Addendum: Luther denied idolatry in his Smalcald Articles. So some of what I said in this article is not accurate. It is still true that the Lutherans follow a different order of numbering the Decalogue. See: Smalcald Articles and the Book of Concord.
Why Lutherans Have a Different Numbering of the Ten Commandments
Once I was reading the Small Catechism written by Luther and noticed that his numbering of the decalogue or ten commandments was different from what I had been used to seeing. I could not for the life of me figure out why. However, in reading the biography of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer by Diarmaid MacCullough I found the answer to my question. I am by no means an expert on Anglicanism and Lutheranism. I spent most of my life on the broad evangelical side of things, particularly since my earliest experiences with the church were with the pentecostal holiness tradition or with the southern baptists. Although I did for a brief time attend a presbyterian church prior to the split between the Presbyterian Church in America from the Presbyterian Church in the USA.
In my reading of Thomas Cranmer, by Diarmaid MacCullough (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), I discovered that Martin Luther's view of the sacraments was not the only item at issue between the Reformed and the Lutherans. In fact, the Lutherans were much more willing to tolerate veneration of images and the saints than the magisterial reformers in Geneva and Zurich were willing to tolerate. For Luther, the veneration of images was a matter of indifference and so Luther and the Lutherans follow Roman Catholic tradition and Eastern Orthodox tradition by removing the prohibition against graven images from the ten commandments. Luther's Small Catechism therefore reads:
As the head of the family should teach them in a simple way to his household.
The First Commandment.
Thou shalt have no other gods.
What does this mean?--Answer.
We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
The Second Commandment.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain.
What does this mean?--Answer.
We should fear and love God that we may not curse, swear, use witchcraft, lie, or deceive by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.
The Third Commandment.
Thou shalt sanctify the holy-day.
What does this mean?--Answer.
We should fear and love God that we may not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it.
The Fourth Commandment.
Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother [that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long upon the earth].
What does this mean?--Answer.
We should fear and love God that we may not despise nor anger our parents and masters, but give them honor, serve, obey, and hold them in love and esteem.
The Fifth Commandment.
Thou shalt not kill.
What does this mean?--Answer.
We should fear and love God that we may not hurt nor harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every bodily need [in every need and danger of life and body].
The Sixth Commandment.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
What does this mean?--Answer.
We should fear and love God that we may lead a chaste and decent life in words and deeds, and each love and honor his spouse.
The Seventh Commandment.
Thou shalt not steal.
What does this mean?--Answer.
We should fear and love God that we may not take our neighbor's money or property, nor get them by false ware or dealing, but help him to improve and protect his property and business [that his means are preserved and his condition is improved].
The Eighth Commandment.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
What does this mean?--Answer.
We should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully belie, betray, slander, or defame our neighbor, but defend him, [think and] speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.
The Ninth Commandment.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house.
What does this mean?--Answer.
We should fear and love God that we may not craftily seek to get our neighbor's inheritance or house, and obtain it by a show of [justice and] right, etc., but help and be of service to him in keeping it.
The Tenth Commandment.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is his.
What does this mean?--Answer.
We should fear and love God that we may not estrange, force, or entice away our neighbor's wife, servants, or cattle, but urge them to stay and [diligently] do their duty.
What Does God Say of All These Commandments?
Answer.
He says thus (Exod. 20:5f): I the Lord, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments.
What does this mean?--Answer.
God threatens to punish all that transgress these commandments. Therefore we should dread His wrath and not act contrary to these commandments. But He promises grace and every blessing to all that keep these commandments. Therefore we should also love and trust in Him, and gladly do [zealously and diligently order our whole life] according to His commandments. (From: Luther's Small Catechism: The Ten Commandments. The Book of Concord).
Luther and those who follow him therefore consider it a matter of adiaphora whether or not anyone venerates images or the saints, including Mary. Also, Luther considered it a matter of indifference as to whether or not the bread and wine were to be "lifted up, adored, or carried about." So we can see immediately the problems which come with adopting the Lutheran view. About the only thing Luther was firm about was the doctrines of sola Scriptura and sola fide. Luther's break with Rome is not radical enough.
However, the English Reformers sided with the Stassburg-St. Gall ordering of the Decalogue acccording to Diarmaid MacCullough:
". . . evidently Bishop Foxe did not feel that his leading role disqualified him from stridently enunciating the evangelical cause. It is not surprising that the document eventually published was full of Lutheran overtones; it made considerable textual borrowings from the evangelically-flavoured primer (lay devotional book) issued by Cromwell's favourite propaganda publisher, William Marshall, in 1535. Via this devious route there entered disguised fragments of Martin Luther's prose into an official formulary of the Church of Henry VIII, who detested the man.
"In one significant and prophetic respect, however, Marshall's primer pushed the Bishop's Book further than Lutheranism towards the theology of the Strassburg-St Gall axis. In one of its sections it renumbered the Ten Commandments, which may at first hearing sound either a drastic or a pedantic procedure. However, the renumbering had a deep theological resonance. From the beginnings of Christian commentary on the Old Testament, there had been two traditions about the opening and therefore the subsequent numbering of the Decalogue. One school of thought had combined the command to have no other Gods but God with the command to make no graven images, and even argued that the graven image command was a late importation and therefore of secondary importance. This was the dominant tradition in the early and medieval western Church, not surprisingly, since it removed the embarrassing prominence of the graven image prohibition, a convenience for a religion increasingly reliant on the visual in its devotion. The other tradition, with good Jewish and patristic warrant, treated these two commandments as separate, and therefore the image prohibition became the second of the Ten Commandments in its own right. It was the sign of a religious tradition which regarded the visual as a threat to the right perception of God." (MacCullough, pp. 191-192).
According to MacCullough, the view in Marshall's primer became the official position of the Church of England (p. 192). That this is true can most obviously be seen in Cranmer's numbering and order of the Decalogue in the 1552 Book of Common Prayer's service for the Lord's Supper, which is retained in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer made the standard of the English Church during the reign of Charles II. The 1662 BCP has a rubric requiring the reading of the Decalogue at every communion service by the minister with a responsive prayer after each commandment by the people and a closing responsive prayer read by the people. Cranmer's ordering of the commandments clearly follows the Jewish tradition and the patristic tradition against images:
Then shall the Priest, turning to the people, rehearse distinctly all the TEN COMMANDMENTS; and the people still kneeling shall, after every Commandment, ask God mercy for their transgression thereof for the time past, and grace to keep the same for the time to come, as followeth.
Minister.
GOD spake these words, and said; I am the Lord thy God: Thou shalt have none other gods but me.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, and visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and shew mercy unto thousands in them that love me, and keep my commandments.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless, that taketh his Name in vain.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all that thou hast to do; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no manner of work, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, thy cattle, and the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and ail that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Thou shalt do no murder.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Thou shalt not steal.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee.
Unfortunately, modern Evangelical Anglicans, like many of those in the Sydney Diocese, have sided with the modern church growth movement. They no longer use the prayer book or read the Decalogue during communion services. While they still recommend that ministers use the 1662 Book of Common Prayer or the Australian Prayer Book adopted in 1980, the use of liturgy to teach Scripture, creed, and evangelical theology is replaced with dumbed down "experiential" worship focusing on the subjective and ecstatic experience of the lay person rather than an intellectual grasp of the propositional truths of Holy Scripture. This blatantly anti-intellectual approach to worship downplays the didactic intent of Cranmer's liturgy and replaces it with what can only be described as an irrational and "liberal" view of worship. This sort of liturgical pragmatism may win short term gains in attendance and monetary rewards for the church but the long lasting effects of such an approach is pelagianism and liberalism, the very things Sydney claims to oppose. The same seems to be true in many Anglican congregations in the United Kingdom.
The real purpose of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is to teach the Evangelical faith and to evangelize all who attend the worship services by reading the penitential sentences or Scriptures in the Morning and Evening Prayer services and by reading both the Decalogue (law) and the Gospel in the liturgy itself. For Cranmer and the English Reformers real presence, veneration of images and the saints, and other departures from Scripture are not matters of indifference but matters central to the very Bible itself.
May the peace of God be with you,
Charlie
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