Lutheran (EL
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Posted on 08/22/2009 6:51:11 PM PDT by lightman
ome things are not up for a vote.
Some things we as creatures do not have the right to even think we can change.
We as creatures have forgotten our place. Instead of prostrating ourselves face down on the ground before God, Our Father and Our Creator, in humble obedience and prayer, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America—as a shrinking “sideline” denomination—decided to continue its in-your-face unfaithful and disrespectful conduct toward God, Our Maker, ignoring all interventions, warnings and signs.
The ELCA put God’s Word and all of its teachings on the natural order, marriage and family up for a vote and the result was a resounding 66.67 percent approval for changing them.
How many times has the WordAlone Network called foul? How many speeches, articles, news releases have we put out trying to be clear but not angry—pointing out that the natural order is not up for a vote.
God is God, and He will not be mocked.
Yet, year after year the agenda gets pushed, assembly after assembly it gets more in our faces until this year, in this assembly, here in the city of the headquarters of one of the predecessor bodies, the old ALC (American Lutheran Church), things were different.
One could hear it, feel it, and just simply know it . . . this was the year that the ELCA was going to actually cross the line as an institution and make clear to those with ears to hear that it is not an orthodox Lutheran Christian church. The ELCA is a misguided, unfaithful, social institution giving birth to a new religion that only gives lip service to Jesus and His Word.
It is difficult to express to all of you the happenings of the past few days as things began to build up and fall down (go ahead and envision the Tower of Babel).
As a former missionary who served in Tanzania, East Africa, I prayed, watched and hoped that the visible nature of God as I had experienced Him there among the faithful Lutherans in Tanzania would be revealed this week.
In East Africa they have not yet gotten sucked in by this post-modern era to believe that being enlightened means being smarter than God; who still regard that as a First Commandment violation; who know that spiritual warfare is a reality and that Satan is not only real, as the Bible is so very clear on, but targets those whose witness will damage his kingdom. These faithful live, pray and worship differently.
The African Christians knew that I firmly believed that the storm that shook the convention center in Orlando back in 2005 and flickered the lights as the ELCA furthered its agenda to put God’s Word, the created order and its entire teaching about what is to be blessed and ordained up for a vote, came from the hand of God. The ELCA pushed on, as if there would be no consequences.
This churchwide assembly has thus far been like a freight train out of Hell. In the name of inclusion I’ve never felt so excluded. In the name of love, I’ve never felt so despised. In the name of equality and justice, I’ve never felt so discounted and marginalized.
In addition to being told by more than one speaker that we are guilty of the unforgiveable sin, I listened in disgust to racist comments made against the growing, vibrant Lutheran church in Tanzania. I heard the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch twisted and misused as concerned Ethiopian ELCA members, including a former bishop and Lutheran World Federation vice president, from the very church that the presiding bishop held up in his report as an example because of its multi-cultural nature and fast growth, were escorted from the convention center because “the paying customers were complaining.”
As one volunteer gathered money to buy these faithful witnesses visitors passes so they could continue to tell their story to the voters in the halls and on the sidewalks, hoping that if the voters won’t listen to those of us they have already written off they might, in their great push for inclusivity, listen to those praying and begging that the ELCA not take this fatal step. But ears were stopped up and hearts hardened.
As I told another ELCA Ethiopian pastor on the phone hours before the vote, we are going to make God very angry, and I only hope and pray that in the face of this sinfulness and the work of the Evil One He will act more like He does in Africa. We need another storm like the one in Orlando and maybe this time someone will heed the warning.
Yes, this happened. As speaker after speaker twisted God’s Word to say that we, the judgmental Pharisees, were just fearful people, disregarding WordAlone’s many years of trying to be respectful, loving, loyal opposition. Exclusion was hurled in our faces.
Yes, we are fearful but not of the assembly, not of the votes, not of the leadership. We have to and do fear God, Our Father and Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ in the true sense of fear of the Lord and the wisdom that it ushers in.
For years we have prayed for clarity. We have it. According to National Public Radio, the tornado came out of nowhere. On the other side of the street from the Minneapolis Convention Center, the cross on top of Central Lutheran was bent toward the ground and tents and tables were turned over.
The very roof at the other end of the convention center from where the assembly would soon vote was damaged.
At an accelerating pace, the assembly moved forward, cut debate, refused to hear more amendments—especially ones on homosexual behavior or cohabitation—and rejected attempts to speak the Word from the floor of the assembly. The votes were punched into electronic handhelds and the results came up on the screen.
The numbers could not be denied. The statement on human sexuality passed by one vote bringing the percentage to a number not unknown to those who read their Bibles—66.67.
God, Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth and Father of our one Lord, Jesus Christ, will not be mocked.
The writing has been on the wall for quite some time. WordAlone hears the call to witness obediently that God is not doing a new thing with sexuality, not trading the natural for the unnatural, not directing his church to act against His created order nor un-sinning sin or blessing it.
God is doing a new thing in this enlightened, post-modern, rational scientific culture that has denied his power for much too long, forgotten the reality of God’s wrath and usurped His authority. We could learn from the Ethiopians and other African Christians, and Christians from other parts of the world, where they haven’t decided to regard God as mere divine spark, impotent and unable to intervene.
But many still do not revere or regard the signs and wonders.
I humbly thank God for His intervention and His witness to His power that has given great assurance to those of us fighting the good fight. It isn’t about us and our agenda; we are only called to tell the story and obey.
My response yesterday was to quote the hymn, “Built on a rock the church shall stand even when steeples are falling.” The rock of the church is God’s Word, not a social statement on sexuality.
I am so glad that I am the president of the WordAlone Network and not the presiding bishop of the ELCA and the president of the Lutheran World Federation, for there are consequences for our actions and they will be global.
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
“Built on the Rock the Church doth Stand”
by Nicolai F.S. Grundtvig, 1783-1872
Translated by Carl Doving, 1867-1937
1. Built on the Rock the Church doth stand,
Even when steeples are falling;
Crumbled have spires in every land,
Bells still are chiming and calling,
Calling the young and old to rest,
But above all the soul distrest,
Longing for rest everlasting.
2. Surely in temples made with hands,
God, the Most High, is not dwelling;
High above earth His temple stands,
All earthly temples excelling.
Yet He whom heavens cannot contain
Chose to abide on earth with men,
Built in our bodies His temple.
3. We are God's house of living stones,
Builded for His habitation;
He through baptismal grace us owns
Heirs of His wondrous salvation.
Were we but two His name to tell,
Yet He would deign with us to dwell,
With all His grace and His favor.
4. Now we may gather with our King
E'en in the lowliest dwelling;
Praises to Him we there may bring,
His wondrous mercy forthtelling.
Jesus His grace to us accords;
Spirit and life are all His words;
His truth doth hallow the temple.
5. Still we our earthly temples rear
That we may herald His praises;
They are the homes where He draws near
And little children embraces.
Beautiful things in them are said;
God there with us His covenant made,
Making us heirs of His kingdom.
6. Here stands the font before our eyes
Telling how God did receive us;
The altar recalls Christ's sacrifice
And what His table doth give us;
Here sounds the Word that doth proclaim
Christ yesterday, today, the same,
Yea, and for aye our Redeemer.
7. Grant then, O God, where’er men roam,
That, when the church-bells are ringing,
Many in saving faith may come
Where Christ His message is bringing:
“I know Mine own, Mine own know Me;
Ye, not the world, My face shall see.
My peace I leave with you.” Amen.
Hymn #467
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Eph. 2: 19-22
Author: Nicolai F.S. Grundtvig, 1837
Translated by: Carl Doving, 1909, alt.
Titled: “Kirken den er et gammelt Hus”
Composer: Ludvig M. Lindeman, 1871
Tune: “Kirken den er et”
MEGADITTOS!
When darkness veils His lovely face
I rest on His unchanging grace
IN EVERY HIGH AND STORMY GALE
My anchor holds within the veil
His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the WHELMING FLOOD
When all around my soul gives way
He then is all my hope and stay
When He shall come with trumpet sound
Oh, may I then in Him be found
Dressed in His righteousness alone
Faultless to stand before the throne
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
ALL OTHER GROUND IS SINKING SAND
Leni
True. Yet the Jaynan L. Clark who writes this and is president of the Word Alone Network--she herself is "Pastor" Jaynan L. Clark! She fails to see that the ELCA having women "pastors" is in itself a mocking of God and a rejection of his word!
Just another butt boy and lizard organization; just another part of the bigger useful idiot’s brigade!
Just in case anyone has doubts, the Bible nowhere sanctions homosexual; relations, but only condemns them wherever it explicitly deals with them. http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/Homosex_versus_the_Bible.html
Damn...isn’t that whole free will thing a b*tch?
Unfortunately I’ll have enough of my own transgressions with which to stand before God without telling these people what they should and should not be doing.
If they want to roll the dice and rewrite the Bible, well, better them than me. I don’t have to believe it.
WE don’t tell them what to do, but, we should express what the Bible says in truth. Of course, they are going to reject it in order to be pc correct and inclusive. They can pass all the agenda they want, but, they are putting themselves and those who agree with it, on a fast track to hell.
Read what the Spirit says to the churches in the book of Revelation. If they think they are going to get to heaven with their anti-Biblican stance, they have another thought coming. Jesus will tell them, “depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you.”
Looking ahead, what’s the next big issue they will come up with to divide us. I’m thinking the divinity of Jesus. As long as a pastor has love, does it really matter if she believes in the Trinity?
If you are a Christian, you have a responsibility to do so. And it won't be YOU who says it if you reference Scripture, it will be God.
For starters:
1 Corinthians 14 (NIV)
As in all the congregations of the saints, 34women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. 35If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.
36Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? 37If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord's command. 38If he ignores this, he himself will be ignored.[i]
39Therefore, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. 40But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.
The bolded ‘to speak’ means in authority. Those fluent in Greek can check this. In verse 37 Paul indicates the authority under which he makes this statement.
A bit late but see here: http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/WOMENPASTORS.html
And yet God called Deborah in the Old Testament to lead Israel when no man could be found to lead.
Exactly the point.
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