Long ago I heard a tape from the LCA Word and Witness program. They were quite bothered that individual Evangelical leaders made more money through TV than the entire denomination. The LCA forgot that the mainline denominations gave up using the media for almost no cost and let the others take over.
The man narrating in his most disgusted tone of voice said, "The TV ministers have no concept of GRACE!" He clearly meant - and the LCA/ALC/ELCA approved this message - "The TV ministers emphasize FAITH!"
Pitting grace against faith shows the utter ignorance and apostasy of the mainline denominations, which include ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic). The fatal trap for them - the skandalon - is in Romans 4:
KJV Romans 4:16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
To be fair, we should look at that is the opposite of grace -
KJV Romans 4:3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
Verse 4 shows that works are not counted as grace but debt. That should be clear with all the virtue signaling done by denominations -
- "We built more buildings."
- "We started (or restarted) missions."
- "We took the OJ Gospel to the world." (GJ - Why? The world is already forgiven and saved.)
Mischief-maker that I am, verse 3 was left in to show just one of the instances where Romans 4 teaches Justification by Faith.
WELS-LCMS-ELS people consider justification and the atonement the same, which they have to say, because they replace the Means of Grace with Jesus Christ dying on the cross. They are pretty mixed up, but they make the death of Christ the universal absolution and also make His resurrection (twisting 1 Timothy 3:16) the world's absolution (Rambach, Webber).
