“Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27).
No shortage of churches denies biblical miracles while endorsing sexual ethics confessional Lutherans would rightly consider abominations to God. In such churches forgiveness and love are highly touted doctrines in the Name of Jesus Who just seems to except everyone, whatever they do, under the banner of love tolerating all things without discrimination. A name for this approach is “gospel reductionism” (GR). How everything got to this point is a question worth exploring whose answer extends to before even the 19th century. It didn’t happen overnight.
In a recent Concordia Theological Journal article, Dr. David Scaer writes “Gospel reductionism is a result of a method of eighteenth-century rationalism that interpreted the miraculous events in the biblical documents as ordinary ones, allowing a core message to stay in place that God justifies sinners by the preaching of forgiveness.” Scaer’s article titled “Gospel Reductionism: Then and Now” gives the history of GR and its arrival in the states. As with most heresy, it crept in under biblical terms that sounded good to the ear, terms like “gospel,” “love,” and “forgiveness,” all connected to Jesus. Now its fruits are evident in teaching reducing everything to love and the impact of preaching on the heart put at peace under the Jesus of toleration. The inerrancy of the Bible is meaningless so long as the sinner feels the love and the only real law of value is the law of acceptance.
Rationalism catapulted reason above the Bible, thus starting the predictable trend to where we are today: women can be pastors, the Bible has no authority, and sexual immorality doesn’t really exist. Once the Bible loses the character of divine inspiration, all things are up for grabs. It’s the first domino to fall in a rapid collapse.
The danger of heresy is its employment of biblical words spun into a web catching unsuspecting people unbuckled from biblical inerrancy. The devil is deceptive, and we can’t know doctrine too well. Know what words mean and how they’re used in the Bible. The Small Catechism has for centuries been an invaluable teaching tool in the Church for the purpose of providing that firm foundation for navigating Holy Scripture. Paul preached the “whole counsel” of God and pastors today are under the same obligation.
“Preach the Word” makes no exceptions to God’s voice. May that proclamation go forth unhindered by man and may all of us have ears to hear and hearts to believe that whole counsel of God. The call doesn’t cease to live lives of true repentance turning to the One Who still holds the keys to life and death.
-By Rev. Ryan J. Ogrodowicz, “You Have a Place at Grace,” February 9th, 2025
Rev. Ryan J. Ogrodowicz
Grace Lutheran Church - Brenham, Texas
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
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