Lutheran (EL
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Keep a Good Lent!
Posted on 03/13/2015 9:02:49 AM PDT by rhema
I would guess I would understand the conflict more if there were any conflict in the Scriptures on the issue. For example, on issues like Calvinism (predestination) versus Arminianism (free will) there are Scripture verses for both positions.
But there are few things Scripture is more clear on than homosexuality. It is condemned from Genesis right through Revelation. If anything the New Testament is stronger than the Old Testament.
And yet here we are, with most mainline churches being consumed on the topic.
To me, it is just a prime example of being obedient to God versus being rebellious.
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Keep a Good Lent!
But the practical result of this principle is one on which there is no need of speculating; it works in one unvarying way. When error is admitted into the Church, it will be found that the stages of its progress are always three. It begins by asking toleration. Its friends say to the majority: You need not be afraid of us; we are few and weak; only let us alone; we shall not disturb the faith of others. The Church has her standards of doctrine; of course we shall never interfere with them; we only ask for ourselves to be spared interference with our private opinions.
Indulged in this for a time, error goes on to assert equal rights. Truth and error are two balancing forces. The Church shall do nothing which looks like deciding between them; that would be partiality. It is bigotry to assert any superior right for the truth. We are to agree to differ and any favoring of the truth, because it is truth, is partisanship. What the friends of truth and error hold in common is fundamental. Anything on which they differ is “ipso facto” non-essential. Anybody who makes account of such a thing is a disturber of the peace of the church. Truth and error are two co-ordinate powers, and the great secret of church-statesmanship is to preserve the balance between them.
From this point error soon goes on to its natural end, which is to assert supremacy. Truth started with tolerating; it comes to be merely tolerated and that only for a time. Error claims a preference for its judgments on all disputed points. It puts men into position, not as at first in spite of their departure from the Church’s faith, but in consequence of it. Their recommendation is that they repudiate that faith, and position is given them to teach others to repudiate it, and make them skillful in combating it." (pp. 195-196)
From: “THE CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION AND ITS THEOLOGY as represented in the Augsburg Confession and in the history and literature of the Evangelical Lutheran Church” by Charles P. Krauth, D.D. (1871). [Note date]
Truth does not change!
I have seen this in my family also. In the 80’s, there was a split back home and many left for what became the ELCA (the split was over how to spend some church funds). The ELCA church was ok, and even decent, for a while. Then a new pastor came, the rainbow flags went up, and it started to die.
My best friend’s family built the parish in the 1800’s. They left years ago.
Amen!
And as former Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope emeritus Benedict XVI wrote)
Truth is not determined by majority vote.
Our story/history of the destruction of churches across America by the Rainbow warrior pretending to be Christians, is out there in most communities.
I was blocked from accessing the link by my internet security program with the message that it is infected by HEUR:Trojan.Script.Generic
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