Martin Luther’s understanding of the history of the world as the persecution of the Gospel
Here are a few pages from Luther’s 1535 Preface to the 1519 Galatians Commentary. (I’m wondering if the publication of this commentary is what spurred him on to develop the Greater Galatians commentary, but I haven’t tracked down that history.)
What’s catches my attention in this passage is how Luther sees a through-line in the history of the world, from Paradise until the return of Christ.
First, it is the devil assaulting the Word of God, which is the ungodly attacking the church. But, second, this is always done deceitfully. The ungodly always cover their sin with self-righteousness.
Therefore I am ashamed to have my poor and feeble comments on this great apostle and chosen instrument of God (Acts 9:15) published. But I am forced to be ashamed of this very shame and to become shameless and bold by the infinite and horrible desecration and abomination that have always raged in the church of God and do not stop raging today against that single solid rock which we call the doctrine of justification, namely, that we are redeemed from sin, death, and the devil and endowed with eternal life, not through ourselves and certainly not through our works, which are even less than we are ourselves, but through the help of Another, the only Son of God, Jesus Christ.
Satan attacked this rock in Paradise when he persuaded our first parents to forsake their faith in the God who had given them life and who promised enduring life, and to try to become like God by means of their own wisdom and virtue (Gen. 3:5). In a further attack upon it that liar and murderer (John 8:44), who will always be completely consistent, soon set brother to kill brother, and this for no other reason than that by faith his godly brother had offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice (Heb. 11:4), while he, the wicked brother, who offered his works without faith, was not pleasing to God.
Later there followed a continuous and unbearable persecution of this faith by Satan through the sons of Cain, until God was compelled to cleanse the world once and for all through the Flood and thus to preserve Noah, the herald of faith and righteousness (2 Peter 2:5). Yet Satan still kept his own line of descent through Ham, the third son of Noah. But who could recite it all? For thereafter the whole world went mad in opposition to this faith, inventing endless idols and religions, by which, as Paul says (Acts 14:16), everyone went his own way, in the hope of placating a god or a goddess or gods or goddesses by his own works, in other words, of redeeming himself from evil and sin by means of his own work, without the help of Christ. The acts and books of all the heathen provide plenty of evidence for all this.
But the heathen are nothing in comparison with Israel, the people or synagog of God, who not only were endowed beyond all others with the sure promises given to the fathers and then with the Law handed down by God through angels (Gal. 3:19) but were continually being reassured by the presence of the sayings, miracles, and deeds of the prophets. And yet Satan, that is, the insane idea of self-righteousness, made such headway among them that they killed all the prophets and finally even their promised Messiah, the very Son of God Himself, and all for the same reason, namely, because they all taught that men are pleasing to God by the grace of God, not by our own righteousness.
From the beginning this has been the fundamental principle of the devil and of the world: “We do not want to seem to be doing evil, but whatever we do must be approved by God and agreed to by all His prophets. If they do not do this, they must die! Down with Abel, long live Cain! That must be our law.” And so it is.
But in the church of the Gentiles something happened and is still happening that is so serious as to make the madness of the synagog seem like child’s play. For the latter, as Paul says, did not recognize their Christ, and therefore they crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8). But the church of the Gentiles accepted Christ and confessed Him as the Son of God, who has become our righteousness, as it sings, announces, and teaches publicly. Yet while this confession stands, the very people who claim to be the church are killing, persecuting, and raging against those who believe, do, and teach nothing except that Christ is precisely what the others are forced to confess about Him with their hypocritical words and actions. For if those who hold sway today in the name of Christ could hold on to their dominion without the name of Christ, they would disclose openly what they really think of Him in their hearts. For their real opinion of Him is far lower than that of the Jews, who at least think that He is thola, that is, a thief who deserved to be crucified. But people nowadays think of Him as a fable, resembling the mythical deities among the heathen; this can be seen in Rome at the curia of the pope, and almost everywhere in Italy.
Thus because Christ is a laughingstock among His own Christians (for that is still what they want to be called), because Cain goes on killing Abel without interruption, and because the abomination of Satan now has its greatest dominion ever—therefore it is necessary to set forth this doctrine as diligently as possible and to put ourselves in opposition to Satan, regardless of whether we are inarticulate or eloquent, learned or ignorant. For if every human being were to keep silent, it would be necessary for this rock to be acclaimed by the rocks and stones themselves (Luke 19:40).
(LW 27:45-47)
