LUTHERAN STEVE KOZAR: THE EIGHT-HUNDRED-POUND GORILLA IN THE ROOM!

 (62) Steve Kozar and Jared Mindel Interview on "Scholastic Lutherans" YouTube Channel - YouTube

Above - Steve Kozar has posted a further video promoting Lutheranism on his channel The Wartburg Castle. While Kozar's stance against the NAR and their lunatic claims and teachings is valid, problematically, his solution is just as dangerous as Charismania. 

Kozar: "We (Lutherans) have multiple ways of being delivered from our sins; it's through baptism, it's through communion, it's through confession, it's any number of ways..  we don't have that one moment when you get saved and that's it.." (1:15:00 mark)

Kozar denies what he refers to as "a one-moment conversion experience", in other words, he denies a one-time conversion event or experience.

Kozar:  "We don't believe in a single conversion experience that Evangelicals are so familiar with .. we see that as one of the ways to express salvation but it is not the only way.. "  (1:21 mark) 

There are a number of instances in the scriptures when people believed the gospel and were saved at a particular point in time e.g. Acts 2:40-41; Acts 8:12, 35-39; Acts 14:14,30-34 etc. By contrast, I can find no instance where salvation is jettisoned into various sacraments following conversion. In all the above instances water baptism is performed subsequent to conversion! (Mark 16:16). I view Kozar's anti-conversion rhetoric as very dangerous and anti-biblical! There is only one way to be saved! (Acts 16:31). There is of course the sense that repentance and forgiveness continue throughout one's life, but continuing repentance, by necessity, follows initial salvation. 

Kozar puts the emphasis on Lutheran sacraments rather than an inner relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. The three Lutheran sacraments are the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, the Sacrament of Holy Absolution (Confession), and the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Lutheran sacraments involve the aberrant doctrines of baptismal regeneration, consubstantiation (a variant of transubstantiation), and absolution, all of which are deviant doctrines inherited from Roman Catholicism. It is critical to bear in mind that Satan's objective is to somehow displace believers from their pure devotion to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:2). Not only does Satan employ obvious deception as demonstrated by the rotten fruit of the NAR; he also employs more subtle means, such as the sacraments, as demonstrated by Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism. 

Creeds: Lutheran churches use the three Christian creeds: the Apostles' Creed (second century). the Nicene Creed (fourth century), and the Athanasian Creed (sixth century). These ancient professions of faith summarize basic Lutheran doctrine. The above creeds agree with the scriptures and are useful in that they add structure and substance to a church service. However, liturgy does not have the authority of the scriptures and it can be problematic when it becomes an end in itself. The veneration of liturgy above the scriptures undermines the believer's personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Chris Rosebrough (Fighting For The Faith): "We come to church and our sack is empty.. we hear that we are forgiven, and that is thrown into the sack, and then we have the absolution spoken over you, that's put into the sack, and then you are hearing the gospel that Christ forgave you through the Word, and that's put in the sack, and then you go and you partake of the sacrament and that's put into the sack, and then you hear the benediction spoken over you and that's put into the sack, and so you have got your sack full when you leave church.. that sack throughout the week starts to empty and you have to go back and do it again." 2

The difference between proclamation and absolution

Regarding the Lutheran throwback to the Roman Catholic deviant practice of absolution ~ Kozar: "Did you ever read what is says is John chapter 20.."  (1:21:00 mark)

Again Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so also I am sending you.” When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven (ἀφέωνται); if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” (John 20:21-23).

The NASB reflects the passive voice of "forgiven" and "retained" in the Greek. The recipients' sins will have already been forgiven or retained by God before the apostles’ recognition of the fact. NASB Lexicon: ἀφέωνται (apheōntai) [their sins] have been forgiven. 1 

The issue of forgiveness and retention of sins is related to binding and loosing in Matthew 16:18, 18:18. 

Bible Exposition Commentary: "The Roman Catholic church built its doctrine on the special priesthoods’ right of absolution of sin. This is done through the confessional. Although the church
acknowledges that God ultimately forgives sin, it nevertheless asserts that God does this through the action of the priest.
The Roman church then believes that the priest absolves but God forgives. God allows sins and judgment to remain. This is backward. God first forgives and then, on that foundation, people can proclaim forgiveness. There is a difference between absolution and proclamation. We have the right to preach forgiveness but do not have the right to absolve others of their sin.." 3

Chris Rosebrough's Influence

One of Steve Kozar's mentors is Chris Rosebrough. Rosebrough has some pretty good teaching in certain areas. However, he is compromised to a significant degree by Lutheran departures from the scriptures, not only the sacraments as mentioned above, but by flawed amillennial eschatology. 

Kozar's attitude regarding differences between Lutherans and Calvinists: "I don't get into the weeds about the differences very much.. I just don't want to be so mean about everybody.."  (20:00 mark)  We are not called to be people-pleasers! ..you put up with it readily enough. (2 Corinthians 11:4 cf. Acts 4:19-20; Galatians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:4). Kozar's idea is to contrast early Protestant beliefs from the first hundred or so years of the Reformation with the world of pop evangelicalism. My personal conviction is to go back to the scriptures themselves rather than rely on the flawed ideas of men like Luther and Calvin.

Paul advised Timothy: Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. (1 Timothy 4:16). Paul refers to all doctrine, not just the low-hanging fruit of deviant groups like the NAR. It appears that Kozar has settled for Lutheranism as a remedy for his bad experiences within evangelicalism. Very sadly he has compromised and has settled for partial reform i.e. he has settled for a system that in his view has a more acceptable level of truth! A little leaven leavens the whole lump. (Galatians 5:9 cf. 1 Corinthians 5:6; Ephesians 5:27). 

On many occasions, the nation of Israel was guilty of the particular sin of partial reform. The charge to Israel to completely (not partially) destroy God's enemies transfers into the New Testament teaching regarding doctrinal compromise. (Ephesians 5:11).  

In the second year of Joash the son of Joahaz, king of Israel, Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, yet not like David his father. He did in all things as Joash his father had done. But the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places. (2 Kings 14:1-4 cf. 2 Kings 12:3).  

In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, as his father David had done, but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. (2 Kings 16:1-4).

All this stands in stark contrast to King Josiah's sweeping reforms in 2 Kings 23.

So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 18:30).  

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell. (Numbers 33:55).

If those who claim to be teachers are doctrinally unsound themselves, then how are they qualified to correct others and to be credible witnesses? Lutheranism is the eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the room which unfortunately blights the efforts of Chris Rosebrough, Steve Kozar and Daniel Long to expose error. (Matthew 7:5). Steve Kozar is neither qualified nor gifted to be a teacher! (John 3:1).

1. John 20:23 Lexicon: "If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained." (biblehub.com)
2. WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING: FALSE PROPHETS AND BIBLE TEACHERS IN THE LAST DAYS: THE WARTBURG CASTLE: DANIEL LONG / STEVEN LONG'S JOURNEY INTO LUTHERANISM (bewareofthewolves.blogspot.com)
3. John 20:23 | Bible Exposition Commentary (versebyversecommentary.com)