Over the past two weeks, the headquarters of our national church body, the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations (AFLC) has been flooded with calls from members, pastors and congregations within the ELCA. The reason? The national body's decision to begin ordaining men who like sexual contact with other men and women who like sexual contact with other women. I have fielded several such calls myself- 6 this week, if I count correctly.

I noted in a previous post that no other United States Lutheran Church body- of 35+ others- equivocates on the issue. Why?

The issue is God's Word. True Lutherans everywhere and always have relied on the sufficiency and inerrancy of God's Word. I will demonstrate this in the coming month with a series of blog posts/tweets that quote Luther and early Lutherans on God's Word. It's remarkable.

Ordination of those practicing homosexual sin is merely the fruit of abandoning the authority of God's Word. And it's not the first fruit. By the 1950's- mainline theologians in several denominations decided that Genesis 1-11 was myth and embraced evolution. With that foundation destroyed, they bound God's Word on the permanence of marriage (1960's), gender roles in congregations (1970's), the sanctity of human life (1970's-1980's) the preservation of sexual relationships in marriage only (1990's), the exclusivity of salvation through Christ, and the existence of hell- to name a few.

The real question remains: Does God's Word speak authoritatively on modern ethical issues? Yes. Here is a list of such Scriptures.

Go serve your King,
PW

PS- remember to be gracious. Not all ELCA congregations, pastors or members agree with the decision. Take them to the authority of God's Word, not their disgust or acceptance of one single sinful practice.