Grace and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. Dearest sirs and friends in Christ. I have been moved by Christian love and concern,
to do this writing to you. For I have found out how the wrong spirits are stirring among you, who have taken upon themselves to hinder and defile the Christian doctrine, as in the case of
1528 2- 53,342-344. etc. to Christians to beware of erroneous spirits. W. x, 1782-1785. 1529
more places; so that I, as much as is in me, prove my dutiful faithfulness and warning to you and not by my silence come on me any blood, so would be seduced, whom I might have helped. Therefore, please, your love, which you have never felt differently about me, because all the faithfulness and diligence I have shown with all kinds of danger to the good common Christianity, would also accept my heartfelt opinion as good. For I do not seek my own in it, but your benefit and salvation, since, if I were seeking my own, I might well keep silent and have peace or take other paths.
(2) For a long time under the papal regime, we have suffered many a cruel seduction by the rumbling spirits or poltergeists, whom we believed and held to be human souls that had died and were supposed to walk around in torment. Which error has now been brought to light by the grace of God through the gospel and has been uncovered, so that it is known how it is not human souls but evil devils who have deceived people with false answers and have established much idolatry throughout the world.
But now that the wicked devil sees that his rumblings and rumblings are not valid, he attacks a new one and begins to rage in his members, that is, in the wicked, and rumbles out with all kinds of wild, dark beliefs and teachings. This one does not want to have baptism, that one denies the sacrament; another one still puts a world between this and the last day; some teach that Christ is not God; some say this, some that, and are almost as full of sects and beliefs as heads. No one is so rude now that if he dreams or thinks something, the Holy Spirit must have given it to him, and he wants to be a prophet.
I must tell one here as an example, because I have much to do with such spirits. There is no one who wants to be more learned than Luther, in me they all want to become knights; and if God wanted them to be what they think they are, and I would be nothing. In other words, he said to me: he was sent to me by God, who created heaven and earth; and he gave it splendidly.
and yet rustic enough. Finally it was his order, I should read him Mosi's books. I asked him where the sign of his order was. He answered: it was in the Gospel of John. Then I had enough and told him to come back another time. For this time would be too short to read Mosi's books. Yes, dear Lord, said he, the heavenly Father, who shed his blood for us all, show us the right way to his dear Son JEsu, Ade.
(5) There you see what kind of spirits these are, who boast so highly that they understand neither God nor Christ and speak like the nonsensical. I have to hear a lot of such wretched people during the year; otherwise the devil can no longer come to me, so that I have to say: Until now the world was full of bodiless poltergeists, who pretended to be the souls of men; now it has become full of bodiless rumpled spirits, who all pretend to be living angels.
Therefore a Christian here must be confident and not be frightened by the fact that so many sects and mobs are rising up; but think nothing else than that poltergeists are stirring up, as before in many places. The devil must rumble and rumble, so that one can see how he is still alive and what he is capable of; the world is his rumbling game: if the rumbling in the corners outside the body does not help, then let the rumbling in the gushing heads and wild, desolate brains help; after all, it wants to rumble. St. Paul says, 1 Cor. 11:19: "There must be multitudes, that they which are approved may be made manifest." When the pope reigned, there was silence among the mobs, for the strong man held his court in peace. But now the strong one has come and overcomes him and drives him out, as the gospel says, so he rages and rumbles and drives out unwillingly, Luc. 11, 22.
(7) So, dear friends, a bodily ruffian has come among you, who wants to mislead you and lead you away from your right mind to his conceits. Take heed and be warned. But that ye may the better avoid his wiles, I will here enumerate some of them:
The first article is that he would have every man have the Holy Spirit.
The other: The Holy Spirit is nothing other than our reason and understanding.
The third: Every man believes.
The fourth: There is no hell or damnation, but only the flesh is condemned.
The fifth: Every soul will have eternal life.
The sixth: Nature teaches that I should do to my neighbor what I want done to me; wanting to do this is faith.
The seventh: The law will not be broken with evil desire as long as I do not consent to the desire.
The eighth: He who does not have the Holy Spirit does not have sin, because he does not have reason.
(8) These are vain and wanton articles of iniquity, without which is the seventh, which are not worthy to be accounted for. And your love would do well to despise such a spirit. For he is like many others who are now to and fro, who do not ask much about what they teach, but are eager that they should be spoken of, and that people should have to deal with them. And the devil also seeketh such trouble, that he may be troubled with us, and hinder us thereby, that we forget the right doctrine, or deal not therewith; even as he is wont with other specters to deceive men, that they miss the way etc. And shut their mouths, that they wait not while they do their business. This is what this spirit is doing to you in these articles.
Therefore be warned for God's sake and see to it that you despise and abandon everything that is new and strange and is not necessary for the salvation of the soul. For with such a specter he tries to catch the idle.
10. Your rumbling spirit, when he was with me, denied all these articles, although he was convicted by the others and also caught himself in the speech and confessed some; that I may testify to you in truth: It is an unstable, lying spirit, in addition insolent and impudent, who at the same time may say one thing and again deny and remain on no thing, seeking only the honor that he has been worthy to speak with us, and desires that his dung also stink; as many of his kind do.
(11) Most of all, he insists that God's commandment is good, and that God does not want sin; which is undoubtedly true, and did not help that we also confessed it. But then he did not want God, even though he does not want sin, to impose (that is, to allow) it to happen, and such imposition (admission) does not happen without his will. For who forces him to impose it? Yes, how could he impose it if he did not want to impose it? Here he went up with his head and wanted to understand how God did not want sin and yet wanted to impose it, and thought to exhaust the abyss of divine majesty, how these two wills could exist together. He did not allow him to say that and wanted to have only the One Will in God. What he has on it, is well proven by the above-mentioned articles.
(12) There is no doubt in my mind that he will present me to you as if I had said that God wants sin. To this I will here reply that he does me wrong and, as he is otherwise full of lies, does not say the truth here either; I say that God has forbidden sin and does not want it. This will is revealed to us and necessary to know. But how God wills or forbids sin, we are not to know, for He has not revealed it to us. And St. Paul himself did not want to know it and could not know it, Rom. 9, 20, when he said: "O man, who are you that is right with God?
(13) Therefore, my request is, if this spirit would trouble you much with the high question of the secret will of God, depart from it and speak thus: Is it too little that God teaches us of His public will, which He has revealed to us? What do you tell us and want to lead us into that which is forbidden and impossible for us to know, and which you yourself do not know? Let God be commanded how this is to be done; it is enough for us to know how he wills no sin. But how he wills or wills sin, we shall let go. A servant shall not know his lord's secrets, but what his lord commandeth him; much less shall a poor creature inquire and know the secrets of his God's majesty.
1532 De 3. p. 47. To Christians etc. to beware of erroneous spirits. W. X. 1787.1788. 1533
14 Behold, dear friends, you see that the devil always uses unnecessary, useless, impossible things to provoke the reckless and to open their mouths so that they go astray. Therefore, see to it that you remain in what is necessary and what God has commanded you to know; as the wise man says: "What is too high for you, do not inquire into, but always remain in what God has commanded you.
15. we all have to create enough that
we learn God's commandments and His Son Christ throughout our lives. If we are now able to do this, let us then continue to search for the secret things that this false spirit stirs up without cause, only that he may gain honor and glory. So stay on track and learn what St. Paul teaches in the Epistle to the Romans, and there examine my preface, which is the right order to learn in the Scriptures, and renounce the useless washers. I hereby commend you to God, and pray for me, amen.
Several interpretations of it are to be found mr:
III. part, 5. b. Mos., 18. cap., § 35-52, of the false prophets and their miraculous signs.
IV. Theil, Ausleg. der 22 ersten Ps.; 5. Ps., § 1-165; 10. Ps., § 53-62; 11. Ps., § 1-57, u. 12. Ps., § 1-71, von den falschen Lehrern.
- IX. Interpretation of the 15 songs in the higher choir; 120th Psalm, a prayer of David and the church against the false teachers.
IX. Theil, XI. Interpretation of the 2nd Ep. of Peter, Cap. 2; § 45. 46, Illustration of the false teachers in their sins and punishments.
- XII. Interpretation of the 1st Ep. of John, Cap. 4, by
the characteristics of true and false teachers and Christians.
IX. Theil, XV. Ausleg. der Ep. Judä, eine Abbildung der falschen Lehrer in ihren Sünden und Strafen.
XI. Theil, 1. u. 2. Pred. am 8. Sonnt. n. Trin., Unterricht und Warnung vor den falschen Propheten.
XII. Theil, XXIX. 21 Sermons; 8th Sermon, of the true spiritual construction.
XIIIa. Theil, Pred. am 8. Sonnt. n. Trin., eine Warnung vor falschen Propheten.
XIIIb. Theil, 1. Pred. am 8. Sonnt. n. Trin., eine Warnung Chr. vor d. falschen Propheten.