Upon Further Reflection....Thoughts Part Two

Grace and Peace to you all, 

Terms and terminology. For years we have been told that the church needs to steer away from “churchy” terms that confused the ears of younger attenders.  Say “foyer” not “narthex”, say “cup and plate” not “chalice

and paten”, say “robe” not “alb”...  I have a term to add to all that: “nonsense”.   If a Millennial can walk into Starbucks and order a Venti-half-caf-skim-mochachino then they can process the word “nave” (which is to say the main bulk of the worship space containing, among other things, the pews). It’s time we stop dumbing down the faith and accept that what makes us unique, language included, is important.  And frankly, most young folks I know are perfectly OK with us having our own nomenclature, in fact it is almost assumed. It is useful to have specific terms that define specific things… as long as we are diligent about teaching those words.  

In my last newsletter I laid out, in general terms, a few of my issues with the actions of the ELCA’s church wide assembly as well as some possible alternatives that we may look at. In the process I may have been remiss in defining a few terms and acronyms that may have left folks confused.  My apologies if I did so.  Let’s dive into the alphabet soup and theological terminology. 

ELCA.  First of all, I assume that we are all aware of what that is, but we may not have a firm handle on how

the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America works.  We are, first of all, congregations.  The ELCA exists in the form of local congregations bound by the shared central doctrine, teachings, resolutions, and etc of the ELCA at large.  This is the first form of ELCA church.  The local congregations are gathered into (mostly) geographically arranged Synods (the word Synod roughly translated means “walk together”).  We are a part of the Northeastern Ohio Synod. Synods elect bishops to a defined term of years at an annual assembly and function in certain administrative and ministry roles, including the calling of clergy. This is the second form of the church within the ELCA.  Over all of this is the third form, or “expression” as it is often called:  The National Church.  The national church functions in many ways like a super-synod and it is the national church that is best represented in the Church Wide Assembly. Decisions made at CWA (Church Wide Assembly) are binding for all three levels, or expressions, of the ELCA  including the election of a Presiding Bishop (a bishop over the bishops of the synods) and the passing of resolutions and policies. 

The NALC.  We talk very little about his body, but it is worth noting that this organization exists. The North American Lutheran Church broke away from the ELCA about ten years ago over the controversy of same sex marriage. We have had little to say about this group as the enmity between them and the ELCA is still quite strong, and frankly not very appealing to myself or the leadership of First Lutheran.  Like the ELCA the NALC functions in a top-down hierarchy with bishops, and “Mission Districts” which function more or less like “synods”.  Think of it as a very conservative ELCA. 

The LCMC.  While the organization called  “Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ” does not define

itself as a proper “denomination” so much as a “movement”, it does serve the function of a denomination in all the important ways and is worth terming a denomination.  The LCMC is the third largest Lutheran denomination in the USA with nearly a thousand congregations. Unlike the NALC it did not have an acrimonious break with the ELCA but formed independently by a handful of congregation about twenty years ago around the notion that there needed to be a better way to do mission.  In many ways it is the anti-ELCA.  It has no bishops, no synods (it has “Districts”, which participation in is voluntary, but they serve in a support role, not an administrative one), it makes no national policies, every congregation is allowed to choose their own perspective as long as they are Biblically accurate and Lutheran in theology, membership is not exclusive and one can be LCMC and any other Lutheran Denomination the congregation likes.  It operates on a bottom-up, grassroots model.  This is the organization council and I have been investigating

A term to define from last week’s letter critiquing the CWA: Universalism.  Let’s get  theological. During the fifth ecumenical council, around the year 553 AD, the church was facing new heresies to be dealt
with that threatened the true interpretation of God’s word.  We have always had to defend the gospel from those
who would abuse it.  From the Judaizers to the Gnostics, the Marcionites to the Pelagians, the Antinomians to
the Arians we have always fought the good fight to keep our theology sound. In 553 AD the issue was Origen’s
theology of apokatastasis (I told you the terms were going to get tough).  Origen (Origen was a second century
theologian)  proposed that we could not know the limits of God’s grace and love, nor could we know how God’s
generosity could be applied to our non-Christian neighbors, at least in an eternal sense. Apokatastasis literally
translated means, “to be returned to an original state of innocence” which Origen believed would happen to
everyone inside and outside of the church.  Thus, in Origen’s opinion, if there was a hell, it was empty...or
would eventually be so. By this reasoning and logic all were universally to be saved, even those of other
religions… even the demons themselves. This is why the heresy is often called “universalism”. The fifth
ecumenical council declared this teaching to be in direct opposition to the teachings of scripture and therefore
heresy. Indeed the scriptures are full of teachings that directly contradict this notion. 

Next term: Anathema.

What does it mean for a thing to be anathema? It means that this thing is detestable and outside of the will of
God and is not in any way part of the communion of saints that is the body of Christ on earth.  For a teaching
to be anathema it means that the church has officially declared a particular teaching so pernicious that it must
be set aside, outside of the church.  The decision of the fifth ecumenical council, which all churches have
abided by since, is that "If anyone says or thinks that the punishment of demons and of impious men is only
temporary, and will one day have an end, and that a restoration (ἀποκατάστασις) will take place of demons
and of impious men, let him be anathema."  For a thing to be anathema is the highest form of rejection in the
Christian church. 

To say that lines 617-647 of the ELCA’s Inter-Religious Policy Statement mirrored Origen’s theology of  Apokatastasis is an understatement. It is essentially a word for word reiteration. The document quotes Luther   repeatedly but when Luther was presented the question, “whether God can impart faith to some in the hour of death or after death so that these people could be saved through faith” he answers that while God CAN do anything, “No one, however, can prove that He does do this”.  Nonetheless our own Presiding Bishop has herself stated that she does not believe in hell, or at least believes that it is empty.  Universalism, which is a more pronounceable name than apokatastasis, has found its way firmly into the theology of the Inter-Religious Policy Statement.  As the Church Wide Assembly passed the measure by more than ninety seven percent, one would have to imagine that Universalism has found its way into our church wide expression of the ELCA as well.  Can we co-exist with this?

Please understand that we are in a period of questioning and exploration.  We have endeavored as a church council to understand the sudden shifts in the ELCA and our place in them.  We find much of what we see in contradiction to scripture and thus have begun to investigate options like the LCMC.  We ask that you join us in learning, questioning, and exploring. 

Sola Fide, 
Pastor Rus 

Some links you can follow to investigate for yourself: 
https://www.lcmc.net/  for the LCMC. 
https://thenalc.org/ for the NALC,
https://elca.org/ for the ELCA. 

1. (Acts 4:12) (John 8:24) (1 Timothy 2:5) (John 5:24 )(Ephesians 4:4) (John 14:6) (John 10:9) (John 11:25) (1 John 5:11), etc...
2.  Martin Luther’s letter to Hans von Rechenberg, 1522.