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Read for yourself what the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America published about salvation. It's from an article written by an ELCA seminary professor:
“Difficult as it is—because I always think of it as unfair—I’ve come to accept God’s universal salvation as the final consequence of Jesus’ resurrection. I think of all the best and worst, the innocent and the guilty, Holocaust victims and the evil perpetrators, those killed in all of our senseless wars and the misguided leaders who send them into battle. Christ will raise us all—and somehow bend us into shape so we become the human beings we were intended to be.” (read the article published in the ELCA's The Lutheran magazine here) Make no mistake, the ELCA magazine does NOT say that faith is required for salvation. They are clear: all people will go to heaven. Hitler, who murdered 6 million Jews, is in heaven according to them -- as are all his Nazi minions. In the same vein, so is ELCA member and late-term abortion doctor George Tiller . . . and Josef Stalin, Osama bin Laden, King Herod, kidnappers, rapists, murderers, terrorists . . . all people go to heaven, even if they reject Christ, according to the ELCA. Here is another quote from the article advocating universal salvation: “Because Jesus is risen everything has changed radically. We are set free from serving the powers of death with our lives, fears, policies...This vision also applies to everyone. Paul says 'all' repeatedly, and I take it that he means 'all.' Theologian Robert Farrar Capon taught me years ago that Jesus didn’t come to repair the repairable, correct the correctable, improve the improvable. He came to raise the dead! The only final condition for eternal participation in Christ’s victory is that we be dead, 100 percent, gold-plated dead.” All dead people go to heaven . . . so says the ELCA. That is completely false and hundreds of verses from God's Word make this clear. There is a hell. People will go there. The universal salvation message, that the ELCA is espousing, is deceiving its members and putting their salvation at risk. It is by grace, through faith in Jesus, that anyone may have the assurance of salvation. Who are these leaders who have the audacity to declare anything other than what God's Word declares? --- See more documentation on the ELCA teaching universalism here.
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A recent poll on the Exposing the ELCA home page asked:
“Which answer best describes you? The first time I visited ExposingtheELCA.com was:” Here's how Exposing the ELCA readers responded: Today 26.13% (75 votes) Less than one month ago 6.97% (20 votes) Less than one year ago 10.45% (30 votes) Over one year ago 56.45% (162 votes) Total Votes: 287 Here is another example of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's view of Scripture. It comes to us from Rev. Dr. Joelle Colville-Hanson, Director for Evangelical Mission for the Northeastern Iowa Synod. Rev. Coville-Hanson replied to a tweet which stated, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Here is Rev. Coville-Hanson's response - What was so wrong with the original tweet that this ELCA synod employee felt she needed to respond with a different answer? Is the Bible not the reason we all even know about Jesus? The ELCA has been denying God's Word for decades. They have manipulated it, cast doubt on it, denied it and viewed much of it as myth. If this is the kind of view you have of the Bible then you are worshiping in the correct denomination. But if not, what are you doing remaining in the ELCA? ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) has been in the news continuously over the last few weeks due to their barbaric and systematic executions of Christians. ISIS, or ISIL, has demanded that Christians convert to Islam or be killed. Christians have been shot in the head, hung, crucified and beheaded. Many Christian women have been raped and some forced to become sex slaves. There are reports that children too are being raped and beheaded. This is pure evil. It is genocide. Christians need to stand up against this evil and pray for God's deliverance of His people - and many Christian denominations and organizations have been doing just that. Meanwhile the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which is often quick to respond to world events, still has not issued any statement condemning the actions of this Muslim terrorist group. Nothing. Just sickening silence . . . but the ELCA has issued two press releases regarding the Israeli-Gaza hostilities. (see here) I find that telling.
A couple days ago, I saw a sign at a small demonstration against ISIS stating, “There is a humanitarian crisis in Kurdistan but nobody cares because they can't blame Israel.” If the shoe fits. Lutheran - Episcopal Campus Ministries at Western Michigan University is an ecumenical ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA). Browsing the Campus Ministry's internet page (here) they list only two "ministries" taking place.
Another interesting aspect of this ELCA - ECUSA Campus Ministry is that one of their student staff is a Muslim. His bio states,"Since his conversion to Islam in 2006, he has had the opportunity to study Arabic, Islamic theology, Islamic Jurisprudence, and Islamic spiritual philosophy under the eminent Shaykh, Sharif Ahmed Sahibzada of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has volunteered for several Islamic organizations as well as several charity initiatives, most notable of which being Islamic Relief's 'Day of Dignity.' He currently is the main contact for COEXIST at WMU." (read here) I wonder what the students are learning about the Biblical Jesus, the Word of God - The Holy Bible, and salvation by grace through faith in Jesus alone? By what I read on their website, not much of anything. By Pastor Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. Facebook users can follow Pastor Brock by going here and twitter users here.
Pastor Peter Marty writes a monthly column in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's national magazine The Lutheran. In recent months he has espoused the heresy of Universalism which teaches that people can be saved apart from faith in Jesus Christ. In this month's article he urges the Church to move beyond seeing God as male: "...we can certainly give fresh effort to finding new words for knowing this great God of ours, who as Father and Mother to us reveals the best of parental love." (see here) I recently attended a United Church of Christ worship service in which the Lord's Prayer was changed to "Our Mother and Father who art in heaven, hollowed be thy name..." I got justifiably angry – who is this church to correct Jesus' words? Do they know more than Him? The United Church of Christ has shrunk hugely in members, and so has the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The ELCA's most recent hymnal has changed the original wording of the Old Testament and desexed all of the Psalms in order to get rid of masculine references for God. Churches which tamper with God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit deserve whatever losses they get. May we ever worship the wonderful God which Jesus revealed to us in His last words on earth: "Go… baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..." (Matthew 28:19). In Him, Pastor Tom Brock pastorsstudy.org |
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 Dan Skogen
Former ELCA seminary student and former ELCA member who is fed up with the ELCA's consistent mockery of God's Word. If you have been helped and blessed by Exposing the ELCA's ministry, please help us continue to proclaim the truth of God's Word to ELCA members who need to hear it.
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Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. - Ephesians 5:11
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