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WAS GOD IN THE WHIRLWIND?
By Jan Markell
My home state of Minnesota has lots of lakes, bitter cold, and Lutherans. Over 150 years ago, Scandinavians targeted this state and its climate, perhaps because it resembled their homeland. Ironically, the fathers and grandfathers of today's Lutherans left Sweden back then because they saw corruption and bad doctrine within Lutheranism in Scandinavia. But these Lutheran immigrants built Bible-believing churches for future generations. No doubt they would be crushed at such a culmination of apostasy in recent years.
Wednesday, August 19, was an average day. It was cool with not enough humidity to stir up a storm. No unusual weather patterns were forecast in the Twin Cities' metro area. As I was out driving, there were no tornado sirens. It was going to be a memorable day, nonetheless.
During the week, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was holding its annual convention in downtown Minneapolis. Attendees were using the facilities of the Minneapolis Convention Center and Central Lutheran Church which is directly across the street. At this year's convention, a blatant pro-homosexual position validating "chaste" same-sex relationships was to be voted on. It was to be voted on at 2 PM on Wednesday, August 19.
Then for the first time in decades, a tornado touched down in downtown Minneapolis at, you guessed it, 2 pm. The tornado went through the western section of downtown, causing damage to the Central Lutheran Church building, which was being used as a central meeting place for the convention. There was extensive roof damage at the Minneapolis Convention Center where the actual conference was assembled as well as votes on same-sex issues were actually cast. The church steeple on top of Central Lutheran Church was struck and split in two. It was left hanging upside down. The church was built in 1929 and certainly has had no tornado activity near it to date.
Meteorologists agree that such activity in a downtown area is extremely rare. Many could not recall when this had last happened to an area of structural cement rather than suburban homes or rural areas.
The vote was delayed past 2 PM but it did pass that same day. It passed by just one vote and it acknowledged the validity of same-sex relationships that are "chaste, monogamous and lifelong." There was a whirlwind outside of the convention center and inside -- to the degree that one person said, "We trust that the weather is not a commentary on our work." Conservatives in the ELCA, also observing the weather aberration, said it could have been a warning from God and an expression of His anger.
The ELCA went on to vote two days later to allow homosexuals to serve as pastors. If the tornado was a warning from God -- and we don't know that it was, but one could make a case for it -- those voting for abomination didn't get the message.
While we have no final word from God as to whether He sent the tornado, we can observe how God treated rebellious people and nations throughout the Old Testament who would not turn away from sin. If God didn't send the whirlwind, He did allow it. A holy God never approves of sanctioning sin and lifestyles that are destructive.
We can be sure of one message for it is right out of the Bible. A calamity happened near Jerusalem where 18 people were killed. Jesus said, "Those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13: 4-5).
Apostasy is allowed to remain rampant because the Bible is no longer preached in many churches. The liberal churches have plunging membership and ask why. It should be obvious that at least a remnant is not pleased with letting the world come into the church.
Additionally, churches are not preaching about God's judgment today. Rather, it's the gushy gospel with a God who doesn't hold to biblical standards anymore or else the church has changed the standards. Some would say those standards are outdated. "What would Jesus do?" is a bumper sticker or bracelet but not a guideline for holy living. However, today outfits like the ELCA even twist the words of Jesus. As the saying goes, the Ten Commandments are now the ten suggestions.
Lives were spared in this event, unlike the story in Luke 13. God was gracious. He is infinitely patient. Nonetheless, on a day when no severe weather was predicted or expected, a tornado forms, baffling the weather experts, most saying they've never seen anything like it. It happens right in the heart of the city. As if steered by an unseen hand, it targets a convention center whose occupants are talking about condoning blatant sin. To add emphasis, the hand then causes the tornado to tear into Central Lutheran Church just blocks away. This church was providing alcohol for attendees. Trees and homes just south of the downtown area had some damage.
God's message is repent because none of us will otherwise escape God's judgment. The message in many calamities is to repent while there is still time. I wonder if the ELCA delegates and leaders are even listening.
Since the vote on Friday I have heard from good Lutheran people who plan to leave the ELCA. May their vote with their feet send a message that urges others to follow them. The ELCA is likely not going to change, so lovers of truth and the Bible in all liberal denominations should take a cue from disgusted ELCA members now looking for a new church home.
God's Word cannot be mocked and whether He was in the whirlwind or not, the message is clear. We serve a holy God who does not sanction wickedness.
Visit our "Spiritual Deception" categroy at the Web site to further understand the death of discernment today.
RADIO: Catch last Saturday's programming on "Radio Archives" late Monday, August 24. Learn about heretical "Dual Covenant Theology" and who are promoting it. Other guests present other topics. We air out of AM980 KKMS, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Saturdays, 9 to 11 AM CST and Sunday, 12 to 2 PM (rebroadcast.) We air in these additional markets. For podcasting information, go here. All programming from the weekend is posted to "Radio Archives" late Monday.
To become a radio CD subscriber and get two CDs a week from our two-hour program for $30 a month, call 763-493-3010.
We are heard around the country on satellite and around the world on the Internet.
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Jan Markell
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Solomonstoolbox : Was God in the Weather ?
| Posted On: 08/28/09 01:41:02 PM |
Age 53, WI |
Solomonstoolbox's Side Panel has a sermon entitled God in the Weather. A few of the questions Pastor Sedlak asked were did God choose sides in the American War for Independence? Did he use the weather on the side of the young nation? If we say that yes to that question, is that an act of special pleading? In other words, did we choose this act because it works for our cause... but we ignore the weather beaten soldiers at Valley Forge? Which is it? This sermon asks and answers very pertinent questions. I think you'll find it enlightening in light of the goings on in Minnestota with the abomination in the Evengelical Lutheran "Church" of America. Does God judge with the weather? If we can't answer positively now, perhaps we will after hearing this message. Thank you for your post.
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God in the Wind.
| Posted On: 08/27/09 08:34:29 AM |
Age 58, IL |
I absolutely agree, storms are intensifying, and earthquakes becoming more frequent. God's communications with man are intensifying to try and wake us up. I just went to a prophecy conference with Drs Mark Bailey, Dan Green and Mark Hitchcock. We are becoming The Late Great United States.
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Was God in the Whirlwind?
| Posted On: 08/27/09 08:24:45 AM |
Age 58, IL |
This was definitely an article to wake people up. God's judgement is definite. Romans 2:12- All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
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Not exactly acted upon
| Posted On: 08/25/09 05:05:45 PM |
Age 59, IA |
The ELCA powers that be have been pushing the acceptance of homosexuality ever since the church's founding. That includes the editorial board of The Lutheran. However, only recently did they manage to get a previous assembly to suspend a policy defrocking all gay pastors. While the ELCA passed a largely unnoticed statement back in 1991 declaring that homosexuals were "sinners only in the sense that we are all sinners," and welcoming them to participate fully in the lives of its congregations, most ELCA members never even knew about it.
I remember well a group of us confessional pastors cornering Mark Thompson of the ELCA Board of Missions at a Synod Assembly over a decade ago just before he was scheduled to speak and confronting him about the attitude of the ELCA powers that be. He was so shaken by the encounter that when he mounted the podium he blurted out, "Why, it may take ten years to get you people to accept homosexuality!"
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You got one significant detail wrong
| Posted On: 08/25/09 05:00:09 PM |
Age 59, IA |
Two votes were taken on the matter of homosexuality. The first- the one scheduled for the hour when the tornado hit- was by far the more significant of the two. As I understand it, the vote proceeded on schedule. It was a policy statement declaring homosexual relations the moral equivalent of conjugal relations between husband and wife, and OKed the conducting of gay "marriages." This vote required a two-thirds majority, and attained it by a single vote. A small number of delegates had left early because they had dinner reservations. Had they remained, it is possible that the statement would have been defeated.
The vote which took place later, authorizing
non-celibate gays to be ELCA pastors, was a separate matter, requiring only a majority vote. It passed overwhelmingly.
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I came out
| Posted On: 08/25/09 03:18:20 PM |
Age 34, MN |
I went to the convention on Friday morning, to pray and I was sadden by what I saw. As I stood in the halls of the convention center and interceded I made it a point to look people in the eyes as they walked by. Many were dead only few had Light. It reminded me of Revelation 3:1- "you have a name that you are a lived, but you are dead on the inside". I was grieved, oh what the Father must feel. The misuse of His Word, Grace, Love and Mercy.
I came out of homosexuality in 2001, I was pastoring at the time, and going to Seminary while in the lifestyle. I could never reconcile the lifestyle to Scripture. I am healed and delieverd- Praise GOD!
My heart breaks for the ELCA and I continue to intercede for them and those leaving the congregation.
Beloved, that tornado was GOD, He was not only talking to the ELCA- but to the Church as a whole! Me must take heed, and align ourselves to His leadership.
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Perplexed?
| Posted On: 08/25/09 03:05:15 PM |
Age 62, MO |
I can't remember exactly whether it was 1995 or 1996, but my family were members of a small Lutheran church (ELCA). We received a magazine called the "Lutheran." On the front cover of one of the issues was the picture of a woman who had proclaimed to be a lesbian and who had just been ordained as a priest or bishop. My family quickly left the church. Apparently the homosexual issue in the ELCA has been acted on long before now. George Cancilla
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Of Course He Was...
| Posted On: 08/25/09 02:15:50 PM |
Age 30, TN |
During this nation's infancy days; when Columbus and the Puritans and Pilgrims made their journeys over sea to the land that God had called them to - the "New Promised Land" - they knew full and well when God was speaking to them through the elements of weather. The Scriptures (Bible) is full of example after example of God's warnings and yes, even judgments, through the weather. Let's see, hail raining down on Egypt (Ex. 9:13-35 - interesting how in vv.34 & 35 it says that after that judgement that Pharaoh and his officials hardened their hearts and continued in their sin), drought in the time of Elijah the prophet (1 Kings 17). It seems that our ancient ancestors had no problem recognizing God's hand of judgement in the face of their sins. We, as a Christian nation, have come a long way in how we deal with God's warnings and judgments - we ignore them, it seems. Make no mistake, God is sending a warning to His Church, and not just the Lutheran denomination, but to all. There is no pastor, clergyman, lay-person, or congregation member who is exempt from the warnings and judgments of the Lord Most High. Judgment begins in His House (1 Peter 4:17). Do these people think that He who formed the eye does not see (Psalm 94:9) their BLATANT ignorance of what the Lord calls an ABOMINATION?
I believe these warnings and judgments come with the hope and EXPECTATION of repentance unto salvation.
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The little boy in the Emporer Story
| Posted On: 08/25/09 12:24:02 PM |
Age 56, NY |
I just don't get it. I understand the world being worldly. But how did we get to THIS place? With states fighting and the majority of the population saying they don't want Gay Marriage voted into law, why are church denominations rushing to conventions to validate Homosexuality? Lord, please raise up little boys (or girls) like in the story of the "Emporers New Clothes" to say, "But mom..it just doesn't make sense"!
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The ELCA: Subversion and Incrementalism Lead to Apostasy
| Posted On: 08/25/09 10:59:46 AM |
Age 54, TX |
My own post on the ELCA clergy roster incorporation of practicing homosexuals and lesbians may be seen at "Mark Dankof's America" at Word Press. I briefly discussed the issue on my Republic Broadcasting Network show on Sunday morning.
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