Transgender Bishops & The Fall Of The Evangelical Lutheran Church In America

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has taken more steps in its rapid decline into apostasy as it installed its first openly transgender bishop in a service held in San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral on Saturday.

The Rev. Megan Rohrer will lead one of the church’s 65 synods, overseeing nearly 200 congregations in Northern California and northern Nevada.

It was also announced that the bishop-elect should be addressed with the pronouns "they/their".

Rohr was the first transgender person to be ordained by the ELCA in 2006 and now makes "history", the pro-LGBT group Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries said. "We anticipate the day when all queer ministry leaders will be called to ministry settings without hindrance or barrier and will be affirmed in their God-given calls". 

According to this group, there are over 390 queer ministers in the ELCA at this point.

The ELCA is known for its strong theological shift in the last 15 years towards an "inclusive" theology, except when it comes to Israel.

Last year the Danish Bible Society, which is run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church, came under heavy fire for the Danish "translation" of the Bible that virtually wipes out "Israel" from the New Testament.

In the Greek New Testament, the word "Israel" occurs more than 60 times. However, it is found only once in the new Danish version called Bibelen 2020. That's right, just once. And that one occurrence is a direct quote from an Old Testament verse. Otherwise, "Israel" is gone.

The reason for this, the society argues, is that Christian readers must not connect "Israel" in the New Testament with the nation of Israel today.  The ELCA has long promoted the idea of "replacement theology", also called supersessionism, which essentially teaches that the church has replaced Israel in God's plan. Adherents of replacement theology believe the Jews are no longer God's chosen people, and God does not have specific future plans for the nation of Israel.

The presiding "bishop" of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, The Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, has also expressed her belief that although Hell may exist, it is entirely empty because "God doesn't give up on those who reject Him." 

Two years ago, over 30,000 ELCA teenagers attended the ELCA's national youth gathering.  Popular ELCA pastor Nadia Bolz-Webber (who loves to swear during her sermons and tells her congregants that there is nothing wrong with porn) led the students to say after her "I renounce the lie that queerness is anything other than beauty".  

At the youth gathering an 11-year-old boy who thinks he is a girl was put on stage to promote transgenderism.

This past summer the ELCA in convention passed an interfaith resolution stating that we do not know what God thinks of non-Christian religions.  A delegate got to the microphone to offer an amendment, saying that we do know because John 14:6 says that Jesus is the only way of salvation.  His amendment was voted down by 97 percent.

Now the church is raising red flags with its promotion of praying by addressing God as "Mother" instead of Father on its official Facebook page as well as via Twitter:

"Mother God, you have fed us with the nourishment of your spiritual food. Raise us up into salvation and rid us of our bitterness, so that we may share the sweetness of your holy word with all the world," the ELCA tweeted as part of their #Bread4theday series of Twitter posts.

The tweet has gotten a fair amount of negative attention. Hans Fiene, a conservative pastor who oversees the popular Lutheran Satire YouTube channel, responded with a simple message to people who still value Biblical literacy:

"Leave the ELCA," he succinctly replied when retweeting the ELCA post.

Thankfully many have headed his call.  The ELCA had over five million members when it was first launched in 1988. It currently has 3.3 million members and its decline has been accelerating as it continues to adopt many unbiblical practices.

The scriptures warn against associating with such people as fellow believers; "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away....ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth"  2 Timothy 3:5-7