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The ELCA’s first transgender pastor and grace abuse‏

9/14/2015

3 Comments

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

A glowing article about Megan Rohrer, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s first transgender pastor, appears in the current issue of the ELCA’s official magazine “The Lutheran”.  I’m not sure, but it appears from her picture that Megan is a woman who thinks she is a man.  The article asks her “How do I refer to someone who is transgender?”  She responds:  “…it is best to use the name and the gender or non-gender pronoun they prefer.”  So, if a woman is confused and thinks she is a he, we are to aid her confusion and call her “he”.  Next Rohrer is asked “What about people who say being transgender is a sin?”  She responds:  “Thankfully, as Lutherans we believe God’s grace is more important news than who and how we are sinning.”  This is called grace abuse, the belief that we can continue to live in sin because we are saved by grace.  The Apostle Paul taught the opposite in Romans 6:1 “Are we to continue in sin that that grace might abound?  By no means!  How can we who died to sin still live in it?”  This current example of grace abuse is reminiscent of a Lutheran bishop who years ago defended elective abortions at a Lutheran hospital in Portland, Oregon by saying that we can do these abortions “because the Lutheran Church believes in the grace of God.”  Tragic.  Because we are saved by grace, we can kill babies.  Of course, the opposite is true.  In Ephesians 2:8-10 the Apostle Paul insists that salvation by grace leads us to good works.  But sadly in the ELCA one can live in homosexual or transsexual behavior, have an abortion, etc. and there is no need to repent.  Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:22-23 are telling where He teaches one can do many wonderful things in HIs name, but “I will declare to them “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.””

We will not be perfect in this life, but true grace leads us to repent when we commit “works of lawlessness”.  If there is no repentance, one has not been touched by the grace of God.  As one pastor rightly put it “We are saved by grace alone, but grace never is alone.” 

Years ago I never would have dreamed that I would see an article in The Lutheran promoting transgender pastors.  If you are an ELCA member, it is time to take your time, talents and money and join a more Biblical denomination.

In Jesus our Savior,

Pastor Tom Brock



(See The Lutheran article here)


3 Comments
Kathy Suarez
9/14/2015 02:45:43 pm

I might add that Megan Rohrer was a man who now thinks she is a woman.... Pastor Tom Brock's excellent article ties in very well with the article about Nadia Bolz-Weber in First Things. The article concludes: "Bolz-Weber sounds thoroughly Lutheran in the way that Lutheranism has come to be understood over the last century. Sometimes it is better to speak beautiful and true words in service of goodness, even if one might sound like a pietist, a Methodist, or, dare I say, even a Catholic."

I love the phrase "Grace Abuse." That really sums it all up. The grand irony is that Luther fought against abuses in the Catholic Church using "Grace Alone." Now, incredibly, the tremendous abuse of Luther's reforms is causing the downfall of the Lutheran Church. Luther said: "Sin boldly." For sure, many in the ELCA are doing exactly that! It is my sincere hope that all of this will somehow finally bring about reconciliation between Lutherans and the Catholic Church.

Reply
Gary
9/14/2015 04:12:27 pm

Only reason I bothered to read it was to see what restroom such a person uses. People, facilities planners need direction on this! Cannot believe the space the article took up in the magazine.

Reply
Jason W.
9/15/2015 05:31:00 pm

Romans 6:1-2, which Pastor Tom quoted above, is echoed in many other places:

"We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.... Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law." (Romans 3:28, 31)

"[Christ's sacrifice] condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, WHO DO NOT LIVE ACCORDING TO THE SINFUL NATURE B UT ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT.... For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live...." (Romans 8:3-4, 13)

"Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature; sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry." (Col. 3:5)

"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." (Hebrews 10:26-27)

"Some fanatics may appear...who hold that once they have received the Spirit or the forgiveness of sins, or once they have become believers, they will persevere in faith even if they sin afterwards, and such sin will not harm them. They cry out, 'Do what you will, it matters not as long as you believe, for faith blots out all sins,' etc.
...It is therefore necessary to know and to teach that when holy people, aside from the fact that they still possess and feel original sin and daily repent and strive against it, fall into open sin (as David fell into adultery, murder, and blasphemy), faith and the Spirit have departed from them. This is so because the Holy Spirit does not permit sin to rule and gain the upper hand in such a way that sin is committed, but the Holy Spirit represses and restrains it so that it does not do what it wishes. If sin does what it wishes, the Holy Spirit and faith are not present...." (Smalcald Articles, Part 3, article 3, sections 42-43)

All of this contradicts the false teachings of the late Gerhard Forde, who said, "Unable to rhyme Matt. 5:17-18 with Rom. 10:4, the dogmatic tradition has experienced nothing but trouble over the law.... The result was the idea that in Christ the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament were abrogated...while the 'moral' law was not....BUT THIS IS PATENT NONSENSE which only confuses the issue further.... Neither Testament makes that kind of distinction between ceremonial and moral law." (see the excerpt of Forde's article, "Justification and This World" posted at http://crossalone.us/?page_id=257 )

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    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.


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