EXPOSING THE ELCA
  • Home
  • ELCA Exposed News
    • on The Bible
    • on Homosexuality & Sex
    • on Universalism & Hell
    • on Goddess/Mother God/Gender Neutral Lang.
    • on Israel
    • on Abortion
    • on Social Media (ELCA Wolves Blog)
    • on Radical Hospitality and Prophecy
    • on Transgenders and Drag Queens
    • on Social Justice & DEIA
    • on Gospel Reductionism / Antinomianism
    • on Called to Common Mission & "Christian Nationalism"
    • on Other Critical Issues
  • Responses to ELCA
    • The Bible vs. ELCA
    • Churches Respond
    • Pastors Respond
    • Exposed Quotes
    • People Respond
    • More Responses
    • ELCA Finances
    • Alternatives to the ELCA
  • Exposed Blog
  • Share
  • Support
  • More
    • About & Contact
    • Help and Advice on Leaving ELCA
    • Important Information
    • Church Produced Info
    • ELCA Vault
    • Readers' Comments
    • ELCA Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber
    • ELCA Colleges
    • ELCA Seminaries
    • Want to Know Jesus?
    • Exposing the ELCA Newsletters & Important Websites
    • Submit Tips

Everyone Is Saved Says ELCA Run Website

6/22/2013

5 Comments

 
Living Lutheran is an online publication of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Last month, in the “Ask a Pastor” section of their website this question was posed:

“What happens to people of other faiths? My husband and I try to discuss, but not very successfully, the point that we are saved through Jesus Christ alone. Well, how about people of the Jewish faith, or all our friends or family who do not practice any faith or even my son, who is atheist. Can’t they be saved? I believe in my heart that they can, but I can never explain it.”

This question was asked by Helen, a member of an ELCA congregation in Venice, Florida. The ELCA website chose Rev. Monica M. Villarreal as one of the three pastors to respond to this question. She said,

“Dear Helen and husband, what a deep and relevant question. One of my favorite books on the subject is 'Christ Crucified: A 21st-Century Missiology of the Cross' by Mark W. Thomsen. At the risk of being a heretic and with the hope of reclaiming the profound Lutheran understanding of God’s salvific work on the cross, I contend that God in fact saves the whole world and all peoples through Jesus Christ alone and that this salvation extends to all, including Jews, Muslims, agnostics, atheists, etc. For where there is love, there is God. Scripture says, we cannot love God whom we cannot see if we do not love our neighbors whom we can see (1 John 4). At the core of our Christian faith is love. And at the core of God’s work of salvation is love. I believe in a God who loves all his created beings — regardless of religion, creed or disbelief. So, why be a Christian? Christians/Lutherans have much to offer to this hurting world by building relationships of love — the love that we experience in Jesus.”

The ELCA website offered this information about Rev. Villarreal:

“Monica M. Villarreal is a mission redeveloper and pastor of Salem Lutheran Church in Flint, Mich. A 2011 graduate of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and 2007 graduate of Michigan State University with a degree in cultural anthropology and specialization in peace and justice studies, she enjoys practical theology, cultural studies, and is an avid bowler. She is passionate about people, inner-city ministry and social justice. Her congregation will tell you she is always asking, 'What is God up to? What is God calling us to?'” (read the “Ask a Pastor” article here)

That fact that this official ELCA website wanted to include Rev. Vallarreal's answer to Helen's question is proof that the ELCA is “welcoming” of the dangerous, unbiblical belief of universalism. By posting this answer the ELCA is telling their readers that faith and belief in Christ is not necessary. The ELCA is leading people astray and they will be held accountable for any reader's eternal damnation. "If anyone causes one of these little ones--those who believe in me--to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.” - Mark 9:42.

More evidence of the ELCA promoting universalism here and here.



5 Comments
Didaskalos
6/22/2013 05:40:45 am

Ms. Villarreal should have been around to set Jesus straight. If He'd known what she preaches, He wouldn't have needed to die on the cross, nor would He have said, "Unless you believe that I am He [the Messiah], you will die in your sins." Jesus also would have lightened up on the Pharisees -- and their ELCA descendants -- by eliminating, "in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."

Luke and Peter could also have benefited from Ms. Villarreal. They'd certainly have scrubbed that verse in Acts that reads, "And there is salvation in no one else [except Jesus] , for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

And pity poor Martin Luther. Think of all the grief he'd never have had to endure, not to mention all the sermons he'd have never written. If he'd been exposed to Ms. Villarreal's "where there is love, there is God" whimsy, he certainly would have tossed this part of his "First Sunday in Advent" sermon in the wastebasket:

". . .I have often said that there are two kinds of faith. First, a faith in which you indeed believe that Christ is such a man as he is described and proclaimed here and in all the Gospels, but do not believe that he is such a man for you, and are in doubt whether you have any part in him and think: 'Yes, he is such a man to others, to Peter, Paul, and the blessed saints; but who knows that he is such to me and that I may expect the same from him and may confide in it, as these saints did?'
"Behold, this faith is nothing, it does not receive Christ nor enjoy him, neither can it feel any and love and affection for him or from him. It is a faith about Christ and not in or of Christ, a faith which the devils also have as well as evil men. . .
"That alone can be called Christian faith, which believes without wavering that Christ is the Savior not only to Peter and to the saints but also to you. Your salvation does not depend on the fact that you believe Christ to be the Savior of the godly, but that he is a Savior to you and has become your own." ["First Sunday in Advent," Sermons of Martin Luther, volume 1: Sermons on Gospel Texts for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, Baker Books, page 21]

Ms. Villarreal writes, "At the risk of being a heretic . . ." Clearly, there is no sense of irony in ELCA leaders and pastors. Nor, for that matter, is there any real understanding and reverential fear of God. "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive . . . There is no fear of God before their eyes."

Reply
Jacob Ambos
6/22/2013 03:53:46 pm

They love the Love Disciple, don't they? John is the guy who wrote "God is love." And he wrote the famous John 3:16, and John 3:17 is about how Jesus came not to judge but to save the world. Did they stop reading there in seminary? John 3:18, "People who believe in God's Son are not judged guilty. Those who do not believe have already been judged guilty, because they have not believed in God's one and only Son."

Reply
Kathy Suarez
6/23/2013 05:27:45 am

While the "answer" this pastor has given is certainly wrong -- or at best, very misleading -- the issue is not easily explained. About a month ago, Pope Francis waded into the matter and was accused of Universalism. However, the picture the ELCA is painting -- love, love, love -- is clearly overly simplistic to the point of heresy. The ELCA has turned the church into a club for social work -- belief optional.

This past week, the ELCA along with the Episcopal Church celebrated World Refugee Day. Hasn't the ELCA created from its own churches with its own teachings many, many refugees?

Reply
Paul Grustans
6/23/2013 10:12:48 am

"Really? Everyone is saved? Then refund my money I gave to Missions!"

Reply
Janet Muldoon
6/23/2013 01:48:48 pm

Amazing how the secular, academic world has worked so hard to prove the Bible to be irrelevant. We are saved by faith not works..... however, faith without works is irrelevant. Let us walk by faith first and our works will reveal God's grace with meaningful results.

.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    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.

    Give online
    by clicking the "donate" button below:

    Categories

    All
    2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly
    Abortion
    Adam And Eve
    Advocacy
    All Paths Lead To God
    Angels
    Anglican Church
    A Pastors Thoughts
    Astrology
    Bds
    Belief
    Berlin Wall
    BIPOC
    Bisexual
    Bishop
    Black-lives-matter
    Blasphemy
    Border Fence
    Camp
    Capitalism
    Christian Nationalism
    Christmas
    Church Leaves Elca
    Church Plant
    Climate Change
    Columbus Day
    Communion
    Community Organizing
    COVID
    Covington-catholic
    Creation
    Cross Dressing
    Cursing
    Deaconness
    Decolonizelutheranism
    DEI
    Divorce
    Drag
    Drag Queen
    Eappi
    Easter
    Elca
    ELCA Churchwide Assembly
    Elca College
    ELCA Conference Of Bishops
    Elca World Hunger
    Environmentalism
    Episcopal
    Equality Act
    Evil
    Evolution
    Exposing The Elca
    Feminism
    Feminist Theology
    Fracking
    Franklin Graham
    Fundamentalists
    Future
    Gay Bar
    Gay Marriage
    Gender
    Gender Neutral Language
    Gnosticism
    God
    Goddess Worship
    Gospel Of Affirmation
    Grace Luth Eau Claire
    Guns
    Halloween
    Heaven-on-earth
    Hell
    Herchurch
    Heresy
    Heterosexism
    Holy Spirit
    Homosexuality
    ICE
    Ilhan Omar
    Illegal Immigration
    Illustration
    Immigration
    Inclusion
    Inerrancy
    Interfaith
    Intersex
    Intolerant
    Israel
    Jesus
    John Dominic Crossan
    Jonah
    Judge Kavanaugh
    Lcmc
    Lent
    Letter
    Liberal Theology
    Liberation Theology
    Lift
    Living Lutheran
    Lutheran Church Of Hope
    Lutheran Core
    Lutheran Immigration And Refugee Sevice
    Lutheran Social Services
    LWF
    Mainline Protestant
    Mantra
    Marcus Borg
    Martin Luther
    Masterpiece Cake Shop
    Masturbation
    Media 1517
    Membership
    Methodist
    Mike Housholder
    Missionaries
    Money
    Mother God
    Naked And Unashamed
    Nakedness
    Nalc
    National Day Of Mourning
    Noah's Ark
    Non-Binary
    Operation Christmas Child
    Other Religions
    Overpopulation
    Pam Rocker
    Patriarchy
    Pat Robertson
    PC(USA)
    Police
    Politics
    Polls
    Polyamorous Relationships
    Pornography
    Portico Benefit Services
    Prayer
    Premarital Sex
    Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton
    Presiding Bishop Herbert Chilstrom
    Pronouns
    Purity Rings
    Queer Eye
    Queer Theology
    Race
    Racism
    Rage
    Reform Elca
    Refugees
    Reiki
    Resurrection
    Rev Nadia Bolz Weber
    Right And Wrong
    Rob Bell
    Salvation
    Salvation Army
    Samaritan's Purse
    Sanctuary
    Satan
    Saul Alinsky
    Seminaries
    Sex
    Silencing Free Speech
    Silencing Pastors
    Sin
    Smudging
    Socialism
    Social Justice
    Spirit Guides
    Standing Rock
    Store
    Substitutionary Atonement
    Syncretism
    Synods
    Tarot Cards
    Taxes
    Thanksgiving
    The Bible
    The Finger
    The Gospel
    The Lutheran
    The Tea Party
    Thrivent
    Tolerance
    Transgender
    Trump
    UCC
    Unitarian Universalist
    United Methodist Church
    United Nations
    United States Of America
    Unity
    Universalism
    Universal Salvation
    Vagina
    Video
    Virgin Birth
    Welca
    White
    White Privilege
    White Supremacists
    Wiccan
    Wordalone
    Yoga
    Youth


    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009


    RSS Feed


    Exposing the ELCA
    Exposing the ELCA is on Facebook

    Picture
    Follow Exposing the ELCA on Twitter

    ​Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. - Ephesians 5:11

Home

Share

Exposed Blog

HELP

Contact

Exposing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
​Copyright © 2021
Photos from lcm1863, Toolstotal, QuinnDombrowski
  • Home
  • ELCA Exposed News
    • on The Bible
    • on Homosexuality & Sex
    • on Universalism & Hell
    • on Goddess/Mother God/Gender Neutral Lang.
    • on Israel
    • on Abortion
    • on Social Media (ELCA Wolves Blog)
    • on Radical Hospitality and Prophecy
    • on Transgenders and Drag Queens
    • on Social Justice & DEIA
    • on Gospel Reductionism / Antinomianism
    • on Called to Common Mission & "Christian Nationalism"
    • on Other Critical Issues
  • Responses to ELCA
    • The Bible vs. ELCA
    • Churches Respond
    • Pastors Respond
    • Exposed Quotes
    • People Respond
    • More Responses
    • ELCA Finances
    • Alternatives to the ELCA
  • Exposed Blog
  • Share
  • Support
  • More
    • About & Contact
    • Help and Advice on Leaving ELCA
    • Important Information
    • Church Produced Info
    • ELCA Vault
    • Readers' Comments
    • ELCA Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber
    • ELCA Colleges
    • ELCA Seminaries
    • Want to Know Jesus?
    • Exposing the ELCA Newsletters & Important Websites
    • Submit Tips