ELCA Minneapolis bishop: Jesus and the Bible can contradict each other

3/15/2023

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

Lutherans believe in "Sola Scriptura", that the Bible alone is the highest authority for the Christian. Since the Holy Spirit inspired the Bible, and since the Holy Spirit and Jesus are one in the Trinity, Jesus and the Holy Spirit-inspired Bible are not going to contradict each other.

But read the below in which the bishop of the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America approvingly quotes the belief that Jesus and the Bible can contradict each other.

"We Lutherans believe that the Bible truly matters. But, it doesn’t matter as much as the Word made Flesh. It doesn’t matter as much as Jesus. To quote Marcus Borg, “Jesus is the norm of the Bible. When the Bible and what we see in Jesus conflict, as they sometimes do, Jesus trumps the Bible. … In Jesus, Christians see more clearly than anywhere else the character and passion of God.”

Years ago my Minneapolis bishop was Herbert Chilstrom who went on to become the first national bishop of the ELCA. He did not want anyone teaching in our Lutheran seminaries who believed in the infallibility of Scripture. Today, years later, this is the result: Lutheran bishops, pastors, and seminary professors who believe Jesus and the Bible can contradict each other.

In Christ,
Pastor Tom Brock

(Read article from ELCA bishop here)

4 Comments

Didaskalos link

3/15/2023 07:11:17 pm

It's understandable why ELCA pastors/bishops/professors are no fans of the Bible: it condemns their favorite sexual sins, their universalism heresy, their complicity with murder in utero, and their disdain for God's Word (not to mention the Word made flesh). For Christians, God's Word judges them (Hebrews 4:12). Pretend Christians habitually arrogate to themselves the "right" to sit in judgment on the Word whenever it rebukes them or calls them to account: "But to the wicked God says: 'What right have you to recite My statutes or to take My covenant on your lips? For you hate My instruction and cast My words behind you.'" (Psalm 50:16-17)

“Within the walls of the church, we see continued efforts to undermine the authority of the Bible and usurp the role of Christ, summoning the people of God to abandon their posts, and to redefine the Christian faith into something more ‘acceptable’ in the view of the dominant culture…Christians must affirm biblical authority and always remember that when you surrender the authority of Scripture, you threaten the very existence of the church. Where you find a church, you find a community committed to the Bible. If not, you have not found a church.”
--The Gathering Storm: Secularism, Culture, and the Church (Albert Mohler, p. 47)

“The greatest challenge to religious liberty in our times is no threat at all to liberal religion. Those churches and denominations have long ago surrendered to the moral revolutionaries, and they simply do not believe anything sufficiently theological to get them into trouble. They can afford to put quotation marks around religious liberty. . .the culture places pressure on churches, demanding capitulation (or silence) on social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. This is why even some candidates for the 2020 Democratic nomination claimed a progressive ‘Christianity’ in an attempt to supplant the historic orthodox faith with a new synthetic religion. It is not Christianity."
— The Gathering Storm: Secularism, Culture, and the Church (Albert Mohler, pp. 168, 172)

Rebecca

3/15/2023 07:55:50 pm

I am so grateful to have found this website.
I was in a church when the pastor tried to get people to bring their Bibles. A lady said "I don't want to have to bring my Bible."
My eyes must have popped and my mouth drop. The "campaign" was dropped in just a very few weeks.
It seems the elca pastors cannot risk making the people "feel bad."
Scripture means so much to me. My heart hurts to read letters like the one above.

Marty Lyles link

3/16/2023 03:21:48 pm

Thank you for helping to keep us focused. The sadness I feel is that the divisive language has believers. How do we counter and proclaim the Love of God's Word? The math is so simple but yet abused.

3/19/2023 08:27:20 am

The ELCA knows the Bible's a dangerous thing in the hands of parishioners, whom it very well might inspire -- by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit -- to seek the Lord, repent of sin, follow Him and honor His Word.
"Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” [John 17:17]
"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." [2 Timothy 3:16-17]

Instead, we have ELCA clerical counterfeits who hand out stones rather than bread.

“Only a holy man can delight in holy things. Holiness is the terror of unholy men; they love sin and count it liberty, but holiness is to them a slavery. If we be saints we shall bless God for his holiness.” (Charles Spurgeon on Psalm 103:1b -- "...bless His holy name.")

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ELCA Minneapolis bishop: Jesus and the Bible can contradict each other

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