ELCA: Saving Souls or the Planet?

4/3/2015

The following is by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. Follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and twitter - here.

The April issue of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's official magazine, The Lutheran, has on its cover "Helping Save the Earth". The articles inside are about saving the planet. Yes, we should be good stewards of the environment, but I got to thinking: When is the last time The Lutheran had a cover article "Saving lost human souls through the Gospel of Christ"? I have never seen such a cover. Maybe because the ELCA doesn't know if it believes people are really lost without Christ. The Lutheran has printed a number of articles espousing universalism, the heresy that faith in Christ is not necessary for salvation (ultimately everyone universally will be saved, Christian or not). Where in the ELCA is the zeal for saving lost human souls? Tragically, I believe it has been replaced with concern for saving the planet, changing immigration laws, Middle East politics, gay advocacy, etc. etc. Just go to ELCA.org and look at its "News releases". Its mainly liberal politics. Perhaps the reason the number of ELCA missionaries has dropped dramatically since the ELCA's founding in 1988 is because many in ELCA leadership do not believe in Hell anymore. And in the ELCA's hymnal, the line in the Apostle's Creed that Jesus "descended into hell" has been left out.

Years ago when I was still in the ELCA, some conservative pastors and I went to our Minneapolis Area Synod conventions every year and raised questions like: Why does the ELCA pay for abortion with offering dollars in its healthcare plan? Why is the ELCA promoting homosexuality? Why are we changing the Biblical "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" language for feminine images of God? One year we even had a resolution reaffirming the Bible's teaching that Jesus is the only way of salvation (John 14:6, Acts 4:12). It lost.

What did pass one year was a resolution that we go back to our churches and encourage that we drink coffee out of ceramic cups because styrofoam cups are dangerous to the environment. I could take it no more and got to the microphone: "If we cared half as much about the dangers of hell as we do about the dangers of the styrofoam cup, there might be hope for this synod."

Well, in three days we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, when He triumphed over sin, death and Hell for us. And yes, according to the Bible and Jesus Christ Himself, Hell really does exists.

In the love of our Risen Savior,

Pastor Tom Brock
pastorsstudy.org

5 Comments

Didaskalos link

4/3/2015 10:32:37 pm

Much (most?) of the ELCA’s current teaching seems to come straight out of the Barbra Streisand School of Systematic Theology: “Feelings. Nothing more than feelings.” If a Bible truth or a Bible proscription of sin (a) offends my tender sensibilities or (b) doesn’t make sense to my solipsistic self, I chuck it down the Memory Hole. Or if I’m lucky, my “progressive” denomination votes to annul it at a church-wide convention.

The ELCA is big on universalistic, sin-reclassifying “inclusivity” these days.

How inclusive is God? Mighty inclusive: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that WHOEVER believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

How inclusive is Jesus? Mighty inclusive: “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”

What if the lost tell Jesus they can get to heaven on their denomination’s Bible-annulling terms?

** “For unless you believe that I am He [the Savior, the Messiah], you will die in your sins.”

** "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

** "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

On Easter Sunday, no less, Martin Luther thought it critical that his flock not fail to grasp the link between Law and Gospel, of repentance’s inextricable link to saving faith:

“. . .Nor may we in our works and in our daily life tolerate the yielding to the wantonness of the flesh and at the same boast the Gospel of Christ, as did the Corinthians, who stirred up among themselves divisions and disorder, even to the extent of one marrying his stepmother. In such matters as these, Paul says, a little leaven leavens and ruins the whole lump - the entire Christian life. These two things are not consistent with each other: to hold to the Christian faith and to live after the wantonness of the flesh, in sins and vices condemned by the conscience. Paul elsewhere warns (I Cor 6, 9-10): ”Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” Again (Gal 5, 19-21): ”The works of the flesh are manifest . . . of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

"Warrant is given here likewise for censuring and restraining the rash individuals who assert that men should not be terrified by the Law, nor surrendered to Satan. No! it is our duty to teach men to purge out the old leaven; we must tell them they are not Christians, but devoid of the faith, when they yield to the wantonness of the flesh and wilfully persevere in sin against the warning of conscience. We should teach that such sins are so much the more vicious and damnable when practiced under the name of the Gospel, under cover of Christian liberty; for that is despising and blaspheming the name of Christ and the Gospel: and therefore such conduct must be positively renounced and purged out, as irreconcilable with faith and a good conscience.” [Martin Luther, "Easter Sunday Sermon": http://www.lutherdansk.dk/Web-sommerpostillen%20AM/Kirkepos.htm —pts. 9-10 ]

But Martin Luther was a shepherd, not a hireling.

Ivan

4/5/2015 09:11:32 am

Of course, the ELCA should not have dropped the line, "He descended into hell" from the Apostles' Creed. But this omission is hardly proof that the ELCA denies the possibility of damnation. Christ descended into Hades or Sheol (the abode of the dead), not into the lake of fire. See Eph. 4:9, Rev. 20:13-14.

Francis

4/6/2015 02:56:29 am

Ivan, the use of Hell in this case is equal to Hades. Hell can be both the abode of the dead, or Gehenna, so dropping "He descended into hell" is more than a little suspicious. Just look at St. John Chrysostom's Paschal Homily read in the Orthodox Church during Pascha, in Greek he uses Hades, but more often than not Hades is translated to Hell. Everyone knows we are talking in this instance about the lake of fire, but the realm of Death.

4/6/2015 04:25:04 pm

Did you mean to say, "...we are talking in this instance NOT about the lake of fire, but the realm of Death" ?

Franci

4/14/2015 07:20:57 am

Yes! I did mean to say "not about the lake of fire.." Sorry for the confusion.

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ELCA: Saving Souls or the Planet?

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