Over 30 years ago, I noticed the doctrine in the Church[1] was beginning to change.
It was very slow at first, but it seemed to revolve around the limited acceptance of immoral behavior. Once the behavior was adopted, the doctrine was twisted to permit the behavior. Words and phrases from the Bible were redefined[2] to mean something entirely different, seemingly to make allowances for the behavior and the twisted doctrine. Like Pandora’s Box—once opened—more curses followed without any hope of ever resealing the box.
At the time, I didn’t clearly understand the crux of the problem, but something just didn’t seem right (John 10:27). When I voiced my concerns, I was told I was “unforgiving” or “judgmental.” I waited for unknown others to make the needed corrections. Eventually, the reliable discerners were silenced, then they passed away. Corrections never came. Instead, bizarre controversies came and went. I was starved for spiritual food. I went to church services in the hopes of being spiritually fed, but returned home feeling hungrier than before. The doctrine continued to drift, progressively getting worse, not better.
Several years ago my wife began noticing some very serious problems in her own church too. That made two of us.
Distraught, we started to read the Bible together. The New Testament. The Old Testament. We read “The Augsburg Confession.”[3] We read Luther’s “Small Catechism.” Then his “Large Catechism.” Then his “Smalcald Articles.” I also read some of his others works, like “A Treatise on Good Works,” “Concerning Christian Liberty,” and some of his “Table Talks.” I can not describe how much we both grew in faith! It reminded me of a minister when I was a child who would say in sermons that “God’s Word was like Cracker Jack — the more you eat the more you want.” (Do you remember that? Please reply below and remind me who it was.)
In reflection, I joyfully marveled at how much we had learned about the pure doctrine, thanks to the revelation of His Word and guidance from the Holy Spirit. But it made me sad and disappointed to realize that within just a few short years I had learned so much more than I ever did while attending church for over 50 years. Clearly something was wrong!
My wife left her church. I continued to attend church services and tried to follow the progressively devolving doctrine. Finally, I was able to begin identifying many of the errors and confirmed they were often repeated by nearly all the ministers. I was able to link most of the current errors with historical errors that infected the church in times past. This lead me to write the essay, “Be Zealous and Repent“, with hope the church would address the issues and rediscover[4] the pure doctrine before it was too late.
“I would never have thought that such a storm would rise from Rome over one simple scrap of paper…”
(Dr. Martin Luther)
I would never have expected to take a journey like this. Through His gift of faith and trust in Him I simply pray this journey continues to be according to His will.
[1] Finnish Independent Apostolic Lutheran Church (I.A.L.C.)
[2] The redefinitions echoed the truism, “He who controls the language controls the narrative.” based on similar concepts by novelist George Orwell. See also 2 Timothy 2:14-17.
[3] A truncated version of The Augsburg Confession can be found in the book “A Catechism According to God’s Word” used by the I.A.L.C. Two digital formats of the book are available for download.
[4] Hebrews 5:12, 1 Corinthians 3:2