Another story shows that ELCA continues to wreck and divide congregations. That is not necessarily bad, but ELCA has portrayed itself as a model of peace, unity, diversity, and participatory democracy. Ha!
The ELCA convention vote was steamrolled by the Presiding Bishop, previous ELCA bosses, and a host of political lobbies. I read about a huge donation given to one group to help the lobbying effort.
For some reason, there are never viable groups to oppose the radical factions of denominations. WELS has the toxic Church and Change and many offshoots, but no Book of Concord organization. Missouri has Jesus First, DayStar, and the SP's office, but no organized opposition.
Some lobbies own schools, which they use to promote their opinions and to recruit new zombies for their movement. Church Growth owns Martin Luther College, Wisconsin Lutheran College, and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary.
In Missouri, the cool pastors join Eastern Orthodoxy or the Church of Rome.
ELCA has finally become so obnoxious to its pastors and members that a massive revolt is just starting. The linked article is just a small indication.
ELCA has a great system for imposing apostasy, although its efficacy has now blown up in its face:
1. A new political issue is introduced as equivalent to the Gospel.
2. Massive amounts of publicity are devoted to proving that there is only one possible position on this topic, although much is said about listening, discerning, debating, and voting.
3. The leaders pretend to be neutral while pushing this agenda.
4. Even a murmur of dissent invites silence, shunning, punishment, and ridicule. (No, not just in WELS. In ELCA, too!)
5. Once the new cancer has been transplanted, the issue is studied. This is very costly and involves, for instance, 10 people on a commission who are already committed to the issue, plus 1 person against, for balance.
6. Various convention votes are promoted to settle the issue, but only after all opposition has been quashed or de-railed. In ELCA, for example, the bishops have no say, and their magazine might be called The Alternative Lutheran.
7. If the first convention vote is not entirely successful, addition votes are taken in future years until they can prove that 67% of the votes are in favor of the pre-ordained decision.
The question is whether Lutherans in the old Synod Conference are going to continue to fund apostasy while the radicals take their synods to new depths of depravity, aping ELCA.
I wrote about this 23 years ago, publishing a book length manuscript on how this works in ELCA. I also published Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure, a book the Shrinkers tried to suppress at NPH.
Luther - On the Wrath of God
"We have the comfort of this victory of Christ--that He maintains His Church against the wrath and power of the devil; but in the meantime we must endure such stabs and cruel wounds from the devil as are necessarily painful to our flesh and blood. The hardest part is that we must see and suffer all these things from those who call themselves the people of God and the Christian Church. We must learn to accept these things calmly, for neither Christ nor the saints have fared better." Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 263. Exaudi John 15:26-16:4.
"Neither is he [Satan] truthful; he is the spirit of lies, who, by means of false fear and false comfort having the appearance of truth, both deceives and destroys. He possesses the art of filling his own victims with sweet comfort; that is, he gives them unbelieving, arrogant, secure, impious hearts...He can even make them joyful; furthermore, he renders them haughty and proud in their opinions, in their wisdom and self-made personal holiness; then no threat nor terror of God's wrath and of eternal damnation moves them, but their hearts grow harder than steel or adamant." Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 302. Pentecost, Third Sermon John 14:23-31.
"Half the sins which the world has learned of its lord and master, the devil, consist in lying and deceiving, and that in the name and appearance of truth. The other half, which is easier to recognize, consists in wrath and its fruits. And this class is usually the result of the other. The world, for its own advantage, lies and deceives; and when it sees mankind acting in opposition to its wishes, or beholds its lies exposed and its schemes thwarted, it begins to rage in wrath against God, endeavoring to avenge itself and inflict harm, but fraudulently disguising its wicked motive under the plea of having good and abundant reasons for its action." Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VIII, p. 312. Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity Ephesians 4:22-28.
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Mary Thompson wrote:
The subject today, titled: "ELCA Continues to Wreck Congregations" opens with the following statement: "ELCA has portrayed itself as a model of peace, unity, diversity and participatory democracy. Ha!" Their claims of peace, unity and diversity is a sham for all to see, but THEY HAVE SUCCEEDED in being a model of "participatory democracy" and all its destructive implications. Your seven point explanation of the modus operandi of ELCA is "participatory democracy" in action, for Participatory Democracy is not as most people think, participation in representative democratic governance. Few realize that the term, Participatory Democracy was coined in the 60's by the Students for A Democratic Society in their Port Huron Manifesto with SDS members Tom Hayden, one time husband of Jane Fonda, and radical leftist.
Participatory Democracy is a dialectical process of managed change and governance adopted not only by ELCA, but also WELS who chose to use PPBS in late 60's as their Participatory Democracy system. The system has essentially been superimposed over formerly representative governance universally in civil government at all levels, schools, business, NGO's and organized religious institutions. It's dialectical method is neither known, understood Nor recognized by people other than the elite perpetrators and facilitators who function as change agents as those affected wonder what happened and watch their foundations of society and churches be destroyed under them.
Some who have done the research and homework who tried to explain the system and accompanying terminology, have been met with deaf ears, disinterest, or disbelief, and with disdain, ridicule and dismissal by the those who perpetrated and continue to facilitate the dialectical system. Until it is understood that methods are not necessarily neutral, nothing will be corrected.
