But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.  Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.  For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority.
Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from the Lord.  But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.  They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness.  But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.  For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.  They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”  If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.  It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.  Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”  - 2 Peter Chapter 2
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Over the last two years we have exposed a widely held belief by leadership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that Adam and Eve are a myth. (see here and here)  Just a few days ago, the Director of the Center for Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary, Dr. David Lose, said, “Did Adam and Eve exist?  No.”  I have personally been told by the Academic Dean of an ELCA seminary that “not one professor in any ELCA seminary believes that Adam and Eve were real people.”
 
In a recent blog, Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. talks about the importance of believing what God’s Word says about Adam and the truth that he was the  first historical human being.  Dr. Mohler, Jr. says, “(T)he denial of a historical Adam means not only the rejection of a clear biblical teaching, but also the denial of the biblical doctrine of the Fall, leading to a very different way of telling the story of the Bible and the meaning of the Gospel.”  (read the whole blog here).

Think about this, the Bible, Old and New Testament, speaks of Adam at least twenty-one times.  Scripture always speaks about Adam being a historical, actual individual.  Yet the ELCA leadership teaches and believes that Adam and Eve are a myth. 

The fact of the matter is that the ELCA leadership likes to deny historical accounts and Biblical teaching throughout Scripture.  There is a great deal of documentation of the ELCA leadership questioning the virgin birth, Christ’s resurrection, the creation account, salvation in Christ alone for those that believe, historic Biblical accounts, the reality of hell and if the Bible is true (and those are just a few of the examples).

When we look at the evidence, it is easy to see that the leadership of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America does not believe much of what is written in the Bible! 

What results from a view that holds such an arbitrary view of the Bible?  A dying church which un-sins sin, doesn’t evangelize, disregards the law, denies God’s eternal covenant with the Jews, supports abortions, preaches a social gospel as opposed to the “Good News,” rejects using male terms for God, and decides for themselves what is truth.

I pray that the ELCA will repent of its ways, but until then, perhaps it is time to find a church that believes what God says.

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Lutheran Woman Today, a publication of Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, published an article in their June 2011 magazine called “Holden Together.”  In the article we are told about a retreat and Bible study where ELCA pastor, Matt Larson, taught on Genesis 1, 2 and 3.  The pastor did not teach the traditional historical understanding that Moses wrote these chapters, instead it was “Yahwists” and priests.  The take-away message of this Bible study on creation and Adam and Eve was, “(j)ust because it’s not real doesn’t mean it’s not true.” (link to the article)

The article earlier stated, “(w)hen asked to describe the creation story, members of our group offered similar words: allegory, symbolic, myth, parable.”

Here is an ELCA affiliated magazine promoting the denial of the words of the Bible and make no mistake, it is also teaching their readers that they can not trust that what the Bible says is true.

In the same article about the retreat, a Methodist preacher spoke to the group, the author tells us “he excoriated America for ‘raining down fire’ on the Middle East and called for forgiveness and reconciliation in our foreign relations.”

This is so typical, many leaders in the ELCA and the mainline denominations that it is full communion with, blame America, hate on Jews and deny Scripture.

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David Lose, The Marbury E. Anderson Professor of Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary, recently spoke on a podcast entitled, “What is the Bible?”

During the podcast he said this about the Bible,
“(i)t is this collection of stuff, all kinds of stuff from all over the place that have been passed down and put together and sometimes edited and changed . . .” (listen here)  

Prof. Lose is stating a standard teaching theory in the ELCA called 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)

And one wonders how the ELCA can make policies and take positions that are completely contrary to what God tells us in scripture?  It's because many leaders in the ELCA have very little regard for it.

Read more about Redaction Criticism and the ELCA here.

Read more about David Lose from Exposing the ELCA here.

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The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America claims they believe the Bible is true, yet they continually deny factual accounts of Scripture and traditional church doctrine.

See articles about:
  -  1500+ ELCA leaders who deny creation, Adam and Eve and Noah and the Ark 
  -  ELCA support of Universal Salvation 
  -  ELCA on Homosexuality 
  -  ELCA on Hell
  -  ELCA and the Virgin Birth

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Cartoon by Matthew Silber
http://www.ganarus.wordpress.com
email: tridus@live.com
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“Let's finally get out of the Old Testament and turn to what our Lord said and did,” says Klaus G.W. Molzahn, a retired ELCA pastor who lives in Hanover, PA.  Pastor Molzahn authored an article entitled, “Let the Love of Christ Prevail” which was printed in the April 2011 issue of The Lutheran, (the magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) Read here

This is just another example of the ELCA’s actual view of scripture.
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Resurrection 04/24/2011
 
Resurrection
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Good Friday 04/22/2011
 
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Please take a few minutes to read this survey conducted by The Barna Group, in 2009, on what Christians believe. (read here)

Many Christian denominations in America are failing to teach the truth of scripture.  The study says almost 60% of “Christians” do not believe Satan is a real being?  Almost 40% think that Jesus sinned while on Earth? 

How does this happen?  The Bible is clear on Jesus being sinless and Satan being real, yet a lot of Christians think otherwise.  This happens when denominations and pastors are not teaching Scripture correctly.

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. said, "We have the Bible and all of the Bible. We are accountable to it all, and it is all true, trustworthy, authoritative, sufficient, and, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, clear in its message."  Churches in America, including the ELCA, need to be teaching and preaching the truth of Scripture.  It is God's Word.

Sadly, this isn’t happening.  The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s worldly teaching of Scripture, in their seminaries, leads their future pastors (many of them) to reject much of what the Bible says.  This has been happening gradually for over 20 years. Subsequently, the pastors, who are now serving congregations, will rarely uphold the truth of Scripture in the sermons they give. (But they sure know how to deliver some enlightening social justice and self-help sermons.) Through these tactics, the devil has silenced God’s Word and replaced it with damnable heresy.  
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The Bible teaches that we need to believe in Christ.  John 3:16-18 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

The teaching of universalism, in essence, says that everyone will go to heaven no matter what they do, think, believe or worship.  This is not Biblical and it is very dangerous.  People will go to hell because they believe in universalism and not Christ.  Yet here is a Luther Seminary (ELCA) professor arguing the merits of universalism and encouraging the preaching of this heresy.

“The Rob Bell Controversy: Does Anyone Go To Hell?“ by David Lose, Director, Center for Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary. (read here)

For more information on the ELCA’s support and teaching of universalism/ universal salvation see here. 

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