'Nuff Said?

Should sleeping dogs be left alone? Is it finally time to wash our hands of those who choose to maintain unity with a heretical church that challenges the very authority they have pledged to uphold? Should we just shake the dust off our sandals or treat them as one would treat a pagan or a tax collector? After all, so many have tried and failed to lead the “Apostasy Gone Wild” ELCA back to the path that our Lord calls us to travel. Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Truth is, if just one brother or sister in Christ is brought back to the true Gospel, all our effort will not be in vain. While we are called to proclaim the word to the world and to bring the lost to Jesus, it is even more important to bring those back who knew Him, but have fallen away. 2 Peter 2:20-21, “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.”

The leaders of the ELCA continue to lead our brothers and sisters in Christ toward the gospel of tolerance, acceptance and affirmation and away from the Lord. They continue to tout that is with love that they reach out and accept behavior that God prohibits. Man’s imperfect love supplants God’s perfect love in their flawed reasoning. While their flawed logic refuses to obey God’s commands, they lash out against those that offer a guiding hand. It often appears that our pleas for a return to the tenets of our faith are falling upon deaf ears. Jeremiah 5:21,30-31 “Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear: A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?” Genetics, environmental issues, healthcare, immigration, sexuality and criminal justice are just a few of the driving ministries of the ELCA. Preach the word and bring the lost to Him? Now that is the issue that God’s church needs to tackle. When a church allows, even encourages questioning the very truths they are charged to uphold, how does this further God’s Kingdom?

ELCA leaders continue to ridicule those that are so archaic to continue to blindly accept the authority of Scripture. Loyal ELCA members cast their own aspersions at those who only want their brothers and sisters in Christ to open their eyes, hearts and minds to the everlasting truths of our faith. Why does it grieve us so to see this church leave the narrow path of righteousness to pursue worldly desires and ideals? Philippians 3:18-21, “For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.”

There are far too many of our brothers and sisters in Christ that have been blinded by the pleasing words used by the leaders of the ELCA. Those supposed men and women of God are simply purveyors of worldly desires, leading the faithful over the precipice like so many lemmings. “I’ve been going to this church all my life.” “All my friends go to my church.” “I don’t believe you.” “My pastor doesn’t believe that way and would never preach that.” “We should not break the unity of the church.” Well my friends, a church is nothing if it is not part of the body of Christ, and the ELCA is doing much more than simply drifting away from God. After all, the enlightened ELCA leadership calls for those who disagree to maintain unity with the church, not Christ. There is a reason our God had His words put to writing for us, and rewriting them to placate selfish human desires was not part of that purpose. His words were true then, are now and will be forever. John 6:68-69, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” Keep proclaiming the Truth until all the world has heard!