written the above manifesto. He insists on blood, on a sea of blood, calls humanity madness and sees "fulminating silver" [explosives] as one of the most powerful means for the good of mankind. Heinzen proposes to blow up entire cities with 100,000 people through underground chambers of fulminating silver, and also to bring "a million barbarians" underground.

Neff says in his “Beiträgen zur Bauernpolitik” [Contributions to Peasant Politics]: 

“We must kill the dogs, persecute the enemies of noble humanity, curtail the greater fortunes by increasing income and inheritance taxes up to 50%, cast bullets under a terrible oath and make registers of those who must die for the prosperity of the social republic; burn the princely, dog-like, humble prayer books, and adopt the religion of bravery and the pride of freedom. The ancients sacrificed men to their idol god; we must sacrifice men to the god of freedom. Only when the blood of a thousand human sacrifices has risen to heaven will freedom and love return to earth.”

The bookseller Hof, of Manheim, exclaimed at [Robert] Blum's funeral in Zurich in 1849: 

“The great guiding thought of the Baden revolution was: There is no God! God is in man to create a paradise on earth. Dortu, Heilig and Trützschler [?] died with the conviction: We are going to nothing, but we have fought for freedom. — Blood! Revenge! A greater stream of blood must flow from the clear hearts of reaction than the Rhine.”

However, one should not believe that these are merely the views of individual men, and that the people of Germany reject them with disgust. Germany, the fatherland of the Reformation, has long been alienated from the Christian faith among its higher classes, and in recent times it has become increasingly apparent that the consequences of rationalism have led to complete and blatant atheism and are now festering among the masses of the people. The depth of religious decay may be illustrated by a scene taken from life in a German hostel in Geneva: "It is the Saturday before Easter. The night is swarmed through without discipline; it cannot be said in front of men. In the morning, as they say, the hostel service is held; a journeyman is made a preacher, the others gather as confessors, boastfully confess their dissolute lives, and give their confessional pennies. This is used to buy brandy. Now how the act of Holy Communion is celebrated in the church. Just as the act of Holy Communion is administered in the house of God with the blessing of the sacrament with the simple and great words of institution of the Savior <page 85> and in His name, so it is done in the inn with fearful jeering, and is repeated until the brandy is finished.

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      When one follows the socialists mentioned above in their respective Wikipedia articles, one does not find any quotes demonstrating the radical violence of their rhetoric. Neither does Wikipedia report about their opposition to religion. — In the next Part SoT3…

SoT1: Walther’s “Signs of the Times”> “The Lord is near!” (1851) Part 1 of 7

      The world was in turmoil in the mid-19th century, largely stirred up by socialists. A notable event during this time was the German government’s success at holding back the socialist instigators, so many of these went abroad, also to America, to start newspapers, for example the Illinois state newspaper, etc. (search “american newspapers started by the forty-eighters”) And during this time C. F. W. Walther did not shy away from addressing not only the anti-Christian nature of their ideology, but also the political fallout. 

      In 1878, Walther gave an extended series of lectures on the topic of this blog. These were assembled into a book, Communism and Socialism. And in 1881, Walther warned against the secular newspapers who were “fierce enemies of the Christian”.

      But decades before those warnings, in 1851, Walther found the perfect vehicle to relate the political side of the socialists from a political newspaper published in Washington D.C. This article is a prelude to the later ones. In fact the bulk of this article is an uninterrupted direct quote from this newspaper, with only a few footnotes added by Walther. The report is rather chilling, and shocks one to think that the turmoil of today, in America, was practically exceeded by the turmoil emanating from Europe, especially Germany, and planted in America. — This 2-part Der Lutheraner article was split across 2 issues. Walther introduces this to his Christian readers, then gives an extensive quote from a political newspaper, the bulk of the article. To give us the proper perspective as Christians, Walther tells us why we should be watching for the “Signs of the Times”… today. — From Der Lutheraner, vol. 7 (1851), pp. 83-85 (Jan. 21), 92-93 (Feb. 4) [EN]:

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Signs of the Times.

[by C. F. W. Walther]

“When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red; and in the morning you say: It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and cloudy. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?” 

Thus says our Lord, as we read Matt. 16:2-3. From this we see that although the Christian's true fatherland is heaven <page 84> and he wanders through this world as a pilgrim, as through a foreign land, his very calling as a Christian demands that he should not be indifferent to what is going on around him in the world, but should keep his eyes open to the great events of his time as he makes his way to his heavenly home. Holy Scripture, just as it has preserved for the Christian the whole past of the world with its course of development from the first day of its creation, has also opened up for the Christian the whole future of the world with the course of its activity until the Last Day of its existence. The Christian therefore has the sacred duty to observe attentively the state of things in this world and to compare it with the image of the future which is already held before his eyes in the mirror of the divine Word; in a word, it behooves him to seek out the "signs of the times" and to judge them wisely according to God's Word.

But if there has ever been a time that is rich in strange events, by which even the most stupid Christian eye can see in which time one lives according to God's Word, then this is the present time; and indeed rich in such events that call out loudly as with a voice of thunder into the hearts of Christians: “The Lord is near!” For centuries the faithful have been filled with ever more vivid hope that the great glorious day of the Lord is at the door; for centuries, as never before, the longing of Christians that the Lord will soon put a complete and eternal end to the ever increasing and ever more terrible ruin and misery in the world has become ever more burning; for centuries the cry of all God's children: "Yes, come, Lord Jesus!" has become ever more ardent and louder and more powerful. Who among our readers should not have heard words like these from one or the other old, pious member of his family: "If we do not experience it, then you, our children, our grandchildren, will experience it, that the last decisive, terrible battle of the kingdom of Hell and the world will break out against Christ and His own?"

It is true that what our pious fathers already expected to happen in the near future has still not happened; people are still eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting and building, so that it looks as if the world is only just beginning to live and have a good time on earth. Therefore the mocker of the Christian who still hopes and waits for the soon coming of the day of universal and perfect redemption laughs as a fool; yes, even not a few among the Christians have become drowsy since the bridegroom departed, have given room in their hearts to the thought: "Our Lord is not coming for a long time yet," and have not provided themselves with a sufficient supply of oil, so that when it should soon be said: "Behold, the bridegroom cometh," they can go to meet him with decorated lamps. But how? are they not among the foolish virgins? Is it not a cruel delusion to think of the Lord's promised return for the judgment of his enemies and the eternal glorious redemption of his own, because he has been awaited in vain by his own for so long? Must He not be all the closer now, the longer time of waiting for Him has already passed? 

And if all believers have already stretched out their arms to Him with trembling joy when they saw the signs of their time, what are we to do now that these signs are being joined in our days by ever more distinct and ever clearer ones? According to Scripture, one of the most important signs of the last days is complete apostasy in the midst of Christendom, reckless mockery and denial of God, the overthrow of all divine order in the world and the breaking of all holy bonds. The dear reader should only compare the following passages: 2 Pet. 3:3-15; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:1-4; Jude 17-21. etc. As, however, many of our readers, in their seclusion, may not suspect how dreadfully these prophecies of the Holy Scriptures are now being fulfilled, we may be permitted, in this and the next number, to communicate some of a correspondence contained in the political paper Der Zuschauer am Potomak, [The Spectator on the Potomac], published in Washington, District of Columbia, and edited by Mr. F. [Friedrich] Schmidt, which has already been advertised and recommended by Der Lutheraner. There, among other things, it says the following:

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      The only writing from Walther in the balance of this article comes in a few footnotes and a brief introduction to the second Der Lutheraner installment. Walther gave the floor to this political newspaper. — In the next Part SoT2…

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Part 1: this introduction; Walther’s “Signs of the Times” → “The Lord is near!” (1851)

Part 2: Socialist proposes to blow up entire cities; there is no God! Burn prayerbooks…

Part 3: Christ "the first Democrat”; “Christians now called Communists”

Part 4: Weitling and Marat: 'Peasant war' theology; "the next presidential election"

Part 5: Worker associations…transplants from Germany; “I am an atheist!”

Part 6: Weavers’ Song agitates; God, country, property — exterminate; list of U.S. newspapers

Part 7: Socialists: abolish country, religion, property, marriage