The Little Three (WELS, LCMS, ELS) are dwarfed by ELCA, so they covet the prestige and money of their big, disease-riddled sister. All four work together, always according to ELCA's rules.
All four are failing together, for the same reason. The symptoms are similar because the cause is identical - turning away from the Word of God - apostasy.
First of all, the four refuse to admit that they abandoned the Scriptures and Confessions many years ago. That kind of honesty is not allowed at any level. They posture about being unique, different, and better than the alternatives, but they are just slightly different flavors of the same blend.
They pretend to teach, but there is no teaching where doctrine is set aside for the easy, smooth way. The surest indication of that is the refusal to identify false doctrine. If a congregation or denomination cannot identify false doctrine, it rapidly descends into apostasy.
There is far more integrity in a Calvinist or Baptist group that condemns Lutheran doctrine than in a Lutheran group that refuses to acknowledge it is teaching anti-Lutheran principles. If a Calvinist denomination sorts out what is Calvinistic and what is Lutheran, it will remain Calvinistic. If a Lutheran group refuses to distinguish between the good, the bad, and the ugly, it will turn rabidly anti-Lutheran - and all the established Lutheran synods are now rabidly anti-Lutheran, including those micro-mini shards left over from various battles.
Jesus clearly distinguished between His doctrine and the doctrine of devils. As Luther pointed out many times--remember him from your annual Reformation service?--the antagonism of the opponents came from Jesus teaching faith in Him. He compared the righteousness of faith in Him with the works-righteousness of the Pharisees. He called them blind guides, hypocrites, and white-washed sepulchers full of dead men's bones.
Jesus identified the synodical leaders of today as wolves in sheep's clothing, thistles promising a harvest of figs, as David Valleskey did - to the applause of his fellow wolves. Missouri voted out their Church Growth fanatic president (Kieschnick) and subsequently voted overwhelmingly to continue working with ELCA.
The Bible uses exclusionary words to keep people from creating and enlarging loopholes in doctrine. Its simple eloquences shows us God's will with great clarity.
KJV John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the
Father, but by me.
This is a litotes, or double negative, a method of expressing a positive message without exceptions. (Without exceptions is also a litotes.) Can Moses be The Way, The Truth, and The Life? No. Can Mohammed or Buddha? No.
KJV Acts 4:11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
This is another litotes - no salvation can be found in any other person except Jesus. This statement also excludes the candidates frequently mentioned as the source of salvation. The issue is not whether we agree with the herd that salvation is found here, there, and everywhere, but whether we agree with and confess what the Word of God teaches without contradiction, without error, without fail. The last three are also litotes.
How does Jesus come to us, so that we believe in Him and have everlasting life? Romans 10 makes it clear that preaching the Gospel causes faith, that faith is salvation. The Word of God is the Means of Grace.
Isaiah 55 excludes any other Means of Grace, since God binds His Holy Spirit to the Word and excludes exceptions:
KJV Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
[This eliminates man's wisdom and experience from the lesson. Neither one applies. Begone rationalism and the magisterial use of reason. The Word judges man's reason, not the other way around.]
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
[Verse 9 repeats the same thought in another form, which God does in His Word, so the conclusion is unmistakable. Unmistakable is another litotes.]
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither,
but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
[This is an analogy, revealing to us that the Word of God is like rain and snow. God's analogies are always clear and precise. When man makes up an analogy or metaphor, like comparing the Holy Trinity to a three-leafed clover, the expression will never be completely adequate because it originates with man rather than God. False teachers set aside God's analogies for their own.]
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it
shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
[The analogy is clear to anyone in any language. The Word of God is like rain and snow in three respects. The work of God is almost always expressed in groups of three, to remind us of the Trinity.
1. The Word shall not return void. This is another litotes, teaching us that the Word is always effective, without fail. Without fail is another litotes.
2. The work accomplished by the Word of God is always God-pleasing.
3. God's Word will accomplish His purpose in abundance and power. The Word will save multitudes who trust in the merits of Christ and condemn multitudes who do not. The Word will open the eyes of those who listen to the Gospel in sincerity and cling to its message, but blind those who judge and condemn the saving work of Jesus. The Word will convert unbelievers and harden the hearts of those who oppose His will.]
The alleged Lutherans of today cannot teach this to save their souls, whether they are in the grab-bag of ELCA or the remnants of the Synodical Conference. One can only guess what the departing groups from ELCA (LCMC, NALC) will teach, besides "We are not ELCA." I wonder how they can ordain women and call themselves Biblical. They will have to teach people that the Word of God is unclear, confusing, and full of contradictions, which will lead them back to ELCA-land in one generation.
A Lutheran, without the benefit of the Book of Concord, will necessarily teach salvation by Christ alone. He will also confess that Jesus comes to us through the Word alone, whether through the invisible Word of teaching and preaching or the visible Word of the Sacraments. Man is justified by faith alone, apart from the works of the Law.
If an ordained Lutheran minister cannot confess these simple truths, he is not a Lutheran. If he cannot denounce and repudiate false doctrine, he is not a Confessional Lutheran, even if he favors that title for himself.
The Synodical Conference leaders do their share of repudiation, and they discipline with a meat-axe. But they only punish people for disturbing the smooth operation of the corporation. They admonish attitude, not doctrine. Lupine leaders like ovine followers.
Nothin' says lovin' like mutton in the oven.
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(Elizabeth McCutcheon, "Denying the Contrary: More's Use of Litotes in the Utopia," in Essential Articles for the Study of Thomas More, 1977)
