“CONSERVATIVE LUTHERANS” MISLED BY LIBERAL THEOLOGIANS

CN, September 20, 2010, Vol. 48, No. 37,
www.christiannewsmo.com

OPEN LETTER TO NORTH
AMERICAN LUTHERAN CHURCH

“CONSERVATIVE LUTHERANS” MISLED BY LIBERAL THEOLOGIANS

This issue of Christian News is being sent to the congregations which have joined the new North American Lutheran Church. Hopefully, CN will be able to get the names and addresses of most of them. Pastor Tim Rossow, editor of Brothers of John the Steadfast, just sent out this notice: “The North American Lutheran Church has been born. The constitution was just adopted by a resounding voice vote of the 1100+ in attendance at the meeting in Columbus, OH.”

“Braaten, Jenson Et Al Calling North American Lutheranism Back to Word of God” on page one quotes from a September 8 post of Christianity Today titled “Facing Lutheranism’s Crisis of Authority” and “Seven Theologians Call North American Lutheranism Back to the Word of God and the Lutheran Confessions.” The editor in chief of Christianity Today reported that some “800 conservative Lutherans” met in Columbus, Ohio and listened to seven leading theologians who were hailed as conservatives opposing theological liberalism. During its early years no editor of Christianity Today would have considered such liberals as Carl Braaten and Robert Jenson conservatives.

Conservative Lutherans who follow these theologians are being misled. They should read “What’s Going On Among Lutherans” featured on page one. This book shows that some of those hailed as conservatives actually denied the virgin birth and the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Just recently Northwestern Publishing House, which published What’s Going On Among the Lutherans? published another book quoted in this issue which shows that some of the speakers who spoke at the gathering of the North American Lutheran Church denied fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith.

“Christian News Gives ELCA Professors and Officials Opportunity To Respond to What’s Going on Among the Lutherans?” on page 12 and 13 is taken from Volume V of the Christian News Encyclopedia. The introduction to this 1,000 page 11”x17” volume of the CNE is reproduced below. Christian News will send a complimentary copy of Volume V to any NALC congregation or pastor who sends CN five dollars to pay for the shipping of this large book.

Dr. Gregory Jackson, the author of the introduction, was formerly the pastor of a congregation in the Lutheran Church in America. The LCA became part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Jackson earned his S.T.M. at Yale University and Ph.D. at Notre Dame University. He is the author of several books available from Christian News, including Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure for $8.99 and Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant for $22.00 plus s/h.

Here is what Northwestern’s What’s Going on Among the Lutherans? says about the first four volumes of the Christian News Encyclopedia: “We recommend these volumes as an unparalleled source of information about American Christianity.” If The Christian News Encyclopedia is really what Dr. Jackson and What’s Going On Among Lutherans? says it is, then why isn’t it and any other publication of Christian News, including An American Translation of the Bible, ever mentioned by ELCA’s Fortress Press or the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod’s Concordia Publishing House? An American Translation of the Bible is the most accurate translation of the Bible in good modern English available today, yet the bureaucrats give it the silent treatment. The editor of Christian News and the AAT is simply not part of the bureaucracy. For decades he has said the church bureaucrats should also be serving as pastors of congregations. They do not like to hear that.

Christian News began in 1962 as a small mimeographed sheet. $1.00 for a six month subscription. This is now Issue No. 2,238 of Christian News. Each Wednesday the editor presents a 10 minute summary on CN’s “Twenty-First Century Reformation Hour” on Youtube (www.youtube. com/christiannewsmo).

CN’s Statement of Policy is in the masthead on this page. CN invites members of the North American Lutheran Church to subscribe to Christian News and ask for a copy of Volume V of the Christian News Encyclopedia.

When the CN editor was invited to speak at gatherings of conservatives in the ALC and LCA now in ELCA they appreciated that the editor documented the liberal views of some of those who are now misleading the North American Lutheran Church. These liberals go along with the higher criticism, evolution and universalism now promoted in ELCA’s new 2112 page Lutheran Study Bible. This new ELCA study Bible should have been vigorously opposed at the NALC gathering in Columbus. Its views are far more destructive that the promotion of the sins of homosexuality and abortion in ELCA.