(The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and twitter - here.)
Pastor Jerry O'Neal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has written a blog expressing his joy over homosexual marriage. Here are some excerpts: I believe the Supreme Court got it right on same-sex marriage...I am rejoicing with my LGBT friends today. First, about a so-called “Biblical definition of marriage” (or similarly, saying that marriage is “ordained by God to be one man and one woman”): the Bible doesn’t have one definition of marriage. If you look at the entire Biblical narrative, you will see that the standards of marriage change over time.... To those who say, “But you don’t believe in the Bible?” No, I don’t. As our former presiding bishop, Mark Hanson, once said, “I don’t believe in the Bible – I believe in the God revealed in the Bible.” The Bible is NOT inerrant. It contains clear contradictions in places (e.g. 2 creation stories in Gen. 1—3 that do not agree), and it has been open to interpretation from the beginning... Similarly, I do not believe the few Scripture texts that speak about same-sex relationships apply today. Marriage is a different institution than it was then (see above)...Divorce is now permissible for reasons besides infidelity, and remarriage is common, despite Jesus’ comments in Matthew 19:3-9 that such divorce and remarriage constitutes adultery.... Does this mean I will be performing same-sex marriages right now? No it doesn’t. Our congregation had conversations about this a month ago, and we were not all in the same place on this issue. My response: Whew! Rarely is a pastor so blatant in his heresy. "Despite Jesus' comments", he says, divorce and remarriage are now okay. How easily he puts aside the teaching of the Savior. And what is keeping him from performing homosexual "weddings"? His love for Christ? His trust in the Bible? No, his laypeople. This is another example of laypeople who are much more Biblical than a pastor who has lost his way. Please say a prayer for him and his church. If you would like to see how to respond to pro-homosexual arguments, go to pastorsstudy.org and view my article "What does the Bible say about homosexuality?" In Christ, Pastor Tom Brock pastorsstudy.org (See Pastor O'Neil's post here or here)
2 Comments
Doug
10/4/2015 07:17:35 pm
ELCA leaders accept with glee the popular view that divorce should be allowed to anyone who wants one; yet, strangely, they always speak of same-sex unions as being "lifelong and monogamous."
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David
10/5/2015 03:14:43 pm
I agree that our faith is in God and not in the Bible itself. We place our trust in the Savior for salvation. However, the Word, the Savior, is revealed in the Bible. If the Bible is not accurate, if it is not inerrant,then we cannot have an accurate view of God, right? So either God chose to reveal himself in the Bible and incarnationally in the Word, and therefore the Bible must be inerrant, or God did not choose to primarily reveal himself to us in the Bible and we cannot trust its accounts of Jesus and his work for salvation. Am I missing something?
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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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