The Lutheran Church is falling down

I grew up Lutheran. ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America), in fact. While my understanding of God, man and all of life has become completely focused on what the Bible says, it breaks my heart to see the ELCA untether itself from its sure foundation to sail the tumultuous seas of man's whimsy.

On Friday, the leaders of the ELCA voted to allow practicing homosexuals to be pastors (here and here). I suspect a contract of contrition regarding the horrible treatment of Sodom and Gomorrah, oh, about 4000 years ago is soon to follow from these folks.

Said it before, I'll say it again, homosexuality is no greater and no lesser a sin than adultery or sex outside of marriage. The church cannot stand mute at best while the culture declares a two-husband, zero-wife family as normal. Culture might condone. Government might bless it. The church, anchored on the unchanging, infallible, and inerrant word of God must declare it what it is. It is sin.

Understand this, too. I don't expect non-Christians to act like Christians. I would argue that the behavior encouraged by the Bible in our relationships with one another and within society provide for the most healthy and vibrant societies. It doesn't surprise me at all that one who does not have a relationship with Jesus Christ lives an amoral lifestyle.

But when a group of people claims to be a Christian church and then they live their lives more in keeping with the nations that God destroyed and that the apostles condemned, then my hackles rise. Don't go all goofy on me either about interpretations and context. There's very little in the Bible about sexual conduct that requires the Rosetta Stone or even a pair of 3D glasses. The Bible makes plain that the church is to put out any who practice sin, any who live lives of unrepentant rebellion toward what God has said. That goes for sexual sin...of all kinds (porn, adultery, etc.).

So what's an ELCA church to do if they oppose this policy? What are church members to do if their church embraces this policy? The church should leave the denomination. As Martin Luther stood on the ground of the Bible, so too must the church today. If it means a splinter within the ELCA to create churches anchored in God's truth, that is a good thing! That is what has happened with the disintegrating Episcopal Church. The ELCA has rejected reformation, the hope of some conservative pastors. It's time to go.

What are members to do if this policy makes their church leadership all giddy? They must find another church. Speak out boldly with the Bible as your foundation that the church must not condone willful sin, especially in the pulpit. If the leadership and the rest of the congregation laughs in your face, you and God constitute a majority. There are God-honoring, Bible-teaching churches out there. It's time to find one.

Nearly 500 years ago, Luther shook the Church by his unwavering stance on God's word. Last weekend, the Lutheran Church shook their shriveling denomination by stepping off of God's word, and the walls are coming down.

(AP Photo by Dawn Villella)