Page 376 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

LUTHERAN

Muslims on the borders of this territory, he granted Church, and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran
religious liberty for several years. Churches. The ELCA recorded some 5.3 million
There was war between the Catholics and the members in roughly 11,000 congregations in 1990, but
Lutheran Protestants in Germany between 1546 and it is losing members each year. It lost almost 50,000
1555. The struggle ended with victory by the members in 1988-89. This group is totally given over to
Protestants and a proclamation that both Roman modernism and ecumenism. The ELCA is a member of
Catholicism and Lutheranism were recognized as legal the National Council of Churches in America and the
religions in the Holy Roman Empire. This did not mean World Council of Churches. As of 1993, the ELCA had
actual religious liberty, because it was stipulated that 1,358 ordained women clergy.
the people of each region would be required to follow Signifying the growing ecumenical oneness between
whatever religion was chosen by the prince of that the apostate denominations, one of the first official acts
region. Those who did not accept the official religion of the ELCA’s head Bishop, Herbert Chilstrom, was to
were persecuted. Thus, the Lutherans proved to be meet with the Roman Catholic pope, the Anglican
almost as intolerant as the Catholics before them. Archbishop of Canterbury, and heads of the Orthodox
Luther rejected the papacy and corrected many of churches. Chilstrom supports the ordination of
Rome’s errors but he also retained many of them. Luther homosexuals and publicly announced his agreement
retained infant baptism, the priesthood, a form of the with President Clinton’s call for allowing homosexuals
Catholic mass, and such pagan rituals as crucifixes and into the U.S. military. In his commentary on Hebrews,
candles. He taught sola fide (justification by faith alone), Chilstrom said the Bible’s historical records are
sola gratia (salvation by grace alone), and sola scriptura “exaggerated—stretched beyond what they actually
(the Bible alone as the source of belief), but in practice, were.” Most preachers within the ELCA are modernists,
he undermined all three of these crucial principles. It is and the ELCA Publishing House has printed countless
obvious that he did not follow the Bible alone as his volumes which promote unbelief. For example, in 1988
source of faith and practice, because he adopted an ELCA book by Ragnar Leivestad, entitled Jesus in His
Catholic doctrines and practices that are contrary to the Own Perspective, claimed that Jesus never invoked for
Bible. The Lutheran church in Germany and elsewhere himself a special position and did not claim messianic
was a state church. That means that every citizen was titles. In 1992 the ELCA Division for Church in Society
automatically made a church member at birth (though authorized distribution of a report on human sexuality
infant baptism) and was required to be a member of which claims that homosexuals were created by God
that church by force of law. Thus, the Lutheran “church” and that sexual relationships outside of marriage are not
was composed largely of the unregenerate. It had a always wrong. An ELCA youth program guide entitled
form of godliness but denied the power thereof, which is “Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters,” teaches young
a regenerate life through personal repentance and faith people that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality.
in Jesus Christ. This editor attended the installation service for an
Lutheranism became the state religion of most of ELCA bishop in Houston, Texas, Feb. 7, 1988, over
Germany, as well as of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, which Chilstrom presided. Instead of preaching on the
Prussia, Iceland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. glorious grace of Jesus Christ, he spoke on
The Lutherans bitterly persecuted and tormented the environmentalism and pacifism. In addressing the
Anabaptists and other non-Lutherans in many places. mixed multitude composed of Roman Catholic,
Tens of thousands of humble Bible believers were put to Orthodox, Episcopalians, and Jewish rabbis, Chilstrom
death by these Protestants for the simple reason that said they were made a part of Christ through baptism,
they refused to accept their false state church and their and he warned against “buttonholing people and asking
unscriptural infant baptism and other errors. (For if they are saved.” He told of how he gladly blessed a
documentation of this see “Protestant Persecution of the rosary for a man at a gas station. Nowhere in his
Baptists” at the Way of Life web site, http:// message did he speak of the cross, the blood or the
www.wayoflife.org.) atonement of Jesus Christ. Chilstrom’s gospel is not the
The three largest Lutheran denominations in America gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ, but a false gospel of
church sacraments and universalism. His liberal
are the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), message was cleverly couched in evangelical, biblical
the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS), and the terminology, but the content was a social/humanitarian
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). gospel which will lead those who follow it to eternal
THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA hell. The entire experience was very sad and grievous to
was formed in January 1988 by a merger of the my spirit as I observed the pageantry, the solemnity, the
Lutheran Church in America, the American Lutheran appearance of piety which had been put on before the

376 Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity