“The attainment of the ‘Coming Great Church,’ proclaiming one Gospel to the whole world … implies the surrender of distinctive evangelical truth … The one Gospel to be preached certainly will not be the Gospel of salvation through the exclusive merits of Christ …”(1)
“Already we can see the beginning stages of what the Bible prophesies. An incredible worldwide delusion is gathering momentum.”(2)
When the Word of God is not accepted as the final and complete revelation of God to man, when it is not the basis for faith, life and doctrine, when the very foundation of Christianity, namely the Bible, is denied, then compromise and confusion is a natural result. That such a result is not an accidental outcome, but rather a deliberate strategy of the Ecumenical Movement, with its ultimate aim of bringing about a world-church, shall be revealed.
Ecumenism sets aside the authority of the Bible, doctrinal differences become blurred and the distinction between truth and error becomes irrelevant in this quest for spiritual unity. In this venture to establish a world religion, the World Council of Churches can be seen as the headquarters, whereas the Ecumenical Movement comprises the ground-troops in the field of battle.
The word “ecumenical” comes from the Greek word, which means “the inhabited world.” The Ecumenical Movement had its inception in 1910 at the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, England. From this conference the growing desire for unity among churches was kept alive and eventually led to the inauguration of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam in 1948. The World Council of Churches can rightly be regarded as the visible expression of ecumenism. Where initially the emphasis of ecumenism was to bring about a visible, outward Christian unity, by removing divisions between the churches, its hidden agenda, which it had since its conception, is now openly propagated, namely the unity of all faiths into a super world-church for all people.
“The genius behind the World Council of Churches has been liberal Protestantism. Its exponents do not accept the full inspiration and authority of the Word of God. They have no sure standard of reference. Thus it is only a step further to think of Christianity as a whole to be itself but an insight into an even larger Truth. That which is best in non-Christian religions may find a place with Christianity at length in the gradual development of a World-Faith…”(3)
On 19 June 1955, a “Festival of Faith” was held in San Francisco with its theme, “The United Nations and World Faith.” Those who took part in this festival included “Christians,” Hindus, Jews, Moslems, Buddhists and some other faiths. The service The service was conducted by Reverend O. Frederick Nolde, a Lutheran minister from Philadelphia. He was also the Director of the Commission of churches on International Affairs of the World Council of Churches at that time.
From 7 – 20 February 1991, the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches took place in Canberra, Australia. During the opening sessions the delegates had to move through smoke made by burning gum leaves, which is a heathen cleansing ritual of the Aborigines, and was compared to the cleansing and refining fire of the Holy Spirit. During one of the sessions, one of the speakers, a South Korean feminist theologian, professor Chung Hyun Kyung, called up the spirits of the many people in history who had died at the hands of oppressors. She linked these “Han-spirits” with the Holy Spirit and holding up a list of names of these spirits, ritually burned it. At this conference, mission work was said to be a waste of time as God cannot be taken anywhere, because, according to the conference, He is already everywhere. It was also added that all claims of uniqueness, as for instance, that Jesus is the only way to God, or that Christianity is the only true religion, are harmful in a world of religious pluralism.
William Jasper, in his book,“Global Tyranny Step by Step,” says the following of the June 1992 United Nations Earth Summit which was held in Brazil:
“True, there were also ‘Christian’ participants in the summit celebrations. Ministers from the World Council of Churches and Catholic clerics such as Dom Helder Camarra (known as Brazil’s Red Archbishop because of his blatantly pro-communist sympathies) could be found amidst the cymbal-clanging Hare Chrishnas, diapered swamis, saffron-robed gurus, and witch-doctors in loincloths. But they were there because of their affinity for an ecumenical ‘spirit’ that promotes an anti-Christian and syncretistic blend of Christianity and paganism.”(4)
It is also interesting to see that whenever different religions come together, there the representative hand of the Roman Catholic Church is seen in one way or another. The director of International Programs of the United Nations of World Religions, is Louis M. Dolan, a Catholic priest. The Geneva-based World Conference on Religion and Peace, with its aim of bringing all the major religions together, had for its first eight years as President, the Catholic Archbishop Angelo Fernandes. At the 1993 Parliament of World Religions, the Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Bernadin, together with the Delai Lama (the Tibetan man-god), were amongst the signatories of a declaration that called for greater co-operation between different faiths.
“Roman Catholicism is proving to be the bridge that brings together all faiths. That fact alone is not surprising, but it is astonishing to see evangelical Christians stepping onto that bridge on the one end while at the same time Hindus, Buddhists, and pagans of every stripe are stepping onto it from the other … it will not be long until all sides meet in the middle.”(5)
While on the one hand the pope and the Roman Catholic Church are bringing other non-Christian faiths under its wing, it is also endeavouring to bring back to its fold the so-called “separated brethren,” i.e. those Christian groups who, through the Reformation, had left the Roman Catholic institution. They are not seen as “heretics” anymore, but rather as lost or separated brethren of the one true faith, who must be brought back into the fold of the only true Church, which is not only Catholic, but Roman Catholic. A newspaper article in 1989 carried the following heading: “Runcie, Pope sign pledge to unite churches.”
“Vatican City – Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie and Pope John Paul signed a joint declaration yesterday on which they pledged to work to reunite the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches.”(6)
The one thing that must be remembered, is that although the Roman Catholic Church, under its Pope and priests, are working towards bring other Christian Churches and other faiths together, it has stated time and again that it will never change or compromise its own theological stand or doctrines. It is willing to accommodate other faiths, but always under its authority and unchanging Roman Catholic teaching. Rome has no desire or intent to compromise. Indeed, it does not have to, because, as we have seen, its teachings and doctrines are a mixture of Christian and heathen practices anyway. In a newspaper article of the Sunday Times of 29 May 1994, the following was reported:
“The Vatican has been urged to accept ancestor worship in Africa as part of a move towards embracing cultural practices previously condemned by the Roman Catholic Church. Fourteen cardinals and 122 bishops from Africa met in Rome from mid-April to mid-May with members of the Vatican bureaucracy in a special synod to discuss the state of the church on the continent. They called for more ‘inculturation’ through the Africanisation of liturgy and church values; and discussed dialogue with other denominations and faiths, and evangelisation within the African context. The synod suggested ancestor worship should be reinterpreted and viewed along lines similar to veneration of the saints.”(7)
Other newspaper headings and articles continue to confirm the ecumenical effort of the Roman Catholic Church: “Pope calls for closer ties with Muslims” (The Star, 17 April 1996), “The main features of the document the Pope would deliver to the bishops were those of bringing the church closer … to other faiths” (The Citizen, 11 September 1995), “In a statement released on June 1, 1998, 550 high church Anglican clergymen called for unity with Rome under the primacy of the Pope” (Bible Based Ministries Newsletter, June/July 1988, No. 33), “The Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, said on August 3, that the prospects for eventual union between the Roman Catholic and Anglican institutions are good” (Southern Cross, September 1, 1991).
The continuous call from the Roman Catholic Church to all other denominations is to return to “… true unity, under one shepherd of the one flock … (and) the seven sacraments”(7) By this, of course, they mean the “one shepherd” to be the Roman Catholic Pope, and the “one flock” the Roman Catholic Church.
The Ecumenical Movement is un-Biblical and anti-Christian. It has come far in establishing its goals. In his newsletter “Gospel Defence League” of August 1995, D Scarborough makes the following observation:
“The International Fellowship of Christian Churches (IFCC), the Dutch Reformed Church, and the Salvation Army have recently joined the South African Council of Churches (SACC) as observer members, and the Roman Catholic Church as a full member. There are no theological objections to joining the SACC and becoming a satellite church of the World Council of Churches? … Has the Ecumenical Movement … turned from the inter-faith movement with its downgrading of Christianity? … The South African Council of Churches (and its mother-body, the World Council of Churches), is heavily committed to the Inter-faith Movement, the New Age Movement, the New World Order and the One World Government.”
Isn’t it time to take an honest look again at the Gospel truths of the Word of God? Unless we take a stand on the eternal truths of the Word of God, we will be dragged along into the compromising and confusing flow of ecumenical deception and ultimate destruction. To those who will stay true to the Word of God the following will apply:
“I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my Word and have not denied my Name … Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth” (Revelation 3:8b,10).
To those who are caught up, through their church affiliation, in the Ecumenical Movement, the Word of God says plainly: “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues …” (Revelation 18:4).