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   From: z40325@yahoo.com   
      
   On the Jews and Their Lies, 1543   
   Martin Luther (1483 - 1546)   
      
   (..partial reproduction - see link below for a URL with   
   the complete and UN-EDITED text of this amazing and   
   historic document that has been repressed for Centuries)   
      
   I had made up my mind to write no more either about the   
   Jews or against them. But since I learned that those miserable   
   and accursed people do not cease to lure to themselves   
   even us, that is, the Christians, I have published this little   
   book, so that I might be found among those who opposed   
   such poisonous activities of the Jews and who warned the   
   Christians to be on their guard against them. I would not   
   have believed that a Christian could be duped by the Jews   
   into taking their exile and wretchedness upon himself.   
   However, the devil is the god of the world, and wherever   
   God's word is absent he has an easy task, not only with   
   the weak but also with the strong. May God help us. Amen.   
   Grace and peace in the Lord. Dear sir and good   
   friend, I have received a treatise in which a Jew engages   
   in dialog with a Christian. He dares to pervert the scriptural   
   passages which we cite in testimony to our faith, concerning   
   our Lord Christ and Mary his mother, and to interpret   
   them quite differently. With this argument he thinks he   
   can destroy the basis of our faith.   
      
   This is my reply to you and to him. It is not my purpose to   
   quarrel with the Jews, nor to learn from them how they   
   interpret or understand Scripture; I know all of that very   
   well already. Much less do I propose to convert the   
   Jews, for that is impossible. Those two excellent   
   men, Lyra and Burgensis, together with others,   
   truthfully described the Jews' vile interpretation for   
   us two hundred and one hundred years ago   
   respectively. Indeed they refuted it thoroughly.   
   However, this was no help at all to the Jews, and   
   they have grown steadily worse.   
      
   They have failed to learn any lesson from the   
   terrible distress that has been theirs for over   
   fourteen hundred years in exile. Nor can they   
   obtain any end or definite terminus of this, as   
   they suppose, by means of the vehement cries   
   and laments to God. If these blows do not   
   help, it is resonable to assume that our talking   
   and explaining will help even less.   
      
   Therefore a Christian should be content and not   
   argue with the Jews. But if you have to or want   
   to talk with them, do not say any more than   
   this: "Listen, Jew, are you aware that Jerusalem   
   and your sovereignty, together with your temple   
   and priesthood, have been destroyed for   
   over 1,460 years?" For this year, which we   
   Christians write as the year 1542 since the birth   
   of Christ, is exactly 1,468 years, going on fifteen   
   hundred years, since Vespasian and Titus   
   destroyed Jerusalem and expelled the Jews   
   from the city. Let the Jews bite on this nut   
   and dispute this question as long as they wish.   
      
   For such ruthless wrath of God is sufficient evidence that they assuredly   
   have erred and gone astray. Even a child can comprehend this. For one dare   
   not regard God as so cruel that he would punish his own people so long, so   
   terribly, so unmercifully, and in addition keep silent, comforting them   
   neither with words nor with deeds, and fixing no time limit and no end to   
   it. Who would have faith, hope, or love toward such a God? Therefore this   
   work of wrath is proof that the Jews, surely rejected by God, are no longer   
   his people, and neither is he any longer their God. This is in accord with   
   Hosea 1:9, "Call his name Not my people, for you are not my people and I am   
   not your God." Yes, unfortunately, this is their lot, truly a terrible one.   
   They may interpret this as they will; we see the facts before our eyes, and   
   these do not deceive us.   
      
   If there were but a spark of reason or understanding in them, they would   
   surely say to themselves: "O Lord God, something has gone wrong with us.   
   Our misery is too great, too long, too severe; God has forgotten us!" etc.   
   To be sure, I am not a Jew, but I really do not like to contemplate God's   
   awful wrath toward this people. It sends a shudder of fear through body and   
   soul, for I ask, What will the eternal wrath of God in hell be like toward   
   false Christians and all unbelievers? Well, let the Jews regard our Lord   
   Jesus as they will. We behold the fulfillment of the words spoken by him in   
   Luke 21:20: "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know   
   that its desolation has come near ... for these are days of vengeance. For   
   great distress shall be upon the earth and wrath upon this people.   
      
   In short, as has already been said, do not engage   
   much in debate with Jews about the articles of   
   our faith. From their youth they have been so   
   nurtured with venom and rancor against our   
   Lord that there is no hope until they reach the   
   point where their misery finally makes them pliable   
   and they are forced to confess that the Messiah   
   has come, and that he is our Jesus. Until such a   
   time it is much too early, yes, it is useless to   
   argue with them about how God is triune, how he   
   became man, and how Mary is the mother of God.   
   No human reason nor any human heart will ever   
   grant these things, much less the embittered,   
   venomous, blind heart of the Jews. As has already   
   been said, what God cannot reform with such   
   cruel blows, we will be unable to change with   
   words and works.   
      
      
   (full text at:   
   http://reactor-core.org/secret/on-the-jews-and-their-lies.html   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)