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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.)
This conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will feature ELCA Pastor Asher O'Callaghan. This is a woman who presents herself as a man and is the first transgender person to be ordained through the regular ELCA ordination process. It is tragic to see the ELCA elevate sexual confusion to this level. In Jesus our Savior, Pastor Tom Brock Pastorsstudy.org Here is how the ELCA conference describes her: Before becoming a Lutheran pastor, Asher fancied himself spiritual but not religious. He thought he was done with organized religion after growing up transgender and bisexual in a fundamentalist church. But then he stumbled into a church called House For All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado where God messed up all his plans. There he heard an invitation he couldn’t help but share. From Christ’s open table he heard: “Behold who you are. Become what you receive.” Becoming what he’s received has led him to earn a Master of Divinity from Luther Seminary, to pastor a small mountain congregation called Zion Lutheran Church in Idaho Springs, Colorado and now to serve as Program Director of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries. (see here)
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It’s almost Christmas and time for the regular attack from ELCA leaders on what Scripture tells us about Christ’s birth.
Emily Scott is an ELCA pastor at St. Lydia's, a Dinner Church in Brooklyn, NY and was a main speaker at the 2015 ELCA National Youth Gathering. In a recent blog, Pastor Scott encourages her readers to take a fresh look at the Mother of Jesus. Here is some of what she wrote: “We might also notice that the word often translated 'virgin' in the bible, in fact only means, 'young girl.' A maid. A girl who is not yet married. In the next 2,000 years, the church will get really obsessed with Mary’s vagina. They will claim that not only was she a virgin when Jesus was conceived, but that she remained a virgin the rest of her life. Because how could the son of GOD be born from something so ordinary and unruly and uncontrollable as a woman’s vagina. So in order to make this story make sense for the men who told it, they sanitized away Mary’s sexuality. They neutered her.” (see here) Seriously? We are to take ELCA Pastor Scott's, and likely many mainline pastors, word for it when it goes against God’s Word and thousands of Christian scholars, teachers and translators? See what they say about Pastor Scott’s claims here and here. Pastor Scott then goes on a craze-filled, inappropriate rant about Mary’s private parts while also attacking men and the church. That should tell you a little about her mindset. Then we have ELCA pastor Clint Schnekloth sharing his half-baked opinion about the Christmas account, which he states, as if it is fact, “I am reminded that there is a good deal of myth in the birth narratives of the Christ.” (see here) Michael Rinehart is the bishop of the ELCA's Texas Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod. Just this week he cast doubt on the truth of the virgin birth in his blog, writing, "Of course the first person to doubt the virgin birth was Joseph himself. This is why he decided to divorce her, quietly. An angel visits him in a dream, and in the end he decides not to divorce Mary, and to adopt her child as his own.Whatever the world may think about a literal virgin birth, no one questions that Jesus was adopted, and Joseph was an adoptive parent." (see here) Don’t forget that a few years ago the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in their official website, argued against the virgin birth. (see here) See more ELCA attacks on the virgin birth here. (scroll down the page) Our friend, Pastor Tom Brock wrote about the virgin birth problem within the ELCA in January of 2016 when he penned this, “I graduated from Luther Seminary back in 1979. I would guesstimate that back then only a few professors denied the Virgin Birth of Christ. Some years ago I asked a faculty member at Luther ‘Do you think half of the professors at Luther still believe in the Virgin Birth?’ The response: ‘Oh no, way less than half.’" (see here) ELCA members should ask their pastors what they believe about the virgin birth. Exposing the ELCA conducted a poll seeking a response to this statement, "Men should not be allowed in women’s bathrooms and showers."
82.28% of voters answered "true." 17.72% of voters answered "false." (Below is an article written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. At the end of Pastor Brock's article I have posted some additional comments and information. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.) Francisco Herrera, a graduate of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's seminary, Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, doesn't like that John 3:36 teaches that those who reject Christ will be lost. So, in an obscenity-laden "Advent devotional", he says this to the Apostle John: "...if the God that we serve would condemn such gorgeous souls to eternal torment, let that God stand accursed — and you with him!" You heard right, this ELCA leader curses John--and God – for teaching that those who reject Christ are lost. I have read many heresies, but this is one of the worst. Please pray for this man's soul. He is one more reason people should leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for a more biblical denomination. In Jesus our Savior, Pastor Tom Brock Pastorsstudy.org (Read Francisco Herrera's words here. This was all part of an advent devotional put out by two ELCA pastors, Tuhina Verma Rasche and Jason Chesnut. Note: Language Warning. The advent devotional's title is below).  (If there was any doubt how horrific and vile these devotionals are, take a look at the headings of the following days "devotionals.")   ELCA Leader Says It Is the 'Deepest, Darkest Dreams of So Many' ELCA Members To Kill Black People12/10/2016 If you are an ELCA member who voted for Donald Trump, are not marching with Black Lives Matter, are white, Bible-believing, conservative . . . YOU are the problem, at least in the view of liberal, wacko, Christian-in-name-only ELCA leaders. Here is a post made last week on the ELCA Facebook group by Francisco Herrera, a Ph. D student at the ELCA's LSTC who is also the "Diversity Blog Manager" at the school (see more information about him here):  (Dylann Roof is an ELCA member who killed nine black people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.) You may want to reread what Mr. Herrera said. He is stating that many ELCA members want to kill black people, that it is their "deepest, darkest dreams" to do what Dylann Roof did. This is a leader in the ELCA. Did I mention that Mr. Herrera is the Operations and Fundraising Coordinator for #decolonizeLutheranism? This is a group which has gained a huge following within the ELCA leadership. Anger and hatred for Bible-believing ELCA members is growing strong. The ELCA leadership has done its best to force its liberal, Bible-defying measures upon them. They have even convinced some members that the ELCA is right in declaring homosexual sex "good," that Israel is an evil entity, abortion is "loving," transexuals are correcting God's mistakes, converting non-Christians should not be pursued and the Bible is full of myth and mistakes. But that isn't enough, now many ELCA leaders are telling ELCA members how racist they are, that their Lutheran cultural traditions are discriminatory and that they are the problem. If you do not assimilate to all of their view points, you are the enemy. And the election of Donald Trump has greatly elevated their anger toward ELCA members who do not hold to their political, social and religious views. (see more) Here is more of the discussion from Mr. Herrera's post on the ELCA FB page:   Why be a part of a denomination that treats you, and allows leadership to treat you with such contempt? Here is another example of the Scripturally ignorant, false teaching pastors the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has placed in ELCA congregations. Karen K. Torrez is a pastor in the ELCA. She posted this cartoon on her Facebook page.  There is a lot wrong with the cartoon the ELCA pastor posted. Those reading it could deduct false doctrines: - all of the "gods" of other religions are equal to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. - belief in Christ is not necessary. - all religious teachings are the same. - all religions point to the same god. - "love" is what is most important. - Mohammad was about "love." ...To name a few. The ELCA allows pastors who believe this evil garbage to pastor in their denomination. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him in your house and do not give him a greeting: for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deed. - 2 John 9-11
The United States has just experienced another Muslim terrorist attack at Ohio State University. The far left is in denial about the lethal call of Islam against non-followers of the religion. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, acted viciously against those who did not believe his new religion. Today, many followers of Islam act in the way of their founder and carry out what he has instructed, as written in the Quran.
In the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a large majority of the leaders and pastors are liberal in their thinking and their theology. They are wretchedly warped and in denial about Scripture that they cannot understand that Islam is a false religion: that its followers worship a false god and that millions of Muslims agree with the violent directives the Islamic god gives them in the Quran. The ELCA does not condemn Islamic ideology. They do not speak against or even confirm that it is a false religion. They deny Islam's responsibility for terrorist acts by followers of Islam. Instead, the ELCA stands with them seeing them as the victim, and views people as "Islamophobes" who warn and reject the violent teachings of this false religion. And the ELCA speaks out against imagined discrimination against Muslims. See below: 
Then you have ELCA pastor Clint Schnekloth, author and blogger who facilitates the ELCA Clergy Facebook Group with over 5800 members, who last month was encouraging people to do this: 
Not to be left out, there is ELCA pastor Joshua Ehrler encouraging everyone to take their youth to a Muslim prayer service. He writes:
“If you are part of a Christian youth group, it would benefit your faith and your heart for humanity to schedule a visit with a local mosque…Learning different cultures and faith traditions upholds our own and destroys the false stereotypes that only separate us as God’s people. I hope you find a Friday night to attend a Muslim prayer service with your youth group. Make the call, and thank God for the opportunity.” (see here)
Mixing liberal politics with a poor understanding of Scripture and religion, ELCA pastor Katrina Foster writes:
Rev. Kathryn Lohre, ELCA Executive for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations and the Past President of the National Council of Churches tweeting the video of the press conference shown above. The ELCA notes that the gathering was intended to "demonstrate interfaith cooperation and solidarity, and to call on the incoming administration to protect religious liberty and defend Muslims against violence, hate speech and discrimination." (see here)
God tells us: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 Islam is not a religion of peace. The god of Islam is NOT the God of the Bible. Muslims are safer in America than anywhere else in the world, much safer than Christians and Jews are in Muslim countries BY FAR! Muslims are people who need to know the Lord Jesus as their Savior. Let us pray for, and not with Muslims. Let us look for opportunities to guide Muslims to know Jesus, not guide our youth to attend worship gatherings of a false god. Let us introduce others to the Prince of Peace, rather than deny the call toward terror of radical Muslims. Let us ask God to use us as we take a stand for Him in a world that desparately needs to know the One True God. |
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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