Evangelical Lutherans Pushing Universalism

4/7/2015

The evidence accumulating against the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America teaching universalism (that all people are saved) is overwhelming (see here and scroll down here). Sadly, there are many ELCA members who are in denial, ignorant of this fact or do not know that the teaching is non-biblical. That is why I continue to compile evidence in hopes that God will open the eyes of these members so that they will see the dangerous false teaching coming from their denomination.

Today I'd like to share with you three more instances of the ELCA teaching universalism. The first is from the self-promoting ELCA preacher/author/speaker Nadia Bolz-Weber. During a sermon given October 2014, the stench of universalism filled the sanctuary when Bolz-Weber preached, “So I believe with all my being that those who leave this world, even by their own hand, are held in the same pure love of God from which they were born. If they could not feel the truth of God’s love in life, they are surrounded by it in the life everlasting.” (see here)

The second comes from Rev. Scot D. Ruffatto of Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Mukwonago, WI (ELCA) who writes:

“Just a thought, if there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus does that also include God’s apparent favoritism in the Bible? Or even the condition of having to believe?” (see here)

And lastly, from Matthew Frost, a Ph.D student at the ELCA's Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago:

“I make no secret of the fact that I am a universalist, and a very particular one. I believe that the whole creation is in fact redeemed in Christ, without concern for moral change, ontological change, or 'regeneration.'" (see here)

9 Comments

A. J.

4/8/2015 10:44:32 am

"The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. 13:41-42)

"[The Father] has given [the Son] authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out--those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned." (John 5:27-29)

"If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.... For we know him who said, 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' and again, 'The Lord will judge his people.' It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Hebrews 10:26,27,30,31)

Didaskalos link

4/9/2015 12:20:30 pm

[more from The Christ-Rejecting World Loves the ELCA Dept.]

Dr. Al Mohler writes:

". . . So the only religion [columnist Frank] Bruni respects is one that capitulates to the modern age and is found “rightly bowing to the enlightenments of modernity.”

That means giving up the inerrancy of Scripture, for one thing. The Bible, according to Bruni, reflects the biases and blind spots of the human authors and their times. When it comes to homosexuality, he insists, we now know better.

This is the anthem of liberal Protestantism, and the so-called mainline Protestant churches have been devoted to this project for the better part of a century now. Bruni applauds the liberal churches for getting with the program and for revising the faith in light of the demands of the modern age — demands that started with the denial of truths such as the virgin birth, the bodily resurrection of Christ, miracles, the verbal inspiration of Scripture, and other vital doctrines. The liberal churches capitulated on the sexuality issues only after capitulating on a host of central Christian doctrines. Almost nothing is left for them to deny or reformulate."

4/9/2015 06:15:41 am

Denominations that rewrite the Bible’s teachings on sin must of necessity also rewrite its teachings on heaven and hell.

It’s not surprising that Nadia Bolz-Weber and other ELCA leaders/pastors have jumped aboard one of the secular world’s favorite bandwagons: universalism. Universalism is not a particularly new heresy for the ELCA, whose ex-Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson wrote in a 2006 open letter (since scrubbed from the ELCA website) to Muslims, Jews, and Christians : “(t)he one God whom we worship is a God not only of judgment, but of mercy and peace.” [ http://www.exposingtheelca.com/exposed-blog/elca-leader-wrong-again ]

Universalism is but one tenet of the thoroughly modern ELCA’s Bible-abrogating “faith":

1. We in the ELCA have some favorite sins that we’re really reluctant to confess as sins and repent of. To name a few, homosexual sex and funding the abortions of God’s preborn handiwork. Way back in the days when we identified sin as sin, we caught a lot of flak from the world. Ergo, we’re not thrilled with this Biblical mandate of repentance. Yeah, Jesus did say, “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” We say, “Repentance is overrated. We’re selling cheap grace here."

2. We’re also not thrilled with the Biblical truth of the substitutionary atonement: Jesus willingly dying on the cross to bear our sins. One of our rising rock stars, Nadia Bolz-Weber, has preached in a sermon on Christ the King Sunday: “. . .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. . . .On the cross we don't see a legal transaction where Jesus pays our debt.” [http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/948520-sermon-on-the-cross-christ-the-king-sunday ]

3. While a lot of us are pooh-poohing the idea of hell, we would, however, like to get to heaven. Ergo, we’ve decided to teach that everyone gets into heaven. Our 21st-century reimagined “God” is the Great I’m OK, You’re OK, Let’s Not Sweat That Sin Thing Anymore.

4. Since we've started preaching universalism and thereby burnished our bona fides as a card-carrying denominational branch of the Church of the Exalted Me, the Final Authority on Sin, Salvation, and Whatever Else I Want To Opine About, many more secularists and sexual libertines like us. (Not a whole lot of them are bothering to come to our declining churches, of course, but at least they’re giving us lots of good press and warm fuzzies. Wish they’d throw a little money our way. We badly need it.)

4/9/2015 01:55:47 pm

"I believe that the whole creation is in fact redeemed in Christ, WITHOUT CONCERN FOR MORAL CHANGE ... OR 'REGENERATION.'" (Matthew Frost)

"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction." (Gal. 6:7-8)

"These man are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity--for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: 'A dog returns to its vomit,' and, 'A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.'" (2 Peter 2:17-22)

MissionDoc

4/10/2015 01:50:57 am

Our local church in Ohio has a pastor who has preached Universalism from the pulpit on numerous occasions--including Easter!!! The one day of the year where preaching Crist Crucified as the Way is mandatory. We we told God is the god of the Iranians and Chinese. Ugh. Life long Lutheran and ELCA member by default since the founding, I am now ready to leave!! I no longer believe we can reform the church from the inside.

John

4/12/2015 11:33:59 am

MissionDoc, ready to leave -- it's about time, yes? If you are at home in the Lutheran tradition, there are many NALC and some LCMC congregations all over Ohio. I hope you will find far more positives there than negatives in your current situation. And maybe others are waiting for you to make the first move. God bless your search.

4/14/2015 12:50:21 am

John, indeed I am. I have found a NALC church about an hour away, but well worth the drive. The message last week was one mission from the ELCA for at least a decade--Jesus is the WAY. It is amazing how good it was to hear that preached. I left uplifted. Ironically, three other people from the ELCA church made the drive independently to the NALC congregation!

The problem for the average folks in the pew is that they don't realize how much things have really changed. They see the local church as always and the theological shift in the pulpit came as we got a new pastor and was a bit insidious. Too many people believe that they can go forward doing way they have always done. My catechism teacher (now almost 90) was nearly in tears during Sunday School as he feels abandoned by the church and cannot understand the 180 turn in doctrine from what he taught for more than 40 years! A very sad state.

4/12/2015 11:51:24 pm

It may be a grievous departure, but it's a necessary departure.

". . . What we are called to defend is no less than “the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.” He’s [Jude is] talking about a serious struggle to safeguard the heart and soul of the truth itself and unleash that truth against the powers of darkness. Compromised truth has no hope of rescuing the eternal souls of men and women who have been unwittingly ensnared by the trap of devilish deception.

"This is a battle we cannot wage effectively if we always try to come across to the world as merely nice, nonchalant, docile, agreeable, fun-loving people. We must not take our cues from others who are perfectly happy to compromise the truth whenever possible for “harmony’s” sake. Friendly dialog may sound affable and pleasant. But neither Christ nor the apostles ever confronted serious, soul-destroying error by building collegial relationships with false teachers. In fact, we are expressly forbidden to do that (Romans 16:17, 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 2 Timothy 3:5, 2 John 10-11).

"Infiltrating churches under the guise of tolerance and cooperation is one of Satan’s most cunning ploys. He does not want to fight the church as much as join it. Undiscerning believers who partner in a common spiritual cause with unbiblical forms of Christianity or other false religions open the door wide to satanic corruption. The appearance of unity, no matter how enticing, is not worth sacrificing the clarity of the gospel.

"Furthermore, embracing those heretical systems falsely reassures their followers that all is well between them and God, when actually they are headed for eternal damnation. Partnering in a spiritual enterprise with unbelievers helps Satan muddy the doctrinal waters, and it cripples our ability to preach the need for repentance.

Scripture is clear about how we are to respond when the very foundations of the Christian faith are under attack: our duty is to contend, not compromise."

http://www.ligonier.org/blog/cost-compromise/ -- "The Cost of Compromise" -- 9cb0e0d9@opayq.com

John Kuvakas

4/10/2015 01:36:29 pm

Well written and well documented. One has to wonder why a denomination woul call itself "Evagelucal" if there seems to be no gospel needed. If everyone goes to heaven, why evangelize? Why did Christ die? Why is there a lake of fire? Why do we even need the Scriptures?

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Evangelical Lutherans Pushing Universalism

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