You Didn't Build That

When President Obama addressed a crowd in Ohio during his election campaign this fall, he ventured off the teleprompter and spoke from his heart. Driving another wedge into his strategy of promoting class warfare, he admonished those who have been successful in business, stating that “You didn’t build that.” The President further stated that without the help of government provided infrastructure that included teachers, road building, and workers, their success would not have been possible. Obviously, the president truly believes that without government, nothing is possible. Obama’s true ideology was revealed in that moment of candor, exposing his belief that government rules first and foremost. Mitt Romney’s statement that 47% of the United States are beholding to government by virtue of entitlements or employment and would continue to vote to continue their benefits, garnered much negative reporting in the mainstream media. Other than in conservative talk radio, President Obama’s slip of the tongue was widely ignored as he was elected for a second term. While many conservatives were angered by his statements, what the President stated actually IS true. Unfortunately, his reasoning could not be more inaccurate. The concept that we cannot do anything without our Lord and Savior may be foreign to our president, but it is, in fact, true. Those of us who try to go it alone soon discover that without God we only get ourselves into a myriad of predicaments.

John 15:4-5, Jesus said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Without our Lord and Savior filling our hearts, without placing our lives under His guidance, and without us giving Him the glory, we are simply nothing. All of our successes, and sometimes even our failures, are truly gifts from God. The God of all creation, who spoke the universe into existence and breathed life into everything that was, is, and is yet to come, deserves all the credit for everything that we can possibly accomplish. For without God’s infinite love of His children, we and the world we live in would not exist. God created everything for us. For us, His children!

The leadership of the ELCA, by invoking their doctrine of bound conscience, continues to lift up, what they call, “new things” that minimize our Lord’s role in their church. “God didn’t literally father Jesus”, “Mary wasn’t really a virgin when she conceived”, and “Jesus wasn’t resurrected in a physical sense.” While these self-proclaimed enlightened scholars attempt to diminish long held Biblical truths, they lift up the things of this world and proclaim, “God’s work, our hands” while their call to bring the world to Christ is largely abandoned. Humankind’s selfish proclivities are celebrated and joyfully proclaimed from the pulpits of ELCA churches and declared as right with God in numerous social statements. While their God is left in the dust, they continue to be obsessed with human sexuality, particularly the crusade to normalize homosexuality, in effect, thumbing their collective noses at God’s commands.

Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” The ELCA has torn down a church built upon a rock and created a misguided religion erected upon the loose sands of heresy. As more and more congregations leave this misguided denomination, it teeters closer and closer to the precipice.

Far too many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are fooled into believing that the ELCA is doing God’s work. Yes, many ELCA congregations remain in Christ, but all are at risk of falling into the trap set by the leaders of the ELCA. When Bishop Hanson does his little two step dance, placing the false gospel of radical inclusiveness on equal terms with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, far too many nod their heads in agreement. God did build that and everything that is. Pray that no more are lost to the false gospels promoted by the leadership of the ELCA.