V. 1. ff. If a prophet or dreamer among you shall arise, and give thee a sign or a wonder 2c.
To confirm what he said at the end of the previous chapter: "You shall do nothing to it," 2c., Moses sets this whole chapter by wanting us to adhere to the word of God with such great reverence that we will not be moved by persons or signs, even if they are as learned and holy as the prophets, or good and kind as brothers, children and friends, or great and many as cities and mighty men. One must base oneself entirely on the Word alone and put everything out of sight and out of mind, because if one loses the Word, one loses God. But it is better to lose friends, brothers, saints, and powerful people than to lose God.
And here you see that every one is given the right to speak also about the teachings of the
Christ also commands, Matth. 7, 15: "Beware of false prophets", although no one is allowed to execute the external right and kill such a prophet, but the authorities, as we are taught in the following chapter. For everyone should keep his conscience, therefore the right to judge the spirits and the prophets is necessary for every man, but no one has the right to take the sword from himself. Otherwise, what need would there be for public authority?
Here the question arises: How does he forbid to believe a prophet who performs such signs and foretells what is to come, while in chapter 18, v. 22, he says that one can know that it is God's word when that comes which the prophet has spoken? I answer: In this
In the second chapter he speaks of the already existing (praeterito) word of God, which is already accepted and confirmed with the necessary (suis) signs, as he says: "You shall neither add to it nor do away with it", and again [Cap. 12, 1. 1: "Keep the commandments of GOD," and [Cap. 28, 1.], "Obey His voice." Against such a word no prophets are to be admitted, though they rain signs and wonders, not even an angel from heaven, as Paul says in the Epistle to the Galatians [Cap. 1, 8.]. But here it is written about a prophet who will do signs to introduce other gods. Now this is contrary to the received word, that one should worship only One God; therefore one should not hear him. But in the eighteenth chapter he speaks of a new word, which has not yet been received, and which also does not contradict the received word; therefore he says there [v. 20]: "If a prophet should speak in my name, which I have not commanded him" 2c. Such a prophet is not to be admitted unless he does signs, just as Christ also confirmed His gospel with signs when it was necessary to preach beyond Moses. For God does not reveal any new word without confirming it with signs. He does allow a new word to be taught, so that He may tempt us, but He is faithful to stand by us, so that signs do not happen, or what they preached before does not come to pass, as is shown in Elijah, when he had to deal with the Baalphobes, as Paul also says [1 Cor. 11:19]: "For there must be breeds among you, so that those who are righteous may become manifest among you." So he also allows signs to be done against the accepted word, again to try us (as Moses says here, v. 3.) whether we love him with all our heart. So far the devil has deceived us with lying signs and wonders, and brought us into strong errors [2 Thess. 2, 11.], as Paul predicted, in that we have admired pilgrimages, apparitions of spirits and some healings at certain tombs, contrary to the gospel we have received, so that even holy people have come to traps here, like Augustine, Bernard, Jerome and many others, who have orders and rules on
They would certainly have been condemned (as Wiklef says) if they had not repented and been preserved by the fullness of faith in their unrecognized error.
We have often said, and we say again, that other gods are not merely an outward idol, but rather a delusion or an erroneous conscience, which one invents for oneself of the true God; for as the conscience is, so is God. For if you believe that one serves God with these or those sacrifices, in this or that place, and that without the word of God, then you have already lost the true God, and that delusion of such sacrifice is your God, which [delusion] you hold under the name of the true God. If you believe that by the cap and the plate, by poverty, obedience, fasting, food and drink, God is worshipped (since you have no word of God here), then the cap and the plate is already your God, or that delusion of the cap and the plate. Therefore, as you inwardly have the delusion of the cap in the place of God, so you also proceed outwardly and set up the cap as an outward idol in the image of the inward delusion, you wear it, you honor it, you serve it and hold it in great value.
Behold, this is making other gods and following them, that is, serving gods you do not know, for you do not feel or understand that you are worshipping a delusion and an idol in place of the true God, nor do you pay attention to how uncertain you are in this service, and how nothing at all you think of or think about the true God, because you are thinking about him without his word. But he cannot be held or thought of in any other way than by his word. Thus you see that every way of inventing or worshipping foreign gods is no other than the godless delusion by which we choose and believe without the word of GOtte that we please GOtte by this or that work, by this or that place, by this or that ceremony (ritu), while he is not such a [god], and yet under his name another [god] is fictitiously invented in the heart. Therefore follow also outwardly different names, as
different idols [arise], so that one is called Baal, another Astharoth, another Dagon, another Moloch, Peor, Camos, and so with many more names, like our monks, one of the white, another of the black garment, and each with his name and according to his work, which outer
is called, which is clearly distinguished from others. All these are prophets who are deceived by their dreams and speak: Let us go and serve other gods, that is, let us choose new customs (rites) without the Word, under the name of the true God.