Posted on 04/09/2010 7:44:29 AM PDT by SmithL
The head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America plans to affirm to an overseas bishop that the U.S. church is committed to the centrality of the Word of God.
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson will share the statement when he meets with presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, the Rev. Alex G. Malasusa, in May, according to the ELCA News Service.
Malasusa had recently rebuked the ELCA for its liberal direction on homosexuality.
"I will share with Bishop Malasusa the ELCA's strong commitment to the centrality of the Word of God in our faith and witness. We join all Lutherans who affirm that the central message of the Scriptures as the good news of God's love and saving work in Jesus Christ," said Hanson.
In an Easter sermon, Malasusa said Lutheran churches in the U.S. and Sweden have strayed from the Scriptures. And he stressed that same-sex marriage is "in direct contravention of God's word," as reported by The Citizen, a newspaper based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
"It's time Africa preached to the rest of the world and remind them of God's word because it seems they have forgotten what the Bible says," he stated, according to the local newspaper.
The sermon was in response to the Lutheran Church of Sweden's support for same-sex marriage and the ELCA's decision in August to approve the ordination of noncelibate gays and lesbians. The U.S. church had also adopted a social statement on human sexuality that recommended the ELCA commit itself to finding ways to recognize lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships.
Malasusa urged Lutherans in Tanzania to strive to become financially independent so that the U.S. and European Lutheran churches "dont use their money and wealth to threaten us."
(Excerpt) Read more at christianpost.com ...
"We should leave them with their money and stick to the word of God,"Amen
I have two childhood friends who became ELCA ministers in Minnesota. They are both deeply torn by the direction that the ELCA has taken.
It goes deeper than acceptance of homosexuality; it is the wider subject of the non-scritural acceptance of modernism. It also has a lot to do with the method in which this acceptance of homosexuality was agreed to.
One of my friends runs a rather large church and intends to fight this from the inside. The other friend runs a couple of small rural churches and intends to join a splinter group.
That statement means precisely NOTHING. Anyone who even remotely considers themselves a Christian would agree that the central message of the Scripture is God's love and the saving work in Jesus Christ. Anyone - Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, cultist, whatever - who wouldn't agree to that statement could not possibly even consider themselves a Christian.
What does Christ say? “with such men do not even eat”.
Yep. One cannot serve two masters.
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) acted Nov. 15 to reduce the 2010 churchwide current fund spending authorization by nearly $7.7 million, 10 percent less than the budget authorized by the 2009 Churchwide Assembly. The council's action eliminated 40.75 full-time equivalent positions, of which six were vacant.
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
I know an ELCA member who says that, since Jesus didn’t say anything against homosexuality, we should ordain gays and hold gay weddings. I told her that some Bible verses say that homosexuality is a sin and that no Bible verse states that God approves of homosexuality.
What you have heard is sooooooo wrong. First off, three times the NT specifically condemns homosexuality. (Romans 1, 1Cor 6, 1 Timothy 1). Second Christ did condemn homosexuality. In both the books of Matthew and Mark Jesus condemns what is translated as "fornication". Fornication is the English translation of the Greek word "pornea" which includes any type of wrongful sexual behavior including, unmarried sex, adultery, homosexuality and bestiality. Finally, Jesus in Matthew 19 specifically says marriage is between "a man" and "a woman". Once cannot conceive of stronger language condemning homosexuality than is found in the New Testament. And all that is in ADDITION to the specific OT prohibitions.
Since Jesus didn't say anything against credit card fraud, either, we should be able throw really nice receptions for those events and not have to pay the bills. /s
There's five words come to mind whenever this abomination speaks: Get thee behind me, Satan!!!
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