More Responses . . . (continuing from "People Respond")
Dear Pastor and Church Council
. . .We cannot support a church whose leadership has chosen to go off in a direction that is contrary to what God teaches in His Word. We cannot support a church that uses our finances to promote agendas that are in direct opposition to God and we will not be complicit in disobedience. No church should ever deny the authority of God’s Word and to do so begs the question of whether the church is genuine or counterfeit. Our family’s allegiance must first be to the Lord Jesus Christ and the sanctity of His Word, not to any particular person, church or denomination. We are leaving the ELCA because they have left us. . .
Personal Perspectives from an ELCA Member
. . . As I ponder this divisive issue, there are certain things I ask myself. Do I believe in Jesus Christ as the only son of God and whose authority has dominion over all the earth? Do I believe that the blood Jesus shed was for my redemption and a promise of everlasting life? If I believe these things, how is it that I believe? The answer is first in the Word of God, that is the Holy Bible. In Luther’s writings the Bible is referenced as the final authority, not to be interpreted by man to meet personal agendas. The answers also come in my personal relationship with Christ. The key word in the above sentence is personal. That personal relationship along with the Word bring me to my decision. The new agenda of the ELCA is diametrically opposed to where the Spirit leads me. . .
ELCA Assembly illustrates the dominant Social Gospel
. . .Moral of the story: don’t let the radicals and progressives get to you. Stand up for truth. Support what’s right. Don’t be cowed, don’t appease and don’t give in! Keep going and, more than ever, fight the good fight.
South Carolina ELCA Synod Meeting 2010 - (One Youth's Experience)
. . .I do sincerely hope that the pro-gay people martialed their forces for this event in order to appear more numerous than they really are, because if what I saw there is proportional to the SC Synod at large, then we are in hot water. . .
The ELCA Has Left Us
. . .The ELCA leadership certainly didn’t want members voting on this controversial proposal because the vast majority would have opposed the decision. Last September, 91 percent of members surveyed at a congregational meeting of Hosanna! Lutheran Church of Lakeville, one of Minnesota’s largest ELCA congregations, supported separation from the ELCA. Also, the two largest ELCA congregations in North Dakota, Hope Lutheran and First Lutheran of Fargo, voted to stop funding the ELCA. . .
Pr. Jonathan Jenkins' Open Letter
ELCA Pastor Jonathan Jenkins has written the following in response to ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson's latest pastoral letter. . .
An Alarming Antinomian Statement
An alarming antinomian statement can be found in ELCA’s second working draft on sexuality: “This church’s ‘Confession of Faith’ begins with the Gospel, instead of the sequence implied in the phrase ‘Law and Gospel’. . .” (Human Sexuality, Working Draft: a Possible Social Statement of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, October 1994).
Against the Antinomians, Martin Luther, 1539
"The Antinomians have invented a new method by which grace is to be preached first and after that the wrath of God. That is a pretty seesaw, which pleases them wonderfully, because by this trick they can turn the Scriptures up or down and think they have become lux mundi [a world’s marvel]. But they put the shoe on the foot the wrong way, trying to teach us the Law after the Gospel and wrath after grace. I am well aware of the devil’s aim. I see what abominable errors he is bent on introducing by means of this exegetical teeter-totter."
Smalcald Articles, Martin Luther, 1537
Therefore the two doctrines belong together, and should also be urged by the side of each other, but in a definite order and with a proper distinction; and the Antinomians or assailants of the Law are justly condemned, who abolish the preaching of the Law from the Church, and wish sins to be reproved. . .
The Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord, 1531
Here we hold that the Law was given by God, first, to restrain sin by threats and the dread of punishment, and by the promise and offer of grace and benefit. But all this miscarried on account of the wickedness which sin has wrought in man. For thereby a part were rendered worse, those, namely, who are hostile to the Law, because it forbids what they like to do, and enjoins what they do not like to do. Therefore, wherever they can escape punishment, they do more against the Law than before. These, then, are the rude and wicked men, who do evil wherever they have the opportunity.
But to this office the New Testament immediately adds the consolatory promise of grace through the Gospel, which must be believed, as Christ declares, Mark 1:15: Repent and believe the Gospel, i.e., become different and do otherwise, and believe My promise.
The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, CFW Walther, 1884 Thesis VII.
In the third place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when the Gospel is preached first and then the Law; sanctification first and then justification; faith first and then repentance; good works first and then grace..
In the first place, the order may be distorted if you preach the Gospel prior to the Law. You may think: “Can a person be so perverse? Why, every catechumen at school knows quite well that the Law comes first and then the Gospel.” However, this can easily happen. We have instances in history which show that even entire religious associations became addicted to this error. For instance, the Antinomians in Luther’s time, with Agricola, of Eisleben, as their leader; and the Herrnhuters (Moravians) in the eighteenth century. Their hearers were never made aware of their deep sinful depravity; they were never made to realize that they were enemies of God, worthy to be cast down to perdition rather than to be saved.
- email sent from a reader.
Against the Antinomians, Martin Luther, 1539
"The Antinomians have invented a new method by which grace is to be preached first and after that the wrath of God. That is a pretty seesaw, which pleases them wonderfully, because by this trick they can turn the Scriptures up or down and think they have become lux mundi [a world’s marvel]. But they put the shoe on the foot the wrong way, trying to teach us the Law after the Gospel and wrath after grace. I am well aware of the devil’s aim. I see what abominable errors he is bent on introducing by means of this exegetical teeter-totter."
Smalcald Articles, Martin Luther, 1537
Therefore the two doctrines belong together, and should also be urged by the side of each other, but in a definite order and with a proper distinction; and the Antinomians or assailants of the Law are justly condemned, who abolish the preaching of the Law from the Church, and wish sins to be reproved. . .
The Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord, 1531
Here we hold that the Law was given by God, first, to restrain sin by threats and the dread of punishment, and by the promise and offer of grace and benefit. But all this miscarried on account of the wickedness which sin has wrought in man. For thereby a part were rendered worse, those, namely, who are hostile to the Law, because it forbids what they like to do, and enjoins what they do not like to do. Therefore, wherever they can escape punishment, they do more against the Law than before. These, then, are the rude and wicked men, who do evil wherever they have the opportunity.
But to this office the New Testament immediately adds the consolatory promise of grace through the Gospel, which must be believed, as Christ declares, Mark 1:15: Repent and believe the Gospel, i.e., become different and do otherwise, and believe My promise.
The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, CFW Walther, 1884 Thesis VII.
In the third place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when the Gospel is preached first and then the Law; sanctification first and then justification; faith first and then repentance; good works first and then grace..
In the first place, the order may be distorted if you preach the Gospel prior to the Law. You may think: “Can a person be so perverse? Why, every catechumen at school knows quite well that the Law comes first and then the Gospel.” However, this can easily happen. We have instances in history which show that even entire religious associations became addicted to this error. For instance, the Antinomians in Luther’s time, with Agricola, of Eisleben, as their leader; and the Herrnhuters (Moravians) in the eighteenth century. Their hearers were never made aware of their deep sinful depravity; they were never made to realize that they were enemies of God, worthy to be cast down to perdition rather than to be saved.
- email sent from a reader.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Succumbs to Heresy (2009)
. . .Yes, that is exactly what occurred when the leadership of that community "voted" to abandon Christian orthodoxy. . .
