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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)
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