L02a: Luther on Slavery: "revolting"; "inequality"?

      This continues from Part L02 (Table of Contents in Part L01) in a series on the instruction of the Law by C. F. W. Walther and Martin Luther. — Although the subject of Slavery has been dealt with previously at some length, I was struck by the following comment in my recent reading on "Natural Law". It came from Prof. Roland Ziegler's essay on “Natural Law in the Lutheran Confessions” in the 2011 CPH book Natural Law: A Lutheran Reappraisal (Internet Archive copy) and it caused me to stop and research it.  He stated, footnote #27, p. 78:

“As  revolting  as  it is to  our  modern  sensibilities,  for  the  reformers  the  right  to  individual  freedom  grounded  in  the  fact  of self-possession  (as opposed  to  forms  of slavery  of serfdom)  was  not  part  of natural  law. Thus,  Luther's  critique  of the  demands  of the  peasants  in the  Peasants’  Revolt  in  1525.”

"Revolting"? Ziegler used a strong word to describe modernists' mindset on slavery. He even seemingly included himself, stating "our modern sensibilities". With a statement like this, I wanted to find out exactly what Luther said on the institution of Slavery, The background to this is the peasants' Third Article which one may be tempted to think of as exhibiting a Christian attitude in their pleas, referencing several Bible verses (see p. 12). Then came Luther's answer and oh!… did I get the definitive Luther, and Christian, response to "our modern sensibilities":

“You [peasants] assert that no one is to be the serf of anyone else, because Christ has made us all free. That is making Christian freedom a completely physical matter. Did not Abraham [Gen. 17:23] and other patriarchs and prophets have slaves? Read what St. Paul teaches about servants, who, at that time, were all slaves. This article [of the peasants], therefore, absolutely contradicts the gospel. It proposes robbery, for it suggests that every man should take his body away from his lord, even though his body is the lord’s property. A slave can be a Christian, and have Christian freedom, in the same way that a prisoner or a sick man is a Christian, and yet not free. This article would make all men equal, and turn the spiritual kingdom of Christ into a worldly, external kingdom; and that is impossible. A worldly kingdom cannot exist without an inequality of persons, some being free, some imprisoned, some lords, some subjects, etc.; and St. Paul says in Galatians 5 that in Christ the lord and the servant are equal.” (AE 46, 39; StL 16, 66; WA  18:326.14–327.10)

Did Luther really say that?… beyond declaring that the peasants' demand to be a contradiction to the gospel, he went a step further and spoke of the worldly kingdom:

"A worldly kingdom cannot exist without an inequality of persons"

Inequality is necessary in the world? I was struck when reading Luther's forceful Biblical teaching that refutes all modernist theologians of today who would teach that Slavery, as an institution, was sinful. There is perhaps no more direct writing of Luther on this subject than when he addressed the peasant demands against their rulers. 

      If there was ever a statement of Luther against Communism and Socialism, this is it. All Christians would do well to study this to overcome the rhetoric of the world, the wisdom of the world today. Walther, in his writing against Communism and Socialism reported on the above statement of Luther where he "tells the peasants the truth, and shows by name that they have no right to call themselves Christians if they want to overcome violence by force and take the sword that God has not given them." — The series on Walther's teaching of the Law continues in Part L03.