Posted on 08/16/2013 6:32:17 AM PDT by rhema
There is a new bishop in town, a new leader of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The old bishop, Mark S. Hanson, has been sent packing and none too soon. Under Bishop Hanson's watch, the ELCA has:
- decided God was wrong, so they “unsinned” homosexuality
- taken no step to protect the lives of the unborn
- continued to gender neutralize God and also invented female names for Him
- taken no steps to end goddess worship happening in their churches
- continually called on government leaders to take actions that would harm Israel and seek to turn the Christian community against the Jews
- placed social justice over Jesus' great commission
- raised up leaders who do not believe much of what is said in the Bible
Will that change with newly-elected Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton? It doesn't look that way.
During an interview this week Bishop Eaton said this about the ELCA's positions on homosexuality, “We took a difficult decision in 2009 and it did have an impact on our attendance because we decided that when God said 'everybody' God meant 'everybody' could serve.”
A few minutes later she said, “We are not doing any of this to catch a wave in populate culture or to get more people to come in. We are doing this because we felt motivated by our understanding of Scripture and of our own confessional tradition that maybe this was something that God was doing that was new and it would be important for us to allow this kind of inclusion.” (see here)
So the ELCA decided to contradict Scripture because “maybe” God was doing something new? WOW! I'd think a Christian denomination should know “without a doubt” 100% that God wanted them to go against His written Word before they would do it.
Yet on March 10, 2010 -
“The Reverend Bishop Elizabeth Eaton of the Northeastern Ohio Synod presided over Trinity's celebration of the gay and lesbian-inclusive legislation passed at last summer's Churchwide Assembly. She preached for members of several local Lutheran, Unitarian Universalist, and United Church of Christ congregations as well as guests from Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries, Lutheran Chaplaincy, and Dennis Kucinich’s office... Bishop Eaton thanked the GLBT people and their friends and families who had patiently endured their second-class status within the church for so long. She also expressed a hope that the rocky reception of this vote across the country will resolve into positive innovation in the church.” (see here)
An interesting fact being reported is that Bishop Eaton's husband, Rev. Conrad Selnick, is an Episcopal priest. The Episcopalian church is even more non-orthodox doctrinally than the ELCA.
I was reading a forum that was discussing the new Presiding Bishop and came across this from a pastor who knows her. Rev. Norman E. Dew writes:
“Having served in the Northeastern Ohio Synod while Eaton served as bishop, not much will change. She talks about making sure that the ELCA doesn't slide into just another liberal Protestant denomination but she's not tolerant of Lutheran orthodoxy in matters of sexuality. As an interim pastor, I was told that she was the pastor of the congregation I served. I served in her stead. She did not like the fact that I allowed the congregation and leadership of the church to investigate the happenings that were occurring in the church as a result of the 2009 CWA. She came close to accusing me of leading the congregation out of the ELCA. I did no such thing despite some disapproval of those in the congregation who thought I should be outspoken. When I finally determined that my future as a pastor in the ELCA was over I moved to the NALC and resigned as interim pastor.
She has been very forthright to say that there were clergy in the synod that were not preaching the gospel and was very disapproving of pastors who were welcoming the unbaptized to communion. She was extremely critical at conference meetings with clergy about the pastoral office, but it went no further. Some might say, 'What else is a bishop to do?' I could think of a few things.
She famously said at a conference meeting after the 2009 vote when a question was raised by a congregational member about scripture passages which he believed spoke against homosexuality: 'I don't believe in the Bible.' I'm not sure she's done anything great for the Northeastern Ohio Synod in years as bishop...but she also hasn't wrecked it. She's probably not the best and certainly not the worst. In all things, I do continue to pray for her in her service to the Church.” (see here)
So the ELCA, under Presiding Bishop Eaton, will remain the same. They will continue to cruise down the road of secularism and heresy. They will continue to distance themselves from the God of the Bible. They will continue to lead people down the path of destruction.
The more things change, the more they remain the same. Maybe worse.
Pretty sure God said homosexuality was wrong and Israel is His chosen.
Maybe these people have a different Bible than I do.
Just how were you expecting the followers of that vile heretic Luther to ultimately behave. They behave and believe the neo pagan nonsense of their barbarian ancestors.
It is sad to see a church turn from the Truth and accept the lie and unrepentant inclusiveness is a lie.
I’m not letting these type of Lutherans define Lutherans for me.
FReegards
They amend the Bible, edit it, and toss out whatever reproaches them for their favorite sins at every one of their conventions.
I do not understand why they continue to refer to the ELCA as a “church”. It is a liberal cult.
Wow, a little excessive with the vitriol this morning? Are we waking up on the wrong side of bed? Or is conversion just impossible in your world? Are you a closest Calvinist? Inquiring minds want to know.
It is not up to me to decide for people what they can believe , as long as they do not hurt others.
If they want to believe God destroyed Sodom just for the fun of it, that does not harm me.
It’s a religious cult that tell me I have to belong or be a slave or killed that I am against.
We all know what that is, and calling it a religion of peace is horse manure.
According to statistics compiled by the ELCA Office of the Secretary and available on the church’s website [ According to statistics compiled by the ELCA Office of the Secretary and available on the church’s website [ HERE ], ELCA congregations lost 483,252 members in 2010 and 2011 (the most recent year for which such figures are available). Also in those two years, the number of ELCA congregations dropped by 710.
Interestingly, there are no figures for 2012 yet. Maybe all the membership counters have also fled.
". . .I have often said that there are two kinds of faith. First, a faith in which you indeed believe that Christ is such a man as he is described and proclaimed here and in all the Gospels, but do not believe that he is such a man for you, and are in doubt whether you have any part in him and think: 'Yes, he is such a man to others, to Peter, Paul, and the blessed saints; but who knows that he is such to me and that I may expect the same from him and may confide in it, as these saints did.'
"Behold, this faith is nothing, it does not receive Christ nor enjoy him, neither can it feel any and love and affection for him or from him. It is a faith about Christ and not in or of Christ, a faith which the devils also have as well as evil men. . .
"That alone can be called Christian faith, which believes without wavering that Christ is the Savior not only to Peter and to the saints but also to you. Your salvation does not depend on the fact that you believe Christ to be the Savior of the godly, but that he is a Savior to you and has become your own." ["First Sunday in Advent" -- Sermons of Martin Luther, volume 1: Sermons on Gospel Texts for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, Baker Books, page 21]
Thus also saith our pastor-friend lightman: Extremely Liberal Cult of Antinomianism
Regretfully, the immoral society ours has become has also been detrimental in younger peoples overall attendance. They don’t see a need, they have become believers of the relativism taught by post-modern theologians and educators. It is a travesty, even more so, it is the lostness that these individuals have accepted for themselves. The millstone Jesus spoke of is being tied around many person’s necks for having lead the young astray.
Bad mood.
Indeed, Luther embraced the Truth. Poster allendale seemed to think that ex-pagans are the evil end-all, while ignoring the rampant hedonism we observe today.
Ok, I can hear that.
The: Ok, I can hear that, was meant as a response to you.
My father used to tell me it was Ok to talk to yourself as long as you didn’t start answering. Well, I think I better quit while I’m ahead, got’ta run. Bye.
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