Luther Answers Benke In Luther's Works AE Vol. 9 pages 52-55

By: Rev. Jack Cascione

In the February 21, 2003 release of Reclaim News we published Atlantic District President, David Benke's reply to a layman in Kokomo Indiana about praying with Moslems.  Benke responded that the 'Muslim God is also the true God.'"

We quote Benke against in part: "Theologically, when Christians interact in the public arena by prayer or reading or speaking, they are presenting themselves as witnesses to the truth.  God takes care of the rest.  The Muslim God is also the true God (there IS only ONE TRUE GOD, right?) but worshipping [worshipped] in an inadequate way.  In other words, the Muslim is worshipping God but understanding God's LAW (and there is really no religion like Islam when it comes to the Law.)- what's missing?  The GOSPEL. JESUS as the Son of God. Jesus as the Savior of the World.  The death and resurrection of Christ for the world.  That's what the witness is about when it's given "in the Precious Name of Jesus" which is how I ended my prayer."

Benke also quotes a selection from the end of the explanation of the Large Catechism on the Apostles' Creed to support his position as follows:

"These articles of the Creed, therefore, divide and distinguish us Christians from all other people on earth.  All who are outside the Christian church, whether heathen, Turks, Jews, or false Christians and hypocrites, EVEN THOUGH THEY BELIEVE IN AND WORSHIP ONLY THE ONE, TRUE GOD, nevertheless do not know what his attitude is toward them.  They CANNOT BE CONFIDENT OF HIS LOVE AND BLESSING. Therefore they remain in eternal wrath and damnation, for they do not have the Lord Christ, and, besides, they are not illuminated and blessed by the gifts of the Holy Spirit."

It just so happens that I read Luther's Works on Deuteronomy as the basis for my Lenten sermon series.

As you read Luther on this subject, Luther's point is that the Canaanites "had the knowledge that there is some kind of deity."  Of course, by appealing to Luther on this point Benke is admitting that he did worship with Moslems etc.  Even if Benke claims he was not worshipping with them, they in deed believed they were worshipping with Benke.




Luther's Works, American Edition, Volume 9, Deuteronomy Pages 52-55 (Citations from the Hebrew and the footnotes will be scrambled.)

Deuteronomy 4: 3. "Your eyes have seen"

From various strands Moses has woven his exhortation that they reject the additions and distortions of men and cling to the pure Word of God alone. First he shows sufficiently from the very extraordinary example of Baal Peor-because of whose worship, which had been devised by man and went beyond the Word of God, He had destroyed so many children of Israel-that He wants nothing at all to be added to His commandments.

It is not a valid argument to declare on behalf of the traditions of men: "The Moabites were idolators and made sacrifices to demons; we, however, serve the true God in ceremonies devised with a pious intention and with good zeal. Therefore our efforts are not the same as theirs." I answer: "The Moabites and other nations did not worship demons because they knew that they were demons, but they believed that they were serving the true God no less than the idolatrous Jews, yes, than all our papists, even the holiest and most religious. But their godlessness consisted in this, that they took over the true name of the true God and worshiped Him with ceremonies not commanded by God but devised by themselves. Those who do such things imagine in their hearts that the true God is of such a sort that He wants to be worshiped and regards favorably whatever people who are still godless undertake without the Word of God. But, as Ps. 5:5 says, He is not a God who will want godlessness. He is rather the God of the righteous, and He wants to be worshiped by the godly and righteous, who are justified through the Word and His grace, not through their own strength. Therefore it necessarily follows that their thinking about God is mere fiction and a lie. And the god whom they so devise and shape for themselves is not the true God but an idol of their heart, under which they worship the devil, the teacher and father of this lie (John 8:44). And so with their false imagination they indeed worship idols and demons under the name of the true God.

Therefore in Scripture strange gods should not be so understood as if their worshipers wholly denied the name of the true God; yes, they most firmly claimed it for themselves, as we read in the prophets. (8) But while retaining the name of the true God without the true knowledge of God (which flesh and man cannot have of themselves), they thought about God what seemed right to them. As though God could be shaped and changed according to the imaginations and notions of their heart, when He Himself cannot be shaped and changed! Therefore where there is no Word of God, there is no true knowledge of God; where there is no knowledge of God, there are godless ignorance, imaginations, and opinions about the true God, as though He were pleased by this and that which we choose strictly for ourselves. And all these are godless forms of worship. Through them one does not attain the true God but dreams and idols of the heart in His place and name. These, however, are strange gods, namely, demons who teach these opinions. Then men go on to the outside and according to these opinions set up ceremonies, doctrine, and direction. To these they give different names, and they call God now Baal, now Ashteroth, now Dagon, etc., just as we do when we call God Benedict, Francis, Dominic, and chiefly the pope; for by all these ceremonies and teachings we think we please God, an opinion which is a deceitful idol of the heart, where, in the place and name of God, Satan sits and is worshiped.

This is what the apostle touches on in Rom. 1:21 ff.: "For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened, etc." I say they knew God, that is, THEY HAD THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THERE IS SOME KIND OF DIETY.  The efforts with which they worshiped idols in the place of God demonstrate this.  For if they had not had a knowledge of a deity, they could not have assigned deity to idols or applied to it the name of God. But this was their folly, that they did not give glory to Him as God; that is, they imagined for themselves a god who would be worshiped by their opinions and efforts, that in this way they might glorify themselves as men who by their own powers could make something pleasing to God and deserve His favor. However, this is dishonoring God and not giving thanks for things received from God; it is being proud and presumptuous concerning offerings to God. This is nothing else than to want God to be shaped by us, not ourselves to be shaped by God. It is to want to adjust the plans and thinking of God to our plans and thinking, as He says in Isaiah (40:18): "What likeness will you set for Him?" and in Is. 55:9: "As far as the heavens are higher than the earth, My ways are exalted above your ways."

But the fact that the Moabites served their Baal Peor with banquetings and lechery does not prove that they worshiped demons. For it is the fate of human traditions that they nurture nothing but creatures of the belly, so that Paul dares call the belly their God (Phil. 3:19), and in Rom. 16:18 affirms that they serve their belly. And all the prophets accuse them of having devoured the people of God. (9) To this testify also the "groves and the heights" in Judaism, where they indulged in license under the spreading trees, So we also see that in the kingdom of the pope nowadays they are openly and shamelessly devoted to luxury, idleness, drunkenness, and licentiousness, while at the same time they mumble their canonical hours and crucify Masses.

Baal Peor is called a "man with his mouth open." Many think that he was Priapus. Perhaps they are moved by the fact that in their worship of him the Moabites indulged in licentiousness. But this proves nothing, since, as I have said, lust is the mark of all human traditions and godlessness.(10) Besides, this story of Israel seems to be older and to have occurred before Priapus arose in Greece. Hence I believe that the hue God was honored under this lying name and false worship by the Moabites, just as by the Children of Israel he was called Baalim, as the prophet Hosea testifies.(11) Then I see that among the Hebrews Baal denotes primacy when it is used in compound words. For so they call balsam, that is, the chief off (for they call oil ??????); likewise ?????? ?????? "the chief fly," as we say archangel, chief cook, archduke, archbishop.  Thus perhaps the Moabites called the god Baal Peor the chief maw for a reason unknown to me, unless you want to speculate that God is to be feared and is an outstanding Avenger prepared to consume all the godless and the enemies of His people, if He is worshiped in this way. Thus the papists have represented God as a very swift Avenger if anyone, at the impulse of the devil, had harmed a cleric.(12) Thus they also made out of St. Anthony, Sebastian, Valentine, and Roch a sort of Baal Peor for the nurturing of their stomachs.(13)

February 22, 2003