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.pdf file .rtf file The Doctrinal Position of ELCA. Professor Brug of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod examines the doctrinal teaching of the ELCA, as contained in their own dogmatics and catechetical texts. If your eyes have not yet been opened to the extremes of ELCA apostasy, you need to read this essay.

On the Virgin Birth of Jesus the Christ: “The primary interest of dogmatics is so to interpret the virgin birth as a symbol and not as a freakish invention in the course of nature.” Carl Braaten and Robert W. Jensen, Christian Dogmatics, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), 546. Popular ELCA seminary text.

nDescent and ascent of Christ: “. . . The story of the descent of the Son of God to earth and his ascent into heaven cannot be taken literally” ibid., p. 529

n“The notion of a pre-existent Son of God becoming a human being in the womb of a virgin and then returning to his heavenly home is bound up with a mythological picture of the world that clashes with our modern scientific world view” (ibid., p. 527).

The foregoing comments from a textbook that is commonly used in ELCA seminaries need no comment. In the religion of Islam it is believed that Jesus was born of a virgin and ascended into heaven, although the religion denies the central purpose of Christ coming into the world -- His death and resurrection by which we are saved.

"What do Lutherans believe about the Bible?
"Do ELCA Lutherans believe the Bible is the inerrant Word of God?

“. . . At the same time, we also find in the Bible human emotion, testimony, opinion, cultural limitation and bias. ELCA Lutherans recognize that human testimony and writing are related to and often limited by culture, customs and world view. Today we know that the earth is not flat and that rabbits do not chew their cud (Leviticus 11:6 ). These are examples of time-bound cultural understandings or practices.” For the complete document, click the web address. http://www.elca.org/questions/Results.asp?recid=16

As is commonly the case with liberal theology, ELCA has it wrong on both counts. The Bible nowhere teaches that the earth is flat and rabbits do indeed chew their cud. Rabbits chewing their cud has been confirmed to me in two ways -- 1. by an email from Answers in Genesis (that providentially arrived the same day I read the ELCA slam on Scripture) and 2. by a farmer who used to raise rabbits.

From the Answers in Genesis ministry, I received the following email note:

A: For many years, scientists used the rabbit or “hare” to prove the Bible supposedly wrong because in Leviticus 11:6 we read, “And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.” They claimed that the rabbit didn’t chew its cud or have the same stomach system as other cud chewers like cows, and therefore the Bible was wrong.

Then about 20 years ago, it was discovered that rabbits do indeed—in a sense—chew their cud. When a rabbit first eats something, the food passes through its digestive system rapidly, undergoing very little digestion. These are the green pellets one finds when raising rabbits! The rabbit will then eat these green pellets, which are actually their cud, and finish chewing and digesting them. They then pass on out as brown waste pellets. So rabbits really do chew their cud. (For a more thorough answer, see Do rabbits chew their cud? by Dr. Jonathan Sarfati.)

This is just one of many examples of how the Bible has been proven to be right and so-called science wrong. We must remember to start all of our learning and understanding of science with the Bible, and of course, the foundational book of Genesis.

"The ELCA doesn't have an official position on creation vs. evolution, but we subscribe to the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation, so we believe God created the universe and all that is therein, only not necessarily in six 24-hour days, and that he may actually have used evolution in the process of creation.

"'Historical criticism' is an understanding that the Bible must be understood in the cultural context of the times in which it was written."

Without shame, ELCA proclaims that it uses the "Historical Critical" method of interpretation. In other words, the authors of Scripture were not divinely inspired to write His Word, the Scriptures were not "breathed of God," and we cannot believe the Bible when it conflicts with modern views. The real problem is with the heart of those who adopt these views in ELCA. The evidence for a young earth and the impossibility of bacteria-to-man evolution is overwhelming.

The ELCA is in "full communion" with the Episcopal Church, the denomination that recently put into office a bishop who left his wife so that he could be with his homosexual partner. See the following: http://www.elca.org/ecumenical/fullcommunion/episcopal/index.html

The following is a web page which has many links and uploaded documents regarding the current policies and practices of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in relation to homosexuality and lesbianism. http://www.elca.org/faithfuljourney/policy.html

“On Sunday, May 2, the Hollywood Lutheran Church will install an openly avowed practicing homosexual as their pastor, despite Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) laws that dictate otherwise. The forthcoming installation is one of many that have been occurring not only in the ELCA but also in several mainline protestant denominations in the past few decades.” For the complete article, click below.

“ELCA divided over homosexual marriages
”By Matt Ollwerther
”Marshfield News-Herald
”A report recently issued by an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America task force shows church members almost evenly split about whether to sanctify same-sex committed unions.” For the complete article, click below.

“The LCMS sprang from German immigrants fleeing the forced Prussian Union, who settled in the St. Louis area and has a continuous history since it was established in 1847. The LCMS is the second largest Lutheran church body in North America (2.7 million). It identifies itself as a church with an emphasis on biblical doctrine and faithful adherence to the historic Lutheran confessions. Insistence by some LCMS leaders on a literalist reading of all passages of Scripture led to a rupture in the mid-1970s [This is a bizarre twist of things that makes sticking with biblical authority the action that caused the Seminex rupture! "Woe to those who call bad good and good bad! All those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution."], which in turn resulted in the formation of the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, now part of the ELCA.

“The ELCA tends to be more involved in ecumenical endeavors than the LCMS. The ELCA, through predecessor church bodies, is a founding member of the Lutheran World Federation, World Council of Churches and the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. The LCMS does not belong to any of these.” http://www.elca.org/questions/Results.asp?recid=1

A Lutheran task force handed a victory to homosexual rights groups yesterday by recommending that although the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America should not change its policy against ordaining homosexual clergy, it should not censure churches that break the rule.
But "those who feel conscience-bound to call people [as pastors] in committed same-sex unions should refrain from making the call a media event either as an act of defiance or with the presumption of being prophetic," the task force warned. The 14-member task force pronounced itself conflicted and unable to agree about how the ELCA should proceed.

    What emerged in their report — released at church headquarters in Chicago — was a compromise in which congregations could hire homosexual clergy without making this the official policy in the 4.9-million-member denomination.
    The compromise came as three recommendations:
    •That Lutherans "learn to live together faithfully," while disagreeing, thus avoiding the splits over homosexuality that have dominated the Episcopal Church, which has shared sacraments, clergy and ministry with the ELCA since 2001.
    •That the ELCA continue to have no official policy on same-sex unions, but "respect" a 1993 ELCA bishops' statement that does not approve such ceremonies as official church acts; That the denomination not discipline churches that hire homosexual clergy, nor the clergy themselves. At least 14 openly homosexual seminarians or clergy serve in ELCA churches, according to the San Francisco-based Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries.
    Several ELCA bishops raised red flags about the report, which will be debated and voted on in August at the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly in Orlando, Fla.
    Bishop H. Gerard Knoche of the Delaware-Maryland Synod called it "a policy change even though it claims not to be" from current ELCA policy that allows people with homosexual attractions to be ordained, but expects that they remain celibate.
    Bishop James Mauney of ELCA's Virginia Synod said he did not see "a basis for affirming homosexual behavior within Scripture or our Lutheran confessions."
    He added, "Nowhere do I see in the Scriptures where Jesus condones the practice of the tax collectors or the woman caught in adultery or the life of the rich young ruler, though we are told he loves him in the Gospel of Mark."
    The report follows the general drift of other mainline Protestant denominations to loosen their policies on homosexual clergy and same-sex unions.
    The Episcopal Church already has ordained a practicing homosexual bishop and allows same-sex ceremonies in several dioceses, and the Presbyterian Church USA is deferring a final decision on such issues until 2006.
    Those two churches have lost more than 1.5 million members combined in recent decades. The ELCA has lost 300,000 members since 1999.
    Among Lutherans, "we found no consensus in the church on this matter," said New England Synod Bishop Margaret Payne, chairman of the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality.
    She cited a 2004 poll of 28,000 Lutherans, in which 38 percent opposed the blessing of same-sex unions and hiring homosexual clergy; 18 percent approved it; 14 percent said homosexuals should be welcomed as parishioners, but not hired as clergy nor should their unions be blessed; 12 percent were undecided; and the others gave mixed responses.
    Thus, she added, the task force decided to treat ordination of homosexual pastors as valid dissent.
    "It acknowledges the validity of conscientious objection and honors that," she said. "Because of that, discipline will not be enforced. It's a new dimension of respect ... based on individual conscience."
    The task force cited Martin Luther, the founder of the denomination, as the paragon of individual conscience because of his statement at the Diet of Worms in 1521. The church reformer told the Diet — a church court — that he was bound in conscience to the Bible and that "it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience."
    However, yesterday's report did not go far enough for the Lutheran Alliance for Full Participation, a consortium of six homosexual groups.
    Although one spokesman for the alliance privately conceded that the report "leaves a lot of wiggle room," its official statement expressed "dismay and deep sadness" at remaining strictures within the 32-page report.
    "We remain committed to the removal of discriminatory policies that violate our calls to ministry and marginalize our relationships," spokeswoman Emily Eastwood said.
    Bishop Theodore F. Schneider of the ELCA's Metropolitan Washington Synod said the report "raises many more questions and problems than it answers.
    "I am not quite sure how the churchwide assembly can be asked to affirm the constitution, bylaws, policies and practices of this church and not expect that they be applied fairly and evenly," he added.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on Sexuality and the Authority of Scripture