Dr. Ray Pritchard Christian Blog and Commentary

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Modern-Day Baal Worship

  • Dr. Ray Pritchard
    Dr. Ray Pritchard is the president of Keep Believing Ministries, an Internet-based ministry serving Christians in 225 countries. He is the author of 29 books, including Stealth Attack, Fire and Rain,… More
  • Published Jun 25, 2004

I received two very different responses to my entry yesterday about the pro-homosexual service of "confession and absolution" at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Oak Park, Illinois. A reader in Boulder, Colorado points out that the church in question is a member of the liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA):

There are many differences amongst Lutheran synods, as you know, the ELCA the most liberal.  Most Lutheran synods are not in fellowship with the ELCA.  Most readers may not understand that there is a difference and may assume that all Lutheran churches share the same doctrine.  This statement by the leaders in their church is an outrage and I'm glad you have brought it to our attention, but please do not give Lutherans a bad name because of what the ELCA is teaching!

Duly noted, and I thank the reader for making this important distinction. There are Lutherans who actually believe what Martin Luther believed, and there are Lutherans who have abandoned their own heritage. I have no doubt what dear old Luther would think about the church in Oak Park.

 

Late last night I received the following unsigned email:

To bad they can't teach the Catholic, Mormon's and Baptists the truth.  God Bless the Lutherans.

I assume the writer means to praise the church in question for welcoming homosexuals and for confessing their past "sins" of homophobia and doctrinal rigidity.

 

The two notes reminded me of an important truth in this debate: There is no middle ground here, and no middle ground is possible. The debate over homosexuality is much less a debate over morality and much more a debate over biblical authority. As our culture has shifted from opposition to tolerance to outright celebration of homosexuality as "natural" and "normal," many mainline churches have slowly changed their historic positions. But since the Bible is perfectly clear and perfectly consistent in its total condemnation of homosexuality, the only way to change the rules is to change the rulebook itself. The folks on the other side of this debate have overturned 2000 years of Christian history, theology and tradition in their mad rush to welcome homosexuals into the church. Though they may couch it in terms of "more light" or "the assured results of modern scholarship," the only way to get homosexuals into the church as members, as pastors, and even as bishops, is to downplay, deny, ignore or distort what the Bible actually says. If you take the Bible as it is written, you can't get there from here. You have to mangle history, tradition and the text itself to make the change.

 

The debate over homosexuality is not like the debates over baptism (pouring, sprinkling or total immersion) or the rapture (before, during or after the tribulation). It's not like the great argument over sovereignty and free will. Those are intramural debates between people who truly accept the Word of God and bow before its authority.


The people who promote homosexuality in the church don't look at the Bible in the same way and that's why they end up in a different place. They are practicing a completely different religion that uses the terms of historic Christianity but is in fact not the same thing at all.It is a form of modern-day Baal worship--idolatry masquerading as Christianity. That's why it is so dangerous, and that's why there can be no middle ground.

Email: raypritchard@calvarymemorial.com