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The Sin of Silence in American Churches

6/29/2015

(The following articles were written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and twitter - here.)

Tonight I attended a Saturday evening worship service at an Episcopal church. Second only to the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church in America is filled with the worst heresy in American Christendom. Their head Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori has likened the Holy Spirit to White Buffalo Woman in Native American spirituality. In a sermon she chided the Apostle Paul for casting a demon out of a girl in Acts 16, instead Paul should have recognized God within her. And the Episcopal Church has the retired Bishop John Shelby Spong who writes books denying the Incarnation, the Virgin Birth of Christ, the miracles of the Bible, Christ's substitutionary atonement, Christ's bodily ressurrection, etc. etc.

So why did I attend an Episcopal church? Because you can still find good, Biblical Episcopal churches and I love their worship and the fact that they serve Holy Communion weekly. The church I attended tonight is a good church with a Biblical pastor who does not go along with the craziness that has come to characterize American Episcopalianism.

But I was sad tonight. Nowhere in the service did the pastor mention what happened to America this week. Not a sentence in his sermon, not a prayer lifted up acknowledged the fact that America as abandoned the God-ordained institution of heterosexual marriage.

I don't get it. Or maybe I do. Serving a church for 29 years, I know how hard it is to preach against, say, divorce and remarriage, when there are remarried people in the pews. Perhaps the pastor knew of a parent or a grandparent who would be offended for their homosexual child if he took a stand for traditional marriage. I know its hard. But, please, we have to do it. If we love people, we have to preach the truth. And God will hold us accountable if we don't.

So I ask you to pray that your pastor has the boldness to lovingly mention in the services tomorrow what happened to America this week. One reason we now have homosexual "marriage" in America is because good, Biblical Christians have been too quiet. Maybe even send your pastor an email tonight or mention before the service tomorrow "Pastor, could you please pray today about America this week and that we need to repent as a nation?"

One last thing. Did you ever think you would see the White House lit up in the gay pride rainbow colors like it was last night? Such a clear sign that we are asking God to judge us.

In Jesus our Savior,

Pastor Tom Brock
pastorsstudy.org

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Part II

This morning I worshipped at a congregation of the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church. The Missouri Synod, in contrast to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is a good, Biblically-based denomination. The Missouri Synod is strongly pro-life, whereas the ELCA pays for abortion for any reason with offering dollars in the ELCA healthcare plan. The Missouri Synod takes a stand against homosexual marriage and homosexual behavior, whereas the ELCA ordains practicing homosexuals.

So what happened today at this Missouri Synod church? Did the pastor address what the Supreme Court did this week by forcing homosexual "marriage" on all 50 states? Not a word in his sermon. But coming up in the service was the prayer time. I sat in the pew and prayed that he would at least bring it up during the prayers. Again, not a word. I left so sad.

It was a nice service. Nice music, nice message. But I couldn't help but think of what an old white-haired Lutheran pastor said many years ago "We are nicing people right into hell."

I came away affirmed in my belief that one big reason we now have homosexual marriage in the United States is the silence of Biblical pastors who are afraid to offend people. I think of what happened in Minnesota in 2012 when conservative pastors were asked to sign a statement affirming an amendment which would have preserved traditional marriage. Relatively few would sign it.

So now we have what we have. May God have mercy,

Pastor Tom Brock
pastorsstudy.org

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Everyone Can Receive Communion At This ELCA Church

6/24/2015

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Michael Rinehart, the ELCA’s Texas Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod Bishop, recently posted a blog of his time spent with controversial ELCA pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber at her church (House For All Sinners and Saints) in Colorado. Bishop Rinehart included in his blog a picture of the church booklet “Welcome” page that said,

“Everyone without exception is welcome to be fed at God's table of Grace (Communion.)” (see here)

God’s Word tells us “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.” – 1 Corinthians 11:27-29

How dangerous of this ELCA church to invite everyone, which includes those that reject Christ, to take communion based on this warning from God. And how treacherous for Bishop Rinehart to post this instruction for all to see without denouncing it.

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"Our many-gendered God", more strangeness from the ELCA website

6/19/2015

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(The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and twitter - here.)

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's website has a blog written by ELCA members of various viewpoints. It is sad to read the heretical views given space there. Consider this offering by Kristin Berkey-Abbott, a life-long Lutheran and college professor. Here are some excerpts:

(End of article)

Please once again stop and say a prayer that many, many will leave the ELCA and offer their time and talents to a more biblical denomination.

Sincerely in Christ

Pastor Tom Brock
pastorsstudy.org

The first week of June brought us the Vanity Fair issue with Caitlyn Jenner on the cover... I realize that a lot of people are still deeply committed to the idea that all of life can be divided neatly into binary categories: male/female, gay/straight, Christian/uncommitted, U.S. citizen/other, creative/rational – on and on I could go.

I have spent much of the last three decades thinking about gender in all sorts of ways. Are there two genders or more? Most of us would say, "two." We've been trained to think that. Is it time to blow up the gender binary?...the more I learn about life (and physics!), the more I think the spectrum is wider and probably deeper than anything I can imagine.

I've also spent the last 30 years thinking about God and gender. I've made fierce arguments about how damaging it is to see God as male. In my search for alternatives, I've scoured the Bible looking for the female aspects of God. I've found some, but they leave me uncomfortable too. I've resorted to trying to think of God as gender-free.

But it never occurred to me to read the Bible looking for evidence that God's gender moves across a spectrum too. I'm surprised to realize that I'm guilty of binary thinking too.

As humans it makes sense that we come up with metaphors in our attempts to understand God.... I feel certain that the ELCA transgendered clergy members who are completely open about being transgendered are a blessing for many, many transgendered people in more ways than we can imagine. One of those is sacramental.

What about the rest of us? I'm sure there are still people who are deeply uncomfortable receiving the elements from homosexual leaders. But we can't allow the discomfort of others to prevent us from doing what's right.

Some have thought that homosexuality is the last frontier, but now we're wrestling with transgender issues. What will be the next frontier?

And how will these frontiers change the way we view God?

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12 Questions to Ask Your Pastor

6/14/2015

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Every Christian would be wise to be well informed as to the beliefs of the person who is leading and teaching their congregation about God. What does your pastor believe? Does he believe the Bible? Is she even a Christian?

Here are questions to ask your pastor so you will know if they are a Christ-follower or a wolf in sheep’s clothing:

1 - Will everyone go to heaven?

2 – Do you approve of abortions?

3 – Is homosexual sex a sin?

4 – Are some Biblical stories that are normally considered historic actually myths?

5 – Was Jesus born of a virgin?

6 – Will some people go to hell when they die?

7 – Did Jesus actually say the words Scripture records Him to have said?

8 – Did the miracles of Christ, recorded in the Bible, truly happen?

9 – What is your definition of the “gospel?”

10 – Do you refrain from calling God “Father,” using “He” or other male pronouns?

11 – How many who were once “lost” have thanked you for leading them to Christ?

12 - What must one do to be saved? (a question asked of Paul in Acts 16:30)

If you are not sure what the correct answers should be to these questions…read the Bible.

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Bigoted, Biased and Racist Jesus

6/8/2015

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Mark Fitzsimmons is the senior pastor at the ELCA’s Lutheran Church of the Nativity in Arden, North Carolina. On August 14, 2011, the Gospel lesson was from Matthew 15 where Jesus is asked to heal a Canaanite woman's daughter, and here is what Pastor Fitzimmons had to say in his sermon:

“In the lesson we see a little prejudice, we see a little racism. And unfortunately it’s coming off the lips of Jesus, our Savior, our messiah. Did you hear it?”

Pastor Fitzsimmons then focuses in on Jesus’ comment to the Canaanite woman in which He says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel...It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” Pastor Fitzsimmons responds, “In Jesus day, ‘dog’ is the derogatory, racist slur that a Jew would use for a Gentile. Jesus said that.” (Listen here. Also, sermons from church here)

This isn’t the first time an ELCA leader criticizes Jesus’ words in Matthew 15. Last year we reported on Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney, associate professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at the ELCA’s Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP) make some audacious statements:

“Jesus said to a woman kneeling at his feet begging for help for her child, 'Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.' Did Jesus just call that woman a b----? I know this is Jesus and we’ve been trained to read him and hear him religiously, more than religiously, divinely, incarnationally. But where I come from you cannot call a child a dog without calling her mama a dog and you cannot call a woman a dog without calling her a b----.”

“How human, how divine is your Jesus? Is he human enough to be bigoted and biased? Or does your preconceived notion of the divinity of Jesus mean that whatever he said was holy.” (read here)

Jesus is bigoted, biased and racist? Jesus sinned? That’s the claim of these ELCA leaders. These leaders are teaching about the Son of God? God incarnate.

Are these the words of God or those of the devil?

"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” - Matthew 7:15

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Lutheran Social Services of MN Opposes Voter ID Law

6/1/2015

2 Comments

The Southeastern Minnesota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America felt it important to post a statement by Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota (LSS) in 2012 which outlined LSS's opposition to a voter ID law which was on the state ballet that asked voters “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to require all voters to present valid photo identification to vote and to require the state to provide free identification to eligible voters, effective July 1, 2013?”

The LSS of MN letter stated that they “opposes the photo voter identification constitutional amendment, because every neighbor matters.” Read here.

This is just another reason why people should prayerfully and knowledgeably consider where they give their money.

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The Sin of Silence in American Churches

Everyone Can Receive Communion At This ELCA Church

"Our many-gendered God", more strangeness from the ELCA website

12 Questions to Ask Your Pastor

Bigoted, Biased and Racist Jesus

Lutheran Social Services of MN Opposes Voter ID Law

Dan Skogen

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