Hell is of No Concern to the ELCA

8/30/2019

God's Word warns us about hell. (See here) Jesus spoke of hell and eternal punishment more than anyone in Scripture. Yet the ELCA seems to show no concern about people going to hell.

Rev. Craig Miller is Assistant to the Bishop in the ELCA's Upper Susquehanna Synod. In a question and answer session held at St. Luke Lutheran Church in Bloomsburg, PA, he answered the following question, “Is the ELCA concerned about anyone going to hell?”

Rev. Craig Miller replied, “Is the ELCA concerned about anyone going to hell? I have not heard people express concern...Bishop have you heard of anyone expressing concern about (hell)? Our concern is that people know the gospel message is for them…Short answer is probably no, the ELCA has not expressed any concern that anyone is going to hell. But we wouldn’t know who it would be if it was somebody.” The recording, which has been removed from the website, was here and the statement was made at 1:55:54 on December 9, 2018.

ELCA leaders are not concerned about hell because most do not believe in hell or that anyone will be there. (See here and here. Scroll down the page.)

A couple years ago ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton was asked, "Is there a hell?" Bishop Eaton's answered, "There may be, but I think it is empty.” (See here)

This is against the witness of Scripture, against what God has said in His Word.

Is there any wonder why the ELCA is not about bringing people to faith in Christ?

Is there any wonder why many ELCA leaders are preaching universalism, that all people will be saved?

I have no doubt the devil is pleased.

5 Comments

Bryan

8/31/2019 12:02:50 am

Apparently only those who believe in separation from God (ie Hell) will go there along with all who disagree with the current ELCA agenda. That agenda is crystal clear and there is no deviation allowed. It has replaced scripture.

Deborah

9/2/2019 07:11:43 pm

The minister in the church which I attend uses the tiniest pretext from scripture as a springboard for strident political lectures. It saddens me, and I think most who feel as I do just ignore him. He is several years past retirement in a small town with a tiny congregation; after this action by the Synod it may shrink even further. I will tithe directly to organizations outside of this ELCA parish from now on.

Didaskalos link

8/31/2019 04:44:40 am

How Dismissing the Doctrine of Hell Leads Us to Hate Our Neighbors -- https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/how-dismissing-the-doctrine-of-hell-causes-us-to-hate-our-neighbors/

". . . More than anyone else in the Bible, Jesus talked about the doctrine of hell because he wants us to take it seriously. As Leslie Schmucker explains,

"Jesus has to talk about hell because it is the fate that awaits all people apart from him. Because of Adam’s sin, we’re all guilty and deserve God’s eternal punishment. Contrary to popular belief, hell is not a place where God sends those who have been especially bad; it’s our default destination. We need a rescuer or we stand condemned."

"You cannot believe in the Jesus of the Gospels and not believe in hell. Jesus doesn’t give us that option. You can also not love your neighbor and be apathetic about their spending eternity in hell. Jesus doesn’t give us that option either. If we believe Jesus and love our neighbor we will bring the doctrine of hell back into our churches.

“[W]e should shudder at churches that don’t know what it means to shudder about hell, Trevin Wax says. “I don’t know how you can take Jesus’s message seriously and miss that glaring and frequent aspect of his teaching. Mock ‘fire and brimstone preachers’ all you want, but take care that in the process, you’re not mocking Jesus himself.”

Interested Reader

8/31/2019 07:51:48 am

Apparently our enlightened ELCA leaders know there is no hell or at least lets not talk about it to the shrinking membership! So if everyone is going to heaven then why are we still wasting our $$ contributions on Bishop & church staff salaries & some feel good programs?? There must be better ways to get more "bang for our bucks" rather than salaries, travel expense, etc. to promote the agenda of social justice since "saving souls" is not important or no longer needed anymore!

Zorro Jr.

9/8/2019 07:50:32 pm

Not only is the ELCA corrupting themselves from within, but they are now beginning to create a bad name for Christianity in general with their malignant hypocrisy. From an apologist's standpoint, they are signing, sealing, and delivering an argument for an atheist for the irrationality of Christianity (which is definitely false) with all of the contradictions they make. One of the big laws of logic they break in this instance is the Law of Non-contradiction, which states that something cannot be both A and non-A at the same time sense. By adopting this "universalist" ideology, they are proclaiming that there is essentially a god of all religions. However, in the Nicene Creed, which I hope still exists in this God-forsaken denomination, reads on the first line, "We believe in on God, The Father, The Almighty" and later, "We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, The only Son of God..." By choosing both of these, they are saying that there is A- a God, our God, and non A- not just our God. This obstruction of logic discredits any validity of the ELCA, and would be the same as trying to say there is a God and there is not a God at the same time. It is what is defined as a contradiction, which makes the claim eternally false. It is good that we can use this law of logic as well as others to discredit false claims by the ELCA, but unfortunate that these claims could be stereotyped into Christianity, leaving a difficult task to correct by the future apologist. This hypocrisy needs to end, for the ELCA leaping closer to Satanism than Christianity.

Respectfully,

Zorro Jr.

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Hell is of No Concern to the ELCA

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Dan Skogen

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