Christian traditional orthodox teaching saw a victory this week. It was a victory for God’s Truth. This week the ELCA removed a section of their website that preached heresy. The website section which boldly proclaimed that "everyone would be saved" (a heretical belief), that questioned the virgin birth, that questioned whether Jesus really rose from the dead and that questioned the truth of God’s account of creation, was removed. The ELCA changed the main page in that section to state:
“The Dig Deeper section of ELCA.org was created to invite fresh explorations of Christian faith for people new or returning to church life. The pages in this section have been removed while they undergo a comprehensive review to improve their usefulness as a resource for study and discussion with others.
If you have suggestions for improvements or new topics in the Dig Deeper section, send them to info@elca.org.” (read here)
Why did the ELCA take this action? Maybe ELCA leadership has responded to God’s call to them to come back to His Truth. I truly hope so. If that is the case, I call on Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson to make a public statement renouncing the heretical teachings and beliefs on those pages. Then the ELCA needs to take actions to eliminate those non-orthodox beliefs from the denomination. It is not enough to simply remove a few heretical statements on their webpage.
The more likely interpretation of the pages’ removal, in my opinion, is that the ELCA leadership buckled to pressure because of the uproar over these website statements from concerned members and went into hiding, at least on the surface (on their website). The ELCA is trying to stop the bleeding of orthodox Lutherans leaving the denomination. They are okay with laying low and not making the widely publicized anti-Biblical statements and beliefs in the hope that membership may stay.
The truth is, unless God has intervened, ELCA leadership and many ELCA pastors will continue speaking these heresies. They will still be teaching them in the seminaries and colleges. They will still be proposing and voting on Bible-denying policies. Likewise, they will keep those non-Christian policies they have already enacted. They will continue to preach the social gospel over the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They will still refrain from evangelizing to the “lost.”
This was a victory. I am thrilled that orthodox Christians spoke up! And now it is a little harder for the ELCA to mislead seekers and followers of Jesus who are reading the ELCA website.
Exposing the ELCA has highlighted Ebenezer Lutheran Church/“her church” in San Francisco in the past (read here on page 6 and here). This ELCA church is famous for goddess worship, praying the goddess rosary, praying to “Sophia” and “Mother,” as well as the use of female pronouns for the god they worship. The ELCA has taken no action to stop these practices/beliefs. We could only conclude that goddess worship is an acceptable practice in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Now we have an actual statement from ELCA leadership about the teachings of this San Francisco Lutheran Church. Bishop Michael Burk of ELCA Southeastern Iowa Synod spoke with Ebenezer Lutheran Church’s Bishop from the Sierra Pacific Synod (in August 2010). Bishop Burk had questions about reports he had heard of non-orthodox practices happening at the church. Here is his account of that conversation,
“After visiting with the bishop and with another synod staff member who knows the congregation and the pastor well, there is an acknowledgement that this congregation ‘pushes around the edges’ on matters that make some of us uncomfortable. Things like what they refer to this ‘rosary’ are seen by many to be outside the bounds, but don't rise to level of anything in the disciplinary arena. Speaking explicitly about the pastor and regular worship experience there, when folks have ‘dropped in unannounced’ they have experienced preaching that is decidedly within Lutheran orthodoxy and worship that is familiar and done with integrity. It was said that this small congregation is serving the local community very well, especially when it comes to reaching out to the local community.” (read here, go to comment 6)
We have now learned that Ebenezer Lutheran Church is offering women an interesting “spiritual retreat.” The church website says,
“Celebrate ‘She Who Is’
Encounter the Divine Feminine
with body, mind and spirit”
At this spiritual retreat you will experience -
“Sacred Re-imaging, rituals and work(play)shops, sacred sounds, altar building, meditation with the Cosmic Mother, Christian Feminist stories, beach walks, free time and relaxing with beauty that is around, among and within!”
The experience will include presentations on -
“God/dess Around Us
Language of the Goddess – Pr. Boorn (ELCA pastor)
God/dess Within Us
Connecting with God/dess – J. Dancer
God/dess Beyond Us
Spirit Shrines – Linda Roberts”
The Retreat gets even more interesting unfortunately. Ebenezer Lutheran Church’s website tells an attendee’s retreat experience where we read,
“Pastor Stacy reminded us of some of the discounted feminine images of God in the Old Testament—probably none of which were the products of female imaginations—and invited us to form our own images in clay of Asherah, the mother goddess of the Canaanites familiar to early Jewish inhabitants of Canaan. I am no artist. Warming and working the clay with my hands, I wondered whether my goddess would look anything like the photograph of an Asherah figure Stacy provided as a possible starting point . . .”
“The next project, led by Kathryn Wagner, was to make a mandala, a circular, meditative image of the self . . .”
“On the shore of Monterey Bay, on Saturday night and Sunday morning, all ten of us prayed the Goddess rosary [some beaded their own Goddess Rosary that afternoon] beside a cross erected of driftwood and draped with seaweed. Stacy called us to remember the sea as the primal water from which life emerged, to think of it as the amniotic fluid of our mother's wombs . . .” (Read here)
One could write five articles on the non-orthodox, troubling, and heretical statements written about this "spiritual retreat." But we will just focus on "Asherah."
The image of Asherah, that ELCA pastor Stacy Boorn had the women on the retreat make, is a false god. As was mentioned above, Asherah is "the mother goddess of the Canaanites" that God continually told the Israelites to stay away from. Scripture speaks of Asherah and Asherah poles extensively and none of it is positive. Here is one verse (see more verses at end of this article) -
Deuteronomy 12:3 - Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.
I would be interested in hearing from ELCA headquarters and the synod bishops as to whether this new documented information of "herchurch" making idols of a false god (one the Bible specifically mentions and which is forbidden in scripture) is still considered acceptable practices for ELCA members. As you can read in the Bible verses below, it is not acceptable to God.
If making idols and the worship of false gods does not warrant expulsion, I don’t know what does. ELCA inaction here = acceptance/approval.
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More of what God’s Word says about Asherah/Asherah poles -
Judges 3:7 - The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.
1 Kings 14:15 - And the LORD will strike Israel, so that it will be like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their ancestors and scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, because they aroused the LORD’s anger by making Asherah poles.
1 Kings 16:33 - Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him.
2 Kings 17:16 - They forsook all the commands of the LORD their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal.
Deuteronomy 7:5 - This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire.
Exposing the ELCA has documented that the ELCA’s official website supports and promotes Universal Salvation, the belief that “everyone will be saved.” Within a section called “What We Believe,” on a page dealing with “Salvation” the denomination states:"Because Jesus is the unique and universal Savior, there is a large hope for salvation, not only for me and others with the proper credentials of believing and belonging to the church, but for all people whenever or wherever they might have lived and no matter how religious or irreligious they may have proved to be themselves. It is clearly God’s announced will that all people shall be saved and come to the knowledge of truth (1 Timothy 2:4)."
(ELCA webpage has been taken down )This is not the only mention of this false teaching on the ELCA website. On “The Resurrection” page, is a subheading “Resurrection for all?” The ELCA document, after first saying that most of the verses in the Bible say not everyone will be saved, goes on to say, "(B)ut ELCA members also look to New Testament texts that go beyond those parameters . . . Lutheran theologian Joseph Sittler coined the phrase ‘Cosmic Christ’ in his 1952 address to the New Delhi assembly of the World Council of Churches, saying, ‘It is now excruciatingly clear that Christ cannot be a light that lighteth everyone coming into the world, if he is not also the light that falls upon the world into which everyone comes.’"
A little later it states, “For ELCA members, the resurrection that completes the victory of Christ over sin and death is not intended for Christians alone.”
The article continues,
"Beyond that,
- our belief that Christ came into the world to redeem the world (John 3:17)
- our belief in the proclamation that God has ‘a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth,’ (Ephesians 1:10)
- our trust in God’s righteousness
causes us to bear witness that Christ, the principal of creation, is also the principal of the new life initiated by his resurrection for all creation. For St. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:19, ‘in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.’
ELCA members believe that, being ‘entrusted’ with this message of reconciliation, we are to proclaim this salvation intended for all humankind, this redemption of the whole world, this resurrection to new life.” (webpage has been taken down)
This is on the ELCA’s official website, and it is contained in a section called “What We Believe.” Is there any doubt the ELCA is preaching Universal Salvation?
To read more evidence that the ELCA teaches and promotes Universal Salvation see here.
Many ELCA members are asking how their denomination can allow and accept teachings that go against clear Biblical doctrine on such things as salvation in Jesus for those that believe (John 3:16) and homosexuality.
In order to better understand how the ELCA got to this point, one needs to analyze what the ELCA leadership believes and ELCA seminaries teach about Scripture. There are many things we could talk about here, but for now we will focus on the ELCA using the critical method of "Redaction Criticism" for studying and understanding the Bible. (read here - this link has now been removed by the ELCA, check out this link for more information on the ELCA and redaction criticism) What is Redaction Criticism? Redaction Criticism of the Bible is the theory that different copyists and commentators of the early biblical writings embellished and altered the biblical texts throughout early Jewish and Christian history to make them appear more miraculous, inspirational, and legitimate. An example of redaction theory would be the claim that Old Testament prophecies were modified by redactors after the fact to make them appear as miraculous prophecies. Redaction criticism reduces the quality of the biblical record, casts strong doubt on its inspiration, and implies that the Bible is not trustworthy as a historical document." (read here)
This method allows the leadership in the ELCA to discount prophecies and miracles, among other things. It also allows the belief that the Biblical authors embellished, exaggerated and, in other words, lied about things they wrote about. Is there any wonder why the ELCA, in their words, actions and policies, discount what God says in Scripture to entertain their worldly, human wishes and desires?
Redaction Criticism is one cause of the ELCA's eroding belief that all Scripture is from God, that it is timeless and that it's true.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
For people who disagree with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's policy changes on homosexuality, these have been trying times. Yet we are told, "The ELCA took pains to not declare winners and losers. But to rather acknowledge that we were not of one mind as a church body around these issues. That we affirm and support people of conscience who have conflicting views over this." - ELCA Saint Paul Area Synod Bishop Peter Rogness (watch here)
The truth is the ELCA does not affirm or support your view if you believe what Scripture says about homosexuality. They call your view “sinful” and view you as sinner for holding to Scripture.
Read this confession made July 2010 at the San Francisco ELCA Rite of Reception:
"Friends in Christ as we gather, we seek to speak the truth of the difficulties we have witnessed in our church.
Our church of the reformation has been too long captive to bias and misinformation.
We have not remembered the life giving words of our own Confessions.
We have not respected the gift of sexuality, nor the joy, delight and vulnerability sexual intimacy creates among loving partners.
We have not honored faithful and loving promises, marriages, and covenantal relationships.
We have not acted quickly enough for some who have died and have not made it to this day.
We have not accorded all families with the dignity and respect they deserve.
We have not spoken up.
We have betrayed fellow members of the body of Christ because of cultural prejudice.
We have misused Scripture as a tool of discrimination.
We have forced celibacy upon too many, a gift God grants to only a few.
We have encouraged silence and complicity.
We have promoted invisibility and dishonesty.
We have hardened our hearts with bitterness and condescension.
We have intimidated and disciplined, censured and expelled.
Our actions have destroyed faith and have led people away from the gospel's call to love and justice." (read here or watch here)
This confession claims that because of the ELCA's previous Scriptural based policies on homosexuality, the ELCA church body members (all of us in the denomination) are guilty of sin for believing and following them.
The ELCA changed its Scripture based policies on homosexuality in August of 2009. But what about those of us who still hold to the Biblical view? If following what Scripture says on homosexuality was a sin before the ELCA’s August 2009 policy change, in the ELCA's viewpoint, it would still be a sin to follow it today.
The ELCA confesses our sin again at the September 2010 Rite of Reception in Minneapolis, MN.
Former Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, Herb Chilstrom reads,
"Blessed be the Holy Trinity, one God, who forgives our sin. Whose mercy endures forever.
Friends in Christ, as we gather, we seek to speak the truth of the church's troubled history with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people of God. Too often our valued heritage of grace has been overwhelmed by messages of shame. We have fallen short in honoring all people of God and being an instrument of that grace . . .
We have dishonored faithful covenants and withheld from families the respect that they deserve. We continue to debate the worthiness of sanctioning couples whose unions are legally recognized and whose minds are implicitly rooted through the long standing fidelity of bonds of parenthood.
We have disciplined, censured and expelled when we could have listened, learned and included.
We have studied God's people withholding justice so long and countless dying believing their identities and relationships were not worthy of blessing or the church and baptizing.
Throughout our history many have left the church, others have hidden within the church and still others have been cast out of the church for speaking the truth of their lives. It is time to change our history. It is time to seek forgiveness, healing and reconciliation. This rite of reception is an overture to new beginnings throughout our church. . .
Already we have seen an oppressive policy overturned." (watch here)
I'd like to make a few points:
1) The ELCA invents a new sin. That sin is "believing what God said in scripture." And they confess this sin.
2) There are many of us in the ELCA (for now) that still believe what God said in scripture regarding homosexuality. Again, the ELCA views our position as sinful toward GLBT people.
3) As the two Rite of Reception services show, the ELCA doesn't respect our view, no matter how much lip service they give us saying they do.
4) What the ELCA does want is for us to remain in the ELCA and to continue sending them money.
5) How long will the ELCA allow you, your pastors or your church to hold the view that homosexuality is wrong, especially since they see this view as sinful?
Check out what Lord of the Mountain Lutheran Church (ELCA church located in Dillon, Colorado) has to say on their website,
"LOTM MISSION STATEMENT
In the spirit of the Reformation, Lord of the Mountains Lutheran Church continually seeks meaningful ways
of expressing our commitment to the life and teaching of Jesus.
We do this by...
*welcoming all people to full participation in our community of faith.
*Recognizing there are other ways to God than just our way."
(find here)
If you didn't catch that, Lord of the Mountain's Pastor, Joseph Holub says this on his own website,
"1. I affirm that Jesus Christ is the emergence of God's ongoing gracious presence in the world, and that through Jesus relationship with God is experienced. Jesus is a doorway into the mystery of God." (find here - click on "Joe.")
"Jesus is A doorway." "There are other ways to God."
So the belief that all paths lead to God is OK according to the ELCA? We see the ELCA teaching universal salvation, which has a very similar result. (read here) Allowance of this teaching means acceptance, in my view.
For what it's worth, I also found these statements by Lord of the Mountain's Pastor, noteworthy.
"Since The Enlightenment especially, but even long before that Christianity has been preoccupied with doctrine – faith defined as a set of right beliefs. Christianity is spoiled, grossly distorted and loses its heart when it is turned into a set of correct doctrines that I must accept or else. I mean read the Apostle's Creed. There's nothing much there that really stirs the soul and lights a fire in one's heart. There's nothing there about loving one's neighbor or enemy or anybody else. Doctrines and correct beliefs don’t make disciples but eventually turn us into narrow and intolerant fanatics. Jesus is not a doctrine. He is the expression of compassion and radical inclusive love who invites us to follow him on an adventure called discipleship that just may cost us our lives as we give ourselves away in the pursuit of love, compassion and justice. He calls us beyond the narrow boundaries behind which we protect and isolate ourselves from others. What Jesus asks for is our faith defined as trust and commitment in his way of loving and living. Unfortunately somewhere along the line being Christian came to mean accepting beliefs about Jesus rather than actually following Jesus." (read here, click on "blog" and go about 3/4 down the page to a heading called "The Deficiency of Doctrine.")
The ELCA made it's decision to call homosexuality "good" even though God calls it sin and asks those to turn from it. The ELCA decision was a rejection of the Bible and then they ask it's members to remain in unity. Here is how we all should answer the ELCA.
"It is illogical to embrace heresy and then expect unity. . . It is better to be divided by truth than united in error."
"Unity, Biblical unity comes from what we believe about the word of God and the Son of God."
"It is appalling and evil when an official denominational pronouncement condones and celebrates the very sins that keep people out of the kingdom of God. How is that good? How is that justice? How is the loving? How does that liberate anyone? This decision slanders God. It just misses God's word and promotes damnation in the place of salvation. . . it is better to be divided by the truth than united in error. . . Biblical heresy is not the rallying point for church unity, Biblical truth is. We rally around the word of God and the Son of God, that is where we find our unity."
"Personally, I could not stay in a church or denomination that has blatantly ignored and defied scripture." Quotes from Pastor Troy Dobbs (see video here)
Please read this article -
Excerpts from an Email to ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson from Jaynan Clark, President, WordAlone MinistriesI read this article minutes ago and feel it is something all ELCA members need to read. We, the members of this denomination should have the same passion and courage to stand against the enemy who desires to lead the elect astray. I call on all to ELCA members to not back down to the false gospel the leadership of the ELCA is endorsing and weaving into a once Christ centered, scripture following denomination. As the young shepherd David boldly proclaimed victory over the giant and ran swiftly at him in battle, knowing God was on his side, we need to be a strong voice of truth, leading our churches away for the false gospel the devil has brought into the ELCA.
Please send this article on to all you know who would be interested.
<><
Dan Skogen
Does God's written word mean nothing to you? Are you a Christian in name only? I have to ask this, after reading the following article (read here) and hearing of ELCA members and churches deciding to stay in the ELCA. (Praise God for those of you who are standing up to the ELCA's false teachings and ways)
The ELCA mocks scripture that is given to us by God. (Explore this website for the evidence) The ELCA cuts out pieces of the Bible they don't like and rewrites the words to say what they want it to say. Yet most still support this denomination.
And what about the content ELCA bishops and pastors? Why are you staying in the ELCA when you know the heresy of the ELCA? Isn't standing up for truth more important to you than your jobs? Are you afraid you may upset some of your congregation or lose some of your members? Or are you afraid you may be called names by people, most of whom are not even Christians.
Do you really want to be part of a denomination that places their thoughts above God's thoughts? Do you really want to stand before Jesus someday and tell Him you knew the ELCA walked away from Him but you were afraid to do the same to the ELCA?
No need to believe in Jesus. Believe whatever you want! ELCA seminary professor, David J. Lull, says you are going to heaven no matter what.
This is Part 2 (see Part 1) of an examination of Dr. David J. Lull, Professor of New Testament at Wartburg Theological Seminary series of lectures in January 2010 titled, "Preaching Lent and Easter."
The following are quotes from Dr. Lull's lectures -
"For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom [lytron] for many (Mk 10.45) - The term 'many' is not restrictive, as if it meant 'to give his life as a ‘ransom’ for some but not all'; rather, it is equivalent to 'all': 'to give his life as a ‘ransom’ for all.' And we know that 'all means all': not just Christians, or believers, or good people, but all people." (pages 6-7)
"We need to pause a moment to consider another reason why I’m skipping over the important ecumenical discussion of 'the doctrine of justification.' I have come to believe that, as important as that Reformation doctrine is, along with the partial rapprochement between Lutherans and Roman Catholics on that doctrine—to which the Methodists have added their affirmation—that doctrine’s vision of salvation is too limited. It isn’t big enough to encompass those who are sinned against: the innocent poor, especially the poorest among the poor; the innocent victims of violence in their homes, communities; innocent victims of war; innocent
victims of genetic malfunctions and disease; innocent victims of ordinary accidents; and innocent creatures who are victims of ecological injustice. The list could go on. These innocent victims do not need forgiveness for their plight!" (page 3-4)
"God’s salvation is for 'all.' The problem is that Paul wrote that 'if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.' Doesn’t that mean salvation is only for confessing Christians? But Paul also quoted Isa 28.16: 'No one who believes in him [that is, God] will be put to shame.'
And Joel 2.32: 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord [that is, God] shall be saved.' Also, remember that this section of Romans begins with 'the righteousness that
comes from faith says…' (Rom 10.6). For Paul, a monotheistic Jew, that means faith in God." (page 12)
"Jesus did not have to die as a condition of God’s forgiveness of sins. Mark knew that Jesus knew that God had always forgiven the sins of “many/all,” and that God would keep on forgiving their sins." (page 9)
Dr. Lull teaches the future pastors of the ELCA, and has been for many years. If the students believe this teaching of universal salvation then when they are pastors they will not be telling anyone about the truth of salvation in Jesus Christ. The lost will remain lost, just as the devil wants.
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