At an ELCA Church today: Universalism, de-sexing God, and Yertle the Turtle

8/29/2016

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

I am at a South Dakota church camp today and attended the closest church, a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (the liberal branch of Lutheranism). About 8 years ago I attended here one Sunday, during which the pastor had the congregation sing the hymn from the ELCA hymnal "Mothering God, you gave me birth." He then preached that he didn't know why people are so upset about referring to God as "Mother", must be 2000 years of sexism. He also said "Feel free to talk to me about this after the service." I did. I said "I think the reason Christians are not comfortable referring to God as 'Mother' is that Jesus taught us to pray 'Our Father who art in heaven.'" I could tell by the pained expression on his face that he didn't want to talk about it. I later googled him and discovered that his lesbian daughter was touring the county on the Soulforce bus trying to get churches to be open to homosexuality. He now serves a pro-gay church in another state.

Today a woman pastor preached. The service began with a wonderful hymn from the ELCA hymnal which was sadly changed to eliminate masculine references for God, making it difficult to worship. During her sermon she told the Dr. Seuss story of Yertle the Turtle, making the point that all are equal in Christ. "All people are children of God, whether you believe it or not, whether you know it or not, you and all people are God's children, all are welcome at God's table." Inwardly I was shaking my head. We are indeed all God's creatures, but we are not all God's children. In fact, the Bible teaches we all start out "by nature children of wrath, as the rest of mankind" (Ephesians 2:3). We only become "children of God through faith in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26). The universalism heresy, the teaching all people are saved regardless of faith in Christ, appeared to be where she was coming from (later I noticed she had a "Co-exist" bumper sticker on her car.) Then came the Nicene Creed, which was also altered. Instead of "Jesus became incarnate of the Virgin Mary and was made man" we recited Jesus "became truly human." Many in ELCA leadership believe it is sexist to only refer to God in masculine terms which is why the ELCA hymnal de-sexes hymns and has de-sexed all the masculine God language from the Psalms.

Other than those issues, it was a good service. But that is like saying "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?"

Sincerely in Christ,

Pastor Tom Brock
pastorsstudy.org

5 Comments

John

8/29/2016 10:29:50 pm

Pr. Brock,
Please consider that the closest church to you is only as far away as the nearest Christian who wants to join you to teach the Gospel and administer the sacraments rightly (Matt 18:20, Aug Conf VII). You are a light, so why put yourself under an ELCA bushel ever again? As even the pagan proverb goes, "It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness." If just one other person glorifies God through your small-scale worship in spirit and in truth, then it is worth it.

Didaskalos link

8/30/2016 10:13:29 am

The South Dakota ELCA pastor's "you and all people are God's children" heresy is, of course, widespread in the Atonement-denying ELCA.

Two examples:

ELCA pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber: "And just to be clear: The cross is not about God as divine child abuser sadly sending his little boy off to be killed because we were bad and well, somebody had to pay."

ELCA seminary professor David Lull: " . . .I can’t get past the idea that God had a thirst for innocent blood that had to be quenched, or that God’s justice required a death-penalty for sinners until Jesus’ death satisfied God’s wrath. Even if Bible passages can be made to support these ideas, I can’t get past the idea that God had been unforgiving before Jesus died. That’s not the God I find in the Bible."

Pastor Brock's brief, Biblical exposition of the Atonement is echoed by Martin Luther, who wrote:

"But now, if God’s wrath is to be taken away from me and I am to obtain grace and forgiveness, some one must merit this; for God cannot be a friend of sin nor gracious to it, nor can he remit the punishment and wrath, unless payment and satisfaction be made. Now, no one, not even an angel of heaven, could make restitution for the infinite and irreparable injury and appease the eternal wrath of God which we had merited by our sins; except that eternal person, the Son of God himself, and he could do it only by taking our place, assuming our sins, and answering for them as though he himself were guilty of them.

"This our dear Lord and only Saviour and Mediator before God, Jesus Christ, did for us by his blood and death, in which he became a sacrifice for us; and with his purity, innocence, and righteousness, which was divine and eternal, he outweighed all sin and wrath he was compelled to bear on our account; yea, he entirely engulfed and swallowed it up, and his merit is so great that God is now satisfied and says, “If he wills thereby to save, then there will be a salvation. (Sermons of Martin Luther, vol. 2, p. 344)

"...…it [the term “satisfaction”] is nevertheless too weak and says too little concerning the grace of Christ and does not do honor enough to his sufferings, to which one should give higher honor, confessing that he not only has made satisfaction for sin but has also redeemed us from the power of death, the devil, and hell, and established an everlasting kingdom of grace and of daily forgiveness of the sin that remains in us; and thus is become for us, as St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 1:30, an eternal redemption and sanctification… "(Sermons of Martin Luther, vol. 2, p. 351)

https://guardthedeposit.com/2013/03/martin-luther-atonement-penal-substitution/

Chuck Braun

9/21/2016 10:25:49 am

I'm in the LCMS, after leaving the ELCA. Now our congregation uses a wide range of hymns that include some which wouldn't be in a typical Lutheran hymnal. But they seem to agree with most Lutheran doctrine. But last Sunday they used an ELCA hymn, the one I left the ELCA over as the last straw.

The hymn's last line is "Not in the dark of buildings confining, not in some heaven light years away..." Um, I get the idea that Christ is present in Word and Sacrament with us at Communion at Divine
Service, but He is still simultaneously in His Heaven with His saints at table with us, sitting at the Father's right hand, wherever Heaven is. I would have started the line thus: "Joined with His saints at table reclining, now in His Heaven, in endless day..." the rest of the hymn is fine, except that it doesn't mention either the Name of the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Ghost...

Further research shows me that Marty Haugen is an ex-ALC Lutheran now in the apostate UCC. Seriously, while there may be some true Christians in UCC pews who are theologically challenged due to the slow apostasizing of the UCC, I honestly would rather be Roman Catholic than UCC. The UCC needs our prayers that they too, like the ELCA, would turn back to the Bible, or that God would thwart their false teachers' plans and bring them to judgment and ruin.

I haven't pulled up this site in a while, Dan, since I'm tired of scaring myself with the latest scoop on the ELCA. But it astounds me that nobody else on the Web has yet commented on a hymn that would deny Heaven.

Dan Skogen link

9/21/2016 11:20:50 am

I agree, Chuck. Pretty startling about the heaven denying hymn. Hadn't heard of that before. The state of the ELCA is one where I have more material to report than I've ever had before. Sad.

9/21/2016 03:30:33 pm

One more thought about "All are welcome at the Lord's Table": That is totally untrue. Even churches which do not recognize the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in, under and with the bread and wine, or even believe He is spiritually present in the Sacrament, only will commune professing Christians who approach the Lord's Table with repentance.

St. Paul said that communing unworthily can bring harm. How much more could a pastor profane the Sacrament which they were sworn to administer?

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At an ELCA Church today: Universalism, de-sexing God, and Yertle the Turtle

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Dan Skogen

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