Comm3: no personal property?; Unions–preschool for Socialism; Karl Marx in England (Prologue 2)

 

    This continues from Part 2 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a series presenting a new translation of C.F.W. Walther's Communism and Socialism from 1878. — Newspapers promoting Communism, labor unions acting as "pre-schools" for Socialism, and the famous Karl Marx – all these are introduced in this installment.  [Continued in Part 4]

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Translation of Walther's 1878 Communismus und Socialismus by BackToLuther primarily using DeepL online translation service; highlighting and bolding are my emphases, red text within square brackets [] are my comments, underlining is Walther's emphasis. Red highlight indicates omitted in 1947 translation.

C.F.W. Walther's Communism and Socialism, (Part 3, p. 8-12)

As far as the workers’ party is concerned, of which all the labor unions are part, its program can be found in the November 30 issue. In this program it says right at the beginning:

“Since political freedom without economic independence is only an empty phrase, the party fights in the economic sphere for the time being, and demands that all means of work become the property of society, in order to replace wage labor with cooperative production, with a just distribution of the labor yield.”

When the Communists say that production should become the property of society, they do not mean by the latter only their own circle. For if a number of people wanted to realize this idea among themselves, [1947-19] as far as they were able, then one could quite calmly watch. Everyone has that freedom to exercise certain rights and to contract with others. There have already been enough such Communist societies. No, they say this of society in general, that is, of all humanity, because they want to embrace it, and they want to bring these ideas to bear in it.They want to overthrow the present social relations, and they want to order them [page 9] order according to their principles. And among these principles are the following:

“No one should own land personally any more, but it should become common property and only be worked by certain people”, although in this respect the proposals are quite different, as we will soon hear. It then goes on to say: “Machines, traffic routes, etc.” They now leave it to the reader to put whatever he likes into the words “etc.”. Of course, it contains a great deal. The dear brethren who join with these labor unions certainly do not suspect what lies in “etc.”. Indeed, they also do not suspect what lies in it, if property is no longer to be private property, but the property of the community of men who live somewhere. They do not suspect what tremendous upheavals this requires before it can be realized. This is also part of their demands: “The introduction of a normal working day of 8 hours for the time being and punishment of all violators.” Whether a Christian can join such a labor union is something I'd like to leave up to any Christian reader. I don't think he can, in good conscience. He cannot become a member of a community whose purpose is to overthrow the whole world, either in peace or, if that is not possible, by bloody violence. Nor can he possibly join an association that says: “Man shall work only eight hours”, which is undoubtedly a principle of the lazy. On the whole, there will be few people who could survive if they only wanted to work eight hours. If we go to the Scriptures, we see that the average time of work is represented as a time of twelve hours. But how many people have to work more than twelve hours! And often just those who are despised by the workers as lazy bums often have to work much, much more than eight hours.

What is important, however, is what Mr. Walster himself reveals in his newspaper of November 30, 1877, about his actual relationship with the labor unions in America. He was attacked by the editor of a Milwaukee newspaper, the Milwaukee Socialist. The editor said that he would limit himself to the political field, because there alone the worker can finally fight for his freedom. He just had to get the legislation under his control, then he could easily rearrange all present conditions. But the fact that labor unions were founded would only hinder the good cause. Before a change could be made in this way, with labor unions, the workers would have starved to death. To this Mr Walster and others now answer the following:

“We are certainly not among those who [1947-20] want to solve the social question through trade associations (even through labor unions); except the value of the unions, which is agitational and spreads Socialist  [page 10] propaganda, must be recognized unreservedly.”

He wants to say that he hopes very little from the organization of such labor unions, he knows how little power they could develop. But one should consider that the unions were only the means to work for Socialism and Communism, they were only a pre-school for Socialism. One should only try to gather together the ignorant people and organize them into labor unions, then one could best sow the seeds of Socialism and Communism in such associations, and when these have been sown, then one has enough fists to be able to reach the goal by force, if it cannot be achieved peacefully. For it is true that there are more poor people who have to earn a living from their work than those who live from the use of their capital, whether from interest or from the speculations they make with it, with the undertakings they organize with it; and if the people were really won over to Socialist ideology, the Communists certainly would have to win the day, that is beyond question. Certainly they could then turn the world upside down and drown all their opponents in their own blood. So the idea is not stupid at all. But whether it will be carried out, that is another question. — Walster continues:

“Here in St. Louis, for example, there is a section of the Cabinet-Maker’s Union. It is made up of Socialists and non-Socialists. By extending their propaganda to this section, the Socialists have succeeded in gaining a large majority for Socialism there; as a result, this section debates the social question in every assembly, maintains well-organized labor statistics, and thus contributes to the expansion of our agitation in a manner not to be underestimated.”

So what Mr. Walster means to say is: Look, I'll do it even smarter than you. You just want to work in Milwaukee through political agitation and gain support for our Communism and Socialism. You do that; but if you do that alone, you're a fool. Our method is much more successful. We gather the people who don't want to be Socialists and make them Socialists. Our labor unions, he wants to say, [1947-21] are just a pre-school for Socialism and Communism. — Now I ask: What Christian wants to join such a labor union, wants to become a willing tool for such a revolution? No Christian can do it with a clear conscience; only he who believes there is no God belongs in it.

Another proof that the labor unions are nothing but institutions of the Communists who use them for their purposes is the following: English Communists have made a lottery for the good of the [French] political prisoners in New Caledonia; but not for the good of all political prisoners, but only for those who [page 11] were transported from France because they carried out those well-known horrible Communist atrocities in 1871 [Paris Commune]. When the Prussians made peace outside Paris, they allowed the French to keep their firearms [2020-10-23 added link] with the entire [French] National Guard. This was done by Germany out of humanitarian considerations, for they feared, because all sorts of people had gathered in Paris, that it would be a revolution. But they had reckoned wrongly. For these weapons mostly fell into the hands of the Communists, and they used the violence they had been given and caused a terrible bloodbath. They set up a so-called Commune and took possession of the city, and immediately shot several generals loyal to the government, the archbishop and other prelates and priests, erected barricades and from there fired into the crowd facing them, declaring also that if they should win, they would raze Paris to the ground. “War on the palaces!” — that was their slogan. And they carried that out honestly. In March the terrible catastrophe began, and at the end of May it was over: rivers of blood had flowed, the most magnificent buildings of the city lay in ashes. Woe to the city if the Communists had won! And for those who had committed the most terrible atrocities at that time, a lottery is now being held, and the local labor unions and branches of the same are also being approached, giving the following reasons for this:

“Workers! The revolution of March 18 has been shamefully slandered by the exploiters of both worlds. This revolution belongs to you too: for you have excluded the principles for which it fought from all your platforms. You are all responsible for them; to [1947-22] deny them would be treason. You are intimately linked to those who suffer the crime of having been defeated in a struggle conducted for the assertion of rights that we ourselves demand.”

Karl Marx

This explains, however, that even the local labor unions are basically only branches of the labor union which has its center in England. The latter was founded in 1869 [International Workingmen's Association], and then the conducting committee of this association, which had been founded by the Jew [Karl] Marx, issued the following declaration: “The association declares itself to be an atheistic one,” that is, one that declares that there is no God, for an atheist is a denier of God. “It demands the abolition of all religion, the replacement of faith by science, human justice for divine justice, the abolition and suppression of marriage.… We demand direct legislation for the people by the people themselves, the abolition of inheritance and the constitution of the land as collective property.”

Comm2: Two causes for lectures; omitted section restored (Prologue 1)

      This continues from Part 1 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a series presenting a new translation of C.F.W. Walther's Communism and Socialism from 1878. — In this installment we meet with the first portion that was omitted by the 1947 former translation by the "Lutheran Research Society". It is highlighted in light pink and darker pink.  I was quite puzzled as to why Walther's statement, that these lectures were not about politics at all but about religion, would be omitted.  Certainly it would not be for a Lutheran reason!  I became more determined to present this book as it was presented to the original German language congregation, and not be changed by later editors with an agenda different from Walther's.  These lectures were only about spiritual matters.  As such, they are much more effective than any politically motivated writing. — Now we will allow Walther to open our eyes to see "the flash from afar".

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Translation of Walther's 1878 Communismus und Socialismus by BackToLuther primarily using DeepL online translation service; highlighting and bolding are my emphases, red text within square brackets [] are my comments, underlining is Walther's emphasis. Red highlight indicates omitted in 1947 translation.

C.F.W. Walther's Communism and Socialism, (Part 2, p. 5-8)

Lecture I. [Prologue]

O God, Thou once created man good and blessed, and gave him a place to dwell in Paradise; but alas! man has fallen away from Thee, and thus has become a poor, unhappy creature, and his short life on earth is a life full of toil and misery.

But instead of man accusing himself for this and invoking Thy grace, he accuses Thee, denies Thy gracious providence and government and despairs of Thee, or pronounces in his heart the terrible word, “There is no God!”

Alas, protect us from such great blindness and sin, and enlighten our minds, that in the distress of this earth we may in deepest humility recognize the fruit of our apostasy, and rule our hearts, that we may not quarrel with Thee, our gracious Creator, but humble ourselves under Thy mighty hand in our toil and need, patiently awaiting Thy help, and comforting us with it, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy of the glory which shall be revealed there in Thine.

Alas, have mercy on all suffering humanity, draw it to Thee through Thy Word, and then help it out of all bodily and spiritual distress and finally put it in the eternal kingdom of your joy and glory. Yea, do this for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.  Amen.

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It is a twofold cause, as the dear congregation knows, which has brought us together here today. The first reason was the appearance of a daily newspaper here in St. Louis, which wants to be the organ of the workers, and which has therefore also been chosen by some, especially younger, members of our congregation. The other reason was the emergence of so-called labor unions, which want to represent the interests of the workers to their employers.

Now would that newspaper really be an organ of the workers, which legitimately represented the interests of the workers, — who then could say a [page 6] word against it, if some worker made it his own and preferred it to other secular newspapers? And if the labor unions were basically nothing other than [1947-16] what the fraternities, guilds, trade unions and clubs were in Germany, — then who could make anyone feel it a matter of conscience about joining such a society? For the Apostle Paul tells us expressly that if Christians did not want to bind themselves at all, not even in business and civil matters, to the children of this world, they would have to leave the world altogether. But unfortunately! neither one nor the other is the case. First of all, this newspaper is not an organ for the workers alone, but it has set itself the goal of bringing the newer Communist ideas to the people and to realize them, if possible in peace, but if not, also by force, even by fire and sword. As far as the labor unions are concerned, it is well known that they were planned and set up by the Communists or Socialists, and that according to their meaning they are nothing other than a preschool for Communism and Socialism.

In order that no one might think that this was an empty statement, I had some issues of that newspaper, the so-called Volksstimme des Westens  [People's Voice of the West], sent to me, without asking which number would most accurately express the character of the newspaper. Nevertheless, I got my hands on the issues which clearly show this. In the December 24, 1877 issue, there is the continuation of an novella written by the editor of this newspaper, Dr. A. Otto-Walster [Walker?], in which it says the following:

“We will be particularly keen to prove that man with his claims to material well-being does not need to be dependent on another world, that he can and should find it here on earth, and here we recall the verses from Heinrich Heine's “A Winter's Tale”:

A song that’s new and truthful too,

Dear friends, I will indite for you—

A song of heaven here on earth,

Claimed by right of human birth.

We would be happy here below,

Nor longer suffer want and woe!

The lazy belly shall not spoil 

What faithful hands have won by toil.

On earth there grows enough of bread;

For all mankind the table’s spread; [1947-17]

Where rose and myrtle spring to please,

Why see, there too grow sugar peas.

Aye, sugar peas for best and worst,

As soon the pregnant pods may burst;

Celestial joys we leave indeed 

To angels and the sparrow breed.” [from Rev. C.T. Steck, 1879] [page 7]

I think one only has to wonder, when one hears only one such passage, how a Christian who believes the Holy Scriptures to be the Word of God, believes in the Savior and hopes for eternal life, could support such a paper. Certainly, dear brethren, politics does not concern us theologians at all; also, as far as the economic conditions of the human society are concerned, we have nothing to say about them, and it does not occur to us to want to do so. One reads our church publications, and one will soon find that we do not interfere in these matters at all. It is not our office and calling. But if those who pretend to be politicians do interfere in Religion, then we cannot remain silent, or we will become traitors to the truth. And we shall not be such wretched cowards, who know how these people in their assemblies are fit to judge Christianity, that we should fear to illuminate here also with God's Word and to judge what they speak against God's Word in their assemblies and write in their papers! He would be a despicable man who called himself a Christian and was afraid to bear witness when his eternal divine Master was attacked and the reason for his hope ridiculed. Everyone sees that this paper is an atheistic one, whose editor believes neither in God nor in eternal life, but makes a mockery of both. If he says that he does believe in God and also in a hereafter, this is not our concern. We ask about what he writes in his newspaper. He must let himself be judged by that. But this, his newspaper, is an atheistic Communist newspaper.

That it is Communist, there is another testimony. If I had taken the trouble to look through the whole volume, I could have given many more testimonies, but even these few are perfectly adequate for our purpose. So it says in the number of December 15:

“Fire, water, air and earth are the four so-called elements of nature, of which the Deity gave as much to one person as to another. Who will, who can deny it? Therefore, you see, Doctor,” (it is an essay against a certain Dr. Holland), “that this Communism, commanded by our ‘Lord Jesus Christ’ to his disciples and followers is simultaneous with the creation of the world and man.”

So our dear Lord JEsus Christ is to be made the supreme Communist! It goes on:

“An all-wise and beneficent God, Himself the author, and ‘Christ’, the Son, asserts only that which ‘God the Father’ has from the beginning ordered and decreed.”

Christ, by the way, is cited here with quotation marks, also the words God, the Father. With this the writer [1947-18] wants to show his opponent: I [page 8] speak now in your sense; of course I do not believe in any Christ, and I do not believe in any God the Father. But I want to fight with your own weapons for once. You want to be a servant of the written word, as you call it, well, I will beat you out of your own word of God, and show you that if you want to be a true believer in the Bible, you must also become a Communist. That is the point. — It goes on to say: “This is God's command and Christ's teaching” Furthermore: 

“The workers of America do not think of putting themselves under the wheels of this so-called civilization, which is nothing other than barbarism, and being crushed to death, seeing their little ones condemned to eternal poverty and to perpetual misery, so that a few select people may remain rich and lazy. They will no longer kiss the hands of those who beat them. They will no longer caress the chains that bind them. They will rise, they are rising up already, in the majesty of their power and manhood to crush this vile and terrible monster, to defend their rights as men and to become free and happy.”

This is yet very moderate talk here. But anyone who knows the story knows where this is leading. It is the flash from afar before the terrible thunderstorm which these men intend to conjure up on the present generation. If they cannot achieve their ends in peace, well, they will use violence, and bloody violence at that. They want to crush this giant they think they have trampled underfoot.
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Walther: Communism and Socialism–a re-translation; labor unrest then, now racial; History restored (Part 1)

        This begins a series of blog posts to present a new English translation of C.F.W. Walther's addresses published in 1878.  That this topic is important in 2020 needs no justification. I am doing this for several reasons as explained below. I would give it a lengthy subtitle using the following from his concluding section:

"So let every Christian, if he still allows himself to be warned, be seriously warned against the agitations of the Socialists and Communists."

Politics or Religion?

      It may be wondered that in delivering these addresses, Walther was getting involved in political matters, not spiritual.  But that is not true.  There are indeed matters that may seem political, but it is only in a tangential way. To give a short quote from page 7, Walther flatly states:

“Politics does not concern us theologians at all; … It is not our office and calling.”

That the later publishers of a "revised English translation" in 1947 and 1964 may have begun to mix some politics into this writing cannot be ruled out, and that might explain why the currently available version does not contain the above statement.  More will be explained elsewhere. I wonder that the editor of either "Hope Publicity Bureau" or "Lutheran Research Society" showed some weakness by pushing Walther's addresses somewhat into the political sphere, while Walther's intent was only to address the matters touching on Religion.— There will be scholars of history who will, to some degree, differ from Walther regarding the motives behind these dual menaces.  That is to be expected, for the world does not understand the heart of Communism and Socialism.  At their core, they are about spiritual matters, not political.

Re-translation, not re-publication

      In 1878, the publishing house for the Old (German) Missouri Synod printed four addresses, or lectures, in the German language, that President C. F. W. Walther delivered at the request of his Lutheran congregation in St. Louis. I recall reading a translation of these lectures many years ago and realized that they presented the definitive history for Christians regarding the threat of Communism and Socialism.

       Background information on the history of translations may be found in the prefaces to the 1947 reprint published by "The Lutheran Research Society" in Detroit, an organization which has likely disappeared long ago.  Currently there are several copies of this text available online: CTS-FW Media has a scanned copy of the 1947 printed pamphlet (but missing pages 30-31) [2020-10-19: correct copy now on Internet Archive]; more recently Steadfast Lutherans blog has it (PDF); Intrepid Lutherans has it.  These all appear to have used the same source material to provide their copy.  But after reading this translation again and seeing how important the information was, I wondered if the first translation, done in 1879 and republished in 1947 with revisions, included all of Walther's narrative or not.  So I thought to re-translate the original German publication to find out. I was surprised to find that some portions were omitted in certain translation(s), but it is not known if these omissions were made in the original 1879 translation by "D. Simon".  The discovery of these omissions made me even more glad that I proceeded with this re-translation. These omissions are identified and fully restored in what follows and will be pointed out in due course. — Additional benefits of this re-translation include: (1) Walther's emphasized words and phrases are indicated with underlining, (2) dozens of hyperlinks are added for reference because of the extensive array of historical people and events introduced, (3) links are added for ease of navigation, (4) Bible verses are identified and hyperlinked, and (5) notations in red showing the corresponding 1947 page number are included. 

History restored, in two ways

      What is generally not so well understood among the population is what is the basis of today's unrest in America and the world. A proper history by a truly Christian teacher is greatly needed to rightly understand this kind of unrest which it has occurred repeatedly in the past, since the beginning of time. As I reviewed Walther's historical events in Wikipedia, it became apparent that what purports to be "objective" history today has in reality added subjective judgments mixed in, judgments that sometimes completely miss the heart of the matter, or even overturn it.  It was not uncommon to find reports attempting to mitigate the heinous nature of some of the actions of certain people and thus obliquely justifying violence and the use of force.  One thing is certain – Walther's history will not be accepted for use by The History Channel or even by Wikipedia because it would be considered to be un-objective.  It will not be promoted by today's LC-MS, even if a few of their pastors do. Dare I suggest that it would not have been promoted in the LC-MS even in 1947?

      The second way Walther restores true history is found in the portions which have been omitted in the currently available English translations (CTS-FW).  Suffice to say that the LCMS does not actually subscribe to the Lutheran Confessions (or Martin Luther) which firmly teaches that the Pope in Rome is the very Antichrist.  Surprisingly we will see evidence of this aberration even in 1947.

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      Because Walther presents such a profusion of historical events and people in such a short narrative, I was interested to learn more of the details of these that Walther had to omit for the sake of brevity.  Wikipedia was a great help in providing some of the details. But the German Lutherans at that time in 1878 were much closer to some of these events that were going on in the world in the 19th century – the 1848 uprising in Germany, the horrific events of the French Revolution, etc. So German Americans may not have needed the details because they were already aware of them.  But today, we seem far removed from them, at least it would seem so… until the events of June 2020 and afterwards in America.  Now we are living through this "history"… again. — Now we begin a fresh translation of the most authoritative history ever given of the menaces of Communism and Socialism. The "Preface" below aptly uses the term "a burning issue."

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Translation of Walther's 1878 Communismus und Socialismus by BackToLuther primarily using DeepL online translation service; highlighting and bolding are my emphases, red text within square brackets [] in are my comments, underlining is Walther's emphasis.

Preface.

Although the undersigned [Walther] only reluctantly complied with the urgent request of the local Lutheran congregation to have printed what he freely presented to them on the specific occasion of four evening meetings on Socialism and Communism, and were stenographically recorded, the editor hopes that the indulgent and impartial reader will excuse the unavoidable deficiencies that adhere to the form of these pages by the nature of their origin and, for the sake of these deficiencies, will not reject the truth represented therein without examination. May what is presented here, in which the special circumstances of the aforementioned congregation were the decisive factor, serve as a basis for making wider circles aware of a question that is also becoming more and more a burning issue for Christians, and for more thorough and all-round answers to it from Scripture, reason and history, so that those who are given more leisure than the

Publisher.

St. Louis, Mo.  March 1878.

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      Since these addresses were probably held in the church building proper, I would suggest that we think of ourselves now also sitting in a pew as we begin this journey. Find an open pew, take a seat, and let us sit at the feet of the American Luther and receive the great history and lessons for Christians, even reasonable people.

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Part 1: Intro: Politics or Religion?; Re-translation, not re-publication; History restored; "Preface"

Part 2: Prologue 1– Two causes for lectures: newspapers, labor unions; omitted section restored

Part 3: Prologue 2– no personal property?; Unions–preschool for Socialism; Karl Marx in England

Part 4: Reason, Nature, Experience 1: Men are not equal

Part 5: RNE2: Men are selfish by nature; Fourier's Phalanxes

Part 6: RNE3: Happiness not in earthly things, only in Word of God;“Johann the Soap Boiler”; against unjust rich and Socialists

Part 7: RNE4: Communists never achieved goal, only misery; Spartans, Pythagoras, Plato, Essenes, Catholics, peasants

Part 8: RNE5: Luther on oppressors; Münster; French Revolutions: 1st & 2nd

Part 9: RNE6: French uprising 1839; Saint-Simonianism; 1848 Revolution; "Young Germany", Weitling; "We aren't united now."

Part 10: RNE7: Paris Commune, Fourier, Icarians, Proudhon, Lecomte, Blanqui: "Achieved nothing"

Part 11: X†1: Christianity? Bible misused: Gen. 1:26-29 – Remember Cain and Abel

Part 12: X†2: No Personal Property, no peace & unity; man’s love for freedom, independence

Part 13: X†3: No Personal Property, No incentive, no justice

Part 14: X†4: Common property at Jerusalem congregation (Acts 4:32-38)

Part 15: X†5: Rich Young Man (Matt. 19:16-25); Vineyard Workers (Matt. 20:1–16)

Part 16: X†6: Contrary to: personal property, government power of sword, marriage, sin, etc.; 7th, 5th, 6th Commandments

Part 17-IIIa: Church hinders? Papacy, Crusades, Protestant State Churches— Walther uncensored

Part 18-IIIb: : Hinders? Dark history not of true Church; Tyrants not Christians; the tyrant, the Pope

Part 19-IIIc: : Blaming Church for class relations an injustice; Christianity changes hearts, so relations, also "race relations"

Part 20: Conclusion: mirage to deceived wanderer – be warned; One has come from over there

Luther's warning: contradict the willful spirits, "a wolf and a fox"

      There were so many jewels of spiritual wisdom gleaned from Hochstetter's History.  One of those I marked for a future blog, from page 473, was a quote from Martin Luther that Hochstetter used to defend the Missouri Synod's polemics against false doctrine.  It is much needed counsel for the church today.  Although I found the source of the Luther quote in the St. Louis Edition, I could not find where this full specific writing was translated into English.  This seemed quite strange to me because I recall reading references to it in other writings.  An essay entitled (translated) “Important Points in the Proper Evaluation and Utilization of the Written Testimony Against Unionism” by Prof. Paul Kretzmann in CTM, vol. 4, p. 915 (Dec. 1933) also quoted Luther from this same writing.  It refers to the upcoming Regensburg Colloquy of 1546 – see this reference to the preparation for this "hopeless" conference, as Luther calls it. So here is my translation, except for the portion dark highlighted, which is Dr. Fred Kramer's translation that I used in Hochstetter's History.

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Translation by BackToLuther using online resources from St.L ed. Vol. 17, p. 1180; all highlighting and bolding are mine.

1425. Martin Luther's conversation, which he held with Dr. Georg Major before he left for the colloquium in Regensburg as a certain collocutor. Mid-January 1546.

This document is in the Altenburg edition, vol. VIII, p. 502; in the Leipzig edition, vol. XXI, p. 688 and in the Erlangen edition, vol. 65, p. 86.

Doctor Major was sent to Regensburg at that time for the Colloquium instead of Philip [Melanchthon], for Dr. Luther was careful because of Philip's infirmity, and wrote to the princes of the church with these words: "Because it will be a vain and futile colloquium, since there is no hope, let Philip, who is truly ill, be spared; so Dr Major is more than enough for that, if he could not do anything but say no or yes to it. So let Schnepf and Brenz also be there, who will let nothing be taken from them, etc."

But when Dr. Major would travel to Regensburg, he went first to Dr. Luther to bless him, and in the entrance to his study room these words were written in Dr. Luther's hand: Nostri Professores examinandi sunt de Coena Domini, that is, "Our professors shall be examined on the Lord's Supper." So he asked: “Venerable Father, what do these words mean?” To which the great Doctor answered him: “What you read, and what they say, so it is the opinion, and when you return home, and I as well, an examination will have to be taken, for which you shall be required as well as others. But when Dr. Major wanted to get rid of his suspicions with great respect and clear confession, he finally got the answer:

“You make yourself suspicious with silence and cloaks; but if you believe, as you speak before me, so speak such things in the church, in lectures, debates and private conversations, and strengthen your brothers, and help the erring ones back on to the right path, and contradict the willful spirits, otherwise your confession will be merely a mask, and of no use. Whoever considers his doctrine, faith, and confession, to be true, and not uncertain, cannot stand in the same stall with others, who teach false doctrine, or are adherents of the same, and cannot continue to speak fair words to the devil and his allies. A teacher who keeps silence in the face of errors and nevertheless wants to be a true teacher is worse than an open enthusiast, and does greater harm with his hypocrisy than a heretic; you cannot trust him; he is a wolf and a fox, a hired servant and a belly server [Ro. 16:18], etc, and may despise and hand over doctrines, word, faith, sacrament, churches, and schools; either he lies secretly in cahoots with his enemies, or he is a doubter and a windfallower, and wants to see where it will end, whether Christ or the devil will prevail; or he is completely uncertain in himself, and not worthy that he should be called a pupil, let alone a teacher, and will not enrage anybody, nor speak Christ's Word, nor woe to the devil and the world, etc.” Dr. Major considered such things, pondered them, and faithfully promised to follow them, and thus was blessed by Luther; he also often recited and narrated such serious discourse, which the great man of God had given him.

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      This is a powerful Luther passage that speaks through the ages to the Christian Church.  Luther shows his great patience with those weak in faith, but was unbending on orthodoxy… which reminds me of C.F.W. Walther's manner.  Georg Major would later, after Luther's death, show his weakness by instigating the Majoristic Controversy, which was settled by the Formula of Concord.