Martin Luther on the Three Waves of Persecution in Christian History

1. Tyrants vs Martyrs
2. Heretics vs Teachers
3. Evil Christian’s, Antichrist, riches of the world vs true Christians

7. I have watched and have become like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. Once more these three birds can be understood to signify the threefold persecution of the church and of any soul, namely, on the part of tyrants, heretics, and false brothers or hypocrites. The first persecution was of the martyrs, the second of the teachers, and the third in a general way of all estates. And the first took place through force, the second through wisdom, the third through the goodness of the world. The first was against force, the second against wisdom, and the third against the goodness and holiness of God. The first charged the church with weakness, the second with ignorance, and the third with corruption and blasphemy. (LW 11:308)

The first was the trouble and persecution in the time of the martyrs, and because this was perceptible, it was easily understood as referring to it [namely, the persecution and punishments]. And there God really chose the weak things to put the strong to shame (1 Cor. 1:27). His church was weak at that time, and through that weakness it conquered, not by the power of this age.

The second was the presence of heretics in the time of the teachers [error and heresy]. And there God really chose the foolish to put the wise to shame (1 Cor. 1:27), that is, those who are wise in their own eyes. The church conquered their wisdom through the foolishness of faith.

The third is now the prevalence of the lukewarm and the evil [peace and security]. For surfeit now reigns to such an extent that there is much worship of God everywhere, but it is only going through the motions, without love and spirit, and there are very few with any fervor. And all this happens because we think we are something and are doing enough. Consequently we try nothing, and we hold to no strong emotion, and we do much to ease the way to heaven, by means of indulgences, by means of easy doctrines, feeling that one sigh is enough. And here God properly chose the things that are not to destroy the things that are. For one who from a sincere heart considers himself to be nothing without a doubt is fervent and hastens toward progress and that which is good.

Concerning all three of these he prays here: Save Me, O Lord, for the waters have come up to My soul (v. 1). The waters were the sufferings which the Jews inflicted on Christ. The waters were the persecutors of the martyrs, let loose against the church by demons. The waters were and are the heretics let loose against the same church by the same demons. The waters are the vast number of lukewarm and nominal Christians let loose on the church to the present day by the same demons. In the past the psalmist cried out against tyrants and heretics. He is still crying out now against those half-Christians, saying: “The waters have come up to My soul,” and other words to follow. All of these are now going strong. About them Mal. 1:8 says: “If you offer what is lame and the sick, is it not evil?

Offer it to your leader to see if it will please him, or if he will regard you with favor, says the Lord of hosts.” For in fact this kind of praying and singing is going on in the churches, in a sluggish spirit and on one foot (that is, with the body only), namely, the left one so that if that kind of homage were offered to a man, it would be despised. How much more, then, will it be spurned by so great a majesty! And the whole presence of the devil is against us, to make half-Christians in this way. We think he is gone, but he is very much present. Indeed, he does not fight us with adversity or heresy, because he perceives that there he would be overcome, but with prosperity, security, and peace. All of these come because we are without the fear of God and do not consider ourselves as altogether nothing but think that we are doing enough, as I said earlier. Therefore the church is in a bad way, for “Behold, in peace my bitterness is most bitter” (Is. 38:17). As Bernard says, “What was bitter under the tyrants is more bitter under heretics and most bitter under peaceful and secure conditions.” Therefore these waters are now coming up to His soul. (LW 10:351-352)

Consequently it happens that the words of the Psalms (according to blessed Augustine, this psalm) hardly touch us, for we do not see in ourselves such things as were in the martyrs, when those words were read with relish. But if we would see correctly, then all the complaints in the Psalms run today most strongly against the misfortune of prosperity. For now peace attacks more than the sword did formerly, clothing more than nakedness, food more than hunger, security more than difficulty, abundance more than poverty, and the opposite of everything the apostle lists in Rom. 8:35, for he says: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” And Dan. 8:25 also writes concerning the Antichrist that he will kill the majority of people not through poverty but through an abundance of everything. Therefore, as the apostles applied the psalms to their own time against the Jews, their enemies, the martyrs to their own time against the persecutors, the teachers to their own time against the heretics (as blessed Augustine does nearly everywhere), so we, too, must now pray and apply them against the half-Christians and those who serve the Lord only in a carnal and formal way. Especially should we pray for the princes and priests of the church, where this evil is particularly prevalent. This does not mean that we must rage and be indignant against them, blaspheme and disparage them, since this would have no constructive result [cf. Ezek. 9:1 ff.]. But we must grieve and have compassion and commiserate with the church and pray with and for them. For as it was of old, so it is now also. “This is the iniquity of our sister, Sodom: abundance and fullness of bread, pride and the idleness of her and of her daughters; and they did not offer their hand to the poor” (Ezek. 16:49). It is against these evils in the church that the fight is now being waged. For they say that they are worshiping these things for the glory of God and the honor of the church. As the Jews in the past called the true God Baal and wanted to worship Him with the cult of Baal, so these people want to worship God with a devilish and worldly cult, since they would rather worship themselves. And they lie when they say it is for the honor of God, just as the Jews lied when they swore by Baal and said, “the Lord lives” (Jer. 12:16). This matter is a great sign and symbol pointing to our customs. The fact that they called the Lord Baal is made very clear by Hosea, where the Lord says (Hos. 2:16): “She shall no longer call Me ‘my Baal’ ” and by Is. 48:1 and Jer. 5:2: “Though they say, ‘the Lord lives’; this also they will swear falsely.” Why? Because they worshiped Him with an alien cult, just as these people are doing. So he says. (LW 10:353-354)