Walther: Jews, Mohammedans testify for Jesus’s miracles (Talmud and Koran)

[2024-09-04: added note at bottom about a recent comment of Iran's Mohammedan leader.]

      I blogged 13 years ago about what C. F. W. Walther said to the Eastern District in 1868 about the Jews. Some years before that essay was delivered, he wrote a brief footnote to an Easter sermon from 1851. The sermon was published in Der Lutheraner, vol. 7 (1850-1851), pp. 145 ff. [EN] The footnote is located on p. 148. It reads:

      *) As abominable as the Jews have always spoken and written blasphemies against Jesus, it is nevertheless a tradition perpetuated among them by their Talmud that Jesus has performed many miracles and even raised the dead; they seek to explain this, of course, by saying that Jesus has stolen the Shem Hamphoras, i.e., the mysterious name of God, from the temple. But the more insipid and ridiculous this explanation of the matter is, the more important is this testimony of a whole people, who are filled with the most ardent hatred of Christ. — As is well known, even the Mohammedans do not deny Christ's miracles. In their Koran it says, among other things: God says: "O Jesus, son of Mary, remember My grace towards thee and thy mother; I have equipped thee with the Holy Spirit. With my will thou healest a man born blind, and a leper, and with my will thou broughtest forth the dead from their graves." (See: The Koran, translated by Dr. Ullmann. p. 91. Sura V.)

Walther speaks plainly about the Jews: "a whole people, who are filled with the most ardent hatred of Christ". — Imagine that! The Jews and Mohammedans admit to Jesus's miracles, but some LC–MS theologians have at times caused these miracles to be questioned.

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2024-09-04: It has been reported in Christian News recently (August 19, 2024 p. 6; Guardian report?) concerning Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's response to the Paris Olympic's blasphemous opening ceremonies as follows:

Khamenei took to X, stating, “Respect for #JesusChrist (pbuh) is an indisputable, definite matter for Muslims. We condemn these insults directed at the holy figures of divine religions, including Jesus Christ (pbuh).”

Of course the Islamic leader is following the Koran's teaching that Walther reports above.

SoT7: Socialists: abolish country, religion, property, marriage

      This concludes from Part 6 (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. — Our correspondent now summarizes his findings. I kept trying to figure out if Walther was giving part of this narrative, or even a postscript, but he did not. He found the political paper's account fully capable in its assessment.  — From Der Lutheraner, vol. 7 (1851), p. 93 (Feb. 4) [EN]: 

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Signs of the Times.

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

I have now shown, Mr. Editor:

1. That the principal organs of the Socialists want to abolish Germany, religion, property and marriage — this is their aim, and the means by which it is to be attained, the workers' associations.

2. That the President of "the Congress of the Workers" in the United States, as well as the sole organ of this Congress: The Republic of Workers strive to achieve the same;

3. That the Republic of Workers has itself designated the most influential newspapers in the United States as striving with it for the same goal;

4. That therefore the main bodies of the German population are working towards the abolition of religion, property and marriage.

Do principal organs of the Germans in the United States express the views of the German population? Are they the mouth through which the German people speak? Are you, fellow Germans, ready to declare yourselves for the blasphemies of the Socialists? Are you ready to declare property a robbery, marriage a bond of which the free man must be ashamed? Are you ready, like religion and property, to destroy the bond of family and to send your children as an unbearable burden to the nearest foundling home? If this, fellow Germans, is your intention — then let yourselves be caught up in the maelstrom of the German labor movement and follow Weitling, Rosenthal and their ilk! If this is not the case; if, on the contrary, you view this matter with disgust, then express your disapproval with thunderous words; demand and require of the newspapers which you support, which are therefore your organs, that they no longer go hand in hand with these outlaws, nor court their favor and consideration, but instead seriously and firmly oppose their criminal views. If they do not listen to your voices of disapproval, withdraw your support from them and establish bodies that do not defile the German name but represent it worthily. If you continue to remain silent, you make yourselves guilty of the crime; if you only show a serious face once, you will soon see how they will hasten to have your name struck off Weitling's list so as not to hurt their own pockets; 

for Max Stirner's egotism is not entirely out of the air either. If perhaps the Republic of Workers has included in its category the name of any journal whose editor does not agree with socialism, does not share its criminal, despicable intentions, he owes it to himself, to his paper, to his readers, to the whole decent world, to protest against such misuse of names. All German newspapers should speak out on this subject so that the German public can act with prudence and decisiveness in this matter and distinguish between friends and enemies of civil order.

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      This article may seem too political for some, but the over-arching target of these groups is in reality the Christian faith. And Walther gave his full assessment 27 years later, in 1878, in his lectures on Communism and Socialism. These ideologies are "The Signs of the Times", our times. Let the reader compare the aims of today's Democratic Party in America with those of Germany's socialists and communists in the mid-1800's.

SoT6: Weavers’ Song agitates; God, country, property — exterminate; list of US newspapers

      This continues from Part 5 (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 “Weavers’s Song” referenced in this segment points to a long period of its influence, and of its author, even to our present time. I do not specifically recall the singing group “The Weavers”, a group from the 1940s to the 1960s, but I suspect most readers have heard some of their songs. Even one of the members of the Beatles acknowledged there would be no “Beatles” if there were no “Weavers” singing group.   — From Der Lutheraner, vol. 7 (1851), pp. 92-93 (Feb. 4) [EN]: 

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Signs of the Times.

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

These views do not live and weave in books in Germany, but are already sung on the streets and in inns. Thus the shroud of old Germany is woven in the weavers' song [of Heinrich Heine, his poem; The Weavers modern folk music group, Pete Seeger], which is sung by thousands in many inns, on the country roads and in many clubs. Three curses are struck. The first curse is for the "king of the rich", the other two are thus:

Curse the god, the blind, the deaf, 

To whom we prayed in vain in faith, 

For whom we hoped and waited in vain. 

He tricked us, he fooled us.

We weave! We weave!

Curse the evil fatherland, 

In that our inheritance is only misery and shame.

Old Germany, we weave your shroud, 

We weave in the triple curse!

We weave! We weave!

It is clear from what has just been said that the labor movement in Germany intends to overthrow religion. God and Fatherland, the two most sacred concepts, are being sought to be shattered! Indeed, in order to achieve this, the noble art of poetry must be dragged down into the dung and made the bearer of the most terrible blasphemy. Thus sings Titus Ulrich in his Song of Songs:

"I am too proud.

To comfort myself with you.

With you, whom they call trembling, 

The Lord, — the Almighty!

How true are the poet's words:

What in the maddest madness

From rabble lips never sounded:

A German poet spoke it. A German poet sang it."

But the labor movement in Germany also seeks to abolish the rights of property. One of its organs thus parodies the history of creation:

"In the beginning was ownership, and it created heaven and earth, creatures, calves and sheep, and men, and said to man: you shall be subject to me, for I am ownership."

"By the sweat of your brow you shall eat your bread — it is written. The saying was probably thought up by a clever person, and now we are made to believe that it is a divine saying."

The communist [Stephan] Born shouts: 

"Shame on those who tell you that there must be rich and poor because God wanted it that way. Every beat of your heart tells you that faith is a lie. It is pleasure, and again pleasure, that lives in every drop of blood and drives you to activity and action."

"The interests of the dispossessed are opposed to the interests of the haves. The leading idea of the present society is selfishness; its motto: cedar for itself, cedar against all! We do not want equal distribution of goods, no! For if private acquisition is maintained, the old state will be renewed after a few years by the speculation of the greedy and cunning. We want organization of the workers, <page 93> destruction of private property. — It is necessary to destroy all barriers that stand in the way of general rights; it is necessary to tear off the protective mask of the sacred from every dominating concept.”

But the labor movement in Germany is still going on! Not only God, the Fatherland and property are announced to be at war, a war of extermination, but also the family is to perish! Listen to what Mr. Löwe says in his paper with the title: "What am I still missing?" demands and requests!

He demands:

1. abolition of paternal authority and marriage, in which a community of property should no longer be permitted;

2. complete emancipation of every twenty-year-old.

3. that every so-called marriage may be dissolved at the mere request of even one party, so that marriage may be a bond of which free men need not be ashamed.

4. to build one foundling home for every 5000 souls, to which the parents can deliver their children.

This is the workers' movement, socialism, red democracy, in Germany. Now compare with this the statement of the President of the Workers' Congress, W. Rosenthal in Philadelphia: "I am an atheist! etc." Compare with this the various essays which have appeared in the "only organ" of the Workers' Congress: der Republik der Arbeiter [The Republic of Workers], especially the excerpt which appeared in Spectator No. 3! and begins with the words: “You want reform? Revolution? Anarchy?" Listen to what the Torch [Fackel], published by Ludvigh in New York, says in one of its issues: 

"Curse the faith, which is the curse of the world, the source of all misery on earth; — Root out the madness of the nations, destroy the miracle stuff of the Jews and Christians! Renounce Christ!"

 In another place it says: 

"No idea is more desolate and confused than that of the immortality of the soul, a radical absurdity, a holy stupidity! But man has always worshiped his own stupidity, and only his foolish fear and his hope are the originators of his religion." "We descend from heaven to earth and help the despised sensuality to its rights; for all that is most beautiful, most dear, blooms here on earth; and it is a high tinsel that trembles up there."

In its December issue, the Republic of Workers gives a list of newspapers that have spoken out favorably for social reform, or the workers' movement:

[For social reform:] The Democrat in New York; [Demokrat] The New York State Newspaper; [New Yorker Staatszeitung] Express Mail; (by corresponding kind) [Schnellpost]  The Free Press in Philadelphia; [Freie Presse] The Virginian State Journal; [Virginische Staatszeitung] The Union in Cincinnati; The Courier in Pittsburg; The Torch in New York; [Fackel] The Illinois State Journal; [Staatszeitung]

These had spoken out against this: The Observer in Washington; [Zuschauer] The Catholic; The Correspondent in Baltimore. The People's Friend in Milwaukie; [Volksfreund] Sion; [Zion] Friend of the Truth; [Wahrheitsfreun] Church Newspaper; [Kirchenzeitung] Evening Journal in New York; [Abendzeitung] Citizen of the world in Buffalo; [Weltbürger] West Messenger in Columbus; [Westbote]

Admittedly, this is only a small number of the German newspapers published in the States, but they are indisputably the most influential and, so to speak, the ones that set the tone.

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      The Old Missouri German Lutherans needed to face the realities in the world, and Walther found a political paper to provide the details. Their faith, and ours, is constantly under attack. As Jesus told his disciples, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you", John 15:18. — In the concluding Part SoT7…

SoT5: Worker associations…transplants from Germany; “I am an atheist!”

      This continues from Part 4 (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. — Walther now gives a short introduction to his second Der Lutheraner installment which was apparently also the same for the Spectator newspaper article he quotes from.  I wish I knew who that correspondent to the Spectator was, for he knew his subject well. — From Der Lutheraner, vol. 7 (1851), p. 92 (Feb. 4) [EN]: 

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Signs of the Times.

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

We cannot refrain from communicating to our readers the continuation of that correspondence which is to be found in the latest numbers of the Spectator on the Potomac and of which we have already communicated the beginning in the last number of Der Lutheraner [see part 1]. It reads as follows:

The decline of religion in Germany described in my last letter could not fail to exert its influence on the Germans in the United States. For the last 15 years, communities have been formed to help "reason to its rights" in order to throw down the gauntlet to "blind faith in authority" and "clerical rule". The Lichtfreund, Antipfaff, and the Fackel were the leading journals of this movement; Ginal and Försch the most outstanding personalities. Although many political journals gave signs here and there of favoring this direction, self-interest was sufficient to keep them in check, as public opinion was all too clearly against it and they did not like to lose their subscribers. As a result of the political upheavals that took place in Germany in 1848, a number of political refugees arrived here [in America] who gave new impetus to the anti-religious movement, and as editors of the most influential newspapers, the management of which was entrusted to them because of their literary reputation, they now formally organized this movement. 

Now, however, they were no longer merely striving to overthrow the "blind faith in authority" and the "rule of the priests" and to help "reason" to its rightful place, but all relationships in human society, the family and the state, were to be totally transformed. Belief in God was to be eradicated, property abolished, marriage abolished. All this is hoped to be achieved through the workers' associations that have been transplanted here from Germany and whose pretended prospect is irreproachable. They are a voluntary association; they seek general and industrial training, moral strengthening and social amusement, which they need, and want to provide them for each other in community. They aim at fraternization and mutual support. All this would be irreproachable; but they do not stop there; they go beyond God and Christ, beyond church and religion to the struggle against property, family, marriage and morality. Mr. [Wilhelm] Rosenthal, President of the Workers' Congress recently held in Philadelphia, declared in the Sunday paper Wild Roses, which he publishes: 

“I am an atheist! As such I deny the existence of a being from whom everything that is and is not there is supposed to proceed, and to whom the name of God is usually applied.”

Let us now take a look at the "workers' associations" in Germany, on whose model the German workers' associations in the United States were modeled, in order to learn to understand what goals they are striving for.

The central organ of the workers' associations in Germany is Die Verbrüderung. [The Brotherhood, editor Stephan Born] In this journal, the speeches of [Pierre-Joseph] Proudhon, Louis Planes [Louis Blanc?], Fröbel and Robespierre are always at the top. In one of its issues it proclaims: "The servants of the Church unite with the howlers of the State, because both have the same interest in life: both speculate on the suppression of free human dignity. They want to rob the people of the earth, so they point them to heaven with assignats [money]; they preserve them with satanic cunning — in the contrition necessary for blind church faith, by letting them wither away physically. That is why the clergy, in their well-understood interests, have always had it in for the minority, for princes and nobility, against the people and their material redemption from pressure and misery.

In one meeting, a speaker expressed himself as follows: 

“Feuerbach taught us to place and look at the spiritual God, whom we imagine as existing outside of us, separate from us, within us. In the same way, we don't want to let the material God of the world, Mammon, exist outside of us, not in relation to us, but within us. — We don't hope for eternal life, for retribution up there, as long as it doesn't get better still down there: — The desire to be better up there was invented by egoism and greed. — Says the priest comfortingly: ‘It will be repaid up there!’ — or: ‘The good Lord will help!’ — We — don't wait, don't want to rely on it.”

Another voice cries out: 

"Religion is indifferent or hostile to the truth unless it serves its interests, the balance of the soul. The proper doubt does not return to faith, but proceeds to action. — What criticism has destroyed, you find again in the world, which is a worthy object of love. — This is the love of the new democracy. — There is nothing absolute."

Feuerbach, who wanted to redeem the German nation from the delusion of religion, scolded a clergyman who still preached an idol, the love of man; this religion must be destroyed by egoism.

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      America's "celebration" of workers' unions continues each Labor Day, even though the number of members has plummeted. Apparently its establishment was due to "fears of international radicalism". Prof. Ben Railton of Fitchburg University even promotes "the continued need for radical activism". "Radical?" — Reading this account of the socialists is like reading the "playbook" for Vice President Kameel Harris, should she win the election this year. — In the next Part SoT6…