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The below article is important, because it DOES reflect the universal trend in all organized religions - though surprisingly, the only major religion which is still ADAMANTLY presenting and defending it's "exclusive correctness" is MOHAMMEDISM! Professing Christians who do not claim that Our Lord Jesus is EXCLUSIVELY correct ought to be ashamed that this is so. "It now becomes a serious question how far those who abide by the faith once delivered to the saints should fraternize with those who have turned aside to another gospel. Christian love has its claims, and divisions are to be shunned as grievous sins, but how far are we justified in being in confederacy with those who are departing from the truth?" Charles Haddon Spurgeon
In the nineteenth century Spurgeon confronted those that were departing from the truth. Today it has even become more prevalent and more excepted and more confusing. What is astounding and confusing to me is how men that are supposed to know the word of God and the docrine of Justification can be deceived by this? There are many "Christians" that are unaware of what Christ meant when He said, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me" Jn: 17:21. Who are "they" that Jesus was talking about? Is it all that claim to be Christians regardless what they believe about what Justifies us? There are many ecumenical meetings going on these day's including "professing Christians" along with cultic believers and pagans. Following are some excerpts of the heretical and confusing things going on in the name of Ecumenism and Unity. "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" signed on October 31, 1999, by the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation Which is made up mostly of the ELCA. Evangelical Lutheren Church of America. This misleading document is another attempt by Rome on its path to draw all into its fold. It was rejected by the Missouri Synod Lutheran church and the Wisconsin Synod. LC-MS President A.L. Barry said, It is "a woefully inadequate and misleading document and a betrayal of the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
T.A. McMahon--former Catholic at Wheaten College Recently I returned from a conference sponsored by the Wheaten College Graduate School Department of Bible and Theology and InterVarsity Press. Titled "Catholics and Evangelicals in Conversation. However, before sharing my observations concerning the significance of the conference and the increasing influence of ECT, let me share my experiences with the students of Wheaten College.......... At the end of the conference I drafted a survey and spent the afternoon roaming the campus interviewing about 100 more students........ My final question (given the responses, in retrospect it seemed inane) was this: "Have you ever had a class here in which you were taught about Roman Catholicism, and then encouraged to witness to Catholics?" All but one student said no. Excitedly I asked the young man to tell me the name of the class and his professor. "Oh," he said, "it wasn't a class -- it was my soccer coach!"............ I rarely get depressed, but this moved me to the fringe of that condition. Could it really be that this next generation of evangelicals is convinced there is no significant difference between Catholics and biblically born-again Christians? .............
The Bangkok conference of this program was opened by the president of the World Buddhist Society. In her prayer she called on the gods of all religions to save mankind. The Nairobi conference of the WCC expressed itself in favor of the more intimate unification of humanity. One of the sessions on spirituality was attended by Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Pentecostal Christians, as well as Hindus, Buddhists and an atheist. At the 1983 conference in Vancouver, Canada, explicit recognition was given to the traditional religion of the Red Indians. A totem pole was erected in honor of all their tribal spirits. At The 1991 conference at Canberra in Australia conference, recognition was again given to the traditional tribal religion of the host country. Witchdoctors of the Australian Aborigines made a ritual fire with wet gum-tree leaves, from which thick clouds of smoke arose. The 4000 representatives to the conference were requested to walk through the smoke in order to obtain the blessing of the ancestral spirits. Some of the representatives said that this was a very wonderful experience as the presence of the Holy Spirit could also be sensed in the smoke. .........
The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) ....The Council's "Decree on Ecumenism" states that ecumenical activity cannot result in changing any aspect of the Catholic faith. This foundational principle is reflected in the post conciliar documents dealing with ecumenism. For example, Post Conciliar Document No. 42 says that the purpose of ecumenism is to transform the thinking and behavior of non-Catholics so that eventually all Christians will be united in one Church. It states, "This unity, we believe, dwells in the Catholic Church." [Note 2] In other words, "unity" means that all Christians will become Roman Catholics. Mary Ann Collins-former Catholic Nun. Colossians2-8@juno.com
In his message to the predominately Muslim nation of Kazakhstan twelve days after the horrors of September 11th, 2001, the Pope declared, "There is one God". The Apostle proclaims before all else the absolute oneness of God. This is a truth which Christians inherited from the children of Israel and which they share with Muslims: it is faith in the one God, "Lord of heaven and earth." The Pope continues, 'The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day.' The Roman Catholic Church officially declares that the One God of Holy Scripture is also the God of Islam." At this moment of history the Ecumenism of accommodation, with the Pope leading the pack, accepts Islam as a great religion. The true believer must decide where he or she stands. 'And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve.'
One of the most confusing ecumenical meetings is the one that happened June 21-23, 2000 in St. Louis, MO. Of the thousands present, the Conference was made up of 15,000 -- Classical Pentecostals, Charismatic Protestants, and Charismatic Roman Catholics. About half were Catholics. The main stated focus of the meetings was to promote Ecumenical unity. Some of our leading Evangelical ministers were speakers. When I asked one of our well known Pentecostal leaders about his motive in going and speaking, his answer was, " To share a common experience." It was based merely on "experience" and not our unity of the word of God. Those that have read my testimony of my years with the Catholic Charismatic's know what I feel about that. "There were hundreds of books for sale on every facet of Catholic doctrine and practice, including the papacy, Mariolatry, the Saints, and Purgatory. There were rosaries and Madonna's for sale. There were travel agencies that specialize in arranging pilgrimages to "Mary shrines"....... Because the meeting is ecumenical and involves participants from dozens of denominations, and there are a variety of gospels representatives. To have clarified the gospel would have destroyed the ecumenical unity........ Tom Forrest, Catholic priest who was one of the speakers at the convention, had said "that he evangelizes by walking through the streets of Rome praying the 'mysteries of the rosary" (which is largely a prayer to Mary) for the people he passes. This demonstrates that he understands neither salvation nor evangelism in a biblical sense, yet he is exalted as a Spirit-filled, evangelical Catholic. Forrest said that he praises God for purgatory, because he knows that unless there is a place where his sin can be purged he cannot go to Heaven. There was much confusion at the meeting as to what being born again or saved was. Many participants were asked when they came to know Christ or when they were born again and the confusion was astounding. The communion of all particular Churches with the Church of Rome: a necessary condition for unity.) Pope John Paul ll That They May Be One This is just a sample of the confusion in the Church of Christ today. More could be said. There is the ECT document (Evangelicals and Catholics together) which is a betrayal of the 'Gospel and signed by some of our leading Evangelicals and there other atrocities done in the name of Unity and Ecumenism. As a classical Pentecostal that is founded on the truth of Justification by Grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, I cry out to God to open the eyes of my brother and sister Evangelicals and that others will sound the alarm with me. Who is standing for the Gospel? Those who join with Rome in calling for unity without regard for doctrinal differences? Or those who stand firm on the Word of God? Bill Scudder ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
FAITH versus WORKS - this vain and deceptive argument which pretends to address the very roots of faith has been going on for centuries - long before the Reformation. It goes on in the minds of those who know neither what real faith is, nor what good works (in the Christian definition) are. We are saved by faith alone, but faith that does not produce works of morality and piety is DEAD FAITH, and in reality, NOT saving faith at all. But we already knew this before this stupid argument was invented to distract us from the things that really matter. Last night I heard a man boasting on the TV that "Luther won the 500 year argument" when the Catholics admitted that a man is SAVED BY GRACE and only CONFIRMED by works. But this is nothing new. I am just now reading a book on Catholicism from 1961 and the same is stated there. There is no doubt but that this move toward reconciliation is another step deeper into apostasy, seeing as both the Lutheran and the Catholic churches have decided to ignore their other differences (which were monumental) and pretend to be fundamentally agreed on what they wish to call the essential matter. Their so-called essential matter is a "red herring" - a matter of no practical significance. The fact is that all avowedly Christian churches require and will demand a performance of the duties of morality and religion from their adherents. The pressure is no less applied in the Baptist Church than in the Catholic Church. The difference is mostly in how those duties are described. The supposed concession by the Catholics on the matter of salvation by grace will have no affect whatsoever on what happens AFTER one has attended or joined any of these churches. Catholics will still be praying to Mary and these (modern) Lutherans will still be denying the present power of the Holy Ghost in the gifts of the Spirit. The (so-called) Apostolics will still be denying the Trinity, and thousands of churches will still teach THE LIE OF TITHING in order to extort money from their congregations. The unifying error held by both of these and all other modern churches remains untouched and intact: the idea that The Church was intended by Christ to be and function as a bureaucracy. In the desperation to assemble their own little "Popedoms", the Protestants have utterly forgotten and rejected the essential dictum that justified the split from Rome in the first place: that The Church was comprised of all True Believers exclusive of institutional associations. This "Church amidst the churches" was called the Mystical Body Of Christ. I claim to be part of and speaking for that Mystical Body that has always sojourned among the millions of bureaucratic Christendom. We (The Mystical Body of Christ) are only separated from each other by geography and social circumstances. Our differences and personal errors are only temporary and are the product of our social and religious environments. When we meet, we love each other and agree spontaneously. If four real Christians meet each other, they become true friends for the time they have together. If several real Christians find that they are living near each other, they automatically and spontaneously become a mini-church community that acts in free and spontaneous unity. John 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. This dictum from Christ stands forever as the judge of all. Those who do not love the real Christians are NOT Christians AT ALL. The Catholic Church has been able to confuse and befuddle Protestants for the past 500 years by reminding us that Christ has only "One fold", and by this they challenge the Protestant's right to secede. But this challenge only has any weight so long as you are disposed to to elect ONE of the present bureaucracies as "the True Church". If any one of these gangs IS The True Church, then the RCC has better reasons to claim that than any other. They are the biggest and (they claim to be) the oldest we know of. The only way to deny that the RCC is the One True Church is to deny that ANY of these gangs is the One True Church. In reference to the Catholic book I have been reading: on the one hand, they continue to present timeless Christian truths, while on the other hand, they bury those truths beneath the highest pile of lies I ever saw constructed in the name of Christianity. It absolutely astounds me as I wonder WHERE in the world they ever got their doctrines of the Perpetual Virginity and the Ascension of Mary. Their doctrine of Purgatory flatly contradicts Hebrews 9:27; they try to ameliorate the outrage at their "priests" by saying that "priest" is just their own jargon for "elder". They outright mistranslate Genesis 3:15 so that Mary is the one that bruises the serpent's head (not Jesus) etc. They eliminate the 2nd Commandment from their Decalogue and they delete certain "inconvenient" scriptures from their 'latest' Bible translation. I suppose I see a smaller pile of lies in most of the other denominations, but in the end, they are all JUST LIARS. There are some so-called "Protestant" churches now so morally befouled and heretical, that I would be in better stead hanging out in and ignoring the doctrine at a Catholic Church than in some of these other churches. The word from God to all the True Believers in our time is this:
Psalm 35:27 Just Another Christian, and, "US" 1 John 4:6 Main site front page www.apostasynow.com Highly recommended reading from 1912: War On The Saints, by Mrs. Jessie Penn-Lewis and Evan Roberts; the definitive address to the Pensacola and Toronto "revivals" |