Owning Up

As a child, my parents stressed that if did something wrong, I needed to own up to that mistake by admitting what I had done. If I decided to lie or attempt to minimize my participation in whatever shenanigans I was involved in, I only made matters worse and my punishment was much more severe than if I just owned up to what I had done. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. There is good reason that the leadership of the ELCA has made confession and absolution optional for member churches. For without confession, there is no need to acknowledge one’s failings before the Lord. Without our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we are nothing. We can accomplish nothing without the guidance of our Savior. Without first being filled with the Holy Spirit, we cannot even believe and accept the grace that God offers His children. For the leaders of the ELCA, it is more important that everyone’s personal identity is respected and accepted in order to welcome and properly love the neighbor. In order to make certain that the neighbor is not ashamed of their sin and does not feel unwanted, the ELCA enacts doctrine to officially accept that behavior as no longer sinful. So when a neighbor makes a conscious and deliberate decision to remain in sin, denying our Lord and Savior to placate his or her worldly desires, this errant denomination reaches out in their imperfect love and amends God’s law.

1 Peter 1:22-25, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.” The leadership of the ELCA has abandoned the Truth by their deliberate and calculated disobedience. They do not own up to the fact that man is by nature sinful and left to himself is capable of all kinds of evil. The leaders of the ELCA stoke the flames of disobedience by enacting doctrine to allow one to engage in sin without remorse or need to acknowledge their sinful nature. Now, sin is not simply the act of disobeying the Lord. It is when we place ourselves first in our relationship with Christ that we begin to fall into sin. All humans are imperfect beings that fall far short of the glory of our God, and some of us are more imperfect than others. (Put the writer of this blog in the latter category) When we attempt to use our imperfect love as an excuse to disobey our God, then we commit the gravest sin of all, we place ourselves upon the altar and worship ourselves, our intellect and our identities.

Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” The leaders of the ELCA hold their membership captive through the hollow and deceptive philosophy known as the doctrine of bound conscience. Far too many accept this false doctrine, believing that it allows them to better love their neighbor. It does nothing of the sort. Acceptance of the doctrine of bound conscience allows one to relegate our Lord to an afterthought, placing their own imperfect love as the cornerstone of their faith. How insidious it is for the evil one to use love as the temptation for man to place himself above God! And make no mistake. The leaders of the ELCA may believe that God is telling them new things, but these new things are whispers and murmurs spoken to them by the very prince of darkness. By urging their members to disregard Scripture, they are simply doing the evil one’s bidding. How sad for these enlightened elites. As the leaders of the ELCA fall all over themselves promoting the things of this world in an effort to repair our broken world, their emphasis on social justice actually divides and the false gospels they teach drive the faithful away from God.

Colossians 2:6-7, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Dwell in His word. Keep the faith as you were taught, thanking God for every blessing. Continue in prayer that those trapped in the ELCA may be delivered from the clutches of the evil one.