While visiting my in-laws, we went to their Lutheran church. As I stated in another post, I was not impressed one bit. There were multiple things that stood out as messed up but one things in particular stood out. It was during their confession liturgy. There was one part that really struck me:

I found this to be a very unbiblical thing to say so I decided to ask my father-in-law. He wasn't sure but was fine with believing it was okay. I then got in line to speak with the pastor. I was at the end of the line so I had plenty of time. When I asked him about it, he told me he was not forgiving anything. He said all forgiveness comes from God through Christ. He said he is just the mediator that speaks on behalf of Jesus as he is commanded to do.

I asked where the Scriptural support for this command comes from. Instead he gave me an analogy of wires being run through a building. He said the wires need a conduit. they need to be run through a pipe in order to stay safe (rats, etc) and it keeps the wires in order instead of becoming a mess. He said he, as a pastor, acts as a conduit. He said all the words he speaks are words coming from God. He said he acts as a conduit and the words pass through him. It was his way of explaining that he is not forgiving sins but that he is speaking on behalf of Christ.

Once again, I asked him for the Scriptural support on this stance. His reply was that that was how the early church did things and he has no reason to doubt the teachings. I saw this as a bogus excuse for someone who, just minutes earlier, had said he teaches straight from the Bible.

I looked up some other blogs from Lutheran pastors. One gave an analogy of a Presidential pardon. He said the pardon would come from the authority of the President. He then said it would be unlikely that the President would deliver the message but would rather get a messenger to do it. e said the messenger would probably say, "I release you from prison" even though he had no authority on his own to do so.

My issue with this analogy is that it is ignoring delegation of authority. The messenger would have all the authority as soon as the responsibility was delegated to him from the President. If the messenger delegated the authority to the warden, the warden would now have the authority to free the prisoner. The authority would have been granted to him based on the decision of the President and messenger. It works the same way in the military.

Another Lutheran pastor gave an analogy of a power of attorney. He said a person can get a power of attorney and sign for all things just as if they were the owner. They said the authority does not come from themselves but instead from the person who gave the PoA. They said they are just acting on behalf of the owner.

Again, it all boils down to delegation of authority. Even if we wanted to leave delegation out of this one, there still is no Scriptural support for it. I did some digging and it appears to come out of AC XXV.3. I have not been able to locate an online copy of this to see for myself but all references I have found seem to point to this. Sorry, that does not qualify as Scripture.

I did some digging to back up my point and these are the verses I came across (as well as some verses that lead to where I am going with this):

Only God forgives.

Only God and the Son of Man (Jesus) have the authority to forgive in the eternal sense.

Love is very important. It is key to forgiveness. Again, Jesus is able to forgive.

Forgiveness is not key here. It is all about love. If we love, we will forgive. Love holds no record of wrongs. Because of this, is we love one another, we will forgive one another. God has commanded us to love one another and he will test us to see if we deliver love to those who have wronged us. This forgiveness is not in the eternal sense. It is simply a result of love.

If Christ has forgiven us for all we have done, how much more should we forgive one another? Also, notice how it says "just as God in Christ has also forgiven you." It was an act that was already accomplished. God has already forgiven us in Christ. Of course, we are still to repent and seek forgiveness. This does not change the fact that we have already been forgiven in Christ.

Not even Peter acted on behalf of Jesus. His words were inspired (as they are in Scripture) but he did not claim to be a conduit that spoke in the stead of Jesus. Instead of acting as a pipeline through which God spoke (and speaking on behalf of Jesus), he instead spoke of Jesus. Even while Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon the people. I find it crazy that even Peter did not claim to speak on behalf of Christ yet this is a doctrine of the Lutheran faith. There is no Biblical example of it and there are even many verses that speak against it. I have found it to be a very extrabiblical teaching.

When we forgive someone, it has no bearing on whether or not God will forgive somone. In fact, God has already forgiven us in Christ. We are to forgive because it is a result of practicing love.

When a Lutheran pastor says "I forgive," it does not matter that he is only claiming to be a conduit and speaking on behalf of Christ. It is not his place to do so. It is a doctrine that comes from the catechism and is not Scriptural.

Also, just for reference, the only verse the pastor was able to give me was one taken out of context.