In the political world, you will hear talk of RINOs, Republican In Name Only. LCMS President Matt Harrison, an accomplished translator, posts his rendition of a letter by the Nazi-battling German theologian Hermann Sasse, who, in praising the Missouri Synod, gives us a useful concept: Lutherans In Name Only (LINOS).
From Sasse on “LINOS” or Lutherans in Name Only! | Mercy Journeys with Pastor Harrison.:
The Missouri Synod Lutheran cannot understand that a properly called but heterodox pastor, Lutheran in name only, is permitted to lead a whole congregation, a whole generation of the flock that has been entrusted to him, into misbelief and even unbelief, while the ecclesiastical authorities keep silence and even maintain that the congregation is still Lutheran, because the Lutheran doctrine alone has standing, is publica doctrina, there. . . .