People long for deep theology and for the real sacraments. By deep theology I do not mean an abstract scholastic construction, but a truly Trinitarian and incarnational hermeneutic that alone is able to offer hope to people amidst this world of despair and chaos. While the devil controls those outside the church, and even among Christians prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour, our seminary seeks to bring God s own life to people, which life embodies in itself death for Satan. It is no secret that, humanly speaking, the state of modern Lutheranism as well as that of virtually all other Christian confessions is lamentable. Many people no longer recognize Holy Scripture as the authentic Word of God.
Various churches practice the ordination of women into ecclesiastical ministry.
There are even homosexual pastors and bishops in certain places. And so-called conservatives among Lutherans, in their attempt to protect the Bible, all too often unite with the conservative Protestant camp, thus making their worship and practically the whole of their theology barely distinguishable from that of the Methodists or Baptists. We do not know the future of the Lutheran Church in the West-in Europe and in America. Nor do we know the future of the Lutheran Church in Russia and in Siberia. But in view of the decay of Christianity in the West, it is not entirely impossible that the Lutheran Church in Russia will have something to offer to the Western world in the future, regardless of what exigencies it may experience itself.