ELCA Exposed News on Universal Salvation
Does the ELCA teach another Gospel? . . .The reality is that the ELCA is not the church the average Lutheran person in the pew thinks it is. For many, the church is what they see every Sunday and what they participate in during the week in church related activities. However, in giving dollars to the ELCA by way of benevolences is actually promoting a non-Lutheran and even a non-Christian understanding of salvation and the role of Christ’s church in this world. . . In his final theological contribution to the ELCA, Bouman carefully removed the need for repentance and saving faith. Justification through faith has been the foundation of Christian theology for 2,000 years. Jesus understood man's greatest need when he came on the scene proclaiming, "Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:15) |
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Taken from the official ELCA website on Salvation (this page was taken down a few months ago)
Universal Savior, there is a large hope for salvation, not only for me and others with the proper credentials of believing and belonging to the church, but for all people whenever or wherever they might have lived and no matter how religious or irreligious they may have proved to be themselves. It is clearly God’s announced will that all people shall be saved and come to the knowledge of truth (1 Timothy 2:4)."The ELCA funded and produced Bible makes claim for universal salvation
The Augsburg Fortress Lutheran Study Bible (first printing) Matt: 28:16-20
“The eleven disciples went to Galilee . . . Jesus now sends the disciples to make disciples of all nations. That does not mean make everyone disciples. Most people who are helped by Jesus and believe in him never become disciples. Jesus includes in salvation people who do not believe in him or ever know about him (5:3-10; 25:31-45).” page 1658.
Matt 5:3-12
“The Beatitudes create what they declare. Jesus makes the new world of God’s rule actual now in this broken world. Yet it also remains a promised future. Notice that they do not depend on faith or even on knowing Jesus. This is one way God creates salvation.”
Matt: 25:31-46
“The parable speaks of a surprising way the unbelieving nations have a relationship to Jesus. Jesus’ word is a promise that creates what it declares. Jesus makes these little ones, who suffer and are broken, the place of his presence in our world, even for those who do not believe in him or know about it. This is one way Jesus creates salvation for those who do not even know him.”
Pastor Harrison's Convention Report
. . .The complications brought about by the recent decision on homosexuality are only the most recent high-water mark of what has been a rising tide of pain, sorrow, and frustration in dealing with ELCA leadership, whom I have personally heard confess that there is salvation outside of faith in Christ. . .
Dr. Walter Bouman (Trinity Seminary) said:
“Difficult as it is -- because I always think of it as unfair -- I’ve come to accept God’s universal salvation as the final consequence of Jesus’ resurrection” (The Lutheran, Nov 05, p. 24).
ELCA Teaching that I'm Sure the Devil LovesNo need to believe in Jesus. Believe whatever you want! ELCA seminary professor, David J. Lull, says you are going to heaven no matter what. . .
Dr. Walter Bouman (Trinity Seminary) said:
“Difficult as it is -- because I always think of it as unfair -- I’ve come to accept God’s universal salvation as the final consequence of Jesus’ resurrection” (The Lutheran, Nov 05, p. 24).
ELCA Teaching that I'm Sure the Devil LovesNo need to believe in Jesus. Believe whatever you want! ELCA seminary professor, David J. Lull, says you are going to heaven no matter what. . .
. . .The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is one of the best examples of this, because Martin Luther himself never embraced Universalism, but the ELCA today is one of the major Lutheran denominations and some of its ministers openly teach the salvation of all. . .
Official ELCA website explicitly endorses the universalist heresy
The ELCA has publicly embraced the ancient heresy of universalism, willfully ignoring the fact that both the writings of Paul and the sayings of Jesus which universalists cherry-pick in support of their position elsewhere categorically exclude it. . .
. . .But, there are scholars within the ELCA that promote a very different understanding of salvation. Though not taught as official doctrine of this wayward Lutheran denomination, the concept of universalism is gaining steam and is being taught in ELCA churches and seminaries. . .
. . .So the ELW version turns “You Are the Way” into a universalistic hymn. Universalism holds there are many ways to be saved – so that everyone will be saved. It insists that faith in Christ Jesus, the only Son of God, isn’t the only way of salvation. But why would Lutherans want their new worship book to be universalistic? The Bible condemns universalism. . .
The Race and the Not-So-Swift
. . .The ELCA, like other "mainline" denominations, is effectively Universalist today. Universalists, after all, get invited to the nice parties and are almost never made fun of in movies. The ELCA still talks about the Cross, for the benefit of the rubes who actually sit in the pews and pay the bills, but the people in the upstairs offices mostly agree that there's really no such place as Hell. . .
Quotes on ELCA and Universal Salvation
"When an ELCA seminarian (not especially conservative by my standards) told me that he was one of a very small minority in his class who were not universalists, it was no news to me." - Lars Walker
