Pastor's Page

October is in the rearview mirror, the 100th Anniversary has come and gone, and yet, there is no time to ‘rest’ from our labors. Not only is the annual free community Thanksgiving Meal approaching (23 Nov. 4-7), the church is under attack. It’s an attack that comes from the inside and the outside. Of course, the author of the attack is satan, the one who has been striking God’s church from the beginning. But today, he doesn’t come in the form of a serpent but in disguise.

For example, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the mainline liberal Lutheran denomination as opposed to conservative Lutheran denominations (LCMS, WELS, ELS, et al.), has agreed to drop the filioque (“and the Son”) from the Nicene Creed. What does this mean exactly? By dropping the Filioque (“and the Son”), it means a denial that Jesus proceeds from the Father, as confessed in the Nicene Creed, “Who proceeds from the Father and the Son.” As to why? It was done so as a gesture of reconciliation to heal age-old divisions and create unity with the Eastern Orthodox churches. Historically, Lutherans have confessed “and the Son” as one way of defending against the heresy that Jesus was not always in existence. Meaning, we confess, Jesus has always been. Thus, the argument can be made that dropping “and the Son” contradicts the teachings of the Trinitarian Godhead, how has been from all times. Sadly, other atrocities have recently reared their ugly head. Mid-October of this year, the Vatican opened up a prayer room in the Vatican Apostolic Library for Muslim scholars, and in doing so, they invited the wolf into the sheep pen.

“One of world’s oldest libraries, the Holy See’s library includes millions of theologically significant texts from the Catholic Church and other religions. The Vatican Library is selectively open to scholars of all disciplines for research purposes. Muslim scholars “have asked us for a room with a carpet for praying and we have given it to them,” Vice Prefect of the library Giacomo Cardinali said, explaining that the library is home to “incredibly old Qurans” and Hebrew, Ethiopian, Arabic, and Chinese texts. “We are a universal library,” Cardinali said, and the decision to grant Muslims a space for prayer is part of the Vatican’s effort to bolster an international academic community. The Church’s library is a celebration of shared human knowledge, Cardinali added, not knowledge belonging to one particular religious sect. The Vatican’s accommodations stand in stark contrast to other faiths, which forbid or severely restrict Christians from visiting certain holy sites. Non-muslims are not allowed to visit islam’s holy city of Mecca, for example.” The issue at hand is not found in allowing non-Christians access to religious texts. No, we hope and encourage the faithless to read the Bible and come to the knowledge of Jesus as the Truth. Perhaps that is the Vatican’s intention, but I have little hope any muslims will come to faith in Jesus as God’s One and only Son by being given a prayer room. For we know that muhammad was no lover of Christ, they deceptively claim Jesus as a prophet. They gave our Lord and Savior a severe demotion, from Lord of Lords to one man in a long line of men and prophets, and in the end, ultimately one who submits to muhammad.

To even things, perhaps, next to the prayer room (or within the same walls) the Vatican could dedicate space for the victims of islamic terror, and place in that prayer room a book shelf cataloging the horrors of muhammad and his followers. After all what man has caused such destruction, been the father of more lasting evil than muhammad? Who would have thought that one man could do such lasting and enduring damage? To call islam an Abrahamic religion is to hide the deeper truth and yet, Rome embraces and welcomes them into their home, making a room for them so they may roll out their rugs.

Sadly, this is nothing new, throughout the OT, faithless kings allowed altars to the false gods. In his later years, Solomon built high places for the gods of his many foreign wives, including Chemosh and Molek. Ahab was notorious for promoting the worship of Baal and Asherah, causing more spiritual corruption than any other king of Israel. Manasseh rebuilt the high places his father had torn down, built altars for Baal, placed a carved image of Asherah in the temple, and erected altars to other gods in the temple courts themselves. Ahaz adopted the religious practices of surrounding nations, built altars throughout Jerusalem, sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, and placed a pagan altar inside the temple of the LORD. Unfortunately, humanity has not learned from our ancestors past mistakes. Thus, it is critical that we, God’s church, Immanuel, our sister churches and all others renounce the atrocities that are taking place and stand firm in and on our confession of faith. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father apart from Him (Jn. 14:6). Jesus and the Father are One (Jn. 10:30), He proceeds from the Father and from Him come the Spirit who bears witness to Him (Jn 15:26). This is our confession, a confession that the church has stood on for over 2,000 years and will continue to stand on until the return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Until next month…Blessings, Pastor Ferch

Until next month…

Blessings,
Pastor Ferch