{"id":1758,"date":"2021-05-18T14:47:46","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T14:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inthedays.com\/?p=1758"},"modified":"2021-05-18T16:59:19","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T16:59:19","slug":"protestant-denomination-elects-first-transgender-bishop-who-celebrates-dismantling-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthedays.com\/?p=1758","title":{"rendered":"Protestant Denomination Elects First Transgender Bishop, Who Celebrates ‘Dismantling’ Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The Falling Away\n
\u201cLet no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a \n\n
falling away STONG\u2019S NUMBER: 646 <\/font>apostasia, ap-os-tas-ee\u00b4-ah; feminine of the same as 647; defection from truth (properly, the state) (\u201capostasy\u201d):\u2014falling away, forsake.<\/span><\/div> first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;\"\n\u20142 Thessalonians 2:3<\/span><\/blockquote><\/strong><\/div>\n\n
Days of Noah\n
\u201cBut as the days of Noe were, so shall also the \n\n
coming 2555: <\/font>parousia, par-oo-see\u00b4-ah; from the present participle of 3918; a being near, i.e. advent (often, return; specially, of Christ to punish Jerusalem, or finally the wicked); (by implication) physically, aspect: \u2014 coming, presence<\/span><\/div> of the Son of man be.\"\n\n\n \u2014Matthew 24:37<\/blockquote><\/strong><\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Article Source: CBN News<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

The Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer, who was born female but now identifies as male, using the pronouns \u201che\u201d and \u201cthey,\u201d was elected Saturday, May 8, to serve as bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod of the ELCA.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Rohrer was approved by 209 votes, barely surpassing the Rev. Jeff Johnson, pastor of University Lutheran Chapel of Berkeley, who received 207 votes, according to\u00a0a press release<\/a>\u00a0from the denomination.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The transgender pastor, currently leading Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in San Francisco, will be installed as bishop on Sept. 11 at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Walnut Creek, California.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Rohrer has made news before. In 2018, the minister was featured in Cosmopolitan. Rohrer, who identified solely as \u201cthey\u201d at the time, said, \u201cI haven\u2019t really figured out how I want to have my body in the rest of my life.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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On Sunday, Rohrer celebrated the ELCA\u2019s election by praising the Lutheran synod, presumably for \u201cdismantling\u201d the clerical standards put in place at the first council of Nicaea in A.D. 325.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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It appears Rohrer was likely referring to\u00a0Canon 1 of the first council<\/a>, which states, \u201cIf anyone in sound health has castrated himself, it behooves that such a one, if [already] enrolled among the clergy, should cease [from his ministry], and that from henceforth no such person should be promoted.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe first council of Nicaea\u2019s first action was to try to limit the leadership roles of trans pastors and bishops,\u201d tweeted Rohrer. \u201cI\u2019m grateful the Lutherans of the [Sierra Pacific Synod] are beginning to dismantle this and some of the other hurdles [black, indigenous, and people of color] and LGBTQ pastor\u2019s [sic] encounter.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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In addition to violating the theology established at the first council of Nicaea by approving a transgender bishop, the ELCA is also forsaking the writings of German theologian and church reformer Martin Luther, in which\u00a0the denomination claims<\/a>\u00a0to find its \u201croots.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Luther wrote in his 1522 work \u201cThe Estate of Marriage<\/a>\u201d that sex is immutable and \u201cdivided\u201d by God \u201cinto two classes, namely, male and female.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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In the first part we shall consider which persons may enter into marriage with one another. In order to proceed aright let us direct our attention to Genesis 1 [:27], \u201cSo God created man\u2026 male and female he created them.\u201d From this passage we may be assured that God divided mankind into two classes, namely, male and female, or a he and a she. This was so pleasing to him that he himself called it a good creation [Gen. 1:81]. Therefore, each one of us must have the kind of body God has created for us. I cannot make myself a woman, nor can you make yourself a man; we do not have that power. But we are exactly as he created us: I a man and you a woman. Moreover, he wills to have his excellent handiwork honored as his divine creation, and not despised. The man is not to despise or scoff at the woman or her body, nor the woman the man. But each should honor the other\u2019s image and body as a divine and good creation that is well-pleasing unto God himself.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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This shift within the ELCA toward an increasingly progressive view of sexuality should not come as a surprise. While the denomination claims to have a reverent view of Scripture, the ELCA does not see the Bible as the inerrant Word of God.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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James Thorson, pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, an ELCA congregation, said in 2018 he was drawn to the denomination in part because many within it reject biblical inerrancy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cI was reclaiming the view that the Bible isn\u2019t an inerrant oracle dropped from heaven but more like a messy, earthen vessel holding the treasure of the saving Gospel message,\u201d he\u00a0told Living Lutheran<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s what most ELCA professors and pastors teach, and I realized that was where I belonged.\u201dOne of the most famous ELCA ministers, Nadia Bolz-Weber, founding pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver,\u00a0said in 2018<\/a>\u00a0Christians \u201cshould never be more loyal to an idea or an interpretation of a Bible verse than we are to people.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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She also at one point\u00a0reportedly said<\/a>, \u201cThe Bible is not God. The Bible is simply the cradle that holds Christ.\u00a0Anything in the Bible that doesn\u2019t hold up to the Gospel of Jesus Christ simply doesn\u2019t have the same authority.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Scripture, however, speaks differently of itself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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In John 1:1, it states, \u201cIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.\u201d Then, in 2 Timothy 3:16, it says, \u201cAll Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Even Jesus, in John 10:35, said Scripture \u201ccannot be broken,\u201d meaning it is entirely true and reliable. Jesus also told His disciples in Matthew 24:35 that, although heaven and earth will pass away, His words are eternally true.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

As for Rohrer, Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative theological think tank,\u00a0rebuked the transgender pastor\u2019s attitude<\/a>\u00a0toward the theology outlined at the first council of Nicaea, comparing the incoming bishop\u2019s views to those espoused by first-century Gnostics who rejected \u201cecumenical orthodoxy in favor of secret knowledge stressing self-actualization and inner journeys instead of salvation and worshipping the Creator.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNo doubt much more \u2018dismantling\u2019 must be done before true justice and knowledge can prevail against the external authority of revelation proposed by historic Christianity,\u201d Tooley warned, \u201cor so the Gnostics, yesterday and today, always proclaim.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Over the weekend, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America became the first mainline Protestant denomination to elect a transgender bishop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-falling-away","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthedays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthedays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthedays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthedays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthedays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1758"}],"version-history":[{"count":83,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthedays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1911,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthedays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758\/revisions\/1911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthedays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthedays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthedays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthedays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}