Basic Characteristics of Failing Lutheran Synods - Loud Echoes from ELCA

 

The top two leaders of ELCA. Listen up!

How the LCMS-ELS-WELS smacked their lips! - at the thought of ELCA members cascading off the sinking ship like ants leaving the logs on a bonfire. That was 1987.

But all the LCMS-ELS-WELS did was copy the follies of ELCA:

LCMS published a new hymnal.

WELS published a new hymnal.

The ELS published a new hymnal. - 

Remember when all three had the same hymnal? And it still beats them hands down.

 ELCA pastor and lecturer, Bolz-Weber.

LCMS pursued Fuller Seminary degrees and boasted.

WELS pursued Fuller Seminary degrees and boasted.

The ELS did more of the same, but quietly.

LCMS worked with ELCA and their Brunhildas.

WELS worked with ELCA and their Brunhildas.

The ELS quietly did the same.

LCMS used the wretched NIV and bragged about using the ESV!

WELS stuck with the horrible NIV and its even worse successor - the New NIV!

The ELS feigned conservatism with some use of the New KJV.

LCMS abandoned the liturgy, creeds, and the KJV.

WELS abandoned the liturgy, creeds, and the KJV.

The ELS marched quietly in step with Big Brother.

Retired.

Retired and tired.

Could that be why the Synodical Conference, 21st Century, has failed as miserably as ELCA?

Would that explain WELS adding 25 contemptible Calvinist hymns to their pricey new hymnal?

Does this mean the ELS will collapse even faster?

Who Has Benefited from Ecumenism and Institutional Mergers? Answer - The Apostates, Who Now Have the Money and Properties

The print copy and Kindle version of Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure can be found here.

Unionism is the term used by Lutherans who claim their forefathers came over to avoid the forced Prussian Union of Calvinist and Lutheran Churches. The idea was to keep the Lutherans silent about the Calvinists' rejection of:

1. The Spirit and Word at work together;
2. The efficacy of the Word;
3. The Real Presence of Jesus Christ in Holy Communion.
4. Holy Baptism, like the Eucharist is the Visible Word with divine effect.

Bishop Martin Stephan claimed persecution under those rules. Like his episcopal title, that was something he dreamed up on his own, to facilitate intimacy with young women who came down with his horrid disease - syphilis. 

 Walther, the American Calvin is available in print and on Kindle.

Stephan and the Walther circle of pastors were all Pietists, so their separatism had more to do with being apart from the sinful world than being together with Calvinists. Pietists downplayed doctrinal differences. Stephan was under house arrest when he ordered his followers to leave, so his courtroom losses were were issues of misused funds and young women. His followers covered that up until Walther organized a riot in Perryville, Missouri, at a convenient time, stealing Stephan's gold, property, clothes, and books.  

The Prussian Union was a merger that severely damaged the cause of Lutheran doctrine in Europe, but Americans soon forget. By the time of World War I, all the Lutherans wanted to work together for war relief. Various Lutheran bodies began helping a war-ravaged Europe by sending food, clothing, and needed goods overseas. The leaders said, "But don't let me catch you praying together." (I made that up.)

The Great Depression caused Lutherans to think the Depression was their fault rather than the power bestowed on the Federal Reserve private banking act. Liberal Lutherans and mainline denominations favored or at least tolerated Rauschbusch and the Social Gospel Movement. The Social Gospel leaders promoted Socialism, and all true Socialists are Marxists in three-piece suits.

World relief and the Social Gospel paved the path to mergers of all denominations. Each one set a course for rationalistic views of the Bible (Jesus was only a man, and there were no miracles were basic dogmas.) The more they merged denominations, schools, and seminaries, the more the institutions began failing and begging for more mergers.

Now the apostate leaders of LCMS-WELS-ELS-ELCA-CLC have all the money, endowments, and property - but they loathe Biblical, Lutheran doctrine. They despise the King James Bible because they make money being vassals of the Calvinist, rationalistic, and pope-loving NIV and ESV Bibles. They emphasize the Roman Catholic Apocrypha, and ELDONA routinely bangs the drum for these non-canonical books. They should work on their violations of the Eighth Commandment and the Adiaphora article in the Formula of Concord before they lecture their tiny audience on the Apocrypha. (Note an "apocryphal story" is a common label for a claim without verification.)

But wait! Below is an honest view of the Apocrypha.

Westcott and Hort, who loathed the Majority Text of the King James and Luther Bibles, forced the minority Sinaiticus (Aleph) and Vaticanus (B) on the Revision committee, keeping that a secret until the moment the stillborn Revision was issued in 1881. Sneaky, dishonest, crafty, self-serving? Those men are the idols of text scholars todays.

"I loathe the Majority Text!" (the New Testament Greek text of Erasmus, Luther, and the KJV)

 Heiser appointed himself bishop, just as Randy DeJaynes did.
Bibles used? Anything goes.

 

Mitres, copes, and incense are a major expense for ELDONA.