The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America continues to stir up controversy with it's "progressive policies" and are pushing members who want to hold to sound doctrine no choice but to leave the denomination.
Several weeks ago the Danish Bible Society, which is run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church, came under heavy fire for the Danish "translation" of the Bible that virtually wipes out "Israel" from the New Testament.
In the Greek New Testament, the word "Israel" occurs more than 60 times, however it is found only once in the new Danish version called Bibelen 2020. That's right, just once. And that one occurrence is a direct quote from an Old Testament verse. Otherwise, "Israel" is gone.
The reason for this the society argues is that Christian readers must not connect "Israel" in the New Testament with the nation of Israel today. The ELCA has long promoted the idea of "replacement theology", also called supersessionism, which essentially teaches that the church has replaced Israel in God's plan. Adherents of replacement theology believe the Jews are no longer God's chosen people, and God does not have specific future plans for the nation of Israel.
This is not the first time Lutheran leadership had promoted such views.
In 2018, Robert O. Smith, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and a stalwart in the World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation, addressed a conference at St. Olaf Institute for Freedom and Community.
Smith was seated before a Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) banner and made these declarations: "The ancient Israelites are not linked in any substantive or material way to the contemporary, modern state of Israel. . . . The biblical narrative of Israel has almost nothing to do with contemporary Israel other than the intentional manipulation of sacred texts to justify a political project." (Read More)
