Giving Some Denominations "Over to a Depraved Mind" (Romans 1)

3/12/2018

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

April/May 2018 The Pastor’s Study Newsletter

Dear Friends of The Pastor’s Study,

Does God ever give up on a person? I think, since He saved the thief on the cross, we can say that God is willing to save people right up to their last moment. But the Bible also teaches that God does “give people over”. Romans 1:24, 26, and 28 says three times that God gives people over to “impurity, degrading passions, and a depraved mind”. This God does only after they have rejected Him for themselves. Perhaps you know people who have so rejected God that they have become lost in bizarre thinking and behavior.

Does God ever “give over” a denomination? I have a sad example to share. The liberal branch of Lutheranism is called the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (other Lutheran denominations like the Missouri Synod are much more Biblical). Back in 2009 the ELCA decided to violate Scripture and ordain practicing homosexual pastors. Things have gotten stranger and stranger ever since. Recently a Chicago newspaper asked head ELCA bishop Elizabeth Eaton if Hell exists. Her reply “It may exist, but I think it is empty.” In its most recent edition, the ELCA’s national magazine has a whole article promoting the acceptance of transgenderism and the ELCA now has transgender pastors. The ELCA continues to pay for abortion for any reason in its healthcare plan, which is funded by offering dollars. The ELCA is a tragic example of God giving a denomination which has rejected Him over to a depraved mind (Romans 1:28). And sadly, the same is true for the United Church of Christ, Episcopal Church in America, and the Presbyterian Church USA. Many years ago these were good, Christian denominations, but step by step they have rejected the authority of Scripture and have entered the world of the bizarre.

The main purpose of The Pastor’s Study is to preach salvation from sin, death and Hell through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (and, yes, Jesus did teach repeatedly that Hell exists). But a second purpose of The Pastor’s Study is to alert people to the false teachings in today’s denominations so that people will take their money, time and talents and join a more Biblical church. Just yesterday a more conservative ELCA pastor called me needing support for his Biblical views and in a gentle way I tried to encourage him to consider leading his congregation out of the ELCA into a more Biblical branch of Lutheranism.

You have helped The Pastor’s Study spread the Gospel of salvation through Christ. And you have helped us alert people to false teachings in today’s Church. Because of your prayers and giving, we are reaching a wider and wider TV audience. Again I want to say a big “Thank you” for your prayers and giving! We will be honest stewards of your contributions.

Have a great Spring,

In Jesus our Savior,

Pastor Tom Brock

PS You can give online at pastorsstudy.org or by mail to:
The Pastor’s Study
PO 41294
Minneapolis, Mn 55441

2 Comments

Didaskalos link

3/14/2018 05:46:14 am

Although the ELCA has for decades set itself against God (witness the funding of abortion which it overwhelmingly approved in 1997 and ratified again in 2001), the most in-God's-face embrace of apostasy happened in 2009, when even a tornado that toppled Central Lutheran Church's 99-year-old cross and blew down the ELCA convention's beer tents couldn't dissuade the ELCA from putting a denominational stamp of approval on sexual sin. [https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-tornado-the-lutherans-and-homosexuality]

Now, the ELCA's hermeneutic is "Does the world like it? Be assured we'll denominationally endorse it speedily. All in the name of 'bound conscience,' you understand."

. . . "In Luther’s own words: 'God wants our conscience to be certain and sure that it is pleasing to Him. This cannot be done if the conscience is led by its own feelings, but only if it relies on the Word of God.'

"Thus, the ELCA’s new principle of 'bound-conscience' actually embraces and leads to what Martin Luther most feared — a burlesque of conflicting consciences without accountability to the Scriptures. . . .

"The idea of a bound conscience is deadly dangerous unless the conscience is bound by the Word of God. Those who would claim a bound conscience but pervert, deny, subvert, or relativize the Word may indeed be bound by conscience. But a conscience bound by anything other than the Word of God is a conscience given over to idolatry.

"This is a Lutheran lesson we all desperately need to learn. And Martin Luther himself deserves the last word:

“It is the nature of all hypocrites and false prophets to create a conscience where there is none, and to cause conscience to disappear where it does exist.”

The Idolatrous Religion of Conscience — A Lutheran Lesson for Us All
https://albertmohler.com/2009/10/26/the-idolatrous-religion-of-conscience-a-lutheran-lesson-for-us-all/

J.A.

3/20/2018 09:39:57 am

Please, if you can, or if he is reading, tell this Pastor to read Romans 16:17-18: "Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple." Stand up for Jesus!
http://sclutheran.com/Majority-Of-One.pdf

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Giving Some Denominations "Over to a Depraved Mind" (Romans 1)

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