You can watch the TV coverage flattering the way these Lutherans and Muslims came together.
I am shocked. I am not surprised that Lutherans in decline could no longer afford their building. I am not surprised that the building was sold. I am not surprised that Muslims might purchase this building. I am shocked that Lutherans would worship with Muslims as if this were somehow a friendly exchange between people of like faith. This is not about Islamaphobia or prejudice but about the witness to the 2.5 million viewers who witnessed this and, for all intents and purposes, got the impression that there was not that much of substance dividing these Lutherans from the Muslims who were taking over their building -- especially when the media anchor suggested that it was a change of people but not God at this address.
BTW thanks to the anonymous person who supplied the link to the first video I watched on this....
8 comments:
Lakeside was affiliated with XXXA, which has as much to do with being Lutheran as the Mormons have to do with being Christian.
Of course, Carl! Not everyone can be as upstanding and moral as the XX-MS, who apparently enjoys selling houses of worship out from under the faithful to turn a profit!
Pr. Peters:
The event brought up questions at my church when it took place last year. (I serve the LCMS parish in the Harrisburg metro area.) A number of ELCA congregations in the region have been closed; others are leaving for NALC or LCMC because of their desire to confess the faith taught in the Creeds.
This event did allow for ample opportunity to speak about the differences in the confessions about God that Islam and Christianity have.....as well as those who are abandoning the creeds of the ancient Church. The Apostolic Creed was confessed at that closing service and there were prayers for the pure confession of the Gospel, but did anyone note the significance of that and how the group now occupying that building completely denies what was confessed and works against what was prayed for?
While my parishioners were troubled at the joint worship service, there are many others who see this as a good thing. That shows the need for us to be bold in our confession of Christ's identity and to strive more vigorously to keep our confession of faith from being eroded.
And the choir sang; "so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11.) as the Godless took up permanent residence in His house.
It is enough to make one weep.
The Episcopalians refuse to sell their buildings to those who want to be real Anglicans and sell them to the Muslims to rub it in their face. The ELCA does not only sell their building to the Muslims but has a joint service with them. The point is not about witness but about the incongruity between the faith once confessed and the apostasy now confessed in the building. It would have been better in both cases to sell the property to those who would bulldoze it down for something else rather than to have the House once marked for Christ become the home to the pagan who confess another god. The same is true of the LCMS if it happened there.
Despite anonymous whining about the Missouri Synod, the Synod did, during the 1970s, regurgitate the heresy that eventually formed the religious cult leading to the Lakeside abomination.
There are signs that, after a rather pathetic decade, the synodical cleansing effort is being renewed today. On Thursday evening (Oct. 27) at an ANCA-LCMS Dialogue conference at Concordia Theological Seminary, LCMS President Harrison gave a talk, “Contemporary Challenges and Opportunities before the Church,” that can be seen in three parts on the WMLT blog.
At 5:15 into Part 2, President Harrison bluntly states: “Our relationship with the ELCA is over… We’ve ended a number of expressed joint work; we just can’t do it anymore with a good conscience.”
Some applause followed that comment.
@ Anonymous: Point taken. Some district presidents in the LCMS (the equivalent of synod bishops within the ELCA) have embraced Rick Warren and non-denominational Willow Creek theology. This is causing friction between the traditional Lutherans and the Willow Creek Lutherans within the LCMS.
The sale of the campus building in Minnesota represents a desperate, shameless move by the local district president to force a theology foreign to Lutheranism. The election of Matt Harrison signals that the era of flirting the Evangelicalism is coming to a close. The pendulum is starting to swing back towards confessional Lutheranism. Not all LCMSers are on board yet, but they will be.
The internal issues within the LCMS are slowly being resolved. Since the NALC and LCMC are the ELCA minus endorsement of homosexuality, won't you come join the LCMS?
Quickly reviewing the events of the 1970s, J.A.O. Preus II was elected synodical president in 1969 and began collecting information on the deviations at Concordia Seminary-St. Louis. It was only after his reelection in the 1971 convention that Preus applied pressure on the St. Louis Seminary Board of Control to crack down on heterodox professors. And it was the 1973 convention, where Preus was again reelected, who replaced the failed seminary board members with a Preus-supporting conservative board, who eventually suspended Seminary President Tietjen and ultimately fired Tietjen and 45 seminary professors, precipitating the 1974 Seminex student walkout. Later in 1975 eight district presidents were warned about their errant practices, and in 1976 four were removed from office by President Preus.
With this brief historical perspective, one should see that, unlike the Augean stables, it will take more than one synodical election cycle for a thorough synodical housecleaning.
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