Altlutheraner

The Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK) is what most think of when they think of confessional Lutheranism in Germany. Therefore, it will do well for the person who wishes to know whether this reputation is deserved, to have at hand that body’s public teachings. Fortunately, the SELK does provide in its website PDFs of many reports on its doctrines. Perusing this website, one will come across a document titled “The Lutheran Church and the Jews,” which this article shall go over.

Prayer for the Jews

The report says (§ 64) that “supplication for Israel on Good Friday should be completely newly phrased or left out altogether.” The prayer which it terms “problematic” reads thus:

Reader: Let us also pray for the Jews that the merciful God may take away the veil from their eyes / so that they may acknowledge Jesus our Lord as their Messiah. [Let us pray:] Liturgist: Almighty, eternal God, You have chosen Israel to be the first witness of Your revelation: hear our intercession for the people of Your promise and let them see the light of Your truth, accept salvation in Christ and praise Your Son with all Christendom. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

The SELK against Lutheranism

Although the SELK calls itself Lutheran, it would not want to mislead you into thinking that it therefore taught as Luther taught. It declares 1523 to be “the height of his [Luther’s] reformatory insight” (§§ 27 & 83), because Luther later refuted in great detail many lies of the Jews — though certainly not all of them, for that would take many lifetimes. He is said to have “faltered in his judgment so greatly” (§ 91) by hating the rabbis, who lead their students directly into hell.

Further, it is said (§ 101) that Luther was “defamatory and insulting” and “can never be an example for the Lutheran Church.” Therefore, because it is willing to say this about the reformer of the Church of Christ, it is no surprise that the SELK would state: “We confess that anti-Jewish attitudes were also found in the predecessor churches of the SELK. . . . We must admit that ‘grievous wrong and profound moral guilt must be confessed.’ ”

The modern SELK on the Jews

After the report tells the lie (§ 29) that “Jews cannot be accused of murdering God,” directly contradicting St. Paul who says that the Jews “killed the Lord Jesus” (2 Thess. 2), it later asserts (§ 145) that Jews are the “brothers and sisters” of Christians. And it reports (§§ 159 & 176): “The term ‘Mission to the Jews’ is now rejected. . . . the term Mission to the Jews has caused great and tragic misunderstanding. The term is based on a concept of mission which is unilinear and directed at convincing others. It is issued by ‘people who know better’ and has a concrete commission to ‘those who know nothing.’ ”

The most egregious statement is found in § 186, which reads: “After the holocaust the thought of any kind of missionary activity to the Jews originating in Germany is inconceivable.” Therefore, according to the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Jews currently residing in Germany shall never be evangelized, for that would be unthinkable to these “Evangelicals.”

In its section on Zionism, the report asserts (§ 223): “It is clear that all forms of ‘anti-Zionism’ are inherently anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic. All concepts which contest the right of the state of Israel to exist, must, in Lutheran opinion, be repudiated.” This burdening of consciences must rather be completely condemned by all Christians.

On Christian Zionism, it says (§§ 227–228): “From a Christian point of view, we cannot state that the foundation of the modern state of Israel is the fulfilment of the old promises, nor can we simply argue theologically to the contrary. Individual pious opinion (pia opinio), which sees in the renewed foundation of the state of Israel after 1945 proof that God continues to choose the people of Israel, and is faithful and merciful, and recognizes that ‘the old God lives and rules,’ cannot be refuted.”

Here you have a summary of what the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church teaches on Judaism, which it contrasts with Luther and its predecessor churches. All of this is quite sufficient for any man, and certainly any Christian, to conclude that the SELK has long since forsaken its fathers. But this forsaking was not based on the Word of God, but on political pressure. Therefore the SELK, at least in this matter, deviates quite drastically from the Word of God for the sake of worldly comforts. God grant that it may return to the faith of the old free churches, which is has here condemned.